Soft Music for a Hard Heart, Part 1

On inside for living from Chuck Swindoll. I want to say that the only hope for the child of God is the power of the Holy Spirit is a child of God. We can control the way say no to the spirits control and perform all acts of evil and debauchery. You do not know Christ there is no power that you can find that will overcome kind of overwhelming evil presence billion or perhaps in a sour mood.

When it was music that reached into your heart and calm you down will most of us can remember a time when that's happened, soothing music has a way of lowering our blood pressure today on inside for living will be reminded about the power of music as we continue Chuck Swindoll study on the life of David and help set the stage again with helpful context. Chuck titled this message. Soft music for a hard heart filled with joy. Goliath and ascended to the throne of Israel, he distinguished himself in Israel as a skillful musician. We can see from the last half a percent of 16 but David acted as a soothing influence in Saul's life that happened during a time of extreme difficulty for the king David's willingness to use his skills for the Lord provided refreshment and relief for those around him, especially for the weary King young David's example of service helps us to see how we can make a positive impact in our world. Please open your Bibles and read along with me from first Samuel 16, beginning with verse 14 now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized Saul's servants then said to him, behold now an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you. Let our Lord not command your servants who were before you let them seek a man who is a skillful player on the harp, and it shall come about when the evil spirit from God is on you, that he shall play the harp with his hand, and you will be well.

So Saul said to his servants provide for me now.

A man who can play well and bring him to me that one of the young man said, behold, I have seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehem light who was a skillful musician, mighty man of valor, a warrior one prudent in speech and a handsome man and the Lord is with him. So Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, send me your son David, who is with the flock. Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread and a jug of wine and a young goat, and sent them to Saul by David, his son. Then David came to Saul and attended him, and Saul loved him greatly and he became his armor bearer Saul sent to Jesse saying let David now stand before me, for he is found favor in my sight so it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul. David would take the harp and play it with his hand and Saul would be refrained and be well in the evil spirit departing from this is insight for living resources designed to help you dig deeper into today's topic go to insight.org and now let's begin Chuck Swindoll's message titled soft music or a hard heart. I want to share with you this evening that old statement I drew from the 18th century writings of a man named William Connie Greve who was on a leash dramatist and he was the first to use these familiar words, music Charms to soothe the savage breast to soften rocks to bend and nodded oh is that true, I was interested in reading in Sports Illustrated the past time leisure activities of many of the great hulks of masculine humanity called the professional football players and to my surprise over half of the men spend their leisure listening to music so a lot of us most of us love to turn again to music when our savage breast needs to be sued. I came from a musical family. My fondest memories. Aside from summer spent out of the little bay cottage with the grandfather that I dearly idolized are the memories of singing with the family that gathered around the piano with a brother that could play like crazy and the mother that saying good soprano and a sister that can handle a little alto and and not bring up the rear in whatever was left and we were just saying through the evening. I remember the Bloodworth family that lived next door. Tragic hold that a lot of bucks they were very affluent. They were into regattas in all of this had a big sailing vessel, but they often left the kids at home for a weekend as they had their fun which ended tragically in the mother's suicide in the father's departure can sort of left to raise themselves. Remember around Christmas time. 11 season, we were singing through the hours of the evening and as it got late we decided we wouldn't bother the neighbors anymore and we pulled the window down our phone rang in less than a minute and it was the oldest of the four children who ask. Would you please pull the window back up.

We haven't heard singing like that and we I remember lifting the window up and looking out across the little area between our homes and where they were sitting like little ducks in the window alone that evening finding music to soothe their hearts. That's the ministry of music can be duplicated with nothing else. Cynthia recently bought an album of Tchaikovsky in, how was listing the other. It was just yesterday afternoon and I I thought I could study what it was going on and after a while of marvelous and whatever might be the taste. There's something about music that is and ministers goes all the way back to the first genealogical record where a man was gifted on the pipe and lyre and a little later on we find in the Bible. A whole book of Psalms right in the middle as if God is saying, sing them often and learn them well.

These are my songs over twice the length of any other chapters are any other book of the Bible hundred and 50 of them half of them are more written by David who put them together on the hills of Judah who knows, maybe in the very context we're looking at first Samuel 16 and the threatening presence of a madman named Saul Saul's strange malady starts these verses beginning at verse 14 and caring us down to the end of the chapter were going to see the part that music played in soothing, his savagery. Let's look at the 14th and 15th verse is to start with the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him Saul's servants then said to him it's obvious that they could see the maddening results and they said to him, behold now an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you. Unfortunately, with mindsets like we have. We get hung up on the spirit of evil from the Lord and we don't enter into the misery of this malady that Saul wrestled with will talk about that in a minute, but first of all, the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul before an evil spirit came Christians read those words and they fear that could happen today.

I've heard evangelist use that as a tool to shock people that are Christians walking in the flesh, you continue to walk in the flesh in God… Spirit from you, and you won't have that life you once said," this verse are the verse and in Judges 16 verse Sampson's and Delilah's lap and it says he he knew that the Lord had departed from them, or in Psalm 5111 that says take your Holy Spirit from me was a fearful verses had a man stop me right behind the church building this evening and just needed assurance that that wouldn't happen today. It's a fearful thought that God could lift his spirit from Austin and would be lost. Having once been. See, let me clarify that tonight. Let's go on record in understanding a good dose of theology right now before the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. Acts chapter 2. Prior to that time, the spirit of God never permanently rested on any believer. It was not uncommon for the spirit of God, for a temporary period of strengthening our inside door. Whatever was the need of the moment, and then to depart and then to come back for another surge of the need of the moment then to depart the exception rather than the rule was at the spirit of God came to stay. However, at Pentecost, and from that time all the way through our present era when the Spirit of God comes at salvation. He never leaves he comes to baptize us into the body of Christ that happens at salvation were never exhorted to be baptized by the spirit we are baptized into the body. We will never be on identified with the body of Christ. We are placed by the spirit to the body. That's baptism we are sealed until the day of redemption. That's the day we die.

The last verse of Ephesians tells us in chapter 4 that he seals us until that day, so he's there.

He never leaves. Furthermore, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And as long as we as Christians have bodies.

We have the temple in which the spirit of God dwell. He permanently resides within us and will never ever depart now reading in first Samuel before Pentecost. Of course we are not surprised, therefore to read that in this moment of severity in the life of Saul the spirit of God departed from Saul and there was a vacuum created and God sent an evil spirit to terrorizing. I don't know why no one knows why no one can explain God's permission in this place, except for the fact that he was put out with Saul. It was as if to say, I will punish you for presuming on your office as a king and walking against my will. You have not taken me seriously. You will learn to do that. Saul I'm jealous for my name, so he departed from Saul in an evil spirit came to terrorizing. Let's look at that for a moment.

It was so obvious that the servant said us an evil spirit is terrorizing you. The Hebrew word is bought at and it is interesting it means to fall upon to startle to overwhelm Job uses it in chapter 3, to refer to his date of birth and in the misery of the Boyles Job says let the blackness of the day terrify it, same word, but acts let let the blackness of my days simply envelop and overwhelm the day of my birthday saying all that I've never been born. When this evil spirit came on Saul, it began to terrorizing Carlin daily. Sure, some of the most reputable of Old Testament scholars and they write this about this evil spirit listen to the paragraph the evil spirit from Jehovah, which came into Saul in the place of the spirit of Jehovah was not merely an inward feeling of depression at the rejection announced to him which grew into melancholy and occasionally broke out in passing fits of insanity, but a higher evil power which took possession of and not only deprived him of his peace of mind, but stirred up the feelings, imagination and thoughts of his soul to such an extent that it times it drove him into madness. The demon is called an evil spirit coming from Jehovah. It was visible to others. Forgive me for lingering longer than maybe you think I should unlace to verses, but there's something here, an application that I don't want to miss were living in a demonic era where your reading, but the periodicals I'm reading are revealing awful unbelievable facts.

Take one child battering Newsweek had an article on it. Just this past week. I was just shocked to read what I read and to see the sites that were portrayed the parental beatings and torture rings of children.

Often the parents just declare something overcomes me something overwhelm me. I said in a in a jail, separated only by bars from a man who took the life of one of his own babies number of years ago right here in this area and I heard him say I don't know what happened but God I struck the child and something came over me and overwhelm me and I couldn't quit the legal world calls a temporary insanity. You have a temper like that. Leo held did the article reads that he was a paragon of respectability, was a middle-aged hard-working lab technician for 19 years in a Pennsylvania paper mill had been a Boy Scout leader and affectionate father, a member of the local fire brigade, a regular churchgoer knew many hymns by heart. He was admired as a model in his community until the image was shattered in a well-planned hour of bloodshed.

One brisk October morning, Hill decided to mount a one-man revolt against the world. He inwardly resented a proficient marksman, he stuffed two pistols into his coat pocket of 45 automatic on a Smith & Wesson 38 before he drove his station wagon to the paper mill parking. Quietly he gripped the gun in each fist and slowly stalked into the shop and started shooting with such calculated frenzy that it resembled a scene out of Gunsmoke. He fills several of his fellow workmen with two and three bullets apiece firing more than 30 shots before he was through killing in cold blood. Some of the men he had worked with for over 15 years. When a posse was sworn to capture the man they found him standing in his doorway. Smiling defiantly, I could go on and on neighborhood couldn't believe it interesting that when time magazine put together a caption they said underneath his picture responsible, respectable and resentful. He lived in the powder keg of resentment so long until explosions happen and like the husband who admitted to me a number of years ago I that's when I punch my wife and she had left him as he talked about something coming over and swinging his fists and there's a maddening sense of presence is lost control and this is not theoretical comment is real. This is Saul went through what many go through. We just cover up for.

I want to say before going any further, that the only hope for the child of God is the power of the Holy Spirit. You do not know Christ there is no power that you can find that will overcome that kind of overwhelming evil presence and even as a child of God. We can out of the controls of our own flesh say no to the spirits control and perform all acts of evil and debauchery claim just don't know what happened to just overcame me.

Well, that was Saul's malady. Strange yet not really that strange. They realized he needed help as your friend would if he saw you in that condition and so the friends said to Saul, verse 16. Let our Lord now command your servants who are before you let them seek a man who is a skillful player on the heart forgo any further.

I think that is interesting that David was that the first description of David is a skillful player on the harp, the words skillful in the Hebrew is an intensive verb.

Originally, and it has in mind the idea of knowing fully. David knew fully his instrument and his instrument was called the heart. That's a rather unfortunate rendering.

The word is King door and it means liar LYRE the liar of that day is described by Merrill Unger in these words, an instrument that consists of strings made from the small intestines of sheep stretched across a sounding board over a blank space then attached to a crossbar that go by too fast for you to identify at what is it sound like strings stretched across a sounding board over a blank space then attached to a crossbar with a sound like a tennis rack what you see would say good to say right. I think it is interesting that one of the earliest instruments mentioned in the Bible is the liar and yet do you know there are many churches that absolutely will not have a guitar in the presence of the of the place of worship when the net will have a piano that is a rather rather recent invention as compared to a liar are the old ancient strumming instruments are certainly an organ, we adopt them yet to bring a stringed instrument is referred is seen as you know travesty against theology here are against biblical truth.

That's the earliest earliest instrument mentioned the tennis racket but I've about a liar plated he was. He was proficient with his guitar. In fact, I can picture David on the hillsides of Judah strumming along working through it's only you that compose no thinking of his notes and working on the fingering and just coming through with that. And that sounds so write something down as he the savage breast that young shepherd's heart. He's putting his music together now want to see the perspective is a shepherd in the field, strumming a guitar. He's destined for the throne.

There is no way on earth shepherd will ever see the inside of the courtroom of the King unless God does it now want to see how God worked to get this man some exposure in the protocol of the Kings court beautiful, just beautiful how God used the gift of music to put him right into the very presence of the Kings chamber King fell in love with okay go 16 let them sink a man who was skillful on the heart and it shall come about when the evil spirit from God is on you, that he should play the harp with his hand, and you will be well.

So Saul said to his servants provide for me now man who can play well and bring them to me.

It's an unlikely picture. David the shepherd boy standing before King Saul wall, strumming his heart one day this humble servant with hold the highest office in the land. Now if you notice the Chuck Swindoll's voice sounds a little different on today's recording. That's because his study on David was presented many years ago, but it speaks to the treasurer we have it inside for living and that is thousands of timeless sermons that go back many years to learn more about Chuck Swindoll and this ministry. Please visit us online@insideworld.org. Today's message is titled soft music for a hard heart and to make the most of this comprehensive study on the life of David remember the Chuck is prepared a study Bible. It's a wonderful resource because Chuck is written summaries for each book in the Bible, including the ones he referenced during today's program. In addition, the Swindoll study Bible includes keen insights on difficult passages and explanation of complicated cultural issues, and even helpful charts and outlines to purchase the Swindoll study Bible. Call us if you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888 or go online to insight.org/store.

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