Sermon Tone Analysis

Antithesis:

I would dare to say that the living realisation, in heart and mind, of this personal possession of God is the difference between a traditional and vague profession and possession of religion.

Explaining the difference - The man who contents himself with the general knowledge of God that comes from the world, and who can say no more than that Jesus Christ died for all, - has yet to learn the most intimate peace, and the most quickening and transforming power, of God.

Now I am not putting too much into a little word when I insist upon it that the very essence and nerve of what strengthened David, at that supreme moment of desolation, was the conviction that welled up in his heart that, in spite of it all, he had a grip of God’s hand as his very own, and God had hold of him.

Just think of the difference between the attitude of mind and heart expressed in the names that were more familiar to the Israelitish people, and this name for Jehovah.

‘The God of Israel’-that is wide, general; and a man might use it and yet fail to feel that it implied that each individual of the community stood by himself in a personal relation to God.

But David penetrated through the broad, general thought, and got into the heart of the matter.

It was not enough for him, in his time of need, to stay himself upon a vague universal goodness, but he had to clasp to his burdened heart the individualising thought, ‘the God of Israel is myGod.’

the very essence and nerve of what strengthened David, at that moment of desolation, was the conviction that welled up in his heart that - in spite of it all, he had a grip of God’s hand as his very own, and God had hold of him.

Just think of the difference between the attitude of mind and heart expressed in the names that were more familiar to the Israelitish people, and this name for Jehovah.

‘The God of Israel’-that is wide, general; and a man might use it and yet fail to feel that it implied a personal relation to God.

But David penetrated through the broad, general thought, and got into the heart of the matter.

It was not enough for him, in his time of need, to have himself a vague relationship, but he had to clasp to his burdened heart the individualising thought, ‘the God of Israel is myGod.’

David had courage, he had condidence, but what acarried him through was - GODFIDENCE!

A confidence not in self, not in the worl, not in material positions - But in THE LORD!

Thesis:

There are times in our lives that are difficult to handle and process through and we need strength!

We need strength to endure, strength to press forward, strength to hold on, and sometimes even strength to keep moving in the name of the Lord.Our ‘light affliction which is but for a moment’ leads on to a manifestation of the true power of God, and to the breaking of the day.

Enouragement is a weapon of warfare.

Our ‘light affliction which is but for a moment’ leads on to a manifestation of the true power of God, and to the breaking of the day.

Actins of this text : Persue, Overtake, Recover

Concerning the confidence in God observe that:

I. IT SPRINGS OUT OF CONSCIOUS HELPLESSNESS.

Few men walk in the reality of their own helplessness; and one purpose of Divine discipline is to produce it.

"When I am weak," said Paul, "then am I strong"

- when I feel my utter weakness under the pressure of trial, then I am constrained to depend on the Lord, and where I am weak he becomes strong.

True faith and spiritual power have their foundation amidst the "dust and ashes" of our life experinces.

Confidence in God began to revive in David when Ziklag was reduced to ashes.

The same thing is what often happens with us:

1. Sudden and severe bereavement

2. The failure of cherished plans and purposes; the loss of property through robbery by men or accidents by fire or flood, the breakdown of health, the disappointment of long expectation.

3. The falling away of friends; their unreasonable anger and bitter atttitudes.

He was left almost alone.

4. The remeberance of past sin.

Trouble is a powerful means of bringing sin to remembrance.

5.

The threatening of danger or terror.

Concerning the confidence in God which he exhibited (therein setting an eminent example to others), observe that -

6.

The lack of wisdom and power to get us our of our distress or our mess .

When we become fully aware of our utter helplessness, two courses lie open before us - either to sink into despair or to fully trust in God.

.Concerning the confidence in God which he exhibited (therein setting an eminent example to others), observe that -

The Sufficiency of God - Attained

Attack The Text

1. Sudden and severe bereavement; wife and children, it may be, taken away with a stroke.

The realization that God is enough.

At this point David had nothing.

His family was gone, his belongs taken.

All he had was the clothes on his back and his God.

2. The failure of cherished plans and purposes; the loss of property through robbery by men or accidents by fire or flood, the breakdown of health, the disappointment of long expectation.

The words of the original convey even more forcibly than those of our translation the thought of David’s own action in securing him the hold of God as his.

He ‘strengthened himself in the Lord his God.’

The Hebrew conveys the notion of effort, persistent and continuous; and it tells us this, that when things are as black as they were round David at that hour-it is not a matter of course, even for a good man, that there shall well up in his heart this tranquillising and victorious conviction; but he has to set himself to reach and to keep it.

God will give it, but He will not give it unless the man strains after it.

David ‘strengthened himself in the Lord,’ and if he had not doggedly set about resisting the pressure of circumstances, and flinging himself as it were, by an effort, into the arms of God, circumstances would have been too strong for him, and despair would have shrouded his soul.

In the darkest moment it is possible for a man to surround himself with God’s light, but even in the brightest it is not possible to do so unless he makes a serious effort.

3. The falling away of friends; their unreasonable anger and bitter reproaches.

It must have been peculiarly painful to David to bear the mutiny of his own men, to witness the selfishness of many of them (ver.

22), and to learn what little confidence could be put in man ().

He was left almost alone.

Here is one of the many eloquent ‘buts’ of the Bible.

On the one hand is piled up a black heap of calamities, loss, treachery and peril; and opposed to them is only that one clause: ‘But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.’

Everything else was gone; his property was carried off by raiders, his home was smouldering embers,his house was left to him desolate; his heart was bleeding.

But the Amalekites had not stolen God from him.

Though he could no longer say, ‘My house, my city, my possessions,’ he could say, ‘My God.’

Whatever else we lose, as long as we have Him we are rich; and whatever else we possess, we are poor as long as we have not Him.

4. The upbraiding of conscience for past sin.

Trouble is a powerful means of bringing sin to remembrance ().

God is enough; whatever else may go.

The Lord his God was the sufficient portion for this man when he stood a homeless pauper.

Attained and Sustained

5.

The threatening of danger; the presence of "the king of terrors" ().

6.

The lack of wisdom and power to deliver from distress.

When we become fully aware of our utter helplessness, two courses lie open before us - either to sink into despair or to cast ourselves wholly upon God.

That the latter may be taken trial is sent; it is taken by him whose heart is in the main right with God, and it is never taken in vain.The words of the original convey even more forcibly than those of our translation the thought of David’s own action in securing him the hold of God as his.

He ‘strengthened himself in the Lord his God.’

The Hebrew conveys the notion of effort, persistent and continuous; and it tells us this, that when things are as black as they were round David at that hour-it is not a matter of course, even for a good man, that there shall well up in his heart this tranquillising and victorious conviction; but he has to set himself to reach and to keep it.

God will give it, but He will not give it unless the man strains after it.

David ‘strengthened himself in the Lord,’ and if he had not doggedly set about resisting the pressure of circumstances, and flinging himself as it were, by an effort, into the arms of God, circumstances would have been too strong for him, and despair would have shrouded his soul.

In the darkest moment it is possible for a man to surround himself with God’s light, but even in the brightest it is not possible to do so unless he makes a serious effort.

That effort must consist mainly in two things.

One is that we shall honestly try to occupy our minds, as well as our hearts, with the truth which certifies to us that God is deed, ours.

If we never think, or think languidly and rarely, about what God has revealed to us, by the word and life and death and intercession of Jesus Christ, concerning Himself, His heart of love towards us, and His relations to us, then we shall not have, either in the time of disaster or of joy, the blessed sense that He is indeed ours.

If a man will not think about Christian truth he will not have the blessedness of Christian possession of God.

There is no mystery about the road to the sweetness and holiness and power that may belong to a Christian.

The only way to win them is to be occupied, far more than most of us are, with the plain truths of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ.

If you never think about them they cannot affect you, and they will not make you sure that God is yours.

But we cannot occupy ourselves with these truths unless we have a distinct and resolute purpose running through our lives, of averting our eyes from the things that might make us lose sight of them and of Him.

David had his choice.

He could either, as a great many of us do, stand there and look, and look, and look, and see nothing but his disasters, or he could look past them; and see beyond them God.

Peter had his choice whether he would look at the water, or whether he would look at Jesus Christ.

He chose to look at the water; ‘and when he saw the wind boisterous he began to sink’-and when he looked at Christ and cried: ‘Lord, save me!’ HE WAS LIFTED. .

Make the effort not to let the sorrowful things, or the difficult things, or the fearful things, or the joyous things, in your life, absorb you, but turn away, and, ‘look off unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith.’

David had to put constraint upon himself, to admit any other thoughts into his mind than those that were pressed into it by the facts before his eyes; but he put on the constraint, and so he was encouraged because he encouraged himself.

Attack The Text

David in three situations

C. Bradley, M. A.

at Ziklag in his distress, on his way to the Amalekites, and among the Amalekites.

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;

Verse 1. - But as he had gone first to Gath, where no doubt Achish collected his vassals, and then marched northwards with the army for two days, he must altogether have been absent from Ziklag for some little time.

The Amalelkites.

and when the fighting men of Philistia and of Judaea were marching away to war, it was just the opportunity which they wished of invading the defenceless country.