Abounding Grace

Larry: Discouragement can lead to bad decisions, moving you away from God's best. To learn more about this all-too-common struggle, join us today for Abounding Grace.

Guest (Male): Whether you are a pastor, a Sunday school teacher, a volunteer in the nursery, or serving on the mission field, we all go through times when we're tired in the work and maybe even of the work. Along comes Satan with one of his favorite tools in the tool bag. He drives us to discouragement. That's the place David found himself in 1 Samuel 27. We'll take a look at his desire to escape today on Abounding Grace as Pastor Ed Taylor continues through 1 Samuel.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Take your Bibles, open them to 1 Samuel chapter 27. 1 Samuel chapter 27 is where we are in a Bible study that I've entitled, there's nothing better for me than to trust God. And I believe that's the truth for you as well. There's nothing better for you than to trust God. Now, we have come across many different themes in our studies through 1 Samuel. If you're counting, this happens to be our 34th study in 1 Samuel. So, we have split a couple of the chapters, but generally taking about a chapter each Bible study. And we've seen all sorts of themes, themes like faith, hope, dedication.

We've seen the miraculous. We've watched passionate prayer. We've seen God's choice. We've seen man's failure. I mean, if you just went through, you can one after another after another of spiritual lessons that God has reserved for us in 1 Samuel. But the one or the two that inter that overlap so many times, I would say, at least maybe the section that's really been speaking to my heart as a pastor, as a fellow believer just walking on the journey with you, is this theme of trusting God and committing your ways to God relentlessly and aggressively, not haphazardly and halfheartedly, not not just with the words, yeah, I love you, God, I give you my life, and then truly our life or your life is lived just your own way, but I mean, trusting God no matter what.

How could we not see that in Hannah's life as you go way back into the beginning being barren and so discouraged and distraught with her family situation, but relentlessly trusting God, committing her ways to the Lord? So powerful. And then when it comes to this situation between David and King Saul, we add another twist to the difficulty or the need to trust God. And that is we need to be very careful not to take things into our own hands impatiently. It's just going to lead to disaster. Trusting God, committing your ways to God, and not taking things into your own hands.

The focus in this section of 1 Samuel is on David. And it pops up over and over again. But then there's something else about David that I can't miss because it relates so much to my life and yours. I mean, all these themes do. This is God writes about real human beings serving a real God in real life. You you're reading the Bible and you may not you may quickly forget that this is not only a true story inspired by God, but it is the true story of real people. Imagine if God wrote a book about your life.

What would it contain? What would God choose to use in your life to teach us the types of spiritual lessons we need to grow? Well, David had it for his life. And we see that God is uses imperfect people like David cuz we have a lot of difficulty with David. I I don't know if you have, but I 've had a few difficulties in David and with his life. Even as I would think if you examined my life, you'd have a few difficulties with me. Fortunately not as egregious as David, but nonetheless guilty before God.

And yet he uses imperfect people. He doesn't use perfect people. Perfect people don't exist. You see, the Bible doesn't gloss over the weaknesses of the people that God uses. It doesn't gloss over the failures. It doesn't gloss over the difficulties of the men and women in the use of God. The Bible is direct. A lot of people don't like the Bible because the Bible is direct and honest and to the point in so much of what it teaches. There will be those that will come to the Bible and and make a bit their their whole life their whole life of living their own way is based upon a variation of this simple statement.

You know, there's so much in the Bible I don't understand. And indeed, you can turn from page to page and there are a few things that will make you scratch your head all the way into eternity. Heavy deep doctrines, enigmas and puzzles and mysteries that require the Holy Spirit's revelation and insight to understand the text and the reality of the heart of God in the passage. There are those. Difficulties we call them, Bible difficulties. Whole books. I have a I have books that are this thick that are specifically to help us with Bible difficulties. Like there are guys that spend their whole life studying Bible difficulties and laying out the answers for them just for the skeptics.

Matter of fact, one of the books I use is called When Critics Ask, and on the other side of that, there's another book I use called When Skeptics Ask. Two whole volumes by Norman Geisler that have been good friends to me over the years as I study the scriptures. But if that's you and I'm addressing you and you go, wait a minute, man, how did that pastor know me? I I I didn't know you were here, but just in case I wanted to mention it if you were here. If that's you, I want to suggest something to you.

Every time you come across a Bible difficulty, write it down and set it aside. And every time you read something that you understand, do something about it. Because it's not the issues of the Bible that you don't understand that are going to be the greatest issue for you. The greatest issue for you is when you come across a very clear statement in the scriptures, a very clear statement that declares something like the love of God. When you come across a passage where the Bible is declaring to you that God loves you, he loves you so much that he demonstrated that love.

It wasn't just with words. He demonstrated it by sending his own son, Jesus Christ, to the Earth who lived in history. God became man. He lived in history and he died in history as a perfect man as the only perfect sacrifice for your life. And if you were to step outside the Bible and to look into history, you will see that this is verified. It is a historical fact as well as a biblical fact. And from that man that lived, from his own lips, he said that he was the only way to salvation. There's the only way to be right with God.

There is no other way to be right with God. It it's not a church way, it 's not a religion way, it 's not something that was handed down to you by your parents. It's not being a good person. On and on the list could go. There's only one way, and that's by faith in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a full exchange, his life for your life. And you might be here and you say, well, that that's pretty easy to understand. I know. And it only requires your response. The Bible deals with things honestly and directly, including the mistakes of its heroes.

To me, it's one of the secondary reasons why I believe in the validity of the Bible. Now, there are a lot of primary reasons, the manuscript evidence, the prophetic the the predictable prophecies of how God can predict things before they have. Only God could write a book like this. Only God knows the future. He alone can predict the future. Thousand I mean, there's a lot of primary reasons why I believe the Bible. But one of the secondary reasons I believe the Bible is that if man wrote a book like this, it would be filled with perfect characters with no flaws, especially the men that were writing about themselves.

If you were writing your autobiography and you came across a chapter that you don't want to relive, that you wish never happened, and you were given the option to exclude it, I'm certain that you would seriously consider excluding that season of your life. And just, you know, we start with your birth and then, man, you got saved and you're like, wow, what happened to the 30 years in between? We don't talk about that. All I remember is I was a model child. And so there we know, okay, the author of this book is a liar.

We know that now. He's He's imperfect. He's normal. I get it. I get it. Can you imagine if the book of a Bible was dedicated to you, if it had your name on it and it was a season of your life? I mean, God uses us just like he used David. David's a man. He's not a superhero. He's not otherworldly. He's like us, subject to fears and discouragement and mistakes. Often saw his life have incredible highs and incredible lows. He went sideways sometimes and all over the place. He experienced these deep times of intensity and seeking the Lord and pressing into him, crying out to him, trusting him.

I mean, the Psalms are amazing. So many of the Psalms written by David, you're like, man, you'll you'll in it finish that Psalm and you go, man, I can so so often the beginning of the Psalm will be all messed up and the end of the Psalm will be, man, I trust in the Lord, and you're like, man, that that's that sounds like me. I I wake up in the morning so overwhelmed by the situations in my life, and then I go to bed just trusting in the Lord because by the time I'm finished meditating on God, I'm just like, I trust you again, Lord.

That's David, this very same David. He had these great times of intensely seeking the Lord, but that he also had these intense lapses of faith. No hands required. You have a lapse of faith lately? Where you just know what the Bible says, you know what God says, but you don't believe it because circumstances are screaming louder than the truths of God. That was David as it's often you and me. I don't need to ask you for to raise a hand. I can I can account to that. I can attest to that in my own life.

It's one of the frustrating things about my life is I can have these times of trusting the Lord and and I can have these times where I just like, man, what am I thinking? Like why am I thinking like this? It's just part of the process of following Jesus. Why am I feeling like this? Why do my feelings yell at me? Why are they so powerful? Why am I so sad? Why am I so happy when I should be sad? Just your Is it just me? Am I alone in this? I see you guys shaking your head.

It's just you and I okay, that's fine. It's me and David. It's me and David. We're buddies. And I'm cool with that. You see, because David, he's been under some severe pressure for some time now. He's been chased by the king of the country with all the power and authority that comes with that. And the king of the country anointed by God, well, that's a problem too. He's anointed by God. And as he's anointed by God, he has forgotten God. And so David is a man of integrity given chance after chance to take him out and just take care of the problem.

God never told him to take care of the problem. God never given permission to take care of the problem. And being the man of integrity that he was, he has resisted the temptation and the test a couple of times to just eliminate King Saul completely. Why? Because he chose to trust God and not take things into his own hands. So this king not only is he anointed by God, but he's not thinking clearly. And some commentators suggest, and I can see elements of it, that he has mental issues. He's not thinking straight. He might even be considered to have demonic pressures in his life, demonic influences, as we'll see in the future studies.

But David's been under this severe pressure for some time now because of the pursuit, because of the personal pain, because of the death sentence that he never really knew when it would happen. If you would wake up in the morning and it's been about it this time in 1 Samuel chapter 27, he has been on the run for about seven years. Now, I know our time in Samuel feels like seven years, but it hasn't been seven years. It's only been a few months we've been studying. Seven years he's been on the run. It's been hard.

You know, when I say something like that, it just seems empty. We don't even have words to describe what the brother was feeling. We we can't even begin with the vocabulary we've been given to describe the life that he's been living. And maybe the circumstance had been different, but that's the life you've been living. And nobody understands and nobody gets it and nobody seems to have the right vocabulary. And and it seems to be all surface with people in your life. But the reality is this, we'll never understand what you're going through fully cuz we're not you.

We don't live in your shoes. We don't have your emotions. And so what might seem surface to you might be complete 100% depth for a person reaching out to you just to express love and and concern. And one of the greatest things you could receive from someone in your lives is just a a note, a text, a word that says, I'm praying for you. Because when you bring somebody before the throne room of grace, you know what? You find help in time of need. And it's a beautiful thing that David we get to see all the ups and downs.

Even though every time he'd run away, every time he'd hide or run, he always ran into those that would willing that would sell him out and betray him, turning to every corner, even getting bad advice from people that were closest to him. I mean, he was really forced into a place to trust in the Lord, just him and God. And no man can only take so much before he begins to break down. And we see that happening with David. In verse one it says of chapter 27, David said in his heart, now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul.

There's nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines. And Saul will despair of me to seek me anymore in the part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand. Then David arose and went over with the 600 men who were with him to Achish the son of Maok king of Gath. And David dwelt in Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the Carmelitess Nabal's widow. And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he sought him no more.

You see that phrase as David is processing his life and making decisions. He says that in verse one, there is nothing better for me than that. When you're assessing your situation and you are using phrases like that, there's nothing Look at my situation. Look at I'm stuck here. I'm stuck here. I got all this going. You're you if especially for you analytical thinkers that overthink things, you perfectionists that like to control things, when you're in a crisis and you start to exert, you start to figure it out, you're going to come up. You know, there's nothing there's nothing better for me than I just want to give you I want to plant the seed in you.

There's nothing better for you than to trust in the Lord. Because what David says is wrong here. Is there nothing better for me than to run away speedily and go to the enemy? I think I'll run to the enemy for safety. That's what David's saying. You where is that Ed? Well, he says he's running to the Philistines. The Philistines are Israel's enemy, arch enemy. So what David is saying is he sees a situation in the condition that he's in, there's nothing better for me than to run to the enemy for help. Those that's a bad decision.

That's a bad decision. A wave of discouragement and depression has descended upon David. He's assessing the situation. He's thinking about it, processing it all, and comes to the conclusion it's over. I'm dead. Saul will get me. There's nothing better for me than to run to the enemy. And we look at David and we shake our head and go, David, David, David. And yet how many times have that exactly the response that we've come to, the conclusion that we've come to? Nothing better for me than just to run to the enemy, to take things into my own hands.

You see, David loved God writing the Psalms and enjoying God. He he was a man of prayer, expressed himself to the Lord. But did you notice his mistake? You go, wait a minute, Ed, how how did he get there? It's very simple. If you like to write in your Bibles, you like to take a pen and circle this, just notice something about David. It says in verse one that David said in his heart. David said in his heart. He didn't talk to God about it. He talked to himself. Do you know that we learned last week that people close to us, people that we trust, people that we love could give us bad counsel?

Do you guys remember that? You can give yourself bad counsel. Even in the midst of especially in the midst of great pressure, you can give yourself bad counsel. And that's what's happening here. He's talking to himself and he's coming to the wrong conclusions. That that phrase in his heart literally means to himself. He's talking to himself. That's where things got mixed up and confused. He came to the wrong conclusions and headed to the enemy's territory thinking that was the wisest choice. Now, just hold your places, turn a couple pages over to chapter 30 verse 6 for a minute.

Chapter 30 verse 6 because David made a much better decision here in chapter 30 verse 6 at the end. Or really in verse 6 it says, then David was greatly distressed for the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself where? In the Lord his God. That's a better choice than to talk to yourself in your heart and try to figure it out with all the knowledge that you have. With all the knowledge that you have, it's not even a grain of sand to the knowledge of God.

And it's just better for us to trust in the Lord and wait until the Lord acts. Don't run away to the enemy. Don't seek help from the enemy. Don't try to hide among the enemy. Either number one, you will stick out like a sore thumb from because of your commitment to the Lord, or be you will become like your enemy. Because evil company corrupts good habits, the Bible says. Now, David's declaration of despair showed that he had lost faith in the promise of God. God had promised that David would sit upon the throne not once, not twice, three times.

It was confirmed and ratified by God. And really from David doesn't know this. He's living in real time just like you and I in our lapses of faith. We don't know what the future holds. We don't know how it's all going to go down. So we start to just go through whatever we're going through. But but for David, knowing and looking back now, it's only three more years. Compared to the seven, I mean, think about it, enduring something for seven years and then giving up and just knowing it was only three more years. It's only three more years.

Three more years till he takes the throne. Of course, he doesn't know that. And we often don't know that. But it was there by promise. Those three years existed by the promise of God. So you don't need to know three years. You don't need to know two years. You don't need to know one year. You don't need to know three days. Why? You and I have the promises of God. And the promises of God are sure and steadfast. And all the history of man, in all the history of eternality of our God, he is not yet ever before, now, or in the future not fulfilled his promises.

So while he doesn't know their three years, what's replaced with a three-year calendar is the promise of God. And that's what we trust in. And he was lapsing here in his faith. David says in his heart, I know that one day Saul's going to kill me is a lack of faith because already God told him he will be on the throne. And like so many when faith begins to lapse, we begin to devise our escape plans taking things into our own hands. David stopped believing God would take care of him and that God would protect him, that he was sufficient to take care of all of his needs.

Does that sound familiar?

Larry: God, help us trust in his promises, for they never fail. This is Abounding Grace, and Pastor Ed Taylor is nearing the end of a study in 1 Samuel. His message, Nothing Better for Me Than to Trust God, can be heard again at aboundinggraceradio.com. Pastor Ed, we heard about a time in David's life when he was discouraged. And maybe some of our listeners can identify with that. What words of encouragement can you leave with them today?

Pastor Ed Taylor: Well, David tells us that he encouraged himself in the Lord, strengthened himself in the Lord. And that's my word to you. I don't really have much more to say, Larry, that it hasn't already been said. Um, I know it's hard when you're discouraged. It's hard to even listen uh and to receive direction, but I know you can encourage yourself in the Lord. I know it's hard. Sometimes we think if we're going to be encouraged that all the bad things are going to go away, but it's not the case. God is teaching us to live and to endure even through the hardships cuz everyone is going through something including you, including me, including those of you that are listening.

You can choose to encourage yourself in the Lord, trust him with this situation. And I know I know I know he'll be found faithful. He will. Truly, I mean it. So look to him and encourage yourself in him.

Larry: I am sure someone needed to hear that. Thanks, Ed. Abounding Grace is made possible through the support of our listeners. And when you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, you're invited to request a copy of Jim Symbolas book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire. In it, he shares unforgettable stories including from his own daughter. You'll see how the church has grown and how God has helped people through difficult changes, challenges, and encounters. Jim also reveals how God continues to reshape the lives of so many people who come to Jesus through the power of the gospel.

Request a copy of Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire when you give a donation of $25 or more today. We genuinely appreciate the generosity of our listeners. It helps us provide the teaching of God's word on stations all across the nation. So thank you for standing with us. Call 877-30 Grace, 877-30 Grace. You can also get the book online at calvaryco.store. And then be sure to join Pastor Ed next time for more teaching from the book of 1 Samuel right here on Abounding Grace.

Guest (Male): Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church, Colorado here in Aurora.