Being Faithful while everyone around is going Crazy

The big idea, God is good even when we are not.

God is good even when we are not. God is faithful even when we are not. The story before us today is a good example of this, David, who is a man of God has strayed.

Now before we’re too harsh, we must remind ourselves of that one of the reasons that David has strayed from the path of faithfulness is because he is being chased.

There will be times in your lives when God has called you to a specific task when other people will do go out of their way to get in your way.

This is what has been happing to David, God called him to be the king of Israel, but other people kept trying to keep him from responding to God’s call.

The pervious chapters record David’s sinful reaction to his trying time. Remember, the people of God have rejected both David and his calling. Now he finds himself living among the enemies of the people of God the Philistines.

Chapter 29 tells us David was about to go with the Philistines to fight against Israel, but God, through his providence stops him.

This teaches us an important lesson: Sometimes when God gets in the way of your plans, it’s a good thing.

God will always provide a way of escape from every temptation.

1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

David has fallen into sin, but God provide a way out, sometimes God’s provision doesn’t feel like provision.

God remains faithful even when we stray.

Which brings us to our text today, David and his men are coming back with the test of disappointment, not realizing that this disappointment was God’s deliverance.

They get back to their camp and find chaos.

1 Samuel 30:1 And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;

1 Samuel 30:2 And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.

What’s interesting here is who is causing the chaos, the Amalekites, who God had told the Saul to destroy.

When you read the Old Testament, you will notice the Amalekites are a picture of the flesh. God told the people of God to drive them out of the land, but they didn’t which made the Amalekites  a constant source of chaos.

The same is true of your old nature, God tells us to do our best to kill the flesh.

Roman 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

Unresolved issues will lead to chaos.

God told Saul to destroy the Amalekites, he didn’t and was eventually killed by an Amalekite.

Sometimes the chaos in our lives mixed with the chaos in other people’s lives gets mixed together and things go from being Chaotic to destructive.

When you read 1 Samuel you find out that David ran with a rough crew. The people who were with him were the misfits of society. The people who ran with David were.

• Everyone who was in debt,
• everyone who was in trouble,
• everyone who was fleeing from the law,

Which meant that not only did David have to deal with his issues he had to deal with the issues of his men.

1 Samuel 30:3 So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.

1 Samuel 30:4 Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.

When we read this story, we automatically focus on vs 6 “for the people spake of stoning him” and we just talk about their anger.

However, their anger started with deep sadness. They cried until they couldn’t cry anymore.

Here we see two competing reactions:

• the reaction of the crowed, the people were grieved, which caused to look for someone to blame.
• the reaction of David, whereas David was distressed but then chose to look for a solution.

The reaction of the crowed.

1 Samuel 30:6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.

It’s important to note that the people had good reason for their grief,

• their sons were probably going to be enslaved,
• their daughters were probably going to be sexually assaulted.
• Their entire world was at this moment destroyed.

Their reaction was natural,

there are times when it’s understandable to act poorly, but just because an action is understandable it doesn’t mean it’s excusable.

The reason for this reaction is because it went against what they were expecting.

Remember I told you the men who were following David were a rough crowed, they were the outcast of that society.

It’s true they were following David because they had nowhere else to go, but they were also following David because he was God’s anointed.

They must have reasoned like this, we’re on God’s side, therefore everything is going to go our way.

However, here they are following the Lord’s anointed, and then things go sideways.

Remember, I told you that the Amalekites were an Old Testament picture of the flesh, that is the old nature.

While God’s people were in Egypt there was no fighting because there was no salvation.

However, once God rescues them from Egypt (picture of salvation) and they begin their journey to the promise land there is constant fighting.

Their number one enemy were the Amalekites.

Do you remember how they Amalekites operated? They would come up behind the children of Israel and attack those who were weak and wounded.

This is how your old nature operates, it waits until your tired and vulnerable and then attacks. This why God told the nation of Israel to drive them out of the land.   

This is the reason when things aren’t going your way and you’re tempested to listen to your flesh:

• And complain.
• Blame others.
• Avoid responsibility.

Two truths about your flesh.

• Your flesh is a liar, it distorts reality.
• Your flesh will lead you to destruction, it will cause you to blame others and avoid personal responsibility.

We don’t see the first truth in this text in an explicit way, but the second truth, your flesh will lead you to destruction of obvious.

Something bad happened, but instead of looking for a solution they looked for someone to blame.

This the natural reaction to hardship, this the manifestation of the old nature in their lives.

Freedom comes when we acknowledge the role our old nature plays in the chaos of our lives.

The reaction of David.

1Sa 30:6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.

The crowed, when confronted with difficulty, and went looking for someone to blame. Whereas David looks for a solution

David was a leader. Are you a leader, or are you one of the crowed?

• Leaders look for solutions, the crowed looks for someone to blame.
• Leaders act on principle, the crowed acts on emotion. Vs 6 “the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of the people was grieved, every man for his sons and daughters.”

Notice the different reactions.

• The people were grieved, they said, “who’s to blame.”
• David was grieved, so he encouraged himself in the Lord.

God does not promise a life without storms, but he does promise to be with us in the storms.

In this story we see God merciful hand in two ways:

God kept David from fighting with the Philistines against Israel.

This is God’s mercy, had he gone off to war he wouldn’t have come back in time to save his family.

Plus, he would have regretted that decision for the rest of his life. When God’s shuts doors it’s because of his mercy.

God has already been working in this situation.

This gives David an opportunity to get back on track.

How does David encourage himself in the Lord?

1 Samuel 30:7 And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David.

1 Samuel 30:8 And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.

When we read this story it’s a given that David prays, but I want you think of David’s spiritual state, he has backslidden.

David prayed; this wasn’t David hyping himself up. This wasn’t the power of positive thinking.

This is a poor sinner coming to a merciful God asking for help.

So often our instinct is when we are not living up to God’s call on our lives is to run from God.

• David doesn’t deserve God’s help, but he still asks.

This is a valuable lesson; God’s grace is for sinners. If you are a sinner, then you are prime candidate to receive God’s grace.

You might be thinking, you don’t know what I’ve done, were you thinking about participating in an attack on the people of God? because that’s where David found himself.

Don’t listen to yourself, listen to God.

Your flesh will distort reality, if will have you believing the worst about what other people think of you, the worst about your circumstances, the worst about God.

The best thing you can do is stop listening to yourself and start listening to what God says.

When your old nature is lying to you about your circumstances, I want you to remember this truth:

God is faithful even when you are not.

In the story before us to day David has been a prolonged season of unfaithfulness, yet God is ready to hear his prayer.

Don’t allow your sin to keep you from God, the best place for a sinner to be is on their knees praying for help.