Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20250924 - David: A Man After God’s Heart - The Fugitive Years Part 2 - 1 Samuel 27-31
Transcript
- 0:05Welcome to the study of God's Word recorded live at Calvary
- 0:08Church in Aurora, Co. To learn more about the many
- 0:12resources available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune
- 0:15into our live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co
- 0:20dot Church or download our free Calvary Church app.
- 0:24Now let's open our Bibles and study God's Word.
- 0:30Amen. You can go ahead and get back to
- 0:33where you were seated. I'm Pastor Bob Klaykamp.
- 0:38I am one of the assistant pastors here, so you know fine.
- 0:46And Pastor Ed asked me to fill in for him tonight.
- 0:50So what's on my heart is I am going to finish up about David,
- 0:57a man after God's heart. Those of you that have been here
- 1:00a while, you know that I had the opportunity to share about
- 1:06David's life in some ways. And of course, it wasn't a
- 1:10completely thorough study like verse by verse, every single
- 1:14verse, because we started in chapter 13 of First Samuel and
- 1:18now we're going to the end of First Samuel.
- 1:22And so you can pick up those studies on the Calvary Church
- 1:26app. And also I want to direct you to
- 1:30Pastor Josh Sorensen study in Psalm 51, because he taught my
- 1:37study. So it's a it's a great study,
- 1:40did such a thorough job. So that's on the app as well.
- 1:44And then last weekend, Pastor Josh Taylor, he did a great
- 1:49study on on the gift of wisdom. And so if you missed that study,
- 1:54I would take the time to to look it up and and go through it
- 1:58carefully that those are great studies.
- 2:01But tonight, what I'm what's on my heart to do is to look at
- 2:05chapters 27 to 31 in for Samuel. And we're going to cover the the
- 2:12last of the fugitive years of David running from King Saul.
- 2:17And I've entitled this particular message, bad choices
- 2:22during great distress. Bad choices during great
- 2:27distress. And so let's let's start with a
- 2:32word of prayer. And let's open our hearts
- 2:34because we want to hear God speak to us because he knows
- 2:38what's going on even more than you do or I do.
- 2:43Let's pray, Father God, what a joy to come before you with
- 2:48confidence and assurance. Your word says it's boldness
- 2:53that we can approach the most holy God, and you've brought us
- 2:58into your family. And we cry, ABBA, Father, the
- 3:02Hebrew word for daddy. And we're asking tonight,
- 3:07Father, that you administer to us from this section of the word
- 3:13and Lord in a, in a group this size and those who will be
- 3:16listening online or on on the radio, there might be those,
- 3:24Lord that have not yet put their trust in your son Jesus.
- 3:30And so we're asking God that you would move that you would work
- 3:34by the Holy Spirit and unlock doors in their hearts as only
- 3:41you can but unlock all the doors in our hearts.
- 3:45Lord for sure minister to us tonight we pray in Jesus name,
- 3:50Amen. Amen.
- 4:02The last 16 months of David's trial is about to unfold and he
- 4:09has no idea it's only 16 months left.
- 4:13But in our text here in chapter 27, we see David making some
- 4:20decisions that are not wise at all.
- 4:25Sometimes we forget when we just jump into the middle of a of a
- 4:30text. We forget the back story and we
- 4:33forget the timing. We forget how much, how much
- 4:37time has gone by and how much drama has happened.
- 4:42And so when you read through it, you can kind of get kind of like
- 4:46a, you know, if we had a scratch and sniff Bible, you remember
- 4:49those scratch and sniff, you know, where you could, you could
- 4:52and then and all of a sudden it would just come to you and, and
- 4:54you'd have that fullness. Well, we don't have scratch and
- 4:57sniff. We do have the Holy Spirit,
- 4:59though. So, so anyway, it had been about
- 5:038 or 9 years of running, hiding in the southern area of Judah,
- 5:10in the wilderness, in the mountainous areas.
- 5:13He's hiding out because the king has put a contract on David's
- 5:17life. And David didn't do anything
- 5:20wrong. The king just got jealous and
- 5:22more jealous and more jealous to the point where David had to
- 5:25flee for his life. And then to make things
- 5:29difficult in hiding, there were these hundreds of men that were
- 5:33coming to him for protection and bringing their families.
- 5:37How do you hide in the mountains of Judah with 400 men plus women
- 5:42and children and then up to 600 men?
- 5:45We'll find out here. I mean, where do you go?
- 5:48And so the the pressure was enormous.
- 5:52And during this time, 3 separate times, Saul and his men had
- 5:56found David and his men, and the Lord had rescued them each of
- 6:01those three times. And then on the last two of
- 6:05those occasions, David could have raised his sword against
- 6:09Saul, but he wouldn't touch the Lord's anointed.
- 6:11It was a test of his integrity. And sometimes they'll be those
- 6:17events, opportunities in our life where we can take a real
- 6:22detour and a side road and go and do things we shouldn't do at
- 6:26all. And it's a test of integrity.
- 6:29Will we walk in the ways of the Lord in what God has shown us
- 6:34all this time? Or will we just respond to our
- 6:37flesh and react and create more drama?
- 6:43But here's David with now 600 men plus their families.
- 6:49And it was just after the 3rd encounter with King Saul, and
- 6:55King Saul repented before David and all that, and God had
- 6:59delivered him. And it's right at this point
- 7:05that the voices in David's head began to lead him astray.
- 7:11And I think if we had to retitle this, you could title it bad
- 7:15choices from wrong voices. And David, we see here in
- 7:23chapter 27, David said in his heart, and then things go a
- 7:30little wonky. And so we're going to look at
- 7:33this because it can happen to us.
- 7:36Here is a man after God's heart. God called him a man after his
- 7:40heart. How can he make these kind of
- 7:43choices? Well, let's ask ourselves the
- 7:47same question. How could we make, you know,
- 7:49dumb, just wrong choices? Come on, we can because we can
- 7:55get so tired, so frustrated, so confused, and our feelings are
- 8:01so real that all of a sudden we start listening to those voices
- 8:07instead of the voice of the Lord and the Word of God.
- 8:11Here is the clearest voice we have right now.
- 8:16I'm going to take our study tonight.
- 8:17Divide it just into two parts. So those of you taking notes,
- 8:21you can just do parts here. OK?
- 8:23The first part is called listening to the wrong voices,
- 8:27and that's chapters 27 through 28.
- 8:31The second part is learning hard lessons through chastening,
- 8:36verses 29 to 31. And may the Lord open our ears
- 8:41to hear and receive his exhortation and his
- 8:44encouragement. Because I just want to say God
- 8:48is in the details. God is behind the scenes
- 8:51working. He is working whether we feel
- 8:55it, whether we see it, but we know it by faith because we've
- 9:00watched it in times past. And just as we've we've sang in
- 9:03our choruses, He is faithful even when we are faithless.
- 9:08Amen. Amen.
- 9:11So let's take a look at chapter 27 in the 1st 4 verses.
- 9:19And David said in his heart, Now I shall perish someday by the
- 9:24hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me
- 9:28than that I should speedily escape to the land of the
- 9:31Philistines. And Saul will despair of me to
- 9:36seek me anymore in any part of Israel.
- 9:39So I shall escape out of his hand.
- 9:43Then David arose and went over with the 600 men who were with
- 9:48him to Achish, the son of Maiok, king of Goth.
- 9:53So David dwelt with Achish at at Gath, he and his men, each man
- 9:58with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinawam the
- 10:03Jezreelitis and Abigail the Carmelitis, Nabel's widow.
- 10:08And it was told Saul that David had fled Gath, so he sought him
- 10:13no more. You don't read of David seeking
- 10:18the Lord on this decision. And you know, when you look back
- 10:25on David's life over those many years, he saw the faithfulness
- 10:31of God all the way through. But there came a point when he
- 10:37was so just tired of the whole thing that he began to hear
- 10:44voices that contradict the purpose and the promise of God.
- 10:51And the text is very clear. He didn't seek the Lord for
- 10:56counsel. He just said in his heart, Now I
- 11:01shall perish someday by the hand of Saul.
- 11:04That voice was not God. That voice was him in his own
- 11:12frustration and tiredness. I'm done with this kind of a
- 11:16thing. And it blocked out just the
- 11:20testimony of how God had been so faithful over the years.
- 11:24And yes, it was hard and yes, it was lean and sometimes
- 11:28provision. I mean, how do you serve 6600
- 11:31men plus their families? How you know, that's, that's a
- 11:34huge number, way over 1000 kids screaming kids, you know, I
- 11:39mean, it's like, well, let's go raid a town or two, you know,
- 11:45let's, let's, let's find out what we got to do.
- 11:49And he was just done, you know, as we heard this past weekend
- 11:54from Pastor Josh Taylor in his study, The Gift of wisdom, your
- 11:59heart can deceive you and lead you into dark places.
- 12:05And sometimes our feelings can be so strong that it can be
- 12:08easier to trust those feelings instead of the wisdom that comes
- 12:13from seeking the counsel of God through His Word.
- 12:17And I had a thought, although the text doesn't show it.
- 12:22I don't know, it's just something.
- 12:25Could David have known deep in his heart that if he did seek
- 12:30the Lord, God would tell him just to stay there and continue?
- 12:34Because God knew it was only going to be 16 months before
- 12:37Saul was dead. But David didn't want to go
- 12:41there. He didn't want to seek the Lord
- 12:43because he he knew that God would probably have him continue
- 12:47as he was doing, and he didn't want to do that.
- 12:50So he said in his heart, and then then he comes to this
- 12:56statement, now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul.
- 12:59That was totally against all the promises that God had spoken
- 13:03over David. And yet to him it was so real.
- 13:08That's real. And it caused him to make a bad
- 13:12choice. And as you read about David's
- 13:16life, there was there was a time earlier in chapter 26, 25 that
- 13:22he almost wiped out a man's household because the man
- 13:25refused to give provision because because David and his
- 13:29men protected those sheep of that man.
- 13:32And that man was called Nabel. And so we can see here, he's
- 13:36like, he's getting a little more tired of the whole thing.
- 13:42And then we come to chapter 27, just after God had miraculously
- 13:46delivered him from King Saul again, and he's going and he
- 13:51just said, I'm done. I don't know if you've ever come
- 13:54to that place in your life in the midst of your trial where
- 13:57you just say, man, I'm, I'm done.
- 14:00This is enough. You can't get blood out of a
- 14:03rock. God, I don't know what's going
- 14:05on. And then you start, there's all
- 14:07these voices that start coming in now.
- 14:12I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul.
- 14:14That's the first wrong voice that led to a bad choice because
- 14:21it negates all that God had promised.
- 14:23Fear of potential harm. Fear, man.
- 14:27Fear can lead you into so many bad choices.
- 14:32Maybe fear of a lost opportunity where you're in the car
- 14:37dealership and the guy says, you know, the sale is only, only it
- 14:42stops tonight. And if you don't get it now,
- 14:44you'll miss it. And you need a you need a car
- 14:48and you light the car. And he says, I'll tell you what,
- 14:53because you're here, I want to do three things that you know, I
- 14:58haven't done it to anybody here in the past month, but I'll put
- 15:01for you, I'm going to do this and, and it just increases that
- 15:05fear of lost opportunity. Well, you didn't read the small
- 15:10print. The small print was the interest
- 15:13rate was 26%. And you're going, yeah, but I
- 15:17got the car and I can make monthly payments for like 40
- 15:21years. And, well, it's a fear can make
- 15:31you make bad choices. God's arena is trust.
- 15:38Trust him. See his counsel when someone
- 15:45tries to have you make an immediate decision, Just say,
- 15:49give me 24 hours. Oh, yeah.
- 15:52But you'll miss the sale. Sales off tonight.
- 15:56Now, ladies, this could be purses or shoes or things like
- 15:59that. I'm just saying, OK.
- 16:02And sometimes we do things because of fear of lost
- 16:06opportunity or fear of a lost relationship, and that gets us
- 16:12into a bad choice. And here's what he says here in
- 16:17verse one. There's nothing better for me.
- 16:21What? There's nothing better for me
- 16:24than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines.
- 16:28You know what that's saying? There's nothing better for me
- 16:31than I should just go back to the world.
- 16:34I should just go back to the place of lust of the flesh, lust
- 16:37of the eyes, pride of life. There's nothing better for you.
- 16:42That's the second bad voice. And then he's got this
- 16:47reasoning. Saul will despair of me to seek
- 16:50me anymore in any part of Israel.
- 16:52That sounds like a good plan. Now, the trouble is it's it's
- 16:56relying upon your ability to protect yourself and it and God
- 17:02isn't even in the equation. Oh, bless me, God, I'm going to
- 17:06make this choice and it only gets worse.
- 17:10Here's the thing. When you listen to the wrong
- 17:14voice and you make a bad choice, it doesn't stop there.
- 17:20One bad choice leads to another bad choice because you you get
- 17:24used to pushing against the boundaries and you go, well,
- 17:29that was all right. And then you go, well, OK, that
- 17:32was all right. And then, and then pretty soon
- 17:34you're you're making bad choice after bad choice after bad
- 17:37choice, and you're getting into deep weeds.
- 17:41It gets complicated, and it gets complicated for David.
- 17:50Even though at first it seemed that this idea would stop the
- 17:53hunt by the king, it ended up creating a whole set of new
- 17:57problems, not just for David, but for the 600 men and their
- 18:03families. You see, it wasn't just David.
- 18:07Now he's responsible for these 600.
- 18:10And notice here there's no mention of the men.
- 18:14It's just him in those first few verses of chapter 27.
- 18:18It's all about me. What about me?
- 18:21I need a break sometime. Nothing better for me than just
- 18:25go back to the world and then I'll be all, I'll be fine.
- 18:28I'll get everything we need. And he brought the 600 men and
- 18:34their families to the very capital of the world, the king
- 18:39of Gaza. And then he spun this story to
- 18:43befriend him. But it was all just selfish.
- 18:47It was a ruse. And it only gets worse and
- 18:50worse. And it affects everybody around
- 18:53us. But.
- 18:56And so here are David and his men and their families taking
- 18:59refuge within the city of Gath, the headquarters of the enemies
- 19:04of God. Amazing you know sin has
- 19:09pleasure for a season, but there's consequences.
- 19:16It only gets worse. And so while and, and then David
- 19:23asks for a city there in verse 5, David said to Akish, if I
- 19:27have now found favor in your eyes, let let them notice them.
- 19:32Who the leaders give me a place in some town in the country that
- 19:38I may dwell there for Why should your servant dwell in the royal
- 19:44city with you? Now he's even calling himself a
- 19:47servant of the enemy. I mean, these words are intense.
- 19:53David, you're a man after God's heart.
- 19:54What are you doing? Well, one bad choice leading
- 19:59from the bad voice leads you to another bad choice, and it
- 20:03starts getting complicated. You ever realized that in your
- 20:06own life? I have.
- 20:09I've made some bad choices and in an attempt to cover it, it
- 20:13just gets more complicated because you end up making more
- 20:16bad choices to cover the first choice that you knew you should
- 20:19have taken in the first place. Well, you're a pastor.
- 20:24You can't do that. Well, I have.
- 20:25So there you go. So the king of Gath gave him
- 20:32Ziklag, which was a city the Philistines had conquered in the
- 20:36southern part of Judah. But Ziklag was originally given
- 20:40to the tribe of Simeon. It was, it was Judah territory
- 20:44anyway, in Simeon territory. And so this was given.
- 20:49And for the first time in years, all the families had a place of
- 20:57settleness and security. Oh, this is nice.
- 21:02But they're in the middle of a of a sinful situation.
- 21:08Sin has pleasure for a season. And the reason I call it sin is,
- 21:13you know, the general definition of sin is missing the mark of
- 21:17perfection. And so it, it wasn't like David
- 21:23committed some intense moral sin like he did later on and, and
- 21:29you know, with Bathsheba, but he's, he's shoving away the
- 21:33counsel of God to do his own thing.
- 21:36And everything looks fine for the first time.
- 21:40Everybody's having a good time, and then they need provision.
- 21:46So they go, they decide, they decide.
- 21:49He and his men go and do raids against philistine cities
- 21:54further South. And then they destroy everybody
- 21:58so that no word can get back to the King of Gath because he
- 22:01doesn't want to blow his cover. And so he's continuing his lie.
- 22:09And it just gets more and more complicated.
- 22:15The the third bad choice. David pretended allegiance to
- 22:19the king of Gaza. 4th bad choice.
- 22:22As you read here, he's carrying out these raids and continuing
- 22:26the ruse and making sure nobody could tell the rumor to the king
- 22:30because it was it was Philistine's property and and
- 22:35he's doing this thing here. You think, oh, he's so wise.
- 22:38No, he's really running from the Lord here.
- 22:45How can a man after God's heart make such bad choices?
- 22:49It really is easy because when you begin to let the voices in,
- 22:53your own fears and selfish plans rule your decisions.
- 22:57One thing leads to another, then to another, until you have
- 23:02difficulty remembering the lies you have spun.
- 23:06I've done enough marriage counseling and I've watched it
- 23:11again and again. I mean, I remember one time in
- 23:17Phoenix sitting down with this couple and the guy says, you
- 23:21know, I, I shouldn't have married her in the 1st place,
- 23:24but I found my true soulmate. And so this is the one that I'm
- 23:28sure God wanted me to marry in the 1st place.
- 23:30So, so that's why I'm divorcing my wife.
- 23:36And you're, and you're sitting there and you're thinking,
- 23:41that's about the dumbest thing I ever heard.
- 23:44But you didn't say that. You go, OK, let me get this
- 23:48straight. You think God told you to do
- 23:51this? Oh, I know it.
- 23:55OK, let's let's go back to the word and see what God actually
- 23:59says. And and so you're trying to work
- 24:02this out. You know what it he wouldn't
- 24:05hear it because he was listening to his own voice.
- 24:11It wasn't the Holy Spirit. You can't just tag God's name
- 24:15upon your own little thoughts. What David temporarily forgot
- 24:23was that the Lord was still working behind the scenes to
- 24:26bring about His promises, His purposes, and His plans, even
- 24:32though David's kind of running. And the same is true for us.
- 24:40I ran from the Lord. I didn't want anything to do
- 24:44with Christianity because in my mind it represented this.
- 24:50But the Lord was working behind the scenes.
- 24:55He is the hound of heaven. Now we have a Basset Hound and
- 25:01and so their, their nose and their ears are all about scent.
- 25:07Well, do you know that God is so in love with you?
- 25:15He wants to fulfill his purpose because He knows it's the best
- 25:19thing for you. Even when we disagree, even when
- 25:25we say no, He doesn't stop because He loves us and He wants
- 25:32to draw us to Himself because in Him, his life in him is light
- 25:40and there is no darkness at all in him.
- 25:45But we just think our way is so much better and then we end up
- 25:48in the in trouble. David was only 16 months away
- 25:54from the trial being over, yet he's running into the enemy's
- 25:57camp for comfort and safety. Not only so, but he's bringing
- 26:04his men with him and their families.
- 26:10And then we come to the fifth bad choice, and he decides to
- 26:16join with the Philistine armies to fight against Israel.
- 26:20And he brings all 600 men with him and leaves Ziklag
- 26:24unprotected because he's still trying to produce this cover.
- 26:30Oh, David, your servant. David, your servant.
- 26:37And what comes up when you read it is David, how is living a
- 26:40lie, jeopardizing your men, joining with the enemy ever a
- 26:44good thing? And let's just put it into
- 26:48today, husbands, how is living a lie, jeopardizing your family,
- 26:57joining with the enemy ever a good thing?
- 27:02You're secretly doing things covering it.
- 27:05Don't want your wife to know after all that, you know, we're
- 27:08we're adults and I have a right to have my own choice and all.
- 27:12I mean, I've heard it all. It's a wrong voice and it leads
- 27:19to a bad choice. And I just want to say when you
- 27:23take that route, God and his love will out your sin in the
- 27:29worst possible way. I remember 1 fellow that was
- 27:39start, he has started a relationship from somebody at
- 27:42work and he wasn't telling his wife about it.
- 27:48And so next to the place of work, you know, they went to
- 27:54lunch and they were sitting there and his wife walks by.
- 28:01And so the whole thing came unglued.
- 28:04Did she know? She had no idea?
- 28:09You see, God has ways to say, OK, we're done here.
- 28:14And he outs it because it's like cancer spiritually.
- 28:26Sometimes we're so tired of waiting that we just make our
- 28:30own choices from our own voices. And what's fascinating in
- 28:36chapter 27, we don't see the Lord stopping him.
- 28:41We don't see the Lord going on now, David.
- 28:43No, no, no, no. God just backs off and says, OK,
- 28:47we're going to use this. And the whole thing gets worse
- 28:52and worse and worse. Sometimes God does not stop a
- 28:57bad choice, but in His own wisdom He chooses to use the
- 29:04outcome to be a deeper lesson. It's not that He doesn't love us
- 29:10when He allows this. He loves us to the maximum.
- 29:13But sometimes He allows the deeper work of heart knowledge
- 29:17to have its way in changing the inner man.
- 29:22Because that brokenness, when it all comes tumbling down, when
- 29:26the House of Cards come tumbling down, that brokenness is used by
- 29:30God. And you know what?
- 29:33We've used this illustration before, but God takes the
- 29:41brokenness of our life, all the dark pieces, He doesn't want us
- 29:47to throw them away. He wants us to bring those dark
- 29:50pieces to Him because he is a master artist and he wants to
- 29:57take the dark pieces of our life as well as all the pieces of our
- 30:01life and create a mosaic with them.
- 30:04And you know, the dark pieces provide depth in a mosaic, all
- 30:11those little pieces of tile that are formed for a mosaic.
- 30:16And while he is creating a picture, but we've got to give
- 30:20those pieces to him because sometimes we go, you know, I'm
- 30:25ashamed of that. I I don't want that ever to be
- 30:27known. Wait a minute.
- 30:29Give it to the Lord. Oh, man.
- 30:31Well, he already knows. And he wants to take and redeem
- 30:35your life if you'll give him the broken pieces.
- 30:41Yeah, but why would he want those?
- 30:42Because it provides perspective. It provides depth.
- 30:47When you go to a jeweler and you look at diamonds, they don't put
- 30:51it on a white velvet thing. They put it on a black one
- 30:54because it, it helps highlight what's there.
- 30:59And God uses those broken pieces in our life.
- 31:04And you know the picture he's he's putting together, it's
- 31:08Jesus, not you. It's not about you.
- 31:12It's about Jesus. It's about him at the end of the
- 31:16day, when we stand before the Lord, it's about the Lord, not
- 31:19us. Well, let's, let's turn now to
- 31:23chapter 30 and we'll go to the second part here.
- 31:26The first part was listening to the wrong voices, and the second
- 31:33part now is learning hard lessons through chastening.
- 31:40Chapter 29 and actually 30, I want to go and focus on 30.
- 31:47Chapter 29 is David before the Philistine Kings with his men
- 31:51and they're going what? Get out of here?
- 31:53We don't want this guy. We know his reputation.
- 31:56It'll be a problem. Maybe David even wanted to join
- 31:59the Philistine kings so that in the middle of the battle he
- 32:03could turn and join Israel and crush the Philistines and maybe
- 32:07gain favor back with Israel. That's still a bad idea.
- 32:13But he brought his 600 men and and he left the city
- 32:18unprotected. And I believe it was God that
- 32:26used those Philistine kings to say get out of here because if
- 32:32David and his men had joined that army, they would have lost
- 32:37all their families because they would have been taken way, way,
- 32:40way away. But here's what we read, chapter
- 32:4630, verse one. Now what happened when David and
- 32:51his men came to Ziklag? Because they came back, took a
- 32:55three day journey to come back, That the Amalekites had invaded
- 32:59the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire,
- 33:04and had taken captive the women and those who were there from
- 33:08small to great. They did not kill anyone, but
- 33:11carried them away and went their way.
- 33:14So David and his men came to the city, and there it was burned
- 33:18with fire, and their wives, their sons and their daughters
- 33:23had been taken captive. Then David and the people who
- 33:27were with them lifted up their voices and wept until they had
- 33:31no more power to weep. These are strong warriors,
- 33:35right? And they are absolutely broken.
- 33:40And David's two wives, Ahinawam the Jezreelitis, and Abigail the
- 33:44widow of Nabel the Carmelite, had been taken captive.
- 33:49Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke
- 33:54of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved,
- 34:00every man for his sons and daughters.
- 34:03But David strengthened himself in the Lord in the midst of the
- 34:10grief and the trauma, the anger of his men against him.
- 34:16David also being greatly distressed strengthened himself
- 34:20in the Lord is God because he could just see the chain of bad
- 34:29choices over the past 16 months because that's where we are by
- 34:36now. He doesn't know yet about King
- 34:40Saul end up dying. He will find out in a bit, but
- 34:46all of a sudden the repercussion of all the bad choices just came
- 34:51down upon him. It's his fault.
- 34:55He's the leader, and the 600 men were just ready to kill him.
- 35:04And David was greatly distressed.
- 35:06But it says here that he strengthened himself in the Lord
- 35:13is God. What's that mean?
- 35:19That you strengthen yourself in the Lord your God?
- 35:23When we're brought to the reality of the mess we've made
- 35:26of ourselves, the mess we have made of our families and of our
- 35:30future, this is always the first place to go.
- 35:34Strengthening yourself in the Lord your God.
- 35:39You go, well, why would God want me?
- 35:41Look at the mess I've made. I didn't obey Him.
- 35:43I caused all this. Well, the Lord knew and He wants
- 35:49to meet you. In that place of brokenness, we
- 35:53humble ourselves before God. That's what David did.
- 35:57We own our foolish decisions and their ramifications upon others.
- 36:02We ask God's forgiveness and then be willing to do whatever
- 36:07He commands us to do, step by step.
- 36:16Maybe I'm talking about you and what's happened in your life or
- 36:20those of you that are watching online or those of you that are
- 36:23listening on Grace FM. We're talking about David here,
- 36:28but really we're talking about what's happened with you.
- 36:32What do you do? Where do you go?
- 36:35What's the next steps? Strengthening yourself in the
- 36:40Lord your God, not based upon your strength, but upon his
- 36:44promises and and how he has revealed his truth to you and
- 36:50you've pushed it away and now it's like, OK, I surrender, I
- 36:57own it. But I love verse 7 in chapter
- 37:0430. Then David said to Abiathar, the
- 37:09priest Ahim elect's son, please bring the ephod here to me.
- 37:16Now the ephod was that special garment of the high priest that
- 37:19contained the 2 stones called the the oram and the thummim.
- 37:24And these two stones were, were in that breastplate and they
- 37:29were they were helping to discern the will of God and the
- 37:32choice and Dave. And for us it would be like
- 37:37going to the word of God. OK, Lord, what would you have me
- 37:44to do? Look closely at what David said
- 37:46here in verse 8. David inquired of the Lord
- 37:51saying, shall I pursue this troop?
- 37:55Well, look, I mean, you think well, of course, no.
- 37:59He was so broken. He just said I take my hands off
- 38:04of it. If they're gone, they're gone.
- 38:11What do you want me to do, Lord? Shall I even pursue this troop?
- 38:18And shall I and shall I, will I overtake them?
- 38:23And he had come to the place of release, all of the difficulties
- 38:29going back, which he should have done back in, in chapter 27, but
- 38:32he didn't. But he's broken.
- 38:37And this is a restoration by God's grace.
- 38:42Are we willing to get to that point in our lives, to be
- 38:46willing to let go of everything when it comes to things crashing
- 38:50down because of our foolish choices?
- 38:52And that's the place of fresh beginnings in Jesus.
- 38:57He's looking to meet us in that place of brokenness.
- 39:03But we have to stop fighting it. We have to go back and say, OK,
- 39:09God, I will only do what your word counsels me to do.
- 39:16And I just want to tell you, the word counsels you to love your
- 39:19enemies, do good to those who do evil to you, pray for those who
- 39:26despitefully use you and persecute you because that's
- 39:30what the Father has done with you.
- 39:33He blessed you when you cursed Him, He did good to you when you
- 39:39were doing evil to him and his people.
- 39:46So are you willing to to do that?
- 39:50What's that look like? It's interesting that it was the
- 39:56Amalekites that captured the city, burned it with fire, and
- 40:03took everyone captive. Because in the scripture the
- 40:06Amalekites are always a type of the flesh.
- 40:12As it wasn't any other group, it was the Amalekites.
- 40:22And so here we see. Go over to verse 11.
- 40:28Now they're chasing and we'll close with this.
- 40:31Then they found an Egyptian in the field and they brought him
- 40:34to David and they gave him bread and he ate and they and they let
- 40:39him drink water and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs
- 40:43and two clusters of raisins. Sounds like granola.
- 40:49I don't know. But so when he had eaten, his
- 40:51strength came back to him, for he had eaten no bread nor drunk
- 40:55water for three days and three nights.
- 40:59How long did it take David and his men to go to go from Gaza
- 41:04back to Ziklag? 3 days.
- 41:08Then David said to him, To whom do you belong and where are you
- 41:11from? And he said, I am a young man
- 41:13from Egypt, a servant of an Amalekite, and my master left me
- 41:17behind because three days ago I fell sick.
- 41:21We made an invasion of the southern area of the Kerathites,
- 41:24in the territory which belongs to Judah, and of the southern
- 41:27area of Caleb, and we burn Ziklak with fire.
- 41:33So it was through this, as you continue reading on your own,
- 41:36that David did indeed find them. The families were safe.
- 41:43They conquered all the families and all the spoil and brought
- 41:46everything back. But Ziklag was toast.
- 41:51It was burnt to the ground and they came back saving with their
- 42:00lives, but they lost everything. Everything that was part of
- 42:04their families, everything that they had cherished, everything
- 42:07they had brought with them gone. Laying down everything before
- 42:13the Lord and taking your hands off of it is always the pattern
- 42:16to follow when a major life change comes upon you.
- 42:22So what's the next most important thing?
- 42:26You go back to His Word and you say, what's my next step?
- 42:33I'll do whatever you want. Lord, what's my next step?
- 42:40Now some of you here tonight may have not actually turned your
- 42:45life over to Christ and you have not put trust in Christ for your
- 42:48salvation. You've been doing it on your own
- 42:52and your life is collapsing like a House of Cards.
- 42:56Well, your first step is to go to the Word of God and say, What
- 43:03would you have me to do? And the very first step that
- 43:09Jesus would say is, for God so loved the world that he gave his
- 43:15only begotten Son, that whoever would believe on him should not
- 43:20perish, but have everlasting life.
- 43:23For God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world,
- 43:27but but that the world through him might be saved.
- 43:32And so your first step is to repent of your sin, own it and
- 43:42come to God and ask for his mercy and forgiveness.
- 43:45That's the very first step because you're not going to hear
- 43:48the rest of it until you take that step because that's that's
- 43:52the door, that's the entryway. So as we close in prayer, I want
- 43:58to give you that are that it may be here and you haven't really
- 44:02taken that step before. Those of you online or what are
- 44:05listening on Grace FM. If this is you, then tonight's
- 44:11the time to take that step because God really wants to
- 44:14enter your brokenness and and pull you through it step by
- 44:18step. But you have to come through the
- 44:21door and that door is repentance and humbling yourself, just like
- 44:27David did here, getting back to the word.
- 44:31So let's close with the word of prayer and let's let's see what
- 44:35God might do tonight. All right, our Father in heaven,
- 44:39we thank you for this reminder as we look at David's life and
- 44:45the waywardness of the 16 months, and yet how you
- 44:49carefully brought him back to the place of brokenness so that
- 44:56you could restore his life, so that you could get him prepared
- 45:01for what lies ahead. And Father, as we consider these
- 45:06things, we know that there may be some, a few that have not yet
- 45:11put their trust in your Son Jesus.
- 45:17And so as the rest of us continue to pray, if this is you
- 45:20tonight, God is speaking to your heart because you're, you're
- 45:25here. Not by a random decision here.
- 45:27It's the Lord knew you'd be here and I'd be here and this text
- 45:32would be presented. And so we're asking that if this
- 45:39is you, I want to encourage you to take that step.
- 45:45And by taking that step, you're asking God to come into the
- 45:49middle of the mess, the brokenness, the pieces, and
- 45:53start building His mosaic in your life.
- 46:01If this is you tonight and you want to surrender your life to
- 46:04Christ, I want to ask you just to stand where you are so we can
- 46:10pray for you. I'll lead you in a prayer to
- 46:13give your life to the Lord. Are there any of you here
- 46:16tonight? What we've been talking about
- 46:19really has applied to you. It's what's going on in your
- 46:23life and it's time to get your life right with God.
- 46:29Are there any here? Just for a quick moment?
- 46:39OK, it's a couple back over here.
- 46:42Anyone else over here, some pastors and prayer partners will
- 46:51be coming alongside you. That's that's all right.
- 46:53That's how we want to encourage and help you one last time.
- 46:58Any others congregation join with me as we pray for them.
- 47:11For those of you that have stood, I'd like you to follow me
- 47:15in this prayer and just repeat it phrase by phrase to God.
- 47:19Mean it in your heart and say to him, God, I come to you tonight
- 47:27and I ask you to forgive me of all my sin.
- 47:35I repent and I ask you to help me, wash me clean from all the
- 47:45junk that's happened. Come into the midst of my
- 47:53circumstances and begin to lead me through.
- 48:00Fill me with Your Holy Spirit right now.
- 48:06Make yourself real to me. For those of you that have
- 48:17stood, that prayer is a prayer that the Lord has heard because
- 48:23He's watched you all the way up to tonight.
- 48:30God loves you. If you've prayed, that prayer
- 48:36meant it in your heart. You're now part of God's family.
- 48:42And for the rest of us here, God help us not to hear the wrong
- 48:48voices, but to take our time and to listen to you and not let our
- 48:53lives be led by fear, but by trust and faith in Jesus name,
- 49:00Amen. We pray that you've been
- 49:03encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
- 49:05sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer.
- 49:08Call us at 87730 Grace that's 877-304-7223 to listen to this
- 49:18message in its integrity or to join us for our live stream
- 49:21services. Visit us online at Calvary Co
- 49:25dot church Oregon. Download our free Calvary Church
- 49:28app. Be blessed as you worship Jesus
- 49:30this week.