1 SAMUEL 27-30 THERE IS SOMETHING BETTER FOR YOU2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Samuel 27-30 There Is Something Better For You

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 2018. Well, this morning, as we're beginning here in chapter 27 of 1 Samuel, we're looking at David. And as I said, he's really at a low point in his life.

By this time, David has been under a lot of pressure as Saul has been chasing him around the wilderness. And you probably can relate, and I'm sure you've experienced times of extreme pressure, great stress, and you might categorize this as a time of depression in David's life and a time of great discouragement in his life as he has been on the run. And day after day, Saul has been trying to catch him and kill him.

And day after day, David narrowly escapes, but it seems like it's getting closer and closer every time. And he's really at the end of this time of waiting, and he just can't take it anymore. And he begins to make some bad decisions as a result, under the pressure of his circumstances, under the extreme emotions that he's experiencing, and the things that he's thinking. It causes him to go down a path that, well, it leads him to a very dark place.

in his life. I've titled the message this morning, There is Something Better for You. It comes out of verse one here where it tells us that David said in his heart, he says, I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines. Here's David under this great pressure.

Feeling these extreme emotions, feeling this intensity and this discouragement that he's in. And he comes to a conclusion as he's thinking through things in his mind. He decides there's nothing better for me than to go live with the Philistines. And as we watch him go down this path and follow that train of thought, I want to encourage you this morning. There is something better for you.

There are many cases where, like David, under the situations that we face and the difficult circumstances that we go through, under extreme emotions in our own lives and discouragement and depression and anxiety and all of these things that we feel just like David felt, we can also, like David, conclude that

There's nothing better for me. And sitting there under the immense pressure of all that we're facing, we can, like David, make some very poor choices that will take us down a very dark path, a dark season in our lives.

And this morning I would ask you to kind of look up in the midst of that, not diminishing the difficulty, not diminishing the pain. What David was going through was severe and serious, and the issues that he wrestled with were very strong and impactful to him, just like the things that you and I face individually. They impact us so much. They hurt so much. They are so difficult and many times so heavy to bear.

But at the same time, I would ask us to remember, to look up, to grasp hold of the things that God says and recognize that there is, you may feel like there's nothing better for you, but there is something better for you in God's plan. Sometimes we have to learn that lesson by watching someone live it out in the bad example. So we learn not to go that way.

In talking about this segment of David's life, Pastor David Guzik says this, in his discouraged despair, David is at a place that many find themselves at some point in their lives. He says, I give up. I can't take this anymore. The stress of trusting God is too much and I have to find protection somewhere else.

We can relate to David because we face similar kinds of discouragement, similar kinds of despair, and we can't come to the place where we are very tempted to give up. Now, in this time of great discouragement and anxiety and stress and depression and however you might want to classify that, here we find David in verse 1 talking to himself. Notice it says at the beginning in verse 1, and David said in his heart,

David's having a conversation with himself, and it's noteworthy because what David was really known for and the highlights of David's life are those where we find him talking not to himself, but talking to the Lord.

You know, we have all of these psalms written by David that are a reflection of his communion with God, his connection to God. He knew the Lord and loved the Lord and went through highs and lows with God as reflected throughout the psalms.

Earlier in Samuel, we've seen David inquire of the Lord step by step. As he's going from one place to another and making decisions, he is constantly calling out to the Lord, asking the Lord for direction and guidance and looking for God to work in his life. But here as we enter into chapter 27, although God has done so much so far, David finds himself in a place where he's not talking to the Lord. He's talking to

And the real problem with that is that what he tells himself is not the truth. He tells himself a lie. It tells us in verse 1, David comes to this conclusion, although God has promised David that he will reign in place of Saul, David can't see how that could ever be fulfilled.

Again, it's not so much an idea that David desired to run away from God or something like that, but just facing the reality of the emotions he was experiencing and the pressure upon him and the difficulty and the long time that this has endured. David has really come to the end of himself trusting God and

And has come to a conclusion, I can't see how this could come out any other way. Saul's going to catch me one of these days. I mean, I can only escape so many times. Eventually your luck runs out, right? You might say, but it wasn't luck that has protected David thus far. It's the Lord. But David's failing to see that at this point. In the mix of all that he's going through, what's happening in his head and in his heart, he's unable to see that God's hand is still upon him and God's promises will still be fulfilled. But as he talks to himself,

He convinces himself, this is certain. Saul is going to catch me one day. It's not hard to understand why David came to this conclusion. And it's not hard to relate. We all experience similar things. We face great discouragement and depression. And we are tempted to tell ourselves lies. We're tempted to come to conclusions that are not at all what God has promised or God has said.

We can, as Christians, find ourselves in a place where we thought it was going to be so much easier and so much better because we have God in our lives and we can wrestle with and struggle with, why is it so hard? Why is there this great discouragement and depression? And, you know, sometimes...

It can be kind of just thrown at us like, hey, you shouldn't be depressed. Take joy. You know, it's, you know, you shouldn't have discouragement. It's, it should be so easy. And that is sometimes communicated to us. Sometimes that's what we believe. And so when we experience times of difficulty like this, oh man, we can find like David coming, ourselves coming to the conclusion. There's got to be something better, but I have to figure it out because it's not, it's not in this place that God has put me. And David decides he's going to go live with the Philistines.

For a year and four months, he's with the Philistines in a very dark and tragic part of his life. And again, this morning, I would say there is something better for you. Learn from the example of David. And so we're going to walk through some pieces of David's life in this season, starting here in chapter 27 with these verses we read. Here's point number one. It's not found in your own plan.

There is something better for you. You can rest assured. I can guarantee you that God has something better for you, but it's not going to be found by you coming up with your own plan. It's not going to be found by your approach, your wisdom, your techniques. It's going to be found in God's plan. But David has a plan. There's nothing better for me. Going again at verse 1, he says...

Nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines, and Saul will despair of me to seek me anymore in any part of Israel, so I shall escape out of his hand. Here's David's plan. I'm going to hide in the territory of the Philistines. If I cross over the border to the Philistine territory, well, here's what I know about Saul, David would say. He is terrified of the Philistines.

He hates to fight them. He runs every chance he can from them. He doesn't want to fight them. If I go and hide in their territory, there's no way he's going to be bold enough to chase me down over there. Here in the wilderness, oh yeah, he has free reign. He can, you know, just chase me around, circle, circles. We've been doing this for a couple years already. But if I go over there, Saul won't dare to venture in because he's too afraid of the Philistines.

Rational plan, logical, makes sense, right? We could all understand, hey, this sounds pretty good. But the problem with this plan is what God had already instructed David to do. If you go back a few chapters to 1 Samuel chapter 22, the prophet Gad speaks to David and says, do not stay in the stronghold, depart and go to the land of Judah. So David departed and went to the forest of Horeth.

There at that time, David had gone to Moab, another nation out of Judah. And so he had taken his family there and asked the king to protect them. And then he just kind of hung out there. It was like, hey, I'm in the stronghold. I'm in another nation and kind of protected from Saul. This is nice. I mean, it's a stronghold. I feel really secure here. This is great. But then the Lord speaks to David and says, this is not where I want you. That's cool. Drop off your parents. That's good. Yeah, leave them. But you need to go back to Judah.

And I could imagine, and I probably have the same wrestling matches with the Lord, but Lord, in Judah, I'm getting chased, and my life is threatened, and there's not provisions, and I have to scrounge in the wilderness, and it's desert out there. It's hard. It's difficult. It's painful. It's hurtful. You know, all of these things that you could think through, but David hears this message from the Lord and goes back to Judah. He goes back at that time, and he endures for a

He endures and puts up with the afflictions of Saul. He puts up with the persecutions and the attacks. And now again, he's at this place where, man, I just need a break. There has to be something better. And so he goes to the Philistines. In verse four, it tells us, it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he sought him no more. This is one of the most deceitful parts of our own plans, is that on a very short term, it can look like, hey, this was a good idea.

This worked. David crosses the border. He goes to Gath, the Philistine city. And what he wanted happened. Saul stopped chasing him. It looks like it's working great. Beautiful plan, successful. But the problem is David was now heading down a path that he will regret greatly later on. Many times our plans do seem to work at first. In the very short term, it can have consequences.

Some great highlights and seem to be really successful. But that's not what God has for you. God has something better for you than what your plans can accomplish. Listen, great men and women of God have faced this throughout all of history. You can go back to the book of Genesis. Think about Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 when there was a famine in the land and Abraham came up with a plan. All right, let's go to Egypt.

Now, God said, go to the land of Canaan. And Abraham says, well, that was good until there was a famine, but now let's go to Egypt. And he goes down to Egypt. But then as he's heading down to Egypt, he realizes, oh man, they're going to really like Sarah. They're going to probably kill me so they can have her. So, okay, Sarah, you tell them you're my sister. Don't mention the fact that we're actually married. We'll just kind of leave that, you know, unsaid. And then you'll be protected and I'll be preserved. And

They get down there, and that story, you know, is floated, and Sarah is taken into, to be a concubine of the king down there, and there's a lot of problems that happen as a result. Now, at first, it seems like it goes pretty good. I mean, her life is spared, his life is spared. They're able to eat, you know, from the famine, but it wasn't a good plan. Even though the first moments might have been successful, it wasn't a good plan. It turned out to be worse than

than if they would have stuck with what God said. Think about Abraham and Sarah's family plan. As God promised, hey, you're going to have a child. I'm going to give you a son. And they wait a couple years. They wait a decade. It's still not happening. Well, let's come up with our own plan. And it works. Hagar gets pregnant. But it wasn't God's plan. It wasn't God's promise. And it turned out, although it looked successful at first...

It turned out to be more trouble, more difficulty, more hurts and pain for them in the long run than if they had just stuck with what God had said. I think about Peter yanking out his sword in the garden of Gethsemane. Here's Jesus about to be arrested. And he says, you know what? I have a plan. I'm going to take on all these Roman soldiers by myself.

None of these cowards will draw their sword. So I'll take care of this. And he begins to hack away. He's not very good. He only lops off an ear, which Jesus immediately heals. But he has a plan. He's convinced. There's great pressure. I can't let them do this to Jesus. And he has to do something. And we could look at example after example of men and women who love God, who walked with God, just like you and I.

But in that moment where there was pressure, where there was discouragement, where there was, man, it seems like there has to be a better way. And we take things into our own hands and hatch our own plan. It happens many times when we're talking to ourselves, not the truth, but talking to ourselves with our own conclusions and telling ourselves a lie. And we feel trapped. There's no doubt about that. We feel like there are no other options, but it's not true. Hold fast to

to what God says. There is something better for you, but it's not found in your own plan. It's going to be found in God's plan. And there's no safer place to be than right where God wants you to be. Even if that place feels scarier and looks more dangerous and seems like a terrible idea, the safest place for you to be is right in the center of God's will, walking in his ways.

There is something better for you, but it's not found in your own plan. End point number two, moving on to verses 8 through 12. It's also not found in a double life. This plan that David hatches, it takes him down a path that now he's going to have to live a double life. And that's never a good idea. Verse 8 tells us this.

And David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Gerzites, and the Amalekites. For those nations were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as you go to Shur, even as far as the land of Egypt. Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman alive, but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Achish. Verse 10. Then Achish would say, where have you made a raid today?

And David would say against the southern area of Judah or against the southern area of the Jeremelites or against the southern area of the Kenites. And so now as David is in the land of the Philistines, it seems like this plan is a good plan. He's accepted there. He now needs a place to stay. He gets a city, Ziklag. He now needs to have some provisions. And it's the right thing to do. He needs to pay tribute to Achish, the king of Gath, and

allow him or provide for him, you know, to be able to stay there. And so David at this time becomes a raider. Now he should have become a ram, but he became a raider. No, I'm just kidding. He becomes one of those guys who goes out and takes advantage of isolated cities that have little protection. It tells us in verse 8, he would go and he would raid these different peoples, the Geshurites, the

And what he would do is he would take from them sheep and oxen, donkeys, camels. He's using his strength, using his might to take what belongs to others for himself. And on top of that, David becomes a murderer. He's not just going and taking what he wants.

But he's actually executing the people of these villages. In verse 9, it says, This is behavior that we would not expect from the man after God's own heart, right? This is behavior that we wouldn't expect from a good man or a godly man because David has gone down a path that's really dark and not intentionally dark.

Never would David have intended, if you go back to verse 1 of chapter 27, there's nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines. David was not saying at that time, there's nothing better for me than if I go become a raider and a murderer and go kill people and take their stuff so I can have all kinds of stuff that I want. That was not David's original intention. He would have never said that at that point. But this is the issue with sin in our lives.

is it takes us farther down, farther away. We find ourselves doing things that we would have never thought we would do. We find ourselves involved in things that we would be shocked by if we were told that, you know, just months or years before that, no way, I would never be doing that. But here we find David doing what we would never expect.

behaving in really a despicable way. The commentator Adam Clark puts it this way. He says, I undertake no defense of this conduct of David. It is all bad, all defenseless. God vindicates him not. It's false to say that because these things are recorded, therefore they are approved. In all these transactions, David was in no sense a man after God's own heart. David was, like you and I, imperfect and flawed.

And although the general overview of his life was he was a man after God's heart, he pursued the heart of God, he sought to please God, he had seasons in his life where that was laid aside. And they're recorded for us so that we see the truth and we see the reality, but also they're recorded for us so that we learn the lesson, so that when we have these kinds of choices to make, when we're sitting down in the dust and depressed and discouraged and thinking, I'm

There's nothing better for me than to launch my own plan and go to this route that we would be able to take heed and be warned. It leads to some dark things like living a double life. Here is David being a raider, being a murderer, but he's pretending not to be. He would come back to Achish and Achish would say, hey, well, where have you been today? Oh, you know, here's where I went. I went and attacked my people, the people of Judah.

I went and fought them and I attacked them and I stole from them. And here's some tributes from that for you. From David's perspective, you could see him saying, well, I have to do this. I don't want to kill all these people, but I have to. It's not pretty, but I don't have a choice because otherwise I might get caught.

It tells us in verse 11, David would save neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath. You see, here's the real issue. Here's what David's afraid of. He's afraid of getting found out. He's not so concerned about the behavior. It's not his favorite, but he has to do what he has to do. But the thing is, oh man.

You know what kept David awake at night? What he was fearful of? He'd be like, trying to think, did I get everybody? Is there going to be some messenger that escapes and that gets out and tells Achish or the Philistines or people around what I've done? He was working hard to keep his activities secret. David's living a double life, behaving terribly and working hard to keep it hidden. All the while thinking, I have to.

I had to kill everyone or I would get caught. I had to lie to Achish or I would get caught. And again, this is the path of sin. You take a step down that direction. You take a step down your own plan and pretty soon you're going to find yourself saying, well, I have to do this because of this. And then I have to do that because of that. And you begin to add on. It's not just that one choice that was made, but now it's many choices added.

that are bringing down great, great judgment upon you. There's that old saying, it's been around for a long time, sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. We always forget that somehow at the beginning. Chapter 27, verse 1, when we're sitting there, we always forget that because that plan, it seems so good.

Seems like it'll work and we might even try it and it does seem to work right away. But it takes us down a path that we end up somewhere we didn't want to go. We never intended to go there and we certainly didn't want to stay there, but now we're stuck here. We didn't think it would cost this much. We didn't think it would have to be so much pain and difficulty. We thought it'd be so much better, but no, no, there is much more to pay. There is something better, but it's not found this way.

It's not found in your own plan, coming up with your own ideas and your own, you know, approaches. And it's not found in living a double life. Is there things in your life that you have to hide and lie to cover up? And you feel like you have to because, you know, you can't get caught. You can't get, but if you have to lie to cover things up in your life like that, listen, let me just tell you, something is terribly wrong. You're not right where God wants you to be.

And you may have convinced yourself and there might be all kinds of justifications. And like David, you could explain exactly why, but it's not the truth. Living a double life is never a good idea. It's not going to be found there that you find the better life that you're looking for and that God has for you. Well, moving on, we're going to look briefly at chapters 28 and 29 for point number three. And that is, it is not found in people or position. Sometimes we're chasing after people.

Affirmation, acceptance, love. We could be chasing after a lot of things. And so we're looking to be fulfilled in these different areas in our lives by the people around us or by maybe some position or accomplishment. In verse one of chapter 28, it says, now it happened in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for war to fight with Israel. And Achish said to David, you assuredly know that you will go out with me to battle you and your men.

So David said to Achish, surely you know what your servant can do. And Achish said to David, therefore, I will make you one of my chief guardians forever. At this point, David has now been in the land of the Philistines for a little bit. And they would fight in certain seasons in those days. And so, you know, there were seasons you wouldn't want to go fight in the middle of winter when it's muddy and rainy, you know, that kind of stuff. So in the springtime, they would go to war. And that was the season for battle.

And so now we find David there. He's been there some time. Now spring has come and the Philistines are preparing themselves. It says that in verse one, they gathered their armies together for war. They're preparing the troops, sending out the word, you know, to all the different farms and the people around. Hey, come on in guys. Time to get together again. We're going to gather together to fight against Israel. And Achish, as he is preparing for that, he's gathering his guys, but David's one of his guys. Now he pulls in David and says, David,

You assuredly know you're going to be with me on the battlefield, right? You and your men, you're coming with me. We're going to go fight against Israel. David, I want you with me. David, I want you to be there on the battlefield. Let's fight Israel together. Now, just try to picture where David's coming from for a moment. After years of running from Saul, almost being caught, having spears thrown at you by this one Saul that David loved Saul.

From the very beginning, it says when David became his armor bearer, that David loved Saul all the way to the end, even in Saul's death, that David had a great love for Saul. He never got that back from Saul. What he got was suspicion and attack and persecution and opposition. And now here is David. Oh man, after years of running from Saul, it must feel so nice to have the authority sit you down and say, I think you're really amazing.

I want you with me on the battlefield. Would you come with me? You guys come and fight with me. Achish says, I want you in the battle. Saul says, I want to kill you. You know, like what a contrast. And here is David in enemy territory with the enemy, but the enemy is expressing things that David has longed for from Saul and never got. And so David says, surely you know what your servant can do. I'm with you. I'll go to battle with you. David here is finding fulfillment in

There is something being met internally in him, emotionally, mentally, that this feels way better than what was happening with him in Saul.

And we can, in a similar place, try to find fulfillment. There's something internally that's missing. There is something that we're, there's an ache, there's a thirst, there's a desire, and we're looking for love or acceptance. We're looking for family or support or just not to be, you know, attacked and killed. You know, we're looking for something and we try to find that. We try to fulfill that with the people around us many times.

And so we'll get involved with certain groups. We'll hang out with certain people. And even though it's not where God has called us, but we're there because of some choices that led us there. We're there because of this need that we have and these desires that we have. And they may seem to be met in these relationships. Having this position, he says, hey, I'll make you one of my chief guardians. Like, wow, I get a place, you know, of honor, right?

where I had a place of shame before with Saul. It might fulfill you for a season, for a short time, but it's not going to last. In chapter 29, Achish tries to bring David onto the battlefield and the lords of the Philistines are saying, are you crazy? This is David. They sang that song about him. Remember, you remember that popular hit? You know, Saul is slain his thousands, but David is tens of thousands. It was on the top 10 charts for years, you know? So we're not going to let him on the battlefield. There's no way. And they send him home.

And all that he might have had, those good feelings and that connection that he had with Achish, and all of that begins to dissolve. It's not the fulfilling thing that David thought it was. Kind of reminds me of the woman that Jesus met at the well. Remember her in John chapter 4? He sits down with her, they're having a talk, and he says, why don't you go get your husband and come back, let's continue this conversation. And she says, oh, I don't have a husband. And Jesus says, you're right. You've had five husbands, and you've had five wives.

And the guy that you're living with right now, he's not your husband. You're not married to him. So you've, you had a thirst, you had a need, you had a desire, you got married, found out, you know, I don't know, this guy, he's not really satisfying after all. He doesn't really, you know, I could have done better. So you separate from him and now you're on to the second guy. And all right, now this time, this marriage is going to last. This one's going to be for real. This one's going to be amazing. And we're going to have a covenant marriage and there's going to be all kinds of goodness and

But that one, after time, that one falls apart. Okay, well, here's guy number three. Oh, now this one. I mean, I'm really, I know I said that before about those other two guys, but this time, this is really the guy, and I'm really going to be committed, and I'm not going to go wishy-washy like I did in the other ones. I know some of that was my fault. So no, this time I'm going to do better, and this is going to satisfy me. This is going to fulfill me, and that falls apart, and we move on to guy number four, then guy number five. Now she's with some other guy, the thirst guy.

for love, for acceptance, for support, for encouragement, for help, for connection. Oh, it's real. It's strong, and it drives us sometimes from person to person to person to person to person to person, and God uses people in our lives in a good way and connects us. The body of Christ is God's people connected together in a really powerful and impacting way, but to try to do that in our own plan and away from God's plan, you know, people try to do that. They

Connect together. They live together before marriage. They try to do God's plan, what God established in marriage outside of marriage and wonder why it doesn't work. But it can't be accomplished another way. It can only be experienced in the midst of God's plan. And God has a place for people to have a really important and impactful and beneficial way in your life. But it's not this route. It's not this route.

There is something better for you, not in your own plan, but in God's plan. It's not going to be found in people or position. That thing that you've been wanting and accepting and craving and desiring, it's not going to be fulfilled that way. You're not going to find that better life that way. Moving on into chapter 30, now we get point number four, and that is it's not found at rock bottom. It seems pretty obvious, right? There's something better for you, and it's not found when you hit rock bottom. Verse one.

Now it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag and attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire and had taken captive the women and those who were there from small to great. They did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. So David and his men came to the city and there it was burned with fire and their wives, their sons, their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who are with him lifted up their voice and wept.

until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives, Ahinom the Jezreelitess and Abigail, the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. Verse 6, Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. Here we find David, now it's near the end of this season.

But before he's able to get out of this season, this dark and bleak season of his life, he's come to rock bottom. He's at a place where he has lost everything. As they're on their way back from the battlefield when the Philistines sent them home, another group of raiders, behaving like he did, except for not as bad because they didn't kill everybody, but they came in, they wiped out his city. They took...

everything that was there. They took all of the people that were there and then they burned the buildings. They burned the walls to the ground. And so when David and his men get back, they've lost everything. And think about this. The reason why they originally came to the land of the Philistines was so they could be protected and just have a nice peaceful life and just everything would go great. But that's not what they experienced. Now they come back and their family has been taken. Their wives, their children, their

Everyone they left behind, it's just David and the soldiers that are left now. Everybody else has been taken captive. But also think about this. All the treasure that David has accumulated over the past year of raiding and marauding and murdering, he's been taking livestock, he's been taking whatever he could find and enriching himself and providing for himself.

All of that's gone now too, because, well, that was left at the city. And now they've come through and they've taken everything. They've got all of those things that he accumulated that whole year. Everything that he has built in this time has been destroyed. And now his closest friends are ready to kill him. I mean, this is rock bottom. It tells us David was greatly distressed for the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved.

And you can understand where they're coming from because they're in this with David. They've lost all of their family. They've lost everything that they've earned and gained over the past year and a half and working so hard for. And here they are. This one who has been leading them has brought all of this upon them and dragged them through the mud with him. And they're like, man, this is it. We need to put David to death. Let's get rid of him.

He's caused us so much hurt and harm. These are the guys who have been with David since the beginning. They're not just random strangers or rogue mercenaries. These are now close friends, but they're so hurt. They've turned against David. They've hit rock bottom. David's hit rock bottom. This is the end of his plan. This is where it leads.

And again, we go through these things in the scriptures because it's important for us to see the end result of these things so that when we're tempted, sitting there in the mud in chapter 27, verse 1, saying, there's nothing better for me that we would stop telling ourselves a lie and realize as good as that route looks, that plan that I've come up with, it looks great. It's not going to turn out as good as I think it is. Lord, help us to not believe the lies that we tell ourselves. As we're journeying down the path, I mean...

We can see things kind of turning south, but a lot of things in life are only accomplished by sticking it out. And so we kind of press on in our path. I know it's costing me a lot, but if I keep paying, if I keep paying, eventually it's going to pay off.

That's true of a lot of things in life. You think about school, like, hey, most days are not like, this is so great. I'm learning so much. I'm so much smarter now. Like, it's amazing. No, you know, most days are like, oh, this is hard work and I got to study and prepare. But you stick with it. It pays off. But that's not true of a plan that is not God's plan. You stick with the wrong course. You keep investing in the wrong way, the wrong path, the wrong direction. It doesn't pay off. It takes you to rock bottom.

Walking with the Lord is hard too, but that path pays off. That's when you stick it out, and that's where David was, but he decided, I can't stick this out. I can come up with a better plan, a better plan where I'll be safer and at peace. But he learns, my plan was not better than God's plan. You know, Solomon, David's son, goes through a similar experience and writes about it in the

He decides to search for meaning in life. He just really felt unfulfilled. And so he decides, I'm going to find reason and purpose for my life. And the book of Ecclesiastes is the record of his journey. And he tries so many things.

Here David tries his own plan. It ends up, you know, causing him to live a double life. He's trying to be fulfilled by the people and by his position, but he finds it takes him nowhere. But with Solomon, you know, you can add on to this list. There's a lot of things that you can pursue trying to get what you're looking for and thirsting for and craving. And Solomon says this,

Well, I'm going to become the most educated, the wisest person. I'm going to know everything and understand everything. And then I'll be satisfied and then I'll be fulfilled. And he gets to the end of that road and he realizes that's rock bottom. It's vanity, vanity. It's all vanity. It's all meaningless. Well, I'll amass wealth and I'll become, you know, incredibly wealthy and have all the resources and riches I could want. And he gets down to the end of that road. He finds out that's rock bottom.

He decides, well, I'm going to build stuff and I'm going to have these amazing buildings and just have these incredible accomplishments. And he gets down to the end of that road and it's rock bottom. Well, I'm going to have an amazing family. Let's put a thousand ladies next to me and we'll have just this huge, humongous family and we'll all love one another. And he gets down to the end of that road and it's rock bottom over and over and over and over again. That's not the way to find. God does have something better for you.

But you don't find it through your plans, your techniques, your approaches, your ideas. You know how you find it? It's point number five. It's found in the Lord. And again, it's here in verse six. It says,

Here it signals a huge change, a radical change in this whole situation. The circumstances are still the same, but for the first time in a year and a half, David strengthens himself in the Lord. For the first time in a long time, David looks to God and says, Lord, I've really made a mess. Will you help me? For the first time in a long time, he calls out God.

In verse 7, it tells us, David says to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, bring the ephod here to me. And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. So David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered them, Pursue. You shall surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. David, in this low point at rock bottom,

calls out to God. And the amazing mercy and grace of God is demonstrated in that when David calls out to him, God says, you just sit there and wallow in that. Now that you realize how bad it is and what you've done, you just sit there and just, just, you know, rub your nose in it, you know, just realize that I'm going to be quiet, not answer you for a long time. You're on timeout, David. That's not what God says. What does God do? God responds to David. And he says, David, I'm

Yes, go after that troop. I'm going to help you get back everything that you lost. When David turns and calls out to God, God is right there to meet with him, to speak to him. I mean, it doesn't fix everything overnight, but it changes everything because now David is back on the trajectory of seeking God and following God's plan. And it's amazing the way that God is able to work in the

We turn back and we call out to the Lord and we strengthen ourselves in the Lord once again. I like the way that F.B. Meyer describes it. He says, From that hour, he was his old, strong, glad, noble self.

The David we knew and loved from the earlier chapters. The David who is bold and said, I'll go fight Goliath. He's coming against the Lord and God's on my side. So I'll represent the Lord for this battle. Yeah, send me in. The David that would be bold enough to sneak into the camp of Saul when Saul was sleeping and not to kill him, but just to show, hey, I could have, but I love you. I'm not trying to fight against you.

The David that had great boldness and faith and confidence and trust, the strong warrior David, we haven't seen him for some time. On this path, he's become something different. But now at this point, there's a change. And God begins to work in his life, even though the charred embers are there. He's there in the ashes of the walls of the city that he was living in.

The circumstances haven't changed. His guys are still upset with him. They've still lost everything, but his heart has begun to change. God met him right where he was at and began the change immediately. You can run from God for a really long time, but the good mercy of God is that you don't have to run for a really long time to get back to God, right? If you run far away from me,

Well, I'm going to stay here. You're going to have to run far away, you know, far again to get back to me, right? But God's not that way. He's with you. You're running. He's still right there. You don't have to run for a long time. Okay, let me clean up this mess. Okay, first I got to get everything back and then I got to, you know, rebuild the city and then get back over to Judah and then I can call out to God. You don't have to retrace your steps and go back to where you, you know, departed from strengthening yourself. You don't have to go and fix everything and resolve everything. Just right there where you're at, rock bottom,

You can call out to the Lord and God is right there. Now, preferably, you don't have to wait till you hit rock bottom to call out to the Lord. I mean, any point along the way, you can call out to the Lord and turn things back around. But even if you hit rock bottom, you lose everything. Everything is just wiped out. At your very lowest point, you can call out to God. You don't have to wait till then. But even if you do, it's not too late. And David inquires of the Lord and God answers.

And God begins to tell him, here's what you need to do. David, go. Instead of talking to himself this time, David talks to the Lord.

And we'll see that continue as we move forward in the chapters. David talks to the Lord. Should I go back to Judah? Yes, go back to Judah. And he is seeking God's plan and God's will, not his own, not just coming to his own conclusions based on what he can see and feel. There is something better for you, but learn the lesson from David. It's not found in your own plan.

It's not going to be found if you have to live a double life and hide things and cover up things in your life in order to be able to continue on in those things. If you are trying to fulfill yourself with people or a position, you're going to end up at rock bottom. That's not what's better for you. But if you will look to the Lord, and there may be some difficulty, and there may be some serious emotion, and there may be some discouragement and depression in walking with the Lord, that is true. But ultimately...

He has the better plan for you than anything that you can come up with yourself. Strengthen yourself in the Lord. He is what you need. He is the one that you're looking for. I want to finish up this morning with a quote from Warren Wiersbe. He gives a great encouragement here. He says,

And may we be people who do that. Wait on the Lord. There is something better for you, and it's found by waiting on the Lord. Don't rush into decisions that are really serious decisions, but you're basing it upon what you see, what you feel, and what you feel.

He gives some good counsel. Find someone that you know, that you trust, knows the Lord, loves the Lord, can help you give you perspective and help you to wait on God's plan so you don't try to do your own. Let's pray. Lord, I pray for each one of us, Lord, and you know the things that we face and the anxieties and the pressures and the worries, Lord, the discouragement and the depression that we encounter, just like David did.

And Lord, as we deal with these things and experience all of these emotions, Lord, and these thoughts going through our head, Lord, you want to remind us this morning that we can tell ourselves things that are not true and take ourselves down a path that we will deeply regret. God, may we be reminded. I pray that you would give us, Lord, your Holy Spirit. Pour out your Spirit upon us that we might catch and recognize when we're entertaining thoughts that are not of you.

when we're entertaining ideas and perspectives and paths that are not the truth. Help us, Lord, to recognize when those lies are being told to us and when we're telling them to ourselves, Lord, that we might hold fast to you and your plan. God, I pray that you would give us great patience, even though it hurts, even though we're in the midst of pain, and even though we think this is it, we can't take any more. Help us to look to you and hold on a little bit longer.

trusting, Lord, that you, you will be faithful to your word. You will strengthen us as we wait upon you. Lord, I pray that you would meet each one of us where we are, just like you met David. And Lord, may we be the strong, glad, just joyful, abundant life selves, Lord, that we once were. Lord, may we be those who trust you and strengthen ourselves in you instead of pursuing our own plans. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

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