SpringhillGNV's Presentation Group
Sunday, June 19th 2026 - 3rd Sunday
Psalm 150NKJV
- Lord, You Are Awesome
- My Worship
- Leaning On The Everlasting Arms - Hymn
1 Samuel 24:1–7 HCSB 1 When Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the wilderness near En-gedi.” 2 So Saul took 3,000 of Israel’s choice men and went to look for David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. 3 When Saul came to the sheep pens along the road, a cave was there, and he went in to relieve himself. David and his men were staying in the back of the cave, 4 so they said to him, “Look, this is the day the Lord told you about: ‘I will hand your enemy over to you so you can do to him whatever you desire.’ ” Then David got up and secretly cut off the corner of Saul’s robe. 5 Afterward, David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the corner of Saul’s robe. 6 He said to his men, “I swear before the Lord: I would never do such a thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed. I will never lift my hand against him, since he is the Lord’s anointed.” 7 With these words David persuaded his men, and he did not let them rise up against Saul. Then Saul left the cave and went on his way.The Integrity TestMain Idea: Godly leadership is proven when we refuse to seize by manipulation what God has promised to give by providence.INTRODUCTIONRoberto Serrano, a Brown University Economics Professor, recently noticed a sharp enrollment increase in his class. The rise came after he changed the mid-term and final exams to take home tests. Not only did enrollment increase, but the pass rate increased to more than 96% with more than half of the students getting a perfect score.Serrano sensed there was something suspicious, and so he had his teaching assistant analyze the tests, which proved the students had used AI to cheat on their tests. Their actions showed more than a lack of understanding for the material for the class, it showed, a lack of integrity for life. We have all had tests in school, but the bggest tests are those that we face in life. The significant truth is that the tests of life do not announce themselves as tests. They come suddenly and unexpectedly.Lift’s tests do not come with a desk, a pencil, and a clock on the wall. Some tests look like opportunities. Some tests look like open doors. Some tests look like the moment you have been waiting for has finally arrived.And that is what makes them dangerous.Because the hardest test is not always what you do when the enemy blocks you. Sometimes the hardest test is what you do when the enemy is within your reach.That is where we find David in 1 Samuel 24.David has already been anointed by Samuel. He has already defeated Goliath. He has already served Saul faithfully. He has already played music in Saul’s troubled room. He has already fought Saul’s battles. He has already received the promise of a future greater than his present.But David is not on the throne yet.He is in the wilderness.He is not wearing the crown. He is hiding in a cave. He is not leading the nation. He is leading a band of men who are distressed, discontented, and trying to survive.There is a cave in En-gedi, carved into limestone cliffs above the Dead Sea. It is dark enough that a man sitting near the back could watch someone walk in from the sunlight and remain completely unseen. Then Saul, the man trying to kill him, walks into the very cave where David is hiding. The future king of Israel is sitting in that darkness, watching the present king of Israel walk in unguarded, unarmed, unaware that the man he has hunted across the wilderness is close enough to touch him.David’s men whisper, “This is the day. God has delivered your enemy into your hand.”But David sees something deeper than an opportunity.David sees a test.The cave is not just David’s hiding place. The cave is David’s proving place.Before God lets David wear the crown, God lets David face the cost of the crown.Before David can rule Israel, David must first rule his own spirit.Before David can sit on the throne, David must prove that he will not seize by manipulation what God has promised to give by providence.David had already been anointed king back in chapter 16. The promise was settled. And now, in a cave, with Saul's back turned, a shortcut to that promise appears — dressed up, as temptation always is, in spiritual language. David's own men whisper, "This is the day of which the LORD said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand" (v. 4). It sounds like providence. It is not.Here is our main idea, and I want you to carry it through everything we walk through this morning: Godly leadership is proven when we refuse to be seized by manipulation of what God has promised to give by providence.David does not take the crown in that cave. He waits for it. And in that waiting, we discover what integrity costs — and what it actually is.The three most important ingredients in Christian work are integrity, integrity, integrity.Charles ColsonI. INTEGRITY RESISTS OPPORTUNITY WITHOUT PERMISSION — 1 Samuel 24:1-7A. The Intensity of Saul's Hatred — 1 Samuel 24:1-21 Samuel 24:1–2 HCSB 1 When Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the wilderness near En-gedi.” 2 So Saul took 3,000 of Israel’s choice men and went to look for David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats.Saul has just finished with the Philistines, and the moment that threat clears, he takes three thousand chosen men and goes to hunt one man in the wilderness. Saul has a kingdom to manage, enemies to fight and national responsibilities, but he’s consumed with pursuing David. The wilderness of En-gedi is is a vast region of palm and date trees, and this mountainous region has steep cliffs, that only goats with special hooves can reach. It is a treacherous terrain. So Saul takes three thousand chosen men to hunt one man in the wilderness. But it’s not just three thousand men, they are choice men. This means he takes his best soldiers, the elite guard. In Rome, they would be the Pretorian Guard, today in the United States they would be the Navy Seals. This is a disproportionate response to a non-threat. That is what jealousy does. Jealousy will make you misuse resources, abuse authority, and recruit other people into your insecurity. This is not a king managing a rival. This is obsession, that has reordered every national priority beneath itself. Saul knows David is anointed, knows the kingdom is slipping from his line, and rather than submit to God's revealed will, he spends his strength trying to outrun it. Most of us will meet a Saul at some point — a person or season irrationally set against our progress. The temptation is to assume that because someone is hunting us, God has abandoned His plan. Saul's three thousand men prove otherwise. The intensity of an enemy's hatred is not evidence of the absence of God's promise. Often, it's evidence the promise is close enough to provoke a fight.Satan pursued man in the garden; hating the peace and joy God had provided (Genesis 3)Satan pursued Job; hating him for the hedge of protection God provided him. (Job 1)Satan desired to have Peter; hating the relationship to the Son of God he lived out (Luke 22:31)Just as David was pursued by Saul, humanity is consistently being pursued by the injustices of Satan, but we are grateful for the protection of our God.Cross-References: 1 Samuel 18:8-9; Psalm 37:12-13; Proverbs 27:4; Genesis 37:4; Titus 3:3B. The Integrity of David's Heart — 1 Samuel 24:3-71 Samuel 24:3–7 HCSB 3 When Saul came to the sheep pens along the road, a cave was there, and he went in to relieve himself. David and his men were staying in the back of the cave, 4 so they said to him, “Look, this is the day the Lord told you about: ‘I will hand your enemy over to you so you can do to him whatever you desire.’ ” Then David got up and secretly cut off the corner of Saul’s robe. 5 Afterward, David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the corner of Saul’s robe. 6 He said to his men, “I swear before the Lord: I would never do such a thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed. I will never lift my hand against him, since he is the Lord’s anointed.” 7 With these words David persuaded his men, and he did not let them rise up against Saul. Then Saul left the cave and went on his way.As circumstance would provide, Saul comes by the exact place where David and his men are hiding in a cave. And as another plot twist, Saul at that very moments gets an urge to answer the call of nature. He goes into the dark cave with only the immediate need on his mind, completely unaware of the danger ahead. This is too good to be true. David's men frame the moment theologically — "the day of which the LORD said" — but God never actually authorized this as the day. They take a genuine promise and graft onto it a false permission. David creeps forward, cuts the skirt of Saul's robe, and immediately his heart is convicts him (v. 5). Verse 6 gives his reasoning: "The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD's anointed." David separates the office from the man. Saul the person has become his enemy; Saul the King remains under God's authority, and David will not let justified grievance override submission to God's ordained order.Not even divine prophecy frees a person from the obligations of morality, integrity, and loyal and obedient faith in God. The end does not justify the means.D. A. CarsonHenry A. Wallace was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vice-president from 1941-1945, but after Roosevelt’s death, he challenged Harry Truman for the Presidency and lost miserably, becoming a political pariah afterward.This is the test most of us will actually fail, not the test of resisting obvious sin, but the test of resisting a shortcut that looks like providence: a leaked piece of information, a compromised deal, a way to force an outcome instead of waiting for it. David teaches us that timing is not a minor detail in obedience; it is the substance of it. God's promises are never an invitation to sin in order to secure them. If David had taken the matter into his own hands, he would’ve failed the test.David killing Saul in a cave in cold blood would make Saul a martyr, celebrated by the nation for years.David taking Saul out in the cave, would be an act of disobedience to the plan of God. God’s Spirit had left Saul because of that very thing, disobedience. Cross-References: Psalm 105:15; Romans 13:1-2; 1 Peter 2:13-14; Genesis 50:20; Hebrews 12:14-15II. INTEGRITY RESPONDS TRUTH WITHOUT REVENGE — 1 Samuel 24:8-15A. Integrity Is Demonstrated to Men — 1 Samuel 24:8-111 Samuel 24:8–11 HCSB 8 After that, David got up, went out of the cave, and called to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed to the ground in homage. 9 David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of people who say, ‘Look, David intends to harm you’? 10 You can see with your own eyes that the Lord handed you over to me today in the cave. Someone advised me to kill you, but I took pity on you and said: I won’t lift my hand against my lord, since he is the Lord’s anointed. 11 See, my father! Look at the corner of your robe in my hand, for I cut it off, but I didn’t kill you. Look and recognize that there is no evil or rebellion in me. I haven’t sinned against you even though you are hunting me down to take my life.David waits until Saul leaves the cave, then calls out and does something remarkable, he presents evidence. He holds up the piece of robe: "there was no evil or transgression in mine hand... yet thou huntest my soul to take it" (v. 11). David is not merely protecting himself legally; he is establishing, publicly, that his integrity is not private piety but verifiable conduct. Scripture consistently ties righteousness to what is visible, not only what is felt.Proverbs teaches us that a soft answer turns away wrath (Proverbs 15:1).Proverbs further teaches us that if we would simply work to live in a way pleasing to God, even our enemies will be at peace with us (Proverbs 16:7).Paul later shared that we should live at peace with all men (Romans 12:18).This challenges a shallow spirituality — the idea that only "my heart before God" matters, never how our conduct is perceived. David's public accountability models what we need recovered in our own leadership and homes: godliness content to be tested in the open. If your integrity cannot survive daylight, it was never integrity — it was concealment.Cross-References: Proverbs 13:6; Matthew 5:16; 2 Corinthians 8:21; Philippians 2:15; 1 Peter 2:12B. Integrity Is Displayed Before God — 1 Samuel 24:12-151 Samuel 24:12–15 HCSB 12 “May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord take vengeance on you for me, but my hand will never be against you. 13 As the old proverb says, ‘Wickedness comes from wicked people.’ My hand will never be against you. 14 Who has the king of Israel come after? What are you chasing after? A dead dog? A flea? 15 May the Lord be judge and decide between you and me. May He take notice and plead my case and deliver me from you.”David lifts the dispute to a higher court: "The LORD judge between me and thee... but mine hand shall not be upon thee" (v. 12). He refuses to be his own judge and executioner, surrendering the outcome not to Saul's mercy, but to God's justice. He even minimizes his own significance — "after a dead dog, after a flea?" (v. 14) — not out of bitterness, but clarity. Verse 15 summarizes it: he asks God to judge, to plead his cause, and he is willing to live with whatever that verdict requires.This is the difference between vindication and vengeance, a distinction our culture has nearly lost. Vengeance says, "I will make this right myself." Vindication says, "I will tell the truth, refuse to retaliate, and trust the Judge of all the earth to do right." David lives out Romans 12:19 seven hundred years before Paul writes it.Romans 12:19 KJV 1900 19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.Cross-References: Romans 12:19; Deuteronomy 32:35; Genesis 18:25; Psalm 7:8-9; 1 Peter 2:23III. INTEGRITY RELIES UPON GOD WITHOUT GRASPING — 1 Samuel 24:16-22A. God Will Bring Conviction Based on Integrity — 1 Samuel 24:16-181 Samuel 24:16–18 HCSB 16 When David finished saying these things to him, Saul replied, “Is that your voice, David my son?” Then Saul wept aloud 17 and said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have done what is good to me though I have done what is evil to you. 18 You yourself have told me today what good you did for me: when the Lord handed me over to you, you didn’t kill me.Something breaks in Saul we don't see anywhere else — he weeps. "Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil" (v. 17). This is not manipulation from Saul; it is conviction — the kind that only comes when someone is confronted not with an argument, but with lived righteousness. David was not performing obedience in that cave to extract this confession later; that would make his obedience transactional. But godly conduct carries an evidentiary weight arguments cannot match.Release yourself from the burden of thinking your integrity must immediately convert the people who've wronged you. Sometimes it does, as it did here, at least for a season. Sometimes it doesn't. Your responsibility is the conduct; the conviction belongs to God. Don't be surprised when your refusal to retaliate becomes the very thing God uses to pierce a conscience you thought was permanently hardened.Cross-References: Romans 2:4; Proverbs 25:21-22; 1 Peter 3:1-2; Psalm 141:5; James 5:16B. God Will Establish a Continual Future Based on Integrity — 1 Samuel 24:19-221 Samuel 24:19–22 KJV 1900 19 For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day. 20 And now, behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand. 21 Swear now therefore unto me by the Lord, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father’s house. 22 And David sware unto Saul. And Saul went home; but David and his men gat them up unto the hold.Saul's confession turns to prophecy: "I know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand" (v. 20). The very man who tried to prevent this outcome now confirms it with his own mouth. God didn't need David to seize the throne in that cave — He needed David to wait, and He used Saul's own lips to confirm what David refused to steal. Notice the ending's geography: Saul goes home; David goes up to the stronghold — the promise confirmed, the provision not yet complete, and David at peace with that gap.God does not need us to grasp what He has already promised to give. He needs us to wait in the stronghold, faithful in obscurity, integrity intact, while He arranges the confirmation in ways we could never orchestrate ourselves. The crown costs something — and what it costs is our willingness to let God's providence, not our own manipulation, place it on our heads.Cross-References: Psalm 37:5-6; Proverbs 16:3; Habakkuk 2:3; Hebrews 6:15; Psalm 75:6-7CLOSINGGo back to that cave with me one more time. David had a knife in his hand, a king with his back turned, and men behind him insisting God had orchestrated this exact moment. Every circumstantial arrow pointed to "take it now." And David cut a robe instead of a throat — then his own heart convicted him even for that.Years later, David sat on that throne — not because he seized it in the dark, but because he waited for it in the daylight of God's timing. No one could say he stole it or manipulated his way there. That is the cost of the crown: not cash, not ambition — patient integrity, paid out in caves and strongholds, in seasons where everyone says "this is your moment" and you say, "not like this."Some of you are sitting in your own cave this morning. You know what God has promised — the healed marriage, the restored calling, the vindication, the breakthrough — and you also see the shortcut sitting right in front of you. I'm asking you, in the name of the One greater than David, to put the knife down and walk out into the light instead.Five truths from David's stronghold walk with us today:1. God rewards integrity, not manipulation. - He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly."* — Proverbs 2:72. Vengeance belongs to God alone. -“ Avenge not yourselves... for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."* — Romans 12:193. Waiting on the Lord is not wasted time. - “They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles."* — Isaiah 40:314. Conviction, not coercion, is how God moves hearts. “- The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance."* — Romans 2:45. God establishes what He promises, in His own time. - Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."* — Psalm 37:5Church, the throne is coming. But it will come the way God ordained it, or it will not be worth wearing. Let's stand.1 Samuel 24:1–7HCSB
1 Samuel 24:1–7NKJV
1 Samuel 24:1–3NKJV
1 Samuel 24:1–2NKJV
1 Samuel 24:4–7NKJV
1 Samuel 24:3–7NKJV
1 Samuel 24:8–15NKJV
1 Samuel 24:8–11NKJV
1 Samuel 24:8–11NKJV
1 Samuel 24:12–15NKJV
1 Samuel 24:12–15NKJV
1 Samuel 24:16–22NKJV
1 Samuel 24:16–18NKJV
1 Samuel 24:16–18NKJV
1 Samuel 24:19–22NKJV
1 Samuel 24:19–22NKJV
SpringhillGNV's Presentation Group
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