Sound Doctrine

Jeff Johnson: Grab hold of God's vision for you today on Sound Doctrine. I believe, church, that God wants to revive our vision today. He wants to renew our vision that we would see the lost saved and have a burden and a passion to go to them. He wants to restore the church back to having a heart like God has a heart and eyes as He has eyes to see the fields that are ripened to harvest, to see the many sheep with no shepherd. Renew that passion for lost souls to receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Guest (Male): Hey, welcome once again to Sound Doctrine, online at sounddoctrineradio.org. Maybe like the man we'll hear about today, you're greatly distressed in a crisis. What do you do and where do you turn at such times? Reach for a gallon of ice cream and go into seclusion? Actually, there's a much better response. Pastor Jeff Johnson says there's strength for the faint-hearted to be found in 1 Samuel chapter 30. Let's find our place there now.

Jeff Johnson: 1 Samuel chapter 30. This morning we're going to talk about strength for the faint-hearted. And I think it's needed so much in these days. Jesus said this in Matthew's Gospel—we have it out in the back kind of in a paraphrased version—but He said, "Come unto me all ye that are laboring and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

David at this time has bottomed out. He is heavy laden, covered with burdens. He has just lost everything in his life. Rejected by the Philistines, he goes home to find it totally burned, and his family has been taken away into slavery. And even his friends now are turning on him to stone him. It can't get much worse than this.

And David, we saw last week, is at a crossroads because anytime this all comes down on an individual, you can choose now which way you're going to go. What are you going to do? How are you going to react? So David here is at the crossroad. Now, really, I think we should ask the question, how did he get here? And of course, we've already seen in chapter 27 that David got his eyes off the Lord and on himself. He was looking in his own heart, thinking and leaning to his own understanding, that he was going to die by the hand of Saul, which was a full-on lie. He was being deceived.

And so he lost his vision for God. His eyes were off the Lord. The upward was no longer upward; it was now inward. He was looking at himself: "What can I do to get out of this?" And of course, the next step was in chapter 28; he goes off to live with the enemy. So he loses his passion to serve the Lord. First he loses his vision, then he loses his passion. He no longer has a passion to go on for the Lord. He goes to the enemy. That inward drive is gone.

And so the action now in his life—and that is really the outward show of our vision for the Lord, of our passion for the Lord, is what we're doing for the Lord—we know that his action then, his service for God, halted. Now, church, I believe today that we are at the crossroads because of all that's been going on, because of what we're seeing today in the world that we're living in today. We have a choice whether we're going to live or whether we're going to die as a church. Whether we're going to be churchy or we're going to be Christ-centered.

It's up to each one of us. David decided to strengthen himself in the Lord. Remember, we saw that his rejection and all that he was receiving in his personal life was really his protection. God was looking out after David, as He's looking out after us. But there comes a point where we must choose. He'll lead us to the water—you can lead a horse to water, but what? You can't make him drink. And the Lord is saying, "I want you to drink."

David began to drink. He began to take in the Lord in his life, and he decided to get back with the Lord. He repented of his going off in his backslidden ways, and he sought the Lord. Now, someone has asked me, how long does this take for you to get right with the Lord? And I just have to look at this experience of David and say, "Hey, it happens right away." Right away, David, as he turned towards the Lord, it took place in his heart and in his life. The moment he started to confess his sins, God began to restore and to begin to bring back all that he had lost, that he could recover everything.

I think it's the same way with us. But we must drink. Now, it is a contagious thing because we saw that not only did David repent, but all of his men who were going to stone him, now, instead of picking up the stones to stone him, they're dropping them. They watch David. They're looking at his changed heart, and they're going, "Whoa, this is what we wanted. The old David back, seeking the Lord." And so they all then joined in, his men, back on track for God.

There's a song we used to sing a long time ago: "It only takes a spark to get a fire going." And that spark lit off David, and David took many with him because of that fire that was burning in his heart for God. I believe, church, that God wants to revive our vision today. He wants to renew our vision that we would see the lost saved and have a burden and a passion to go to them. He wants to restore the church back to having a heart like God has a heart and eyes as He has eyes to see the fields that are ripened to harvest, to see the many sheep with no shepherd.

To renew that passion for lost souls, to receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit, that we would desire to move out and pursue. That we would get on, instead of the defense all the time, on the offense and start moving in the areas of the enemy. Start praying as never before. Start having power over people's lives that are held by the enemy. That we need to pursue, church. We need to get it on for the Lord. And as we do, the Holy Spirit will fill us. And that empowerment, that anointing, will come and people will hear the gospel and people will get saved. Bars will be shut down and the whole bit. Video centers that the R and X section will be—no one there. They'll have to close the sections down because people are getting saved.

But we've got to cry out first and sense the loss that we're experiencing. Holy Spirit, reveal to us, convict us in our hearts of just being lethargic as Christians, apathetic. Looking around and saying, "Well, I'm saved, I hope they get saved," and just kind of settling in, ending up on a pew once or twice a week and just sitting there receiving, going and doing our same old thing. Lord, renew us, refresh us, send us forth. Let it be that excitement of the move of God, that we don't know what's coming up next, that we're excited for what God is doing.

Break us out of this apathetic place that we're in because every minute that is ticking, every second that is ticking, is a soul going to hell. Someone is going into an eternity without God, without Christ. They're lost forever. As we truly repent as David did and pray, God will hear. God will heal, like He said in 2 Chronicles 7:14. He will heal what needs to be healed and He will move out and we will go as never before and pursue as David did.

Now, looking at 1 Samuel chapter 30, we left off in verse 11. I want to read 10 again, though, because it has everything to do with where we're going today. Look at this, 1 Samuel 30, verse 10. And it says, "And David pursued." Who did he pursue? Those that were taking his family, those that were ripping him off. He went after his enemy because God said, "Do it." And he said, "All right." And he pursued, he and 400 men. For notice 200 abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the Brook Besor. So 200 very faint stayed behind; the rest, 400, pursued.

Verse 11, "And they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David, and gave him bread and he did eat. And they made him drink water. And they gave him a piece of cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit came again unto him." I mean, he had a sugar high. "For he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights. And David said unto him, 'To whom belongest thou? And whence art thou? Where'd you come from?' And he said, 'I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me because three days ago I fell sick.'"

And that's his story, this Egyptian slave. As you look at this guy, I can see here a type of us. In other words, we came out of Egypt, didn't we? Which is a type of the world all the way through the Bible. Egypt is a type of the world. And he's a slave to an Amalekite, which is a type of the flesh throughout the scriptures. And really, man is no—he's not really a free moral agent like he might think he is. Because if you're here this morning and you are without Christ, let me tell you something. You are, according to the Bible, a child of disobedience and you're a child of wrath. And you're under a taskmaster that hates you and that is devouring your life. You are a slave to your flesh, to the world, and to Satan out there. He is your god if God is not your god.

That's pretty scary, isn't it? That's true. That's Bible. If you're not serving the Lord God and you haven't received Christ, you're serving Satan out there and you're under his bondage and he could care less about your life. He loves to kill and to destroy lives. The Bible says we were dead in our trespasses and sins. You know what the enemy does? He seeks to condemn us and then to cause us to continue in sin. And that's what he's doing with the world. In other words, he tempts us, he gets us to do the act, and then he seeks to destroy us by condemning us for doing the act. I mean, it's a game that he plays with mankind as they're caught up in their sins, as they need deliverance.

And then he leaves you for dead. But I'll tell you something. He is, number one, a liar. He's been lying to you and he's been deceiving you. There is a way out. There is a way to have freedom. There is a way to be what you always wanted to be. There is a place of joy and happiness in the Lord. And Jesus gave us that way out. And so I want you to notice that as this Egyptian was left for dead, this slave, so much like us, notice he is brought to David. As we—and it's a beautiful analogy—we have been brought to the Lord, to the Son of David, by the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit brings us to the Father. He's the one that's tugging on your heart this morning to get your life right with the Lord. And He's the one that brought us all to the Father and to the Son, Jesus Christ.

And so this Egyptian is brought to David. In other words, we didn't choose the Lord; He chose us and He called us. We were sick in sin. It's a cancer, a fatal disease that was working in our lives. And Jesus then gives us the bread of life, the Word of God, and it brought forth life in us. He gives us of the water, the living water, and we begin to partake of the things of the Lord, which is awesome. And so we're revived as this guy was, and we're joined with the Son of God. And so he joined himself with David. He was committed with David, he was dedicated to David, to serve and obey him.

And I want you to notice something, that he was sick for three days. Now, it's interesting that David's men were actually traveling for three days, and then he got sick three days. So I thought to myself, well, who made him sick? Who got this guy sick and put him out in front of David's men so they could find out some information? I think it was the Lord. You say, "God makes people sick?" Well, you know, He allows it, doesn't He? And everything's under His control. There's a purpose and a reason for everything.

And so they run into this Egyptian, verse 14. And then they asked him, "What's going on?" He said, "Well, we made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites, and upon the coast which belongeth to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire." And so you know, it just so happens that this Egyptian is right in David's way. But I want you to see also that David is being the good Samaritan. He didn't ask this guy—he didn't think he was going to get any information out of him. He just flat out helped him, didn't he? He had a heart just to help somebody.

Listen, when you help somebody, there's going to be many things coming back to you. You cannot but help somebody and be blessed. As we reach out to one another, as we help one another, we are going to be blessed. David just helped this man, and he was just a slave by the side of the road dying. Gave him what he basically needed, got him on his feet again, and then started talking to him. And this guy starts giving him information. "Well, I was with this horde of Amalekites, you know, and we did some real damage and in Ziklag, we burned the whole place."

And then verse 15, he said, "And David said to him, 'Can you bring me down to this company?'" And the Egyptian slave said, "Well, if you swear to me by God that thou wilt neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master—I don't want that guy again—I will bring thee down to this company." So as the slave, we also, after dedicating our lives to the Lord, we also ask for assurance, don't we? As the slave, "Well, if you'll just promise me, and then the Lord comes and He says, 'If you'll just not let me go. I mean, I just want to stay with You. Don't let me go.'" And so we come to the Lord, and the Lord says, "He that comes to me I will in no wise cast out." He says, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. I will never leave thee nor forsake you." And we're going, "Yes!" And then the Lord asks us of something and we go, "You bet I'll tell you."

Just like the Egyptian said, "Oh, you want to know where these guys are? I'll be happy to tell you where they're at, leaving me out here to die like a dog, you know. I'm going to lead you. Come with me, I'll show you exactly where they're at." Look at verse 16. "And when they had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating, drinking, dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah. David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening, a whole day long. He went after them and there escaped not a man of them, not one of them, except 400."

I thought that was interesting. Not a man escaped, but 400. There must have been an awful lot of Amalekites because 400 is nothing, you know. Just 400 rode away on camels, probably the young ones, you know. They were the ones that were able to run to the camel, get on the camel, get out of there. And 400 escaped. And David recovered all the Amalekites had carried away. I love that, he recovered all. And David rescued his two wives and there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that they had taken to them. David recovered all. David took all the flocks and the herds which they drove before those other cattle and said, "This is David's spoil."

And so these Amalekites, their picnic that they were having out there on that plain turned to panic as the Egyptian led David and his 400 men ready to battle. They wanted to get their family and supplies back and they were going down in that camp to do these Amalekites under completely. And they slaughtered them. Note that it says David recovered all. David got back everything that was lost in his transgression. When he got away from the Lord—when you get away from the Lord, you begin to lose things. David lost a lot, and yet it says he recovered all. Even more than all that he had, he had more cattle than he could do with, and he had so many things of the spoils of the Amalekites.

There are three words that the Son of David said, and this is Jesus hanging on the cross. He said, "It is finished." The words there mean, "It is paid in full." In other words, everything now can be recovered that was lost because of sin. And so the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ brings forth what? Redemption and restoration to man. You can recover all that was like before the fall. God wants to bless man today if he'll just repent.

Remember, this happened right after David chose to repent. This took place in his life. He started to recover things. It started to happen. God used the Amalekites, which is a symbol of the flesh, to be the chastening hand of God, and He used them to bring David around to his senses. And I think it's the same thing that He did in my life, and if you look in your own life, you'll see it too. That God uses the flesh, the world, and Satan to get us to the point to where we cry out Abba. To where we are at that crossroad and we're the only ones that can make that decision. Man's free will, your choice. What are you going to do? You're right there. And you're tired of the world and you know your flesh is no good, and you know that you messed up your life.

And so it brings you to that place of decision. And because of my life, because of my weakness for just the things of the world and drugs and all of that, my life was messed up. I sat there—yes, I was married, but my marriage was ridiculous. It was void, without form. We just looked at each other and we said, "Is this life?" We were dissatisfied. I came to the Lord finally and I made that step. And you know what happened? My marriage ended up in separation and then eventually divorce. But it happens. The walls started to come down. The rejection was there. Yes, there was rejection. I was rejected by my wife. She hated my guts. I'd call her up on the phone wanting to just tell her that I love her and that Jesus loves her, and she just freaked out on the other line.

Yes, there was rejection. But God was building a new house. He had to tear down the walls to build a new house. And our lives were in a mess, and yet my life had hope. And I was seeing God begin to restore, and I hung on to Matthew 6:33: "Seek first the kingdom of God, His righteousness, and all things will be added unto you. I'll recover everything." And I just held on to that. And God brought my wife and my child to Himself, and everything was beginning to be restored. He even gave us another blessing, our youngest daughter, Tara. What a blessing she was in our lives. And then later on in our lives, we found two children that we put up for adoption in high school, and they became a part of our family and of our life. You talk about restoration even from the past that was all in darkness and sin, all of a sudden here these two kids are coming our way and they're a part of our family now.

It's incredible what God can do as He blesses and as He restores. It all begins, though, when we seek the Lord, as David said, "That's it, I'm going to seek God." And it's our choice, isn't it? But the promise of God is for you, and God's promise is that He wants to restore the years that the cankerworm has tried to destroy. He wants to restore everything.

Guest (Male): Pastor Jeff Johnson sharing a bit of his story today on Sound Doctrine. we hope you were encouraged by what he had to say. And don't go away, he'll be right back with more. What you heard today is one part of a study in 1 Samuel. We pray you've been blessed by what you've heard today. 1 Samuel is filled with practical insights for Christian living, and if you'd like to hear this study again, go to sounddoctrineradio.org or listen through the Sound Doctrine podcast app. You can also hear Sound Doctrine on oneplace.com and wherever you enjoy podcasts. That includes Apple Podcasts and Spotify. If you'd like to get behind what we're doing and donate to this radio outreach, you can do so at sounddoctrineradio.org by clicking the give tab. And thank you very much for your support. It's greatly appreciated and will be put to good use, helping others build their lives on the sound doctrine found in God's Word. Pastor Jeff rejoins us now in 1 Samuel chapter 30 at verse 21.

Jeff Johnson: Verse 21. "And David came to the 200 men which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the Brook Besor, and they went forth to meet David and to meet the people that were with him. And when David came near to the people, he saluted them." And answered all the wicked men and the men of Belial of those that went with David and said, "Because they went not with us, we will not give them ought of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man will we give him his wife and his children back, that they may lead them away and depart."

So David returns to greet the faint ones. Remember the ones we left behind? With all the spoil, David comes back. And you always got those brothers of the prodigal. You know what I'm talking about? The guy that was always home. The prodigal went out and he did his thing and he blew it and he did this, that, and the other. He comes back and he gets everything. Kill the fatted calf, do this, do that. And the brother's sitting there, "Well, Dad, you never did that for me. What's going on?" And you always got those guys that are going to start griping.

Well, we have them right here. These jealous troublemakers that are right in David's midst, part of the 400 men that went with him. Men of Belial, or men of foolishness, of wickedness, lacking God's love and lacking understanding of God's love. They were just kind of cold and hard. We'll finish up this message next time. We're just about finished with 1 Samuel. Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Downey.