1 SAMUEL 22 PURSUE GODS HEART AFTER YOUVE BEEN ACTING CRAZY2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Samuel 22 Pursue Gods Heart After Youve Been Acting Crazy

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2017.

Well, this evening we're going to be in 1 Samuel chapter 22, continuing this journey with now focusing on David, who is on his way to be king, but it's a long road to the place where he is finally on the throne. In fact, it's not going to be until 2 Samuel that David is on the throne. And between now and then, he is going to be on the run. He's going to be going through a series of things that God has allowed and set up in his life to prepare him for victory.

the rule and the kingdom that God is establishing for him. And so we're picking up with David in this season where he is on the run from Saul. He has just fled from the Philistines and he tried to hide amongst the Philistine land in the city of Gath for a little bit and it didn't work out so well and he ran. And so now we find him in verse one and I want to look at verses one through five and then we'll jump into the message this evening. Verse one says,

David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who is in distress, everyone who is in debt, and everyone who is discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them, and there were about 400 men with him.

Verse 5.

Now the prophet Gad said to David, do not stay in the stronghold, depart and go to the land of Judah. So David departed and went into the forest of Horeth. This evening I've titled the message, Pursue God's Heart After You've Been Acting Crazy.

I don't know if you've ever been acting crazy before. Have you ever had those seasons of acting crazy? David had this season of acting crazy. In verse 1, it tells us that he escaped to the cave of Adullam. He escaped from the Philistines. And he initially was trying to hide with the Philistines so that Saul wouldn't chase him. But

They recognized David and they said, oh, this is the guy that killed Goliath. They sing the song of him. Saul is slain his thousands, but David is tens of thousands. And as David realized he was recognized and as they brought him before the king, he resorted to pretending to be crazy. Crazy.

And he was scratching on the walls and letting drool dribble down his beard and just really going all out to put on the show to convince people that he was absolutely insane. And so he got away through

humiliating himself and humbling himself to a great extent. And he ended up in this situation because, well, he was fleeing for his life, but we find that he wasn't really seeking the Lord and looking to the Lord for guidance in this time. And so this is one of those occasions where we see that David is

Although he was the man after God's own heart, he was not a perfect man, and he made mistakes, and he didn't always seek the Lord, and he sometimes messed up in this way or in that way and failed here or failed there. And so now he's coming back from this time where he's been trying to do things on his own, and it hasn't worked out very well. It's brought him to the point where he was acting crazy.

And I think that is something that every one of us can relate to, to one degree or another, that there are different seasons of our life where we've been acting crazy. And sometimes you kind of come out of that season, there's like an awakening, and then all of a sudden it dawns on you like,

What in the world have I been doing? Like, why am I behaving this way? Why am I thinking this way? Why is, you know, how did we get here and we realize how crazy we've been for, you know, this past season? And that is true of David, but it's true of every one of us. Listen, if it's true of David, the anointed king, you know, the one that God said, this is a man after my own heart, it's true of every one of us. That we all have these seasons of, well,

Well, we've messed up. We've tried to do things on our own or we've gone a bad direction. We've made some poor decisions. We've, you know, been acting crazy and it's brought us to this point of great humbling.

And sometimes, like David, we run to the enemy and we try to address our situations and address the things that we're facing in enemy territory and with the enemy's tactics and with the enemy's sword. And we see those things happening with David. And sometimes we have to go through these humbling situations where there is this great

Like, we just have to be completely humbled and wiped out in order, you know, for us to get back on track and escape out of that to the cave of Adullam. And in the midst of this, David, of course, is going through extreme trials. I mean, he's, you know, reached a peak of, you know, awesome success.

with Goliath, but it's kind of been downhill ever since then, you know, with Saul throwing spears at him and chasing him and dealing with issues here and there and attempts on his life and battles with the Philistines. And now he's a fugitive and barely escaped the Philistines. And there's just been all of this turmoil in his life in the midst of him

Him not really being right where he needs to be with the Lord. Now, last week we focused here on verses 1 through 5 and looked at the Psalms that corresponded with this and saw that this was kind of a turning point as David is getting his heart and his mind back right with God.

And it's important to note that as he does that, he comes back to right where he needs to be with the Lord. As he does that, we get to see then, well, what does it look like when a man who pursues the heart of God is recovering from a season of acting crazy, recovering from a season of

failure and bad decisions and, you know, these kinds of things. And he sets a model for us that we can follow so that when we have our seasons of acting crazy, we can see how God wants us to respond and to come forth out of that as we turn back to the Lord and the things that need to be set in order.

One thing that's been said over and over and over again, but is worth saying over and over and over again, is that God is a God of second chances, and, you know, third chances, and fourth chances. That

He is a God who brings us back from the seasons of acting crazy and the seasons of bad decisions and the seasons of failure and even outright sin issues, that he is a God who is just amazing in his grace and his mercy at bringing us back from those things and giving us more opportunities to walk with him and even to be a part of the work that he wants to do in our lives.

And yet many times, this is the point where people give up in their relationship with God and in their walk with God because, well, they've been absolutely humbled. You can imagine David, he was humiliated to come to the point where he had to act crazy. It required, you know,

Great humiliation. This is not like the character trait, the good trait of humility in the sense of, you know, he was humble, but he was humbled, you know, and he was forced to be just absolutely without dignity. And that is humiliation.

you know, hurtful to our pride. It's very disastrous for our pride. And many times as we're recovering from these seasons of acting crazy, there is that kind of humiliation as we realize, as we recognize. And it's at that point, a lot of people give up and it's hard to recover because of our pride from, you know, the recognition and the confession of how crazy we've

On Sunday, we spent some time considering the grace of God. And it's interesting, you know, we can all talk about the grace of God. And I think every one of us would say, I believe in the grace of God. But it's a little bit different to agree that the concept and the doctrine of grace exists in the word of God and to know it and to be able to articulate it.

But then to have to live it out is a whole different thing where you are the one who's been acting crazy and you are so undeserving of anything good that God would ever do for you. And yet God wants to pour out his grace upon you.

And it can be really difficult for you and I to accept and receive the grace of God because of our own pride, because of our own issues, because of our own mental status as we're coming out of these situations. I believe in the grace of God until I actually know that I

need the grace of God, and I don't deserve to be, you know, having blessings from God or used by God, and that's where the rubber meets the road. You know, we can be all fans of the grace of God until we're at that point of brokenness, and we absolutely need the grace of God more than ever before, and that's where David is. And so how do we go forward from there? Well, David sets a great model for us, and so pursuing God's heart after you've been acting crazy, there's five points we'll look at as we work our way through the chapter.

The first one is found in verses one and two, and that is lead the people that God brings to you.

So even though you've been acting crazy, even though you've messed up, you've been in enemy territory, you've made bad decisions, you haven't sought the Lord, you've, you know, come to this point of just the rock bottom, you might say, and yet God still is calling David to lead the people that he brings to him. Verse 1 again says,

and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, then they went down there to him and everyone who is in distress and everyone who is in debt and everyone who is discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them and there were about 400 men with him.

So we find that David here, he's alone in the cave. In the psalm we saw, he was crying out in his loneliness and he felt that loneliness. He ached and experienced that. But God brings him these people. And as God brings him these people, they're not just like a mob. You know what I mean? It's not just, you know, democracy or free for all. He brought them and notice what it says in verse two, he became captain over them.

David became captain. Now, I don't know if you have...

had to take a position of leadership or had to take a role of leadership in a situation where you were very conscious of your lack of deserving it, your lack of, you know, like, I have no business leading in this time or in this place or in this situation. And that's where David was at. And yet, this is what God has set before him and called him to. And remember, he is anointed to be king. He is called to lead. Right?

And so when God brings him people, he's called to lead this group of people. Now, if he was going to be gathering together an army, this probably wasn't the group of guys that he would choose. They were the ones who were discontented and in debt. And, you know, they're the messed up guys. And yet it's the people that God brought to him. And it would be easy for David to say, I'm not worthy. Right?

I have no business leading. Look at how I've made so many bad decisions. Look at how I've gone forward without seeking the Lord. Look at how I've had to resort to just a complete humiliation. I have no business. I'm not worthy to lead these men.

But here's the thing that I would ask you to consider for David, but also for us in those situations where we're called to lead or perhaps to go forward and do things after we've messed up, after we've been, you know, astray or made some bad decisions and we're wrestling with this concept of I'm not worthy. You know, I have no business doing these things. What we may forget at that time is that that was absolutely true

before your season of acting crazy. You say, I'm not worthy. You were never worthy.

I was never worthy. David was never worthy to lead. None of us are ever worthy of the work that God calls us to and the work that God wants to do and the ministry that he wants to accomplish and the things that he wants to do in us. And none of us are ever worthy. And so that doesn't change by a season of acting crazy because we weren't worthy before. And so what you...

Say afterwards, well, you don't understand. Like, I'm really not worthy. Exactly, yes. And you weren't worthy before. What you forget is that you weren't worthy before. And again, this is the importance of the doctrine of grace and mercy. And it's one thing, again, to understand the concept, but then when we're in that place of,

You're going to have to actually receive the mercy and grace of God. And that just doesn't mean you just kind of like leave there and just, you know, God blesses you and God works in your life. That means God's going to call you to things and he's going to give you responsibility and opportunity. And you're going to have to actually believe in the mercy and grace of God and go forward and lead, even though you maybe haven't made such good decisions and you've been acting crazy in your own life.

Or you're going to have to go forward and take those opportunities that God sets before you, even though you've not been such a great example and you've messed up here and messed up there that you're

Even after you've been acting crazy, you still need to take those opportunities that God sets before you. Because of his mercy and grace, you can. You were never worthy before, and so that hasn't changed. I know you ladies just went through the book of Galatians, and I was thinking about that situation where Paul corrected Peter, right? And that's an interesting situation to consider, right?

Here's Peter. He's behaving hypocritically. Paul corrects him to his face. And then you know what happens? Peter has to continue to lead. He's an apostle. He's just been corrected by another apostle. But, you know, the others around would be like, yeah, but Peter was like one of the originals, you know. And here's Peter corrected. But then try to picture Peter.

Now, next Sunday is Peter's turn to teach, and he has to go up and teach even though he's just been corrected by Paul in front of everybody. Like, that's part of the reality of life, that we're going to make bad decisions, and we're going to be hypocrites, and we're going to mess up, and we're going to fall short, and we're going to be corrected, and sometimes it's going to be public, and everybody's going to know it. Sometimes it's going to be private, and only we know it. But either way, we are still then called to come back

in the mercy and grace of God and go forward in the things that God has called us to do. Peter was still called to lead. He was still called to be an apostle. That didn't change even though he had been a hypocrite for a while. He was still called to be an apostle. And David here sets a model for us. He became a captain, even though just a few days earlier, he was acting crazy in enemy territory, using enemy weapons, you know, trying to do things on his own, not seeking the Lord. He was all on his own and he,

And now here he is back. He's called out to the Lord again. He's aligned his heart back right with the Lord. And so when God brings him people, he becomes the captain. And he begins to lead these men. And he does a great job. And as you see, you know, going forward in the life and ministry of David, that these 400 become the core of his army and become the mighty men of David later on. That it's a work that God does through this process. But it begins with David leading them.

Even though he wasn't worthy, even though he didn't deserve it, even though he had messed up, he continued to pursue God's heart and lead the people that God had brought to him. Well, moving on to verses three and four, we have point number two.

After you've been acting crazy, pursuing God's heart also means that you, well, you still fulfill your responsibilities. In verse 3, it tells us, then David went from there to Mizpah of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, please let my father and mother come here with you till I know what God will do for me. So he brought them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.

Here in verse three and four, what I would point out is that David here is taking care of his responsibilities. That is his family, his mom and dad. Now they come to him while he's out in the cave. He becomes the captain of the men. He's not the captain of his family. He's the son of his family, right? Of his mom and dad that like, he's still a son. And as a son, he has a responsibility to his parents to take care of them. And they're now in danger, right?

because Saul is out to get David, his family is in danger. And as we'll see later on in the chapter, Saul's not afraid to just wipe out a whole town or village to get back at David and to try to get things the way that he wants them. And so his family runs to him, flees to him. He's taking them under his protection.

But he's also recognizing, I can't live on the run with mom and dad, you know, always in danger. Like, there's just no way to make this work. And so he goes down to Moab.

Now Moab was where his grandmother was from. Remember David's grandmother was Ruth. And so she was from Moab. And so there's some family relationship there. And perhaps that's why David went to Moab. It's also kind of like down south and around the Dead Sea. And so there was some safety there in that.

And so he takes mom and dad down there. Now, I don't know about you, but I kind of like to imagine these things out a little bit. I kind of picture David's mom like, hey, what happened? Why is this happening, David? And why did you do that? And why did you go over there? And did you really act crazy? Did you let spit go down your beard? And just all the questions that a mom might ask in this situation. What are you going to do? And how are we going to get through this? And so he takes them down, but he asks the king, hey, can you take care of them and just watch over them until I know what God will do for me?

Again, we saw this last week, David. He knew God had a plan. He knew God was at work. He just didn't know what the plan was and what that entailed and what that involved. And so in the meantime, he's doing his best to take care of mom and dad. And this is not a huge earth shattering revelation or anything, but I think it's an important point for us to remember and consider that

we do have responsibilities in this life. There's responsibilities that we have to our family.

And that is to, you know, our immediate family, but then also, you know, to those who have gone before us. We have responsibilities in our community and to society and with, you know, our response to the government and relationship with the government and all of those things. And so there's a variety of responsibilities that we could consider. But just thinking about the family for a moment, I would ask you to think about 1 Timothy 5.

There, Paul goes through a discussion of dealing with widows who are within the church. And there was a responsibility for the church to help provide for widows, specifically because in their culture, widows, they had no means of income. There wasn't social security. There wasn't any retirement. If their husband died,

Their society was built in a way that it was men who had opportunity to have an income and make money, and women really didn't have that opportunity. And so a widow would be in usually a very difficult situation with not much opportunity to have any kind of income, and so they were reliant upon money.

Well, their family or the church, if they were believers, in order to help them provide for them. So the church had this kind of, you know, list of widows that they would help and support and provide for. And Paul goes through the criteria of, well, how to evaluate that and how to, you know, make sure that you're providing for widows who are really in need. And so in talking through that in verse four of 1 Timothy chapter five, Paul says this,

He says, Now, he's talking about widows, talking about providing for them, supporting them through the church. But he says, you know, if someone has in their home a widow...

then they should provide for the widow. Don't let the church be burdened. And in fact, he says to repay their parents. And so he's talking specifically about your mom and dad.

and your, you know, family in that way. And he says, look, you have a responsibility and it's even a matter of repayment for your parents to minister to them in their need in that season of life and to not let them be a burden upon others. And that is a responsibility that we have.

It goes on to talk about a few different things in 1 Timothy 5, but jumping to verse 8, he says, Now that's a verse I've known for a long time, but it only kind of dawned on me recently that

The context. He's talking here about widows. I usually think of verse 8 and I think about like immediate family. You know, like a mom and dad and kids. Like you got to provide for your own family. And of course, that is important and that's part of what Paul is addressing here. But specifically, he's talking about your older family.

And you have a responsibility to provide for them and to meet their needs. That's part of your God-given responsibilities. And it's a matter of repayment. And so honor your father and mother. And that is something that, you know, God wants you to do. Now, the interesting thing to factor in here is that, well, David is recovering from his, you know, craziness and his, you know,

out in the wilderness away from the Lord. And at the same time, he is going through extreme difficulty as he is on the run for his own life. And yet he still goes out of his way to fulfill this responsibility that he has to his family. Pastor David Guzik says this. He says, we sometimes think that

That when we are going through trials, we have a license to be unloving and selfish. But David shows that we can and must care about others instead of becoming self-focused in times of trial.

And I just want to remind us this evening that you have responsibilities to your family, again, you know, to society, to our government. You have responsibilities to the body of Christ and to the Lord. And many times the times of trial and the season of difficulty, we use those as excuses to neglect our responsibilities and

But we have those responsibilities. And even if we've been acting crazy, and even if life is insanely hard, we still need to be faithful and to fulfill these responsibilities that God has given to us. And so there's things in your life that you still need to do, even though life is hard, even though you've been acting crazy. Keep pressing on in fulfilling those responsibilities.

Well, moving on to verse five, we have point number three this evening, and that is hear from God and obey. In verse five, it says, now the prophet Gad said to David, do not stay in the stronghold, depart and go to the land of Judah. So David departed and went into the forest of Horeth.

So now the prophet Gad speaks to David and says, don't stay here. God doesn't want you here. You can't stay in Moab. You got to go back to the land of Judah. Now the land of Judah was the dangerous land. David would be much safer in the sense of far away from Saul in Moab. But God didn't want David in the safe place, in the stronghold away from Saul. God wanted David in Judah.

Where he would be on the run and his life would be threatened, ongoing, daily. That's where God wanted him. God said, go back there. And so this wasn't an easy thing for David to do. It wasn't an easy command for David to follow. But you'll see there that as the Lord speaks to the prophet Gad, then David departed and went to the forest of Horeth. That's in the land of Judah. He does exactly what God tells him to do. And again, sometimes after we've come out of a season of acting crazy, we can say,

kind of try to punish ourselves a little bit as God is speaking to us, saying, you know, we don't really deserve to hear from the Lord. We sometimes don't seek the Lord because we don't expect to hear from God because we know we've been acting crazy. We put ourselves on timeout. We keep ourselves distant from God. Again, some of these things we talked about on Sunday, that we really need to believe God.

in the mercy and the grace of God and enter into the presence of God and come. We have a sympathetic high priest who recognizes and knows and understands our weaknesses and he has compassion. And so we can come to God and we can hear from God, but then also we need to take it to the next step and to make sure that we obey God. And sometimes because we are in that place of brokenness and weakness, having gone through that season of acting crazy,

obeying God is really difficult in those times. And again, we wrestle with all these things in our minds and in our hearts about how unworthy we are and how messed up we are. And we wonder if God's out to get us and why does God want me in the dangerous place? This wasn't punishment. All right, David, you...

tried to hide amongst the Philistines and you had to act crazy to get out. And so I'm going to punish you for a little bit, go back to the wilderness of Judah. And you're going to have to have a hard life there for a while to make up for all that you've done. No, no, no. This wasn't punishment. This was, this is just God getting David right back where he needed to be and back on track. And, and in a similar way, as God speaks to you, understand that, that he is not trying to, he's not trying to pay you back for your sin. God already took care of the sin issue with Christ and

The payment for sin is done. Now, there's still our repercussions, and we'll see that later on in this chapter. There's still things that happen in life as a result of our bad choices and bad decisions, but God's not out to get you because of those. And so you have free access to God. You can come before God to hear from Him and then take it the next step and obey.

And do what God puts upon your heart and do the things that God calls you to and get back into that walk and that relationship of hearing from God and doing what God says and walking with him. How do you pursue God's heart after you've been acting crazy? It's pretty straightforward. It's not that complicated. Get back to hearing from God and doing what he says. And David learns this lesson. We'll see as we head into chapter 23 that David is just constantly, Lord, should I do this? Okay, yeah.

Lord, should I do this? All right. Should I do this? What do you think about this? Should I do this? And he is just constantly asking God and provides such a great example for us that this is how we need to be continuing to call out to the Lord. I'm unworthy. I don't deserve to hear from the Lord. And God, you know, shouldn't bless me and all of that. He shouldn't lead me. He shouldn't give me direction. You know, all of that. Yes, yes, all true. But it was true before you went through that time of craziness.

That's the grace and the mercy of God. It doesn't matter that you've been acting crazy and messed up and wandering around and making bad decisions and, you know, in all kinds of stuff. God still invites you in. You come by faith in Jesus Christ. You come because of who he is, not because of who you are or how you've been. So we need to pursue God's heart, to hear from him and to obey.

Well, moving on to verses six through 19 now, it's a big chunk, but we're gonna look at this and see that in point number four, we need to pursue God's heart after we've been acting crazy, even when the consequences are severe. Now, again, there sometimes are consequences

It's not God punishing us or trying to pay us back for our sin, but it's just, this is the result. This is why God says don't sin, because sin has repercussions, and there's consequences. There's things that result as sin takes place. And here in this passage, just gonna give a quick spoiler before we get into it, what we're gonna see is Saul wipes out the priests and a whole village in Jerusalem.

His anger at David escaping and the priest Ahimelech's part in that. And so talking about severe consequences, there was some severe consequences for David lying to the priest and handling things the way that he did. And yet what we see here in this chapter is that David comes back and he gets back on track and he begins to pursue God's heart, even though the consequences are severe, even though many people suffered and were hurt and harmed and injured and killed because of David's mistake.

he still came back and pursued the heart of God. And so that's an example for us. Verse six, it tells us,

When Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered, now Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tamarisk tree in Ramah with a spear in his hand and all his servants standing about him. Then Saul said to his servants who stood about him, here now you Benjamites, will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards and make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds?

So now we're shifting the scene. We've been looking at David there in the cave and the men gathering, going to Moab, coming back. And now the scene changes. The curtain comes down, it comes back. And now we're looking at Saul under the tamarisk tree with his men yelling and screaming at them because he is upset. And so in this, I'm going to do what I don't usually do and usually wouldn't advise teachers to do, but I'm going to teach a little sub message here. Here's

Here's what to do now when your leader is acting crazy. And as we look at this scene with Saul, we can see him acting crazy and how we can handle that as we look at some of the things that are happening here.

I thought that John Trapp had a really insightful comment on the situation with Saul. He says that his anger was bent against the Lord himself for taking away his kingdom and giving it to another. And because he could not come at the Lord, therefore he recketh his rage upon his priests. And we'll see that attack in just a few moments. But there he points out, Saul was angry that the Lord was taking away his kingdom.

And it really comes down to this. Saul is behaving this way and attacking David. And he is angry because God is taking away his kingdom. It's his own self-centeredness and selfishness that has brought Saul to this place. And so he is now acting crazy because he's so upset at God because of God's plan and what God is doing. Now, he had a choice and it wasn't, you know, forced upon him. But

It was Saul's choices that has brought him to this point where God has said, I'm taking the kingdom from you and giving it to someone better. But Saul is furiously fighting against God. And listen, when there's people in authority over you who are acting crazy, you can be assured they're fighting against God.

They're fighting against God. This is the condition and situation of those who are acting crazy, those who are being unreasonable, those who are coming against us and behaving in the way that Saul is. And so a few quick points, and we're just gonna hit these briefly. But the first thing I would encourage you, when your leader's acting crazy, and maybe that includes me, from time to time perhaps, resist the manipulation, right?

In verse 7, as Saul is yelling at his servants, he says, here now, you Benjamites, will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards and make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds? Saul is doing what he can to get people on his side. He knows. God's told him several times he is not going to continue to be king and God's giving it to someone else. But he is manipulating them and saying, look, guys, if you go along with me in my plan, if you fight God with me, then...

I'll give you fields and vineyards. If you join with God and, you know, side with David, then, well, don't expect him to give you anything. And so he is manipulating the people and making promises and bribes to the people. If you go with me, you know, then I will get you what you want and give you these things.

He moves from that on into guilt trips in verse eight. He says, all of you have conspired against me and there is no one who reveals to me that my son has made a covenant with the son of Jesse. And there is not one of you who is sorry for me or reveals to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait as it is this day.

Now he's laying a guilt trip on them. You guys have all conspired and you guys don't feel sorry for me. And what's wrong with you? You know, that you've allowed this to happen and you've not jumped in. He's talking to his men, his court, those who perhaps would have known about David and Jonathan and their friendship and, you know, those kinds of things. And so Saul is laying this guilt upon them and kind of throwing himself a pity party and asking them to attend, sending out the invitations with, you know, ribbons and such.

He's saying, come on, guys, you know, feel bad for me and be part of this with me. And you guys are wrong for not doing that. Now, Doeg, we saw Doeg in the previous chapter, chapter 21. He was at the tabernacle when David went there.

he sees this as an opportunity to advance. He basically falls prey, or maybe even, not even falls prey, but runs into willingly and joyfully to this manipulation. And he says, oh, you're going to give me lands and you're going to put me in charge, make me captain? Okay, I'm in. And so verse nine, then answered Doeg the Edomite, who has set over the servants of Saul and said, I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitab.

And he inquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine. And so Doeg says, okay, I'll take that. You know, yeah. You want to give me lands? You want to make me a captain? Here's what I know. Here's what happened. And David went here. He went to this priest. He went to this place. And here's what happened as he went there. And so he now is blaming the priest for,

for helping David to get away. Secondly, if your leader is acting crazy, I would say that we need to speak the truth. Verse 11. So the king sent to call Ahimelech, the priest and the son of Ahitab and all his father's house, the priests who were in Nob, and they all came to the king. And Saul said, here now, son of Ahitab,

He answered,

Did I then begin to inquire of God for him? Far be it from me, but not the king impute anything to his servant or to any in the house of my father, for your servant knew nothing of all this little or much. Ahimelech speaks the truth. Even though this is clearly a dangerous situation, Saul summons not just Ahimelech, but his whole family, all the priests come now to Saul.

And the accusation is pretty serious. Why have you conspired against me? You and the son of Jesse, and you've, you know, inquired of God that he should rise against me. And so he's saying, look, you're part of this conspiracy and you've been part of counseling David to rise up against me. You've been part of this revolt that is happening led by David. And so these are some serious accusations. And,

Ahimelech in this situation, probably just like you and I, you know what happens when there is some serious situations and some serious threats. It is always a temptation to try to alleviate that with some deviation from the truth. Ahimelech doesn't though. He's just clear. He wasn't part of any conspiracy. He did give David bread. He did give David

Goliath's sword. But the accusation is not just that. It's that he is helping David and advising David and, you know, seeking God for David to help him fight against Saul. And Ahimelech, he says, I didn't know anything about that, little or much. I had no part in that. And he's not just trying to like get out of a sticky situation by, you know, saying that, but he's actually speaking the truth. Now, if Ahimelech had inquired of the Lord for David, then, well, he probably

hopefully would have just said that. But that wasn't their exchange. That wasn't their interaction. That wasn't what they did. Instead, David lied to Himalek. And so David's really put him in this situation because as he says, I didn't know about this at all, little or much. I knew nothing about this. I thought David and you were fine. I didn't know there was any kind of uprising or issue. And so he was ignorant. And

And he honestly and truthfully is able to express that before the king. But there's going to be some serious consequences because David did not speak the truth. Even though, so Ahimelech, when his leader, King Saul, is acting crazy, he speaks the truth. David didn't speak the truth when his leader was acting crazy because Saul was trying to kill him. And so as a result, we're going to see the events that unfold in a couple verses that follow.

Well, number three, when your leader's acting crazy, disobey when necessary. Verse 16, "'And the king said, "'You shall surely die, Ahimelech, "'you and all your father's house.' "'Then the king said to the guards who stood about him, "'Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, "'because their hand also is with David, "'and because they knew when he fled "'and did not tell it to me. "'But the servants of the king would not lift their hands "'to strike the priests of the Lord.'"

Here we see finally a ray of light that's not from David, from the guards. As they're issued this command, kill the priests. And the guards, they say, no, we can't do that. They disobey the king. Now, we've talked about authority before. We recognize Romans chapter 13. There is a strong command from the Lord to obey authorities that he's placed in our lives.

Now, authorities that he's placed in our lives are authorities in our lives. So don't think of, well, you know, God didn't place that authority, not that boss. No, no, no. Any authority in your life, God's put that position of authority. He's established that position of authority. And obeying those authorities is obeying the Lord. That is something that God makes clear throughout his scriptures. But

There is the exception, and there is the time where we must say, like the apostles to the Sanhedrin, when they were commanded to not preach the gospel, then they said, we must obey God rather than men. And there comes a point, when your leader's acting crazy, that you need to put God first. And even at the risk of your own hurt or harm, that you need to obey God first.

before you obey that leader who is asking you or commanding you to do something that God does not want you to do, that God has forbidden or that is wrong. And so there is a place to take a stand that it's not just take orders and just do whatever you want. For the most part, that's true. But when there is a conflict between those instructions and what God has said, then we must obey God first. And so we have a good example here of disobeying when necessary.

When it's unreasonable, you know, up to this point, they've been going along, but at this point, the guards say, okay, that's it with that. We can't do that. We can't do this execution of the priests. But then along comes Doeg again, verse 18.

And the king said to Doeg, you turn and kill the priests. And he said, okay, great. I would want to do that my whole life. So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck the priests and killed on that day 85 men who wore a linen ephod. Verse 19, also nobbed the city of priests. He struck with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing infants, oxen and donkeys and sheep with the edge of the sword. Doeg was quite the scoundrel. I got no problem killing priests. I'll kill them all right now. 85 men.

Men who wore the linen ephod, that is 85 priests, were executed there by Doeg at the command of Saul. But then he goes beyond that. He goes to the city of the priests and he wipes out the people there, the men, the women, the children, the animals, just completely wipes out these people for this wicked cause.

That's the example of what not to do. When your leader's acting crazy, resist the manipulation. There's going to be manipulation. You can guarantee it because that's how the enemy works. And so his agents work that way too. Speak the truth. And sometimes it's going to be really difficult. And that's going to be in the face of, you know, very tense situations. And it's going to be exactly opposite of what that leader wants to hear. But speak the truth and be honest.

about what's really going on, but then also be ready to disobey when necessary. Most of the time obey, but when it comes in conflict with what God says and what God wants, then there needs to be that stand for righteousness and stand for what God says. All right, so that's the sub-message. Going back to the original message, pursue God's heart after you've been acting crazy. Now, the point here in verses six through 19 is even when the consequences are severe,

I don't know if any of us have made any kind of mistake or had a season of acting crazy that cost 85 priests their lives and the whole city has been wiped out as a result of our one season of craziness. Perhaps that is the case, that we've wrecked some serious devastation on other people as a result of our choices.

But this is one of the great things about the word of God and the examples that were provided. Here we have this situation where the consequences were absolutely severe. David put Ahimelech in this situation. Now, it's Saul who executed these things. And so, you know, there's no, this is not alleviating Saul of his responsibility at all. But David had a part to play in this. And he'll say that in just a couple of verses. And the consequences were severe. But

Even with the severity of these consequences, David comes back and goes forward in the pursuit of God's heart. And again, when we've been acting crazy and when, you know, those chickens come home to roost or whatever that old saying is, you know, we start to face the music or pay the piper or whatever, you know, whatever saying you want to use. You know, all those things, they start and we're seeing the devastation. We're seeing the consequences. And even when they're very severe, again, this is the point where many times we're

people will give up, walk away, because it is hard and it is hurtful. It's hard, it's hurtful to recognize my mistake has cost you, has hurt you, has hurt many. It's one thing when my mistake hurts me, but my mistake hurts everybody around me. And sometimes the pain of facing that brings people to a place where they won't go forward. But don't make it worse.

Even though the consequences are severe, don't make it worse by not pursuing God now and not hearing from God and obeying and going forward and leading where God's called you to lead and being involved where God's called you to be involved and fulfilling your responsibility. Don't make it worse by now running from those things and neglecting those things. That will lead to worse things. As painful as it is to get back and right with God and go forward and pursue God's heart when you're faced with those severe consequences, it'll only get worse.

If you don't, and so even when the consequences are severe, and even if, you know, villages have died for your mistake, you need to get back where God has called you to be in walking with him and even serving him in the capacity that he's given to you. Well, finishing it up in verses 20 through 23, we have point number five, and that is make restitution when you can.

Verse 20 says, So David said to Abiathar, So as Doeg is attacking and killing all the priests, one of them escapes.

And he escapes and he runs to David and he tells David what happened. Now, if you want some extra credit, you can later on read Psalm 52, which is a Psalm that David wrote after this report comes to him. It's a Psalm specifically wrote about Doag and this news that he gets about Doag's report and what Doag did in killing all of the priests. And so that'll give some insight into what's going on in David's heart and mind there.

I think it's interesting that David says, I've caused the death of all the persons of your father's house. Now again, Saul's the crazy one here. I mean, he's obviously the bad guy, but David is saying, I had a part in that because of his dishonesty, because of his deception in dealing with the priest. Now, it could have gone down the same way if David had gone to the priest and said, look, I'm on the run. Saul's trying to kill me, but will you help me?

But he would have given Ahimelech, the priest, the opportunity to make a choice and to participate willingly or to not participate, you know,

He would have given him that choice if he would not have been deceptive. And so that's what David is saying here is I've caused the death of all the persons of your father's house because I chose to be deceptive. I didn't give him an opportunity to make a choice to participate or not. And if he chose to participate and to help me and suffer the consequences, you know, I would still feel bad, but I didn't force him into that situation with my deception.

And so instead he says, I forced it because I was lying, because I was deceiving. I brought this upon your house. Now, again, you know, he's faced with the severity of the consequences of his action. It's a simple thing, you know, it was a simple lie. It wasn't a huge, horrible thing that David did, but sometimes those have some very serious consequences. Again, that's why God says, don't do it because sin hurts and it's painful and it causes devastation.

But here he is face to face. Now, can you imagine that? Just try to picture yourself there for just a moment. Face to face with the lone survivor of a family that you caused to be killed. You were part of it because of your deception. Face to face, what do you do? Run away and hide in a cave and say, I'm never worthy to be used by the Lord again. I'm never worthy to do anything good or right or, you know what I mean? I think we would all be tempted to do that.

Here David is face to face with someone who has been hurt deeply and greatly because of the consequences of David's actions. And here's what David says in verse 23. Stay with me. Do not fear for he who seeks my life seeks your life. But with me, you shall be safe. David says, I'll take care of you. I can't bring back your family. I can't make up for the mistake. I can't, you know, pay you back for that. But what I can do is I can take care of you now. Stay with me.

And I'll make sure that you're protected. I'll make sure that you're provided for. I'll make sure that you're taken care of. You'll be safe with me. As Saul's out to get you, he's out to get me too, but I know how to run from him. I know how to hide from him. I'll take care of you. And I see this as David making restitution. Restitution is kind of an old school word. It's not one that we use a whole lot, but restitution.

It speaks of making things right. And I think it's an important thing for us to consider that we do make mistakes. So we have seasons of acting crazy and we cost things for people. And there's most of the time not ways you can't bring people back from the dead in order to repay, right? And even if you did, it would still not fully repay that there's no way to like completely make someone whole and make up for something that you've done. There's not that.

much opportunity to really undo so that it's like it never happened. But you can and even should do what you can to make restitution, to make things right when you've hurt, when you've wronged, when you've harmed. And other people have suffered as a result of the consequences of your decisions.

I found this quote from Billy Graham. He says, one way we know that we've given our lives to Christ is that we regret the wrong things we once did. And if possible, we want to make them right. God has forgiven all your sins, but he also wants you to do whatever you can to heal any hurts or undo any damage you've caused. And you can't, again, fix everything and go back and make it like it never happened and make up for everything. You can't. He says, one of the evidences is

Remember what Paul said about repentance? Like what zeal, what vehement desire it produced in you that you wanted to make things right. You wanted to do your best to make things whole once again.

I think you can also see this pictured by Zacchaeus in Luke chapter 19 as he comes and gets right with the Lord, right? And he says, if I've wronged anybody, I'm gonna pay them back fourfold, right? I can't really make up for that, but I'm gonna do my best to make restitution and to pay back and to make things right with those that I've wronged. And so in your season of craziness, as you are brought face to face with those who have been hurt or harmed or wronged, make restitution where you can.

Do what you can to make things right. Ask for forgiveness. Provide some kind of support or blessing or restitution, you know, depending on the form or fashion of the hurt and the harm that it's going to change. But to look for those opportunities and to seek those opportunities, it's a sign of real repentance. And we see that demonstrated by David. And so even though we act crazy, and we all do because we're human, we mess up, we fall short, we fail, we have seasons of

Bad decisions and seasons of running from God and seasons of living in enemy territory. We all face those things.

But as we come out of those things, we need to come back to pursuing the heart of God and leading the people that God brings us. We've all been called to minister to people. We've all been called to make disciples. And that doesn't change even though you've been acting crazy. You need to get back to what God's called you to. Get back to where God wants you to be. And you also need to fulfill your responsibilities. Just because it's hard, just because you're going through a lot, just because there's a lot of trials doesn't mean you can neglect God.

You're God-given responsibilities, and there's things that God has called you to do, and so make sure you fulfill those. Make sure you hear from God and obey him, that you walk with God, even though you don't deserve it. You never did, but God wants to speak to you and lead you. Don't make things worse by continuing to act crazy and not hearing from the Lord and doing what he says.

Even when the consequences are severe and you're faced with, oh man, how hurtful it is to see the devastation that your decisions have made and brought upon people around you. And yet, if you don't continue to pursue God's heart and go forward, you only make things worse. And then finally, make restitution where you can. If you can make restitution, if you can do things to make things right, then you need to do that. And

You can't pay back. You can't. Sin takes away. It's like squeezing toothpaste out of a tooth. You can't put it back in. But maybe there's some other ways that God could show you that you can make a difference and that you can alleviate some of the pain and the hurt that has been brought upon by your decisions. So pursue God's heart.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.