you turning your Bibles back
to 1st Samuel chapter 30 and you can follow me in your pastor's
commentary as well. For those of you who have been
with us for some time you understand that we are in a long journey
through the life of David and we are acknowledging that we
are dealing with a historical narrative that really requires
you keeping up with every episode to learn the lessons. If you
are new with us and you really want to get a handle on what
we're talking about, please retrieve from our audio department the
series on David. Otherwise, today you will just
have to bear with being in scene eight or nine and do the best
you can to keep up with most of us. The 30th chapter of 1
Samuel is really another parenthetical in God's own purpose and design,
or the author writing the story of David has given us a reprieve
again from King Saul, whom we have learned last week has actually
orchestrated his own doom. His doom will be described fully
in chapter 31. But what God wants you to know
is that while we are given insight into the wiles of the devil and
that while we are often instructed in the melee and the demise and
even the downfall of the ungodly and the wicked, as the proverb
says, the wise or the righteous wisely considers the house of
the wicked. We do. But largely, your job
and mine is to keep our eyes on Christ. Now, you do need to
know what's going on in your environment. You do need to know
what's happening in your world. You do need to know how to be
invested in the territory that God has placed you in so that
you can be a productive citizen in the kingdom. You do need to
know what's going on over there, but not as much as you need to
know what's going on in your own house. These will be the
lessons that we will learn today as we have already acknowledged
that largely the narrative of David as he's making his way
to the throne is a context of warfare. And I want to remind
you that what we're dealing with is warfare theology. And if you
don't understand that, you cannot understand the ways of God in
delivering his people out of trouble and teaching us how this
points to the larger redemptive work God in Christ. So as we
prepare to enter into the 30th chapter, let me remind you of
some things. God has providentially moved
David into the enemy's camp called the Philistines. He has providentially
allowed David to live there secretly for a season, leaving the Philistines
under the assumption that David is a traitor to the kingdom of
God. But you and I know better than
that, don't we? That assumption is based upon the fact that the
ungodly, such as the Philistines, can never ever comprehend the
mysteries of the kingdom of God. We extracted an application of
that last week when we said the non-believer can never ever discern
the true believer's motive. And when you understand that,
wherever you are working, or living, or existing, you have
to be careful about your conduct around the unbeliever, because
they will misunderstand you naturally, because they don't have access
to the same relationship with God that you do. Now sometimes
that can be good, and sometimes that can be bad. You can play
that to your advantage, because as a child of God, you shouldn't
be telling anybody everything about you anyway. Let them remain somewhat disturbed
or challenged or aloof at the fact that you are a conundrum
to them. That's to your benefit. The Lord
Jesus knew that he had come to his own and his own received
him not. They didn't understand him. They didn't comprehend him. And so they called him all sorts
of names that did not fit the label. But he was really about
his father's business, was he not? And child of God, when you
are really about your father's business, you won't quickly lose
your lane, your place. When you are about your father's
business, you can allow all the carping assessments and wrong
analysis about you to take place because you know who you are
and you know your assignment. And if people don't want to actually
take the time to get to really know you, you're fine with that. As long as your God knows you
and you know your God and you know that you're in your lane,
everything's all right. But now I got to deal with some
difficult stuff today around warfare theology. Can I do that?
Right. So David is in the land of the
Philistines and the Philistines have now prepared to actually
take on destroying Israel. And that's because God has decreed
the Philistines to kill the bogus king of Israel, Saul, because
Saul was a traitor to the kingdom at the beginning. What do you
do when you find yourself in a very challenging situation
where if you follow the consensus, it can hurt your ultimate cause?
But if you don't follow the consensus, you may betray the fact that
you are basically a double agent in their camp. Now, if you can't
take this and make a practical application, I will. Sometimes
you're working on a job site with a group of people, and you
know they're just as Philistine as all get up. And if you had
your way, you would plop down the rules of the kingdom of God
right in that place and tell everybody, if we do it Jesus
way, it'll all work out. But you know it don't go like
that sometimes. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So you gotta wait for the right time to expose the
fact that you have pledged allegiance to Jesus Christ as Lord and God. Timing is everything. That means
sometimes you are in situations where a choice that is to be
made will expose you and there is serious liabilities ahead.
What do you do when you're in that situation? You pray! That's why in the 30th chapter,
I love it, The one thing you see David doing, which he didn't
do in chapter 25, is pray. He got back to prayer, didn't
he? Because your life and mine will be messed up when we think
we can do life without God. And when you and I think that
we can do life daily by telling God, you know, I got this for
a week or a month or a year, you can chill, God. Your life
is going to be really messed up. David is back praying again,
isn't he? And all of our success comes
when we take each step with the Lord by calling on his name.
and acutely making decisions based upon his permission. But
David is in a situation where God has to come through providentially
and open the door for David's escape. And we see this in chapter
29, verses 4 through 7. Something happens remarkable
in chapter 29. As the Philistines are preparing
to go to battle against Israel, the rulers of the Philistines
all of a sudden start having some real problems with David.
And we read over in verse four, and the princes of the Philistines
were angry with him. And the princes of the Philistines
said unto the king, make this fellow to go home. He's talking
about David. That he may go again to his own place, which you have
appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest
in the battle he be an adversary to us. For wherewith should he
reconcile himself unto his master, that is Saul, should it not be
with the heads of these men, that is us, You see what they're
saying to the king? King, do you understand that
if you take David down to this battle with his boys, as bad
as they are, and they end up jumping on the side with King
Saul, we gonna all be wiped out? So you see what's going on in
the Senate, in the Congress of these people. There's a division
because the king of the Philistines loves David. He loves him some
David, but the others are starting now to pick up on David's dubious
ways for God's own purpose. And we're told in verse five,
is not this David of whom they sang one to another and see he's
still on the billboard charts. Saying Saul slew his thousands
and David is king. We still hearing this every morning
and every evening, which means there is a raising of their consciousness
of the fact that King David actually took out their main dog, their
head dog. Now Achish, the king of the Philistines,
Achish, he does not remember any of this. For whatever reasons
God has allowed, David has obtained favor with him. And as the Proverbs
says, when a man's ways please the Lord, he'll make even his
enemies to be what? At peace with him. And so we
see David now in a very precarious situation where only God can
deliver him. What will God do? God will see
to it that these rulers get their way, send David down the road
so that their battle with Israel won't be David's battle with
Israel. Because remember, child of God, when you and I are fighting
the battles of the Lord, our battle is not with the saints.
It's with the enemy of the saints. Always remember that. Always
remember that so David must be delivered. So he's gonna actually
go in the opposite direction of the Philistines while the
Philistines head towards Israel and that's chapter 31 where King
Saul will die according to the prophecy of the demonic delusion
that he was under when he met the false Samuel at the at the
hand of the witch of Endor that chapter comes up next and The
narrator wants us to meditate upon now the fact that David,
in a context of war, is going to return back home, Ziklag,
the borders of Judah, and learn some things that's going to teach
you and me some lessons about the nature of the kingdom of
God. I don't know if you know yet that when God saved you and
God called you and God brought you into his kingdom, he didn't
bring you into a state a situation where everything is peace, peace.
When you opened your eyes in the kingdom of God, what you
discovered is that God had called you to a warfare. He called you
to a battle. And in fact, we're fighting battles
every day, are we not? And this narrative runs all the
way through the scriptures ever since the fall of Adam and Eve.
Is that not true? You and I have been called into
the kingdom of God, and we're called to wage a warfare against
the evil one and those that oppose the kingdom of God. We are called
to fight the good fight of what? In order that we might lay hold
on to what? Eternal life. Now, I'm going to show you acutely
today that that fight very frequently comes close to home. See, you
and I don't mind talking battles and warfare as long as it's 10,000
miles over on the other side in the Middle East. But when
the battle and the warfare is right here in Oakland, in Hayward,
in San Leandro, Alameda, Union City, Castro Valley, in your
house, then it gets serious. Now you're going to find out
whether or not your planned church are walking with the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords. Well, what David is about to
teach us is just that. David has been fighting the battles
of the Lord, even among the Philistines. Sister Abigail taught us that.
We're gonna learn that more deeply when we deal with her. But now
David is coming back home, and he's coming back home to a mess.
Because while he was out fighting battles over here, the enemy
actually came in and took everything that David had over there. That hurts. That hurts when you
are doing the will of God, one sphere in one area of your life
in one place where you have been called to focus and apply all
your energies and you're doing the will of God and you know
God is with you this is not about God not being with you this is
about you knowing God is with you and then you turn around
and the adversary has taken all that's precious to you this is
a real test is it not This is a real test and the lessons are
very germane today. So don't think that this is simply
an academic message that doesn't have real serious implications
in your life. If you've been a child of God
any time, you know that there are areas in your life where
the enemy has broken in and taken that which should be devoted
to the glory of God. And it hurts. It hurts. Can I get a witness? It's just
true. How does that play out in the
larger scheme of redemption for the people of God? David will
make this work for us. So by way of application, more
to our present point, it's extremely painful when you and I are trying
to do the will of God and we face what is called unintended
consequences. Because when unintended consequences
occur that you didn't anticipate, you look at it and you go, how
did that happen? Why did that happen? What did
I do wrong? And how can I fix it? And in
some cases, you don't have the answer to it. This is where David
is right now. I mean, get it now. You're pouring
your heart into a particular direction and you look behind
you and everything that you cared about has been now taken captive. and moved out of your sphere
of influence. That hurts. That's where our
brother David is, is he not? Our brother is hurting and we've
got to learn some lessons. You and I ultimately know that
what we are dealing with is the gospel. Is that not true? We're
dealing with how God has actually worked within the framework of
human history to reveal to us his redemptive purposes in Christ. And David being a great type
of Christ served for us as a model of the challenges of leadership. You're gonna see the parallels
here in a moment between David and Christ, but I wanna make
sure you also see the parallels between Christ and the believer.
The parallels between you and David. Because each one of us
in our own sphere have responsibilities, don't we? We have things with
which we have influence and we are accountable for. And when
those things that we have influence over and accountability towards
are threatened, then you and I have to now reassess ourselves
and determine how are we going to actually solve this problem?
Because I'm accountable to God for a whole lot of things and
you are too. And God holds us accountable. And David now is
going to deal with the tension, the tension, the conflict of
doing the will of God over here and now being stuck in a situation
where human Elements start emerging human factors emerge to teach
us something about how you got to trust God no matter what Point
number one then the cost of leadership among men the cost of leadership
As you guys have been learning, David has been developing his
administration. He's been growing his government. God has been bringing people
to David in the midst of his exile, right? David has over
600 men now. He has a captain. He has a senate.
He has an office. But now he's also watching over
husbands and wives and children. He has a bunch of people in his
flock that he has to care about. Is that so? And I'll tell you
what I was amazed at. I loved this when our elder was
reading and we saw over in chapter 30 where in verse 2, they had
taken the women captive. And they had taken the women
captive, watch this, that were therein, and they slew not any,
either great or small, and carried them away and went on their way. You know what I said to myself?
The Lord is merciful. I said, what God did was allow
a captivity to take place on the part of the people of God,
but protect it in such a way that his mercy had them insulated
in the midst of the captivity. And God does that because he
teaches us all certain lessons about the nature of the gospel.
On certain aspects, you will be the subject or the object
taken. you will have to learn what it
means to be brought into captivity, yet kept by God. And those who
are responsible over you will have to learn what it means to
be a failing shepherd or watchman or watch woman, mothers, fathers,
sisters, what have you, and then how to seek God for recovery. Because that's the doctrine we
are dealing with today. The doctrine of restitution and
restoration. Is that not a gospel tenet? Does
God recover? Does God restore? Does God take
back? Does God bring back? Does God
go get that which is His and bring it home? Every hook, every
part, the total whole. Yes, He does. But you and I might
be inclined to ask the question, why does He let it get taken
in the first place? To teach us the intricate nature
of what redemption really is. It is not a cakewalk. You can
talk all you want to, but you're in a hell of a fight. And you better put on the whole
armor of God that you might be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil and doing all to stand, because you're going to
need it like every one of God's children will need it. Point
number one then, the consequences of the cost of leadership among
men. This will resonate with you. Verse 6.a and b says this. Now David was greatly distressed
for the people spake of stoning him. I would be too. Do you see it? Now David was
greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him because
the souls of all the people were what? And every man for his sons
and for his daughters, I don't blame them. We're not religionist. We're not pseudo Christians.
We don't talk a good talk. We're authentic. When you're
born again, you're more human than you ever could have been.
unless you're playing games with God. You do meet sociopathic
and psychopathic Christians who basically are insulated from
everything and don't even show even just a scintilla of sympathy
for the plight of humanity. But when you're really born again,
you learn how to hurt. You learn how to feel. You learn
how to care. And when you're really a child
of God, you cry more than you ever did in your life. when you're really a child of
God. One of the beautiful things about redemption is that when
God saves us, we get to cry, Abba Father. And we cry that
a whole lot over our Christian journey. Can I get a witness? Right, because when you're born
of God and God has shown you his glory and the splendors of
perfection, and we see how far we are from it, we cry. And then when we see how the
enemy makes advancement because of our own negligences, we cry. Do we not? If you're truly a
child of God, now if you're just a religious person, you can find
a Bible verse to justify everything that's going on and you'll continue
your own merry way. But when you really know the
God of the Bible and you understand that he's working all things
after the counsel of his own will, and he's actually bringing
you into conformity to Christ, you'll cry. Like all of the saints
of old cried, like the prophets cried, like our master cried. Are you hearing me? When you
see things not as they ought to be. In verse six, Mark three
or four notable statements, David was greatly distressed. How come? He cared. For the people spake
of stoning him. He's worried about his life.
That makes good sense. Now, see, again, as we're dealing,
as we're trying to manage the spiritual and the emotional and
psychological factors that go into relationships, watch this.
Sometimes God will have the very people that you love be on your
case so bad that it drives you to distress, rightly so, because
otherwise you won't call on God sincerely. Did you hear that? Now don't, ladies and gentlemen,
don't take stoning literally, please don't. But when we use
the term stoning as a metaphor, we're talking about getting in
somebody's case so bad that we want to kill that in them, which
is brought about this problem. There's no doubt that David's
men love him, but right now they are grieving And when you are
grieving, it is a mix of mourning and anger at the same time. When you are grieving, it's a
mixture of mourning for that which is lost, and anger at the
same time, and you want vengeance. And see, now his men are struggling
because they don't understand providence. See Providence has
brought them to this place and Providence guided them through
all of the different channels and experiences that they've
gone through up to this point and they were all cool with it
till now. Now all of a sudden they're acting
like everything David did was wrong. The cost of leadership
when you have really one bad day. You see that? The cost of
leadership when you have really one bad day. They want to stone
David. Do you see how close these people
are of changing camps and going on to the enemy side? Hold on,
saints. It can happen to you and it can
happen to me apart from the grace of God. It can happen to you
when you're blinded to the will of God, the sovereignty of God,
the secret hand of God. When you think you know, but
you really don't know, and you're taking into your own hands how
things ought to work out, now you're not praying, you're fighting. Remember what we learned? If
you're not praying, you're what? Fighting. And these men want
to kill David. But this is where we extract
some principles. The first principle is this. The praise goes to you
when all is well. That's right. The proverb puts
it like this. Verily, men will speak well of
you when you do good for yourself. That's exactly right. And they're
supposed to. And we have several imperatives
in the scripture, children of God, whereby you and I are to
praise men when they do good. Give praise unto him to whom
it is due. Don't be so self-righteous that
you feel as if, well, if I praise them, it's going to cause them
to stumble. No, God says acknowledge when men do good. This is one
of the areas where hyper-religion will cause your children not
to like you. When they do good and you don't acknowledge that
they've done good. Because you're trying to keep them holy. Well,
you're going to have to mix some of that holiness with happiness,
okay? You mix holy and happy by giving the kids an acknowledgement
when they got to be... I told our guys in our men meeting
last night, because I had to grade one of our preachers, right?
Because I'm teaching them how to preach. I gave him a B. I
said, boy, when I was in school, I was happy with a B. I was happy. I was glad to get all Bs. I was
on a good roll with Bs. Now, I know you sisters are used
to As. My daughter's talking 4.3 and
4.5 and 4.7. I thought the top was 4.0. They're
at 4.7 and 4.8 now. Like, I got a 4.0 last semester. I sweated to get a 4.0 for about
a minute. point being. And don't forget
this. I want us to get this. I want
the character of Christ to permeate our life so that we're not simply
talkers but doers of the word. Are you with me? When the word
of God says praise people, acknowledge what they've done, it's because
you know that God gave them the grace to do it. And you're simply
taking an opportunity to honor God in their hearing for God
giving them the grace to make that achievement. Did you hear
what I just said? And if anybody on planet earth
doesn't do it, the Christians should do it because you and
I are objects of grace every day. And all the good that we
ever do is a consequence of God's goodness in our life. So yeah,
men will praise you and they should. I want you to see a Proverbs,
Proverbs chapter three, verse 27 is the first one. And then
Proverbs chapter 27, verse two. And then we'll move to our second
sub point and Proverbs 20. Proverbs 3, verse 27, the preacher
makes that very plain as how we ought to acknowledge them
that do will. Proverbs 3, verse 27. Listen to it. Here it is. Withhold
not good from them to whom it is what? Do you guys see that?
Withhold not good to Him for whom it is due when it is in
your power to what? Become good at letting people
know when they've done the right thing. Proverbs chapter 27 verse
2. Proverbs 27 verse 2. One more
and then we'll go on to our second sub point. I want you to get
this. Make this an ethic in your life. Don't think that you are
doing people a favor when it is appropriate to say something
about what they've done and you don't. It would be indicative
of both self-righteousness and a sense of low self-esteem. If
you and I don't have the ability to tell other people that they've
done right, it probably is indicative that you got a problem with yourself.
Did you get that? It's important for you to get
it. Notice now what Proverbs 27 verse 2 says, let another
man what? And not thy own mouth. In other words, don't twist it.
Don't go, well, because I give people lots of praise, I'm going
to praise myself. No, don't do that. Don't do that. You got people that are so hungry
for praise that if others don't praise them, they'll praise themselves.
No, don't do that. So under our first sub-point,
the praise goes to you when all is well. Sub-point B, but there
is a need to limit your value of it. Is that true? There's
a need for you to limit your value of people praising. Be
careful. Serve God in such a way that
people acknowledge that you are a blessing in their life. I hear
it all the time, and I'm thankful for it. Pastor, you are such
a blessing. You are such a blessing. You
are such a blessing. And I'm thankful to hear that, because,
I mean, you know, I can hear, Pastor, you're a mess. You're
a mess. You're a mess. And then I got to deal with that,
right? I got to deal with that. So when people tell you you are
a blessing to them, take it for what it's worth, but don't go
build an idol out of it. Don't set it in your living room
as the centerpiece of your life. So everybody walking through
the door can see that someone said that you are a real blessing.
Don't do that. And here's the scripture to support
having a healthy balance around people praising you. Our Lord
said in John's gospel, chapter two, verse 24, when all sorts
of people started believing on him, he says they believed on
him, but he didn't commit himself to them. Isn't that good? I'm going to show you why in
a minute though. That's John 2, 24. But Jesus didn't commit
himself to them because he knew all men. Here's what we know
about all men. Now, what do we mean by all men
in this context? Simply, all men. Not just the
unsaved. Saved too. Are you ready? All
men are fickle. All women are fickle. All people
are fickle. They're like those weather bells. They blow in the wind. You remember
the rooster? He blows in the wind. So whatever
way the wind is blowing, that's how people will treat you. Just
get used to it. They're praising Jesus now. They're
going to stone him and kill him in a minute. Is that right? So
understand how to keep it objective. It's very important to do that.
Even your own family will dog you out when they fail to understand
what it means to be rooted in Christ and to keep the big picture.
But that's OK. They're just human. you yourself
will do the same thing. It's very important to know that.
So David has a struggle with this, and this is why we're laying
these principles down before we move into the real root of
the matter. Another way to maintain a proper
value of people's praise towards you is Romans 12.3. Here's another
wonderful proverb in Romans 12.3 that's critical to our handling
praise. Paul said, make sure that your
estimation of yourself is biblical. Make sure that your estimation
of yourself is biblical. For I say through the grace given
unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think, but to think what? according
as God had dealt to every man, the measure of faith. And what
that means is, child of God, when people tell you that you
are all that in a slice of bread, that the world can't get along
without you, we are so thankful that you're here. Don't leave,
because if you leave, then we're gonna be in a mess. Delete all
that. Because the reality is, it's
not true. You and I are always replaceable. Proverbs chapter 27 is another
one, verse 21, that I want to close with on this point before
I move forward. As the finding pot for silver
and as the furnace is for gold, you see the metaphor, see the
analogy? You take silver and put it in a finding pot and what's
going to happen? It's going to be tried. You take gold and put
it in a furnace and what's going to happen? It's going to be tried.
When you receive praise, you're going to be tried. Pride is going
to want to creep in and cause you to react the wrong way to
your own hurt. So child of God, know yourself. Know that if you secretly spend
time in the mirror, going mirror, mirror on the wall. If you secretly do that, if you
secretly do that, Understand when another person comes along
and talk about how nice your hair is and how good you look.
And child, you don't look a day over 30. Please understand that's
going to be a trial for you. Are you following the logic?
Are you following the logic? It's very important. Go back
to our text. Because what I'm doing by sharing
these principles with you is making it practically applicable,
even though we're dealing with a very, very challenging text.
The king has to work through all this himself. He has to work
through this. And might I again say, our Lord
had to work through it too. He had people praising him. He
had people damning him. That's the cost of leadership
among men. Subpoint three, remember your
calling and purpose and what? Remember your calling, remember
your purpose, and remember your God. David, you are not in control
here. David, you never really were.
David, God was the one that called you from the sheepfold. David,
God was the one that anointed you and told you you would be
king. David, God is the one that's holding you by your hand and
leading you through all of this stuff right now. David, God has
never once lied to you or forsaken you. David, understand that where
you are right now is in the middle of God's will. And this is a
key point when you're going through a trial that you don't understand.
To be in the middle of God's will is not the same as being
at the end of God's will. To be in the middle of God's
will is not the same as being in the end of God's will. In
other words, you don't know how this thing gonna turn out. So
don't jump on it as if you see the end. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? When you are in the middle of
your trial, stay in the middle, understanding this. He who hath
begun a good work in me shall perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. Better is the end of a thing
than the beginning thereof. Aren't those the lessons we learn
in our Bible? But see, sometimes when you're in the middle of
your trial, you become myopic and you're struggling with what
was said versus what you see. You're struggling with what was
told you and what's troubling you presently. You're not able
to reconcile that your troubles are actually designed by God
to reinforce your commitment to what he said. Boom! It's hard to believe when you
see the effects of choices that you made in this immediate and
temporal situation, choices that appear to actually be contradictory
to what God has stated. It's hard to believe God when
your hand has actually played a part in messing up something. Now watch this. You're getting
ready to challenge the immutability, the unchangeableness, the perfections,
the omnipotence of God's decree in your life by your circumstances. You're getting ready to make
your circumstances more sovereign than God. You're getting ready
to make your circumstances God and God the subject of your circumstances. You didn't turn this thing upside
down. Did y'all get that? You have now taken your circumstances
and attached to it all of the attributes and predicates of
deity. That was good. I'm teaching you
right now. You're not getting this. You might as well bow down
to your circumstance and worship it as God. Because you're saying
that God is not big enough to have either seen it, determined
it, purposed it, brought it to pass in order to bring it through. I'm telling the truth, even if
you don't like it. I'm telling the truth, even if you don't
like it. See, this is about God strengthening our faith and teaching
us how to think like God thinks. Sometimes when you're stuck in
a moment, stay in the moment. Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I'm God.
And this is what David is dealing with. And yes, when you are in
a situation where it appears that your hand has done it, accept
the guilt. This is what I'm talking... I
shouldn't say this. Somebody says, say it. I shouldn't
say this. I shouldn't say it. So I'm going to have to get on my knees
and pray after this because it happens. Christians are borderline crazy. I'm saying it as nice as I can
say it. I'm saying it as nice as I can
say it. Stay with me for a moment. And
I know what the problem is. We've left the Bible. And because
we've left the Bible, we haven't really experienced the transformation
of our mind like we ought to. And when you are untethered from
the text, you can't think like the text, which came from God
so that you can learn how to think like God. And when you
and I are untethered from the text, we are technically crazy
because our thoughts now are not grounded in truth. We are
all over the map. Am I making some sense? I'm talking
about Christians all over the map. And as a consequence, we
don't know how to submit to a God whose ways are not our ways and
thoughts are not our thoughts and wait on Him to bring us back
to the point of the reality for that for which He called us.
So now let me say this again. Accept the guilt of your own
hand having played a role in messing up stuff. You know why
you can do it? Because there is no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. When you are in Christ, condemnation
has room for guilt without damnation. See, guilt simply means we're
being honest about what we messed up and we're holding ourselves
accountable for what we messed up. Guilt is a good thing. Sister Abigail felt guilty for
what was happening to her family and she did something about it.
When a man or woman is not willing to own guilt, they won't move
appropriately to solve the problem. Guilt does not mean condemnation. Am I making some sense? Yes,
sir. And God can overcome the guilt
by the blood of the lamb and the righteousness of Christ and
move me forward once I do the right thing. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And it's very important
to know that. Otherwise, we will never repair anything. If we're
always running from our guilt, we'll never ever fix the mistakes
we make. This is what I mean by this jacked
up Christian age, particularly for people who are not being
responsible for their relationships. If you don't hold guilt, David
could have just walked away from that and let the boys do whatever
they wanted to do. It could have went from bad to
worse if he didn't own his responsibility. We're learning that about relationships,
aren't we? Relationship is accountability at the point of the nature of
the relationship. That person is accountable to me and vice
versa. And we have to now operate according to the nature of that
relationship. Whatever covenant relationship that is, that's
how we operate in order to sustain the relationship. So if I messed
up, I got to come back and make it good. Is that true? I got
to come back and make it good. All David is dealing with is
the guilt of a choice that he made that's bigger than him.
And he's got to work it through. Are you hearing me? And he going
to work it through. Which brings us to our second
point. This is glorious. This is glorious. Now, David
is struggling through his guilt, his high sense of accountability,
and we discover in chapter 30, verse 6, part C, what he does. Now, let's learn some things
about how David is working through. He was greatly what? Distressed. Now, the word in the Hebrew means
to be shut up, confined in a place where you can't move to the left
or the right. That's what the word means. When a person is
distressed mentally, they can't think outside of the box. When
you are distressed at this level, you don't have the freedom and
periphery of thought to work through your issues real well.
Anybody know what I'm talking about? When the situation is
so urgent on you that you can't think your way through, now you
are stressing. Stressing. I know my sisters
understand this. Right? Stressing. That means
you don't have a way out in your own mind. Now, when you do that,
David is going to teach us a lesson here, how to deal with when you
are shut up, constrained, locked in, don't have solutions in yourself. This also gives us an insight
to human nature. The first impulse is to try to
work it out ourselves. That's why he was distressed.
But he was also distressed because the first law of nature is self-preservation. He was distressed because they
were about to kill him. But that was to press him through self-preservation
into calling upon the Lord. It was to press him through,
because see, what we will do is we will justify ourselves
first. Because, you know, we're not used to dying. Although you've
been made to die, did you know that? As a Christian, you've
been made to die. I've been crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faithfulness of the Son of God who loved me. Am I telling
the truth? So you and I are supposed to be ready to die. That means
we are capable, by the grace of God, of acknowledging when
we're wrong, get stoned, rise again from the dead, keep rolling. That's good. That's good. In
a grace camp, that's how you do it. You kill the sin, but
because you're a child of God and you've been risen with Christ,
you're seated in heavenly places in Him, you can rise from that
thing and keep going. Is that true? Right. And this
is how you truly put stuff away. It's called a Bible-based, cross-centered,
Spirit-aided relationship. Acknowledge the truth, kill it
at Calvary, keep rolling. Now, this is what David is about
to do. He's about to kill it and keep rolling. Second point,
under our second point, we've been led back to take back that
which is lost. What a resolve. We've been led
back to take back that which is lost. Preacher, what in the
world are you talking about? I'm talking about discovering
that when you are in the middle of a situation for which God
has saved you by his grace, you come to discover that salvation
didn't start with you. That you are part of a spectrum
of redemptive purposes and designs that started long ago. God just
picked you up along the journey and placed you in the midst of
his redemptive scheme. And you and I got to discover
where we are on the spectrum. Are you hearing what I just said?
Follow this now. The big picture allows me to
get out of myself and understand what God is up to. Like, my family
is a wonderful family. I love my wife and my kids and
everything that came out of it, but we're not the first family
on planet Earth. Yours either. I love our church. Grace is a wonderful church.
We're not the first church Christ started. We are on a spectrum
for the last 2,000 years and it behooves us to understand
what God has done from the days of Christ to now to show us the
larger picture of where we are and what our roles are at this
time so we can leave a legacy for the next generation. The
first thing you must discover is God actually called you back
first. So David is tripping. Because
David then lost his wives and his children and his family right
along with his partners. But that's in order to teach
David, that is God, how God feels when the whole of Israel, his
wife, leaves him and enters into captivity by the enemy because
of their rebellion against him. You got that? Leadership, when
it's godly, has to learn how to experience what God is going
through in order that they might be able to tell people what God's
will is. Are you hearing me? Very important
truth here. This is not about David. This
is about God. And David is gonna discover that.
Notice what it says in 6C and following. After we recognize
that all the people were grieved, every man for his son and for
his daughter, the text said, but David encouraged himself
in the Lord his God. The brother turned the corner.
Did he turn the corner? Did he turn the corner? Did he
go from de-stress to depression to joy? Because now he realizes
that his eyes momentarily were off of God and they're back on
God now. Now, because his mind is on God,
he has been liberated from the strictures of his constraint.
because his mind is on God now. He now can actually call on God
to bring to remembrance why David is in this situation in the first
place. And here's the answer. God called David back in order
for David to take back that which has been lost because David is
God's servant. David has to learn how to feel
and think and act like God who is doing for the whole of Israel
what he's about to do for David. Recover that which is lost. Are you hearing me? Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? Recover that which is lost. And unfortunately, like the old
sages have told me long ago, Jesse, as a young man, Jesse,
You can learn a lot in theology school, you can learn a lot in
the books, but there is no greater teacher than experience. When
somebody takes something from you, now you know what it's like
to have lost something. And then all of the necessary
tools and preparation and employment to get it back will teach you
what it takes to recover that which is lost. The word here
is encouraged himself. Encouraged himself. I'm not gonna
stay on this long. But the word in the context means to actually
rebuild your foundation See his foundation that got knocked down
the foundation of his understanding had got knocked down by circumstances.
Can it happen? Can you get so knocked down by
your circumstances that you forget Bible verses? Oh That's good. You did you use that's good. You can forget Bible verses you
can forget precepts that you used to quote all the time. I
When you get knocked down so bad in your soul, you can fail
to remember the promises of God. And this is what David was struggling
with through the distress, through the grief, through the danger
of stoning. And finally, God turned him to
help him rebuild, rebuild. That's what the word there encouraged
himself, strengthened himself in the Lord. He rebuilt for himself
what he understood God was up to. There could be no other conclusion
than that. Because David is encouraged.
The circumstance has not changed. They still want to kill it. The
circumstance has not changed. They're still grieving. But David
now is encouraged. What's he doing? He's now taking
himself out of the middle of the situation and realizing that
he is still God's secret servant. Now what he can do in that sense
of freedom is pray. Do you get that? Now what he
can do and that sense of freedom is pray it through. Three things. What is it under point number
one, God led us back. You guys see that? Point two,
sub point number one, God led us back. You guys see that, right?
God led us back. What do you mean God led us back?
God brought David back home to Ziklag. Remember he was down
the road? He was fighting a battle. David
didn't know anything about his family being taken. God brought
him back. Did God bring him back? God brought
him back. And God brought him back just
in time. Remember what we learned? Nothing
had happened to the women and the children. They were all fine,
weren't they? God brought him back. So remember,
when you and I are doing things and then we find our circuit
or our course going in another direction and we land at sort
of an impasse, at that point of the impasse, ask, Am I further
down the line in that particular task, or has God put me in another
situation that's conducive to a better outcome? David has learned
it's conducive to a better outcome. Why? Because God took David,
all of his men, from being part of a battle to kill the Israelites
to bring him back home so he can deal with a situation that
was at hand that David didn't even know had occurred. God brought
us back. He brought us back. Now that
is redemptive typology. See, whenever you and I get lost,
and we will lose ourselves every time, God has to hunt us down. Is that true? Whenever you and
I mess up, we run from God, or we get taken by the enemy, and
doesn't God come hunt us down? Adam and Eve failed. The serpent
led them into captivity, dragged them away from the presence of
God. Did God come get them? Did he hunt him down? Did he
call out on Adam and Eve? Adam, where are you? Did he come
find out what their problem was? Did he solve their problem for
them? Moses is on the backside of the mountain for 40 years
while Israel is in bondage and in captivity, crying out, slaves
in Egypt. What did God do? He brought Moses
back. Did he bring him back? And he
brought Moses back in order to take back that which was his.
Moses told Pharaoh, God says, let my people go. God says, let
my people go. And they looked up a year later
and the whole nation was coming out of captivity. Every one of
them, their dogs, their cats, their parakeets, their parakeets,
everything was coming out. Everything was redeemed by the
blood. Everything was coming out. Moses, by God, recovered
it all. And that's what David is about
to do. Recover it all. But he had to be encouraged that
he had got brought back for that purpose. I love this. So let
me quickly run through these three points that are redemptive
in their practice to you and me. God led us back and he leads
us back when he calls our attention to the problem at hand. Got that? We got a problem. We don't necessarily
see it till God brings us back. Once he brings us back, now we
can face the problem. I'm so glad he brought me back
at that moment because the longer I stayed away, the worse the
problem gets. That's a message for somebody
right now. That's a message from some because some of the stuff
in your life is broke, tore up, messed up, but God's bringing
you back to deal with it. You got that? He brought you
back in order for you to take back that which is lost. That's
what he's doing here. Well, that's good. It's good. And what we see is what? Devastating. What we see is devastating. Is
it true? It's devastating. There's nothing
wrong with acknowledging the devastating effects of bad choices
and sin. But watch this now. God called
Jesus out of glory into this world, assumed a human nature,
lived a perfect life in order to bring back his lost people
too. It's the gospel. The Son of Man came to seek and
save that which is lost. And I'm reminded of Jesus headed
to Calvary, but on his way to Calvary, he stops on the mountainside,
looks over at Jerusalem, and he sees the mess Jerusalem is
in and about to be in by A.D. 70. And the text tells me in
Luke's Gospel, chapter 19, Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Are you
guys hearing what I'm saying? He wept over Jerusalem because
he saw that she was in captivity, just like David's family. but
God brought Jesus back into the world in order to lead it back
to. You guys see what's going on.
He knows he's going to go to Calvary. He knows he's going
to be recovered, but he's still weeping because of the situation.
Here, let me ask you, are you weeping? Because part of the
bringing you back is to get your heart right in the situation
you are in. Because see, when you're far
away from your situation, you're distant from it. Your heart is
cold. When he brings you back to it,
now you got to deal with it. And sometimes in dealing with
it, you got to yourself admit that you was in the wrong place.
Am I making some sense? Which then brings us to our third
point under our second consideration, which is a wonderful consideration.
Here's my third point. Here's a practical application.
Ready? Cry, pray, and fight. That's what David is about to
do. Cry, pray, and fight. Verse 7 and 8. And David said
to Abiathar the priest, Abimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither
the ephod. And Abiathar brought hither the
ephod to David. And David inquired of the Lord,
saying, shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake
them? And he answered, what? Pursue, for you shall surely
overtake them. And without fail, what? Recover
everything. Those marching orders right there.
Boy, get at it. But you see what God had to do.
Child of God, don't miss my point. Do you see what God did? Providentially,
he brought David back. That means David's got to face
what's really going on. Because you can be stuck over
here looking at all the good that's going on over here. But
things most precious to you are really things that's most precious
to God. And then when he gets you back
there, he shows you that it's a mess. He wants you to act right. Cry, you've been born again. You get to cry, Abba Father.
You get to bow before the true and the living God. You get to
go to the throne of grace in time of need and ask for mercy
and call on your God. What a privilege. I would say
that David hadn't prayed like this in a while. See, because
when you're actually fighting, you don't have time really to
pray like that because you're fighting. But when you're not
fighting, you get to go back and pray. You get to get in your
closet. You get to call on God. You get to appeal to God. You
get to get real with God. You get to cry big crocodile
tears. You get to get a hold of your
heart. You get to squeeze your heart. Squeeze your heart before
God. Wring out your heart before God. Call on God. That's what you
get to do. Y'all don't know what I'm talking
about. You don't know what I'm talking about. But let one of
your children end up in jail. are laying in the hospital bed
about to die. You'll learn how to pray. You'll learn how to
cry out to God. You'll learn how to cry out to
God. Let one of your kids get taken into captivity. You'll
start learning. And he'll do it because God wants
you to be brought near to him and he will allow us to go through
these things to teach us how to think like him. Cry, pray,
and fight. Let's go on to our third point.
My time is almost up. The redemption and recovery of
lives is the essence of the gospel, is it not? The redemption and
recovery of lives is the essence of the gospel. Isaiah chapter
49, verse 6. You guys mark it. Isaiah chapter
49, 6. This is where God is speaking to the role of Messiah, the Lord
Jesus Christ, when he comes into this world. He is called God's
chosen one, God's elect. And here's what he says in Isaiah
chapter 49 on this particular point. Isaiah 49. Listen to what
he says in verse five. And now saith the Lord that formed
me from the womb to be a servant. This is Jesus talking about God
the Father. Watch this. To bring Jacob to
him again, though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorified
in the eyes of the Lord. Watch this. And my God shall
be my strength. Verse six. He said, is it a light
thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes
of Jacob? And what? to restore the preserved
of Israel. I will also gather for thee a
light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be salvation unto the
ends of the earth. Child of God, what I'm getting
at is that this whole process of redemption is all about restoration,
a recovery of that which is lost. Go back to our text, because
I want to work through how God does this with David. And I'll
show you a couple of more redemptive points. So David inquires, as
we see, to the Lord. And the Lord says what? Go. Then
all of a sudden something really interesting takes place in verse
11 and 12. Watch this. And they found an
Egyptian in the field, brought him to David and gave him bread
and he did eat and they made him drink water. Why? Because
he was famished. Because he was three days and
three nights without it. That's verse 12. Do you see what
they did? They discovered that God had
placed in their way a key to their success. Can I show you
a practical point on this? When you're in the midst of a
situation, a trial, and you sense God is getting ready to work
it out, sometimes He's going to bring some of the most unsuspecting
people in your life. Now watch this now. And that
person is going to be the key to the advancement of your recovery
process. Now, that person might be your
sworn enemy for all intents and purposes. The Egyptians and the
Hebrews never got along. But on this day, because God
is ruling and God is recovering, this Egyptian is going to serve
David's cause, is he not? This is why the scripture says
in the book of Romans that we are to do good to our enemies.
If he's hungry, what? If he's thirsty, what? In so
doing, you heap hot coals on his head, he becomes your servant.
This Egyptian is going to get David and his men into the camp. And I love this brother. You
know what this brother said? As long as you don't kill me,
And long as you don't send me back to my master, I'll make
sure I get you in the camp. This is how God works. Watch
this. I'll show you another truth as
we finally close it out. Don't you be quick to make your
own enemies. You don't have enough natural
resources to determine your own enemies. Oh, that's good. See, we can get comfortable in
our situation and actually think we're in control of it so we
can determine who our friends are. We can get so self-righteous
and so pharisaical and so, so self-secure that we can pick
and choose our friends. But our friends ought to be picked
and chose based upon the wisdom of God and the circumstances
at hand. This Egyptian would have been
killed and torn into 50 pieces if David would have left it to
his men. But because they had prayed, God had cut the lights
on. And today, not tomorrow, today,
they're acting like Christians. Some of y'all get that in a moment.
Right? And this Egyptian is a picture
of the lost sinner. who does not deserve salvation,
but in God's mercy, he allowed him to escape. And David is the
gospel preacher bringing to him the bread and water of life to
restore his soul. And now he's going to facilitate
the kingdom of God and the advancement of the recovery of God's people
at large. Is that how God works? Why? Because
God's saving sinners. And I don't know about you, but
one day, if you don't believe it now, you was a hell-bound
sinner, you was an Egyptian just like this Egyptian. You might
be a Hebrew now, but you were an Egyptian. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? And so God will use people in
your life, in your circumstances, to advance your recovery process,
of whom you should not be quick to call them your sworn hell-bound
enemies. Subpoint number B. Be wise about
your what? Right, that's what David is doing
here. He's strategizing. He's using this young man. He's
asking this young man, what's going on? What's the territory?
What's the condition that I'm about to get into? Because this
young man could actually be leading them into a trap, right? So David
is using wisdom. As the proverb says, in the multitude
of counselors, there is safety. And with good advice, you make
your war. In other words, don't ever plunge into a battle without
getting sound counsel. And that's what David does here.
And we can expect the outcome, can't we? I'm going to love just
closing out with the outcome. In your outline, pull a PowerPoint
back up, please. In your outline, does it say
a final point, timing is everything when God is in it? Yeah, because
sometimes I have different outlines than y'all. You know that because
I just figure y'all can't handle the stuff that I'm dealing with.
So I give you the lightweight stuff. But this last point says,
Timing is everything with God. Will you look at verse 16? I
love this. I love this Chapter 30 verse
16. Are you there and when he had
brought him down that is the Egyptian to the camp Saints look
at this. Look at how good God is When
he brought him down behold, they were spread abroad all on the
earth they was eaten and drinking and playing R&B and They was happy because of all
of the spoil they had got. They kicking and walking through
different groups, just chopping it up, having a good time. Timing
is everything. Had it been a day later after
they sobered up and they do what they're supposed to do, they
would have raped the women and killed the children. Timing is
everything in the kingdom of God. David is brought back to
take back that which is lost, and that which is lost is preserved
and kept by the power of God. Timing is everything. Do you
see it? Timing is absolutely everything. And God gives us
this account to encourage us. This is a great movie. Isn't
this a great movie? I love these movies. And to encourage us that
God has all sides of the battle in control. Does he not? Now,
I can imagine those people who had to learn something about
redemption and recovery too, the family. saw how God was protecting
them even while they were slaves of the enemy. They could go back
to David and say, David, do you know how those men were? They
didn't touch us. They didn't even look at us sideways.
And when we were hungry, they fed us. and they gave us something
to drink. We could sense God's presence
in the midst of this captivity even then. Is that good, saints?
Why? Because our God is sovereign.
Is He not sovereign? Does He not know how to take care of
His people, even when He allows us to go into captivity? And
this is what He is doing here. This is what he's doing here.
And needless to say, as this point wraps up, verse 17 tells
us that David smote them from the twilight even to the evening
the next day. And there escaped not a man of
them, save 400 men, which rode on camels. fled and David recovered
all that the Amalekites had carried away and David rescued his two
wives and there was nothing lacking of them neither small or great
neither son nor daughters neither small spoil nor anything that
had been taken of them David recovered all them shouting words
them words by which we thank God Why? Because the Bible is
teaching us in this picture the nature of redemption. Christ
was given a people by God the Father before the world began.
They are called the elect of God, chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Every one of us who are believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ, we were in the bundle of life in
the person of Christ before time began. We were lost in our parents,
Adam, and the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to recover
us. Is that true? And the Bible tells
us in John's gospel, chapter six, starting at verse 39, 37
rather, all that the father giveth me, not some, all shall come
unto me. those that come unto me I will
in no wise cast out any everyone for whom Christ died will be
recovered from their sins and this is the joy of the Son of
God of which he said in John chapter 17 father all those that
you have given me I have kept and I have lost none and this
is why we read in John's gospel chapter 18 when they came to
take Jesus and He says, whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus
of Nazareth. He said, if you want me, let
all these go. That the same might be fulfilled
in the scriptures of all that the father gave him. He lost
none. It was the death of the son of
God on Calvary that purchased our redemption. It was the death
of the Son of God on Calvary that gave us our pardon and released
us from our sin and delivered us from hell and delivered us
from Satan so that we're brought back again to God. What we see
in the life of David, we see in the life of Christ. The lessons
are for you and I to learn, but the outcome is for you and I
to rejoice in our God who is able to save to the uttermost.
Every sinner that comes to him by faith, Even right now, if
you're a hell-bound sinner and you're lost, we have a mighty
Savior. Do we not say? Is He a mighty
Savior? Is He a wonderful Savior? Is
He able to save the sinner? Is He able to come get up? Is
he able to retrieve them from hell? Is he able to go down into
the pit and get prisoners of hope and bring them out the pit?
Do we have a shepherd that's able to leave the 99 in the wilderness
and go get that one sheep? Will he get them? Will he bring
them back? Will he bring them back? Yes,
he will. Yes, he will. Listen, and he
won't stop looking until he finds that last sheep, because he's
going to bring them all in. Everyone's coming in. Come in,
sinner. Come in, sinner. Come in. Bow the knee to Jesus. Trust
Christ as Savior, and let him bring you back home. In Jesus'
name, amen and amen.