Sarah Jakes Roberts - Heart Vs Heat (01/16/2026)
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Drawing from 1 Samuel 18, post-Goliath, the preacher examines David’s rise amid Saul’s jealousy, highlighting the tension between emerging potential and insecure leadership. Key themes include maintaining humility and a pure heart when praised («singing»), discerning threats from those «eyeing» you with envy, and recognizing attacks («spears») as divine incisions pushing toward destiny. The core message—"Heart vs. Heat"—asserts that a God-aligned heart triumphs over heated insecurity, enabling forgiveness, boundary-setting, and breakthrough into one’s calling, even when surrounded by distress.
Excitement About David Post-Goliath
So I’m so excited! I’ve been studying for this word, and I want to talk to you all about David tonight. Everyone knows about David and Goliath. As I was studying, I was just wondering, you know, how did David go back into life after he slayed Goliath? It had to have been a bit surprising to tap into potential down on the inside of him that he wasn’t necessarily sure of before that moment.
I wanted to talk about that because I believe in 2017 that we’re going to begin to tap into potential that we didn’t even know existed within ourselves. We’re going to tap into it in such a way that we don’t even recognize who we are anymore. We’re going to have to look in the mirror and start speaking prophetically—not over who we used to be, but over who we are now. You are the righteousness of God! You are strategizing! You are equipped to handle what’s coming next. You have creativity that supersedes whatever you see taking place. You’re going to have to start speaking to yourself the way that God sees you until there is a collision with your destiny that manifests who God has called you to be.
Setting the Scene: 1 Samuel 18
So I wanted to get into the word a bit with David. I’m going to be speaking from 1 Samuel 18. Just to set the scene, as I mentioned, this is after David has defeated Goliath and he is with Saul.
Now, just to give you a little bit of background: David had been anointed king, but he was not king yet. This means that he knew there was a call on his life, but his call had not found its throne. You know there’s something different about you. You know there’s something special and unique, but you haven’t quite found your lane yet. What makes it even better is that other people also recognize that there’s something different about you, and they haven’t quite found a box to put you in either.
So now, as you begin to tap into your destiny and your identity, and you make peace with who you are, what you’ve done, and what you’ve gone through, you’ve got an audience of people watching, waiting to see what your next move is going to be. This is where David is when we find him in the text. There’s Saul, who in chapter 15 of 1 Samuel has been told that he’s going to lose the crown, but he still has the crown on his head.
Why is this significant? Because if you aren’t careful, you’ll let the fact that someone has a crown make you believe that you will never have one yourself. Just because people are in position now doesn’t mean they’re going to be in position forever. You can’t be alarmed when it looks like somebody’s in your spot. You can’t be alarmed when it looks like someone has been promoted to a place that you just thought was destined for you.
So we have the dichotomy of Saul, who was king but will not be king for much longer, and David, who was tapped into his royalty but has not found his crown just yet. The two of them are on the journey together. Oh, it’s just too much!
The Women’s Song
Okay, so listen now! What happened as they were coming home when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistines? The women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. So the women sang as they danced and said, «Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.»
I want to stop right there because of the ratio here. You have to know that at this point in the text, all we have seen is David slay Goliath. It wasn’t quite 10,000. Saul, on the other hand, has had a history of going into battle and becoming victorious. But somehow, this underdog showed up and is receiving more praise for something. Some of you may be wondering why they’re clapping. It’s because I’ve got some underdogs in the room who have been waiting for the moment when people begin to recognize that there’s potential down on the inside of them. The women were singing not because of what had been done, but because of what David did that revealed potential. David slaying one giant revealed that he had the kind of potential that could lead him to slay 10,000 men. Yet, they were singing about his potential.
You have to be careful when people start reacting to your potential because people will reveal something to you that you didn’t even know about yourself. If you would just listen to the way people react when you walk into a room, some of you have had people just drawn to you for no reason your whole entire life, and you didn’t recognize that that attraction was really God preparing you for leadership, that God was preparing you for influence.
So the women are out and they’re singing, and it’s got to be a little bit awkward because Saul is king, and David is this person who came out of nowhere that no one saw coming. He didn’t have the right family; he was a shepherd boy. He wasn’t a soldier. He had five smooth stones, yet they’re saying he slayed 10,000. I wondered, you know, you would think that they would have realized how awkward that would have been for their king.
Okay, because y’all know I’m country, so where I’m from, we would say that they were making David the «booger with the sugar.» Just let that marinate down in your spirit. Just consider it. When somebody starts feeling themselves, they start saying, «Oh, you think you’re the booger with the sugar.» David was the booger with the sugar walking into Israel, and everyone was taking note of who he was. You have to be careful when people start singing, though, because a lot of us stop working the moment people start singing. We think that their acknowledgment means that we should stop pursuing the very thing that put us in position in the first place.
The problem is when we stop working when people start singing, we allow the validation of others to be our motivation. See, you have to realize that it was never about the validation of other people that led David to slay the giant. It was something he felt was possible within himself. This is a message for those of you who are right on the edge of success or right on the edge of stepping into that next dimension. Don’t stop moving just because people are singing. Don’t stop pursuing excellence because people have started singing.
I’m a church girl, right? And I can’t clap on beat when people start shouting. So I watch when other people clap because I’m trying to catch the rhythm. The only problem is that if you take your eyes off one person when you catch the rhythm, you end up catching someone else’s rhythm, and then you’re watching all these other people sing, and you’re thrown off your own rhythm. What I’m saying is that if you get so caught up listening to the rhythms that others create, that you stop dancing to the beat of your own drum, don’t get thrown off when people start singing.
So David had to have a certain level of humility to stay focused when other people were singing, to continue digging, to continue becoming better and better, even though people were saying, «That’s good enough,» because they were dancing off of his potential and not over his realization. When we start allowing people’s validation to be where we stop, we never fully discover who God has called us to be. If I stopped preaching right now because some of you have clapped, I would feel good about it because I got those claps, but you didn’t get the full manifestation of what God has placed on the inside of me.
So you’ve got to be willing to tell the people who are singing that they can continue their song, but don’t let that song distract you because when God gets finished, you’ll be singing now, but you’d better get some more pen and paper because there are going to be books written about what I do. There’s going to be history made about what I do. You’re going to have to prepare yourself for what God has laid on the inside of me.
Saul’s Anger and Eyeing David
So verse 8 continues, and it says, «Then Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him, and he said, 'They have ascribed to David 10,000, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom? ' He thinks he is the booger with the sugar.»
And verse 9 continues and it says, «So Saul eyed David from that day forward.» I want you to take note of the people who are singing in your life and the people who are eyeing you. Can you go back to verse 8 for me? Because I want you to see it: «They have ascribed to David 10,000, and to me they have ascribed only thousands.» Saul invited David into the kingdom! That means that Saul invited his threat into the kingdom. That means without even knowing it, he had become David’s footstool!
He thought that he was inviting in someone to play the harp for him when he got stressed out. He didn’t realize that he had actually invited his replacement in. I think it’s important that you recognize that, because it means that when Romans tells us that all things are working together for our good, that means somehow your enemies are going to start blessing you, and they don’t even realize why they’re doing it. They think they’re doing it for one reason, but in actuality, God has a plan that’s much greater than they can even imagine.
And so you think, «I’m just a harp player,» but what I really am is your understudy. This was so fascinating to me because I thought that Saul should have been excited that he had someone on his team who was capable of slaying 10,000. But the reality is he was so insecure about his position that he couldn’t see David’s win as his win.
Let me break this down into a more tangible way. You know how when you start getting promoted, or your life starts coming together, and your friends start hating a little bit, but when they should really be rejoicing, because that means that they’re in the flow of the blessing? If God is doing it for me, then he’s going to do it for everything connected to me. So you don’t have to be discouraged when it looks like I’m getting my life together because it’s a sign that all of us are going to start getting our lives together. His win should have been Saul’s win, but Saul was too insecure to see it that way.
I want you to take note of the people who are singing and the people who are watching. The people who are incapable of celebrating when you change your ways, the people who are incapable of celebrating when you tap into a deeper dimension of potential. They have a way of making themselves known because while everyone else is singing and celebrating, they have a way of throwing a little salt in the gumbo. I’m going to say all the country sayings today; I just feel that down in my spirit!
Saul was very angry and the saying displeased him because he knew it was true. Remember when I was telling you that you have to notice how people react when you start getting promoted? Their reaction will reveal something that you may not have known about yourself. Saul getting angry and David knowing that he had been anointed had to be a sign that, though on the surface it looked like they were getting together, there was a war brewing down on the inside.
Don’t ignore the people in your life who show you who they really are in flashes. In pivotal moments when it seems like you should be distracted, but there’s one person who finds a way to rain on your parade or to spread a little bit of negativity, and then somehow you’re still able to go to lunch and you’re still able to go out. Don’t ignore when people show you who they really are in flashes, because people can’t keep their mask on forever. Sooner or later, they’re going to show you who they are, and it is up to you to believe them.
Distressing Spirit and Spear
If we pick up on verse 10, it says, «And it happened on the next day that the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul.» I wondered, why would God put a distressing spirit on Saul? Isn’t he a God of love and a God of peace? Why would he want Saul to be distressed? But sometimes, in order for God’s plan to be revealed, he has to make people reveal who they are. He’s got to put a distressing spirit on them so that the one who he has his hand on in the moment can recognize where the tension is coming from.
So be careful when you’re constantly asking God to make things right in certain relationships. Instead, you’ve got to start praying that God would show you who people really are so that you can see distressing spirits on people. It happened on the next day that the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house. This is what I was talking about when I said you have to be careful about letting people speak over your life. Because now we have Saul, who has a distressing spirit, prophesying from a place of distress, from a place of fear, from a place of anxiety.
Like the kind of people who said, «I told you, you should have never gone out there anyway! You were going to end up broke! You were going to end up just like your daddy, ” prophesying out of their own distress. You have to qualify who you allow to prophesy in your life; otherwise, you’ll be receiving an impartation of what they have. There are distressing spirits all around us; people discontent with their own life, so they have to make you uncomfortable with yours. People so consumed with the fact that their life didn’t go as planned that they can’t even let you dream the dreams that you want to dream.
What’s so sad about this is that those distressing spirits haunt us and taunt us long after the conversation has ended. This is just a sidebar: God wants you to protect who you allow to have access to your head in this season. He’s developing something inside of you, and not everyone is going to understand it. So you can’t just open yourself up to everyone right now; you’ve got to protect what he’s doing on the inside of you because distressing spirits like to prophesy.
Yeah, they like to tell you you can’t do it. Those distressing spirits live within your own head. The moment you decide to make a change, they try to tell you that you’re not going to make it, that you waited too long to get your life together, that there are too many things behind you to ever think that there’s a future ahead of you. You’ve got to watch out for these distressing spirits that we allow to have access to our destiny. The types of distressing spirits that make it so challenging to maintain a pure heart because now it’s been contaminated with fear that says you’re never going to marry again, you’re never going to love again, you’re going to be just like your daddy, you’re going to be in and out of prison. Those voices, those voices that haunt us and taunt us, make us stop living our best life.
These distressing spirits can only be rebuked when we begin to open ourselves up in such a way that we say, „Fill me up with your spirit.“ Because if I could be filled up with your spirit, maybe I could drown out the voices of these distressing spirits. If I could be filled up with your spirit, maybe I would have the confidence to be who you’ve called me to be if I could just let go of these distressing spirits.
So David played music with his hand as at other times, but there was a spear in Saul’s hand. You’ve got to stay right here. So here’s David playing the harp for his enemy, trying to soothe the very person who he knew had a vendetta against him. Couldn’t be me, not going to lie to you. I’d just slain a giant with stones, and you’ve got an attitude with me? Lord knows, you’d have to watch the way you talk to me. But somehow, David didn’t let his potential blow his head up in such a way that he forgot how to play the harp for his enemies, how to speak well over the very people who meant to harm him, how to forgive people before they even trespassed against him, how to live in a place of such humility that he could recognize that someone was distressed and still decide to be peace.
You see, because one of two things is going to happen when you’re connected with a distressed spirit: they’re either going to make you distressed, or you can bring about peace. When you allow someone else’s distressed spirit to become your personality, then you allow distress to win when you have the power working on the inside of you to calm the storms.
I thought to myself, okay, so he’s going to play the harp— that’s beautiful. But Saul has a spear in his hand, which means that as long as his hands are on the harp, he can’t protect himself against the spear. Obviously, he knows that Saul has this distressing spirit, so he’s probably rambling and ranting around the kingdom all while he’s playing this harp. I would think that there would be a part of David that wanted to be able to have his hands free in case he needed to protect himself.
Verse 11 continues, and it says, „And Saul cast the spear, for he said, 'I will pin David to the wall.'“ But David escaped his presence twice—all while playing the harp. Saul is trying to figure out how he is going to take David out, and David is playing the harp when a spear flies by his head.
Perhaps David thought, „Well, that’s odd. You know, while I’m trying to soothe you, you would throw a dagger at me? That while I’m trying to help you become the best version of yourself, you would speak ill against me? Well, that’s odd. That I was trying to help you while you’re trying to hurt me. That I was trying to elevate you to a certain consciousness and elevate you to a certain way of thinking, and you were throwing daggers at the very person who’s risking their life, risking their career, risking their reputation to protect you. How could you throw a spear at me? Yeah, how dare you!“
The Spear as Incision
And that’s when you know you’re in the right room. As I was studying, something really got in my spirit. If you’re taking notes, I want you to write this down because I believe that you need to hang on to this the next time someone tries to cut you. The next time someone tries to cut your dreams or cut your destiny or throw a spear while you’re trying to help, I want you to know that their cut was an incision that was meant to force you into a decision about changing your life. Their cut was an incision. They thought it was a cut, but it was really surgery. That incision was meant to force you to make a decision about changing your life. Their cut was meant to force you to make some boundaries, to create some standards, to learn some lessons. And though you learned them the hard way because you had to bleed a little, God wanted me to tell you that you don’t have to bleed from that same cut again if you would just make the decision about your life that prevents those types of people and situations from recurring over and over again.
They thought they were cutting you, but they were really helping you because it pushed you into your destiny. So often, we can be so consumed with the pain of the cut that we don’t realize it was meant to force us into making a decision—a decision that says, „That’s going to have to be the last time you throw a spear at me.“ But David escaped his presence twice.
Heart vs. Heat
In verse 12, it continues, „Now Saul was afraid of David.“ How was Saul, the one with the spear, afraid of David, the one with the harp? The next line tells us why. „It was because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul.“ I know it’s a little late to tell you my subject, but it was heart versus heat. Because in this text, I see David’s heart and Saul’s heat at war with one another—David’s heart to play the harp even though he knew he was in an uncomfortable situation, to try to add to that situation in spite of the dysfunction that was around him, and Saul’s heat, his anger, his insecurities, being revealed and manifest over and over again.
I named this heart versus heat because I wanted you to know that heart always wins. Heart always wins! David’s heart looked ill-equipped to go up against a spear, but it wasn’t about what David had in his hand that helped him defeat Saul. It was what he knew. If you go back to verse 12 for me, what David knew that Saul had not fully realized was that God was with him.
The power of God being with you! When you’re in a room full of spears, when you are surrounded by adversities, when you are surrounded by challenges, this time of the year, this year of alignment, is so important because it is the insurance that spears will have to pass by you. It is the insurance that though trouble may wage against you, it will not overcome you because God is with you.
You’ve got to get your heart in a position where you can withstand being in rooms with spears being thrown at you. Most of us are so hurt and so upset that a spear even came our way that we don’t recognize there’s a hedge of protection around us. Just because it came our way didn’t mean that it actually pierced our side. As a matter of fact, over 2,000 years ago, spears were thrown at Jesus Christ so that when spears came my way, they couldn’t pierce through my destiny.
Altar Call for Heart Transformation
And I’m going to prepare to close. You can come and start playing. Because I think it’s important for us to recognize in this season the necessity for our hearts to be pure, for our hearts to be a reflection of not what has happened to us, but who we want to become—not from this materialistic standpoint of things that we want to acquire, but who we want to be when we get there.
As David was on the road to the crown, there was one thing that remained constant, and that was his heart—the heart that God anointed when he was just a shepherd boy. It had to be the same heart that was sitting in the kingdom when spears were being thrown at him, and the same heart that would ultimately lead him to the crown. The problem with so many of us—and I’m guilty of it myself—is that we allow distressing spirits to contaminate our hearts, so much so that we don’t believe in ourselves the way we could any longer or we don’t believe in people the way we could.
If we’re honest, we want to believe. We want to get on the right track. But there’s a part of us that wonders if we’re even good enough or if people will be willing to let us have access or a seat at the table. God wants you to know that it’s not up to people. It’s not up to man to give you a seat at the table. It’s up to him. But what he wants to see first is whether you have a heart to play the harp for your enemies.
Can you forgive? Can you choose to love? Can you be anointed but not appointed yet? Can you be led? So many of us want to be in leadership, but so few of us actually want to be led. There is a humility that comes with being led that teaches you that it’s insurance because you get to see the cost of leading without having to take the bullets that come with it. God doesn’t have you in that position as punishment; it’s to show you how to do the job better when it’s your turn, how to avoid the same mistakes that the people ahead of you made.
But we can begin to resent the fact that we’re struggling so much that we miss the strength that comes with struggle. I want to have a moment at this altar for hearts—hearts that are hoping to be pure and strong and have humility even as they succeed, or hearts that have allowed distressing spirits to dictate what is possible for their lives, hearts that received the words of broken people.
It’s important to recognize that Saul wasn’t altogether evil, though he was throwing spears at David. I could see how that could possibly be considered evil, but the reality is he was broken; he was insecure. When we begin to connect with broken and insecure people because we are broken and insecure ourselves, and we know what it’s like to be them, we’ve got to be sensitive enough to recognize that you’re not really upset with me; you’re upset with what your life has become.
Because you are upset with what your life has become, I will not penalize you with my anger. I will play the harp. I’ll be kind. I’ll love. I’ll sow goodness. Now, I may have to do it from a distance because you do have spears, but I’m not going to add to your trauma with my own attitude. It has nothing to do with whether or not that person deserves it; it’s everything to do with who you have decided to be and what boundaries you have decided must exist for your heart.
I believe before we even fully launch into this year that God wants to heal your heart in such a way that you can look back on the people who tried to harm you, the people who tried to hurt you, and in your heart, play a harp for them— to pray for them, to cover them, not because they’ve said sorry, not because they had this huge apology, but because you have decided that you will not be bound by what they did any longer. As a matter of fact, your crown is more important than what happened. The road to you overcoming is more important than anything that tried to hold you back.
If you all would please stand with me for just a moment. If you don’t have to leave, please don’t leave. We’re going to dismiss before you even know it. The reality is that something’s going to take place at this altar that transforms someone’s heart for the better. I know it’s a bit cold and maybe even a little wet outside, but I just happen to believe that a heart being transformed is more important than getting to the car right now.
If this message has spoken to you and you’ve felt that there was something in your heart that was keeping you from fully receiving the love of God or receiving the impossibilities that are possible through Christ, I’d love it if you met us at this altar so that we could have a moment to break the chains that have bound you and kept you from realizing your potential. If there’s a part of you that says, „I want to try to be like David, where I can look in the eyes of the people who disappointed me or I can look back on the memories that harmed me and do so in a way that I can smile and have peace,“ it’s because I recognize that though the enemy may have meant it for evil, God turned it for good. David could not have become king unless Saul felt threatened. This means there are times when your promotion is going to come at the expense of others' pain.
There can be a part of you that maybe even feels a little guilty about that because you don’t want your promotion to break up some friendships or relationships. But the reality is that you can either stay connected to them or you can move on to who God has called you to be. I want to have an altar call for people who are having a hard time saying goodbye, who are having a difficult time breaking away from people and routines and patterns that once made them comfortable but now have become roadblocks and barriers to their destiny.
I believe that as you walk away from where you’re standing, you will walk away from those relationships, mindsets, and paradigms that held you hostage to an idea of yourself that doesn’t even exist any longer. I’m here to tell you that God is capable of purifying our hearts. Not for us to think that we’re better than anyone or that we have it all figured out, but there is an insurance, there is a guarantee that comes with knowing that my heart is striving for God, that I’m hungry for him, that I’m thirsty for him.
No, I haven’t done everything right, and Lord knows I don’t know what I’m going to do in the future, but I can tell you that right now in this moment, he is the one thing I desire. If his name isn’t on it, then I don’t want any part of it. You’ve got to be willing to offer your heart to him so that he can place his desires in it and put it back into your heart, back into your body. As you navigate throughout this world, recognize that what you’re being pulled to, what you’re being attracted to, has been something that God placed down on the inside of you and not something that a distressing spirit spoke over you.
I think it’s important that you know that we’re going to break the distressing spirit off of you right here at this altar, that some of you are going to leave this place and you’re not going to be taunted by these voices of doubt anymore. The coulda, woulda, shouldas are going to be left right here at this altar. We’re going to offer them up as a sacrifice, and in exchange, God is going to give us a double portion anointing for this season. Those voices are going to stay right here at this altar, and that’s why we’re going to have this moment because some of you have been in an argument inside yourself for long enough.
I hear God saying that it stops now. That heart has won! You don’t need anger anymore to fuel you or to motivate you. That heart has won! Because your heart is finally positioned in a place where He can fully maximize your potential, He’s going to reveal things to you that you didn’t even recognize existed on the inside. Pastor, would you pray?