Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): We begin today's Abounding Grace with this biblical encouragement.

Pastor Ed Taylor: God has a plan and a purpose for your life. You are uniquely created. There's no one else like you. Maybe you're discouraged today. Maybe you've been nursing sadness. Maybe you're at a crossroads. Maybe you're fearful. The Bible says that Jesus Christ became wisdom for us. He's the rock that shows the way. God blesses us in spite of ourselves as we simply find ourselves going back to the rock or to the Stone Ezel, the rock that shows the way.

Guest (Male): Stress. It's something we all experience, whether it's due to job frustrations, problems at home, or even financial pressure that's weighing you down. Today on Abounding Grace, we find David under a great deal of pressure and stress as his very own life is being threatened. Through his experience described in 1 Samuel 20, we will be encouraged to come back to the rock that shows the way, and God will give us direction just when we need it. Here is Pastor Ed Taylor starting us off today with this bit of advice.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Can I give you a piece of advice? Even if you said no, you're going to have to hear it anyway. When you're under great stress and pressure, you might want to jot this down. I don't see anybody getting a pen out or anything. You might want to jot this down, write it on your hand, or type it out really fast on your iPad. I will save you a lot of grief and heartache in life if you can pray through this and how it gets applied in your life.

When you're under great stress and when you're under great pressure, don't make big decisions. Profound, but true. Don't make big decisions under pressure and stress. Wait for the Lord to give you direction. That could be the pressure or stress you put on yourself. It could be everybody in your life going, "You've got to do this and you've got to do it right now." I don't have to do anything but obey the Lord.

When it's especially really rough and things aren't so clear, wait on the Lord. Be careful under deep stress with the reality of your emotions. Don't make big decisions. Don't come to any huge conclusions. Just wait on the Lord. So they both head out into the field together back in chapter 20, verse 12. Then Jonathan said to David, "The Lord God of Israel is witness. When I have sounded out my father sometime tomorrow or the third day, and indeed there is good toward David, and I do not send to you and tell you, may the Lord do so and much more to Jonathan."

"But if it pleases my father to do you evil, then I will report it to you and send you away that you may go in safety. And the Lord be with you as He has been with my father. And you shall not only show me the kindness of the Lord while I still live, that I may not die, but you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever. No, not when the Lord has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth." So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "Let the Lord require it at the hand of David's enemies."

Jonathan promises him to tell him the truth. What a friend. He's not offended by David's pressure or stress. He gets through the disagreement and they come to an agreement. He tells him he is going to tell him the truth. Verse 17: "And Jonathan again caused David to vow because he loved him, for he loved him as his own soul." Then Jonathan said to David in verse 18, "Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty. And when you've stayed three days, go down quickly and come to the place where you hid on the day of the deed and remain by the Stone Ezel."

You might want to mark that phrase. We'll come back to it in a moment. "Then I'll shoot three arrows to the side of it as though I shot at a target. And there I'll send a lad saying, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I expressly say to the lad, 'Look, the arrows are on the side of you, get them and come,' then as the Lord lives, there's safety for you and no harm. But if I say thus to the young man, 'Look, the arrows are beyond you,' go your way, for the Lord has sent you away."

"As for the matter, verse 23, which you and I have spoken of, indeed the Lord be between you and me forever." King Saul used a spear as a weapon to destroy David, while Jonathan uses an arrow as a tool to communicate with David. It takes a lot of faith to stand in the area of coming arrows after you know his dad's been chucking spears at you. It's really neat to show that the weapon itself is really defined by the hand that it's in. It's so beautiful how God can redeem anything.

In verse 19, he says to go to the stone or the Rock Ezel. If you like to write in your Bibles, you can jot next to it that it literally means "the rock that shows the way." That was the counsel. You go to the rock that shows the way, and that's where you'll find direction, David. David was to stay close to that rock to learn which way he was to go. He was at a critical time in his life and he needed help and direction. Where was he sent? He was sent to the rock that shows the way.

Does that sound familiar to you? Jesus is known as the Rock, and in times of great crisis, you're to go to the Rock that shows you the way. It's so beautiful. Perhaps that's you right now. You're at a critical point in your life at a crossroads. You are worried and don't know what is going to happen. You don't know what you're supposed to do or where you're supposed to go, and you just can't figure it out. The good news is that God will direct you by going to the Rock that will show you the way by coming back to the Lord.

That is to go to Jesus, the wisdom for life. Somebody asked me recently, just right now before service, I was in my office in the hour between the radio program and the time that we're here ministering. I was just checking in on a brother and he was checking in and giving me his update. I was praying for him because he's a pastor friend of mine under great pressure and stress. He is a church planter who just lost his job and has been knocking on doors.

You guys, as a church, have helped him and supported him and helped him through a crisis time in his life. You do that many times throughout the year with all kinds of people around the world. This church is very faithful in serving. It's anonymous and behind the scenes, and it's just as unto the Lord. So I was checking in on him and he was checking in on me. He said, "Well, how are you doing?" I said, "The last couple of weeks have been very discouraging, and I've been in a deep place of discouragement."

Yet when I put my eyes on the Lord, I'm not so discouraged. When I'm sitting there just looking at my situation and having to process it all, it feels so unfair. You ever feel like that? It's so unjust. You ever feel like that? It's like, "Lord, why don't you just do something?" When I'm there, it's difficult. But I also described it this way. I've been in other times of discouragement and it's not like that where I would go from bed to couch to bed.

That was my days for month after month. I just go from bed, and whenever I felt like getting up, I'd go and I'd just veg out. It didn't even matter what was on television, it could have been static; it wouldn't matter to me. I'd just be sitting on the couch wondering what's going to happen with my life. I said it's not like that, but discouragement comes in waves. I don't mean sadness. When I get my eyes back on the Lord, discouragement becomes sadness.

Sadness is just a feeling of the reality of the situation in your life. But discouragement is like, "I don't know if it'll ever change." Sadness is, "I don't like it right now." Discouragement is, "I don't know if it's ever going to change. Lord, don't you see what it's doing in my wife? Lord, don't you see what it's doing in my kids? Lord, don't you see?" What does He tell me? Where does He have me? "Why don't you go to the Rock Ezel, Ed?" I'll say, "Because I don't want to."

The Lord says, "Well then you'll have the consequences of your sin, not trusting me. You have the consequences of your sin, not looking to me." Yeah, but if I go to the Rock Ezel, maybe the arrows will hit me. Well, you just need to go to the Rock Ezel and trust that I put the arrows in the right hands. Yeah, but what if I'm sitting by the Stone Ezel and of course, what happens when you're dialoguing? You have to read the book of Job and forget the book of Job, all of it, just go to the last chapter.

Let the Lord speak to you His word for His season. I know many of you are discouraged. Maybe some of you listening in right now are from the bed to the couch to the bed, and that's your life. I encourage you to go back to the Stone Ezel. Yeah, Ed, but I've been to the Stone Ezel and I'm still sad. Sadness is different than discouragement. Sadness is a reality of life. It's an emotion. There are so many things in life that make us sad.

But discouragement is not looking to the Lord. So many times we feed sadness and it becomes discouragement. You know what happens when you feed discouragement? It becomes depression. Forgive me for those of you that have issues chemically. I'm not speaking to that. Depression comes a lot of different ways. Sadness nurtured becomes discouragement. Discouragement nurtured also will become depression. Depression nurtured will often become despair. And despair nurtured, well, let's not even go there.

Let's come back to the Rock Ezel. You'll despair of life, you know. You'll think that the world will be better off without you. You'll begin to think that you'll be better off without the world. I just want you to know that's not from the Lord. Come back. Come back to the place where the Lord, the Rock, shows the way. God has a plan and a purpose for your life. You are uniquely created. There's no one else like you. Maybe you're discouraged today. Maybe you've been nursing sadness. Maybe you're at a crossroads. Maybe you're fearful.

The Bible says that Jesus Christ became wisdom for us. He's the rock that shows the way. God blesses us in spite of ourselves as we simply find ourselves going back to the rock or to the Stone Ezel, the rock that shows the way. Not only that, but I find that God will give you the direction when you need it. God will speak into your life when you need it. Yeah, but Ed, what about five years from now? Remember, we have today.

I find that God will speak into your life when you need it. It's very similar to what I found as I raised my kids. Very similar, even as I pastor and shepherd as a leader. I have the privilege of raising my kids or serving others. I didn't just give them direction all the time when everything was going well. I didn't just speak into their life when everything was going well. I was always looking for those opportunities where God would just open the door and I could speak into their life in that moment.

I wasn't telling them when they were five, "You know what? You're five, but when you're 15, you're going to go through the worst crisis in your life. So let me just get you ready for it." No, I couldn't speak that into their life until they needed it. Believe me, when they needed it, I spoke into their life, even as the Lord does that in my life. I gave them the word and I gave them my advice, and I gave them direction right where they were. I sought them out.

I looked for the right opportunity, the right time to interject myself into their lives. The Lord does the same thing. You need to come back to the Stone Ezel. By that rock, David was to wait for the message. So in a time of waiting, make sure you're waiting by the Rock. Not in bed to the couch to the bed to the couch in those dark and gloomy days. Open up the blinds. Let the light of the sunlight come in.

Verse 24: So David hid in the field. And when the New Moon had come, the king sat down to eat the feast. And the king sat on his seat, as at other times, on a seat by the wall. And Jonathan arose and Abner sat by Saul's side, but David's place was empty. Nevertheless, Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, "Something has happened to him. He is unclean, surely he is unclean." And it happened the next day, the second day of the month, that David's place was empty.

Saul said to Jonathan, "Why has the son of Jesse not come to eat either yesterday or today?" Jonathan answered Saul, "David earnestly asked permission of me to go to Bethlehem." And he said, "Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city and my brother has commanded me to be there. And now if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me get away and see my brothers." Therefore, he has not come to the king's table. Then Saul's anger was aroused against Jonathan and he said to him, "You son of a perverse rebellious woman!"

That was an encouragement. "Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?" Remember, Jonathan is going to get the kingdom, but Jonathan has willingly submitted to the anointing of the king. That was rightfully his according to the law of the land, but according to God, he was wise and he submitted to the anointing of God. Saul says, "What are you doing? What a shameful thing you're doing. You're allowing David the place that belongs to you."

He's not saying something very nice about his mother either. Verse 31: "As long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you shall not be established, nor your kingdom. Now therefore, send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die." Ah, Jonathan. Now you know. It was right out of your dad's lips. And Jonathan answered Saul, his father, and said to him, "Why should he be killed? What has he done?" And Saul cast a spear at him to kill him, by which Jonathan knew it was determined by his father to kill David.

So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David because his father had treated him shamefully. When Saul noticed David's absence, he first thought something had happened to him or was ceremonially unclean. But he finally realized something was happening and he sensed that Jonathan was willing to give up his right to the kingdom. What does he do? He throws a spear at his own son.

How far from God do you need to be to harm and hurt your own kids? Very far. Remember the teaching of Jesus repeated again in the Proverbs is to love my enemies. Matthew chapter 4. You see, if I don't love or pray for my enemies, then like King Saul, I'll find myself out even to take out my own family members. You can't confine hatred toward one person or control it toward just one group. It will spill over. Here he's ready to kill his own son.

That is the sad tale throughout the scriptures that men and women that were far from God would use even their own kids as manipulative tools or take out their own kids. Friends, the Bible says in the last days that God is going to turn the hearts of the fathers back toward the kids. There's going to be such an emphasis and explosion of discipleship of our own kids, no matter what the age, grandchildren, great-grandchildren.

It's never too late to turn your heart back toward your kids to disciple them and to grow them. If you don't have access to them, pray for them. If they're being withheld from you, pray for them. If they're far from you, pray for them. If they don't want to talk to you, pray for them. But if you're in their life, disciple them. Give them the word and direct them. Here Saul, it's sad. Verse 33 is a sad verse. Now, verse 35: And so it was in the morning that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little lad was with him.

He said to the lad, "Now run, find the arrows which I shoot." And as the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. When the lad had come to the place where the arrow was which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried out after the lad and said, "Is not the arrow beyond you?" Jonathan cried out after the lad, "Make haste, hurry, do not delay." So Jonathan's lad gathered up the arrows and came back to his master. But the lad did not know anything, only Jonathan and David knew of the matter.

Then Jonathan gave his weapons to his lad and said to him, "Go, carry them to the city." As soon as the lad had gone, David arose from a place toward the south, fell on his face to the ground, bowed down three times, and they kissed one another and they wept together, but David more so. Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, since we have both sworn in the name of the Lord, saying, 'May the Lord be between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.'" So he arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city.

Jonathan went out into the field, he gave the sign, the signal to David. Jonathan will never see David again after this point. Their friendship, at least the joy of their friendship ends in lives being saved. It ends while they lost, other people benefited. I just love Jonathan. It would be a study in and of itself, the characteristics of this man and how God used him. He becomes a picture for us what true friendship looks like, true fidelity, true loyalty to David and ultimately to the Lord at whatever cost.

Once again, we'll find David on the run. We'll find David in very difficult circumstances in our coming chapters. I just encourage you as our last final word for us before we head out. As I pray, some of you just really need to practically in your mind come back to the rock or to the Stone Ezel, the rock that shows the way. God has a word for you. He has direction for you. He can take you back from despair. You don't have to go backward.

In baseball, when you are running and you run to first and you run to second and you run to third and there's a pop fly and they catch it, you have to go back to first, but you've got to touch all the bases to go back. You can't like on T-ball just run all over the place wherever you want and then run back. It's fun to watch, but that's not the rules. The rules of baseball is if you get all the way to third on a high pop fly and they catch it, in order for you not to be out also, you've got to run all the way back in order.

So if you're on third, you've got to go back to second and back to first, and that's why most people are out. That's why most people don't run that far. They wait and they go halfway. But with the Lord, if you find yourself in a place that you don't belong, you don't have to go through all the steps to get back. He can take you all the way back to T-ball and you can just run wherever you want straight back to the Lord.

You can just come straight back. You can come on a squiggly line if you want. You can come and throw dirt in the air like the kids do. You can throw your hat in the air. You can do whatever you want, but just come back to the Lord. You don't have to come back on all the different steps. So you find yourself in great despair and you go, "Well, if I'm in despair, I better get back to discouragement or depression." Don't worry about all that.

I was only giving you the progress to show where you are in your distance from the Lord. But if you want to come back, just come back. Just come back with that discouragement. Lay it at the Rock Ezel and wait for the answer of the Lord. If you stick around in places, you may find a few spears that you can avoid. You may be in a place where you just come back away from the spear and you come back to the one whose hands were speared for you.

You can come back to a place of strength, and it's not your strength. It's the grace of God. It's not your physical strength and it's not your ability and it's not you picking yourself up by your bootstraps and "I'll get through this." You're just like, "Lord, I know I couldn't make it without you. I trust you today." I know you're coming back and I want to serve you, and here I am at the Rock Ezel. Show me the way. Show me the way, Lord. Give me the direction.

I just want to thank you for your prayers, your encouragement. Sometimes you don't even know what you're praying for. Most of the time I never tell you, at least what's going on in my life, but you just pray. You pray for your pastor, you pray for your pastors, you pray for their wives, and you pray for their kids. You go, "But Ed, Pastor Ed, I don't know any of that." Well, why not? Why haven't you asked? Is there a pastor on your heart? Yes. Then pray.