Gateway Bible Talks

When Things Don't Work – 1 Samuel 19

The Making of a King – Part 5 Ben Gayton | Gateway Anglican Parish | 8 November 2026

What happens when doing the right thing makes you unpopular?

In 1 Samuel 19, Jonathan risks his father's anger by speaking up for David, while King Saul persecutes an innocent man. Following God sometimes means standing up for those who have no voice, challenging wrongdoing, or suffering simply because we choose to do what is right.

Visiting preacher Ben Gayton explores the cost of righteousness and the courage Christians need to remain faithful when doing good brings opposition.

Further listening: Steven Daly – 1 Samuel 19 (1 Samuel 19:1–24), St Barnabas Leederville, 16 July 2017.

1 Samuel 18:1–30 | The Making of a King (4/7)

David has just saved Israel from Goliath. So why does King Saul suddenly want him dead?

Every attempt Saul makes to destroy David seems to backfire spectacularly. Meanwhile, Saul’s own son Jonathan responds to David in exactly the opposite way.

What is God doing behind the scenes? Is he actually mocking Saul? And how does this strange story point us towards something even more astonishing in Jesus Christ?

Go Deeper: Steven Daly – Friendship (David within Saul’s family) (1 Samuel 18), St Barnabas Leederville, 9 July 2017

Steven Daly preaches a great message about faith, leadership and identity as David meets the game-changing giant, Goliath.

Originally preached at St Barnabas Anglican Church Leederville in 2017.

The King Who Came to Serve — 1 Samuel 16:14–23 The Making of a King — Part 2 David Mitchell | Gateway Anglican Parish

What happens when God’s chosen king enters the service of the king he will replace? In 1 Samuel 16:14–23, David brings relief to a troubled Saul—but there is something Saul needs that David cannot give. What does this reveal about the leader we need, and how we learn to serve? David Mitchell from Bush Church Aid (BCA) visited to preach this message in October 2026.

Further listening: Steven Daly, “Introducing David, for a second time” (1 Samuel 16:14–23), St Barnabas Leederville.

The Lord Sees Inside — 1 Samuel 16:1–13 The Making of a King — Part 1 Paul Bartley | Gateway Anglican Parish

People look at outward appearances, but the Lord looks at the heart. As God rejects Saul and chooses the overlooked shepherd boy David, we discover how differently God sees things. Yet even David is not the king we ultimately need. Jesus is the true and better David — the perfectly righteous, Spirit-anointed King who gives his life for sinners and will never let us down.

Bible readings: 1 Samuel 16:1–13; Psalm 78:70–72; Luke 4:16–21.

Further listening: Steven Daly's sermon on this passage at St Barnabas, Leederville.

Further reading: In the Shadow of a Giant by Steven Daly — 40 devotional studies on David's life, developed from his sermon series.

What does it mean to be rich toward God?

Basil of Caesarea lived among wealth, famine and desperate poverty—and took Jesus’ warning about bigger barns with uncomfortable seriousness. His challenge was simple: perhaps the abundance in our hands has been entrusted to us for somebody else.

But generosity isn’t always simple. How do we keep an open hand without helping in ways that actually harm?

In this final talk in Living Generously, we explore Jesus’ parable of the rich fool, Basil’s radical generosity, and the tension between open-handed giving and wise love.

Open hands. Wise love.

Go deeper: Read Basil's actual 368 AD sermon 'I Will Tear Down My Barns', during the great famine.

What does Christian mercy look like when it costs us something? Can Jesus really change a person’s heart — opening our lives, homes and possessions to people in need? And what about people who oppose us, misunderstand us, or can give us nothing in return?

On our Kids’ Church Sunday, the kids help tell the story of Cyprian of Carthage: a wealthy pagan whose conversion to Christ transformed how he used his possessions, cared for the sick during a devastating plague, showed mercy to Christians who had failed under persecution, and ultimately gave his own life rather than deny Christ.

Through Isaiah 58, Psalm 41, 1 John 3 and Luke 6, we see where that courageous mercy begins: “We know what love is because Jesus gave his life for us.”

Please excuse some recording problems in the last part of the sermon — the BOYA microphone recorded the voice unusually quietly.

Go deeper: Stephen Nichols, Cyprian of Carthage: Crisis in the 3rd Century — read a brief introduction to Cyprian, persecution, repentance and leadership in the early church.

In AD 203, a young Christian mother named Perpetua faced a stark choice: make a small public sacrifice to the Roman gods and go home to her family—or remain faithful to Jesus and face death.

Her remarkable prison account, The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, gives us one of the earliest Christian martyr stories and a vivid picture of Jesus’ confronting words: “Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”

Big idea: Because Christ is worth everything, Christians can hold even life itself with open hands.

Bible readings: Genesis 3:14–15; Matthew 10:34–39; Revelation 2:10.

Go deeper: Kevin DeYoung / Clearly Reformed — “Perpetua and Felicitas and the Martyrs of the Church - a 1-hour church-history lecture. Very good, very clear, very accessible.

Judgment Day is one of Christianity’s hardest truths. What will it actually look like? Why does Revelation picture Jesus harvesting the earth, then grapes being crushed in the winepress of God’s wrath?

Revelation 14:14–15:4 gives us three confronting but hope-filled pictures: Christ gathers his people safely; God finally brings evil to an end; and the redeemed stand victorious, singing the praises of God.

The warning is severe, but there is a way through. The Judge is also the Lamb who shed his own blood to save. Judgment Day is real, comprehensive and wonderful. Love does not hide hard truths.

Go Deeper into this passage with Don Carson: Revelation (Part 19)

What is true religion? What does true worship actually look like? And does it really matter in the end?

Revelation 14 contrasts two allegiances and two destinations. True worship means belonging to the Lamb and following Jesus wherever he goes. Heaven’s message is equally stark: worship the Creator; Babylon will fall; false worship ends in judgement; and those who remain faithful to Jesus are blessed—even in death.

Further listening: D. A. Carson, Revelation 14 — a fuller treatment of the whole chapter, including the 144,000, Babylon, hell and final judgement.