Trusting God When Promises are All You Have

1 Samuel 19-27

Intro:

What keeps you going when trouble is all you see? Where is your hope?

What I want to say: David’s years of difficulty equipped him for what was to come. God always prepares His workers for His work. ways in which God was preparing David for the task before him.

I. God cultivates the traits of leadership

A. God seeks a man or woman “after God’s own heart”

1. i.e. He or she is in tune with God. God declared through Samuel:

“But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

1 Samuel 13:14 NASB95

2. Paul wrote to Timothy:

But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;

for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

1 Timothy 4:7-8 NASB95

But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. 1 Timothy 6:11 NASB95

B. Align your priorities with God’s

1. David wanted the things God wanted:

a) God’s glory

b) God’s kingdom

c) Holiness

d) God’s will accomplished (cp. Lord’s prayer)

2. God’s will is more important than personal preference

C. God always equips His leaders

1. A leader must be: just

a) courageous

b) honorable

c) above reproach

2. Moses was called by God to lead Israel out of slavery – He sent Moses into the “Desert School of Theology” for a 40 year-long course to learn of Him and His ways.

He made known His ways to Moses,

His acts to the sons of Israel. Psalm 103:7 NASB95

3. God called another Saul to be a church planter – Saul was in training for about 14 years (Gal. 2:1) – before he was sent to launch the work God had for him.

II. A diary of leadership training (chapters 19-27)

There are 8 Psalms that directly relate to these chapters

Why did David not fight Saul?

His confidence was in God alone and He refused to use man’s schemes to accomplish God’s will

A. Who will you trust? (Chapter 19)

1. four attempts on David’s life

2. Why? 18:28-29 -- Saul was afraid of David

a) David was increasingly successful

3. He told others to kill him; he attempted to kill him with his spear; sent soldiers to his house; sent soldiers to Ramah (they were “slain in the Spirit”

a) Cp. Psalm 59 – “of David. When Saul had sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him.”

4. He was determined to kill this man! Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide! There was no safe place for David

B. The value of a friend (Chapter 20)

1. David and Jonathan encouraged one another

C. God provides (Chapter 21)

1. David in the kingdom of Abimelech the Philistine

2. Psalm 34 - When he pretended to be insane before Abimelich, who drove him away, and he left.

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him,

And rescues them.

Psalm 34:7 NASB95

a) (who did David credit with his deliverance?)

O taste and see that the Lord is good;

How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

Psalm 34:8 NASB95

3. Psalm 56 – When the Philistines had seized him in Gath

D. Leadership is magnetic (Chapter 22)

1. Psalm 142 – When he was in the cave. A prayer.

2. David was kind of like Robin Hood to the disenchanted

3. His brothers came to him

4. He took his parents to Moab – perhaps to stay with relatives of his grandmother, Ruth

5. 400 men

6. Saul’s slaughter of an Israelite town (85 priests and their families)

7. Psalm 52 – When Doeg the Edomite had gone to Saul and told him: “David has gone to the house of Ahimelech”.

8. David protects the surviving priest

E. A leader is a protector (Chapter 23)

1. It was David’s habit to seek God’s will before he acted. – contrast with Saul

In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice;

In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch. Psalm 5:3 NASB95

2. He rescues the town of Keilah from the Philistines

3. Saul is ready to slaughter the town to get David

4. David flees with 600 men to the desert strongholds and Saul follows

a) Psalm 54 – When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, “Is not David hiding among us?”

SHOW MASADA slide

F. A leader has a God-sensitive conscience (Chapter 24)

1. Psalm 57 – When he had fled from Saul into the cave

2. God brought Saul into the cave but David would not kill his pursuer

3. His conscience bothered him for cutting Saul’s robe (:6)

They have prepared a net for my steps;

My soul is bowed down;

They dug a pit before me;

They themselves have fallen into the midst of it. Selah. Psalm 57:6 NASB95

4. He refused to take God’s work into his own hands. What would you have done?

5. He makes an oath to protect Saul’s family (Saul had already broken his own oath several times)

G. God provides a companion (Chapter 25)

1. Nabal - the surly fool –he totally missed what God was doing. He only saw a rebel – God looked at the heart

Cp. Proverbs 31:10-31 – the virtuous woman

2. Abigail is the model of a wise woman; while her husband should have been protecting the household, she had to rescue them.

3. Nabal dies of a stroke

4. David marries Abigail – God provided a companion for him

H. A leader is merciful (Chapter 26)

1. David enters Saul’s camp and takes his spear and water jug – and spares his life - again

2. Saul pledges David’s safety – but David does not buy it.

I. God’s servant is safe in any setting (Chapter 27)

1. David lives among the Philistines for 1 year and 4 months.

2. Even in the midst of his enemies, God blessed him

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You have anointed my head with oil;

My cup overflows. Psalm 23:5 NASB95

3. Altogether, these accounts add up to 10 years.

SHOW slide of David’s journeys

III. Who you are matters more than what you do for God

A. God is equipping you for your kingdom work

1. God had David in His school for 10 years to prepare him to be king over Israel – He is in no hurry. He knows how long you will live (and He will keep you safe to do His work)

a) Are you in a hurry for God to get to it?

E.g. my prayers in the foundry – God had me teach a home Bible study; a High School Sunday school class; work at ICI as club leader, program director, newsletter editor, building manager and Young Adult teacher – this was 8 years of preparation for leading a church.

2. he had to mature – only time can make you mature

3. he had learn that with God nothing is impossible

4. He had to learn that leadership is never without opposition

5. leadership is a gift from God and must not be taken lightly

6. He had to learn that God is sufficient for any event

7. He had to prepare for war

a) Just as today, there were nations around Israel that hated their existence

b) E.g. you have heard that the prime minister of Iran has called for the destruction of Israel

B. God uses trials to develop depth of character

1. Perseverance

And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;

Romans 5:3 NASB95

2. Faith

a) “Faith that can’t be tested cannot be trusted”

3. Sweetness of spirit in the midst of trials

a) Many stories and movies today are filled with people who are vengeful and bitter after trials.

b) The Spirit of God enables you to endure without bitterness.

c) When he was afraid, he wrote about it; when he was delivered, he wrote about it!

4. Dependence upon God

a) When you cry to God, He answers

5. The “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 6) ripens on the vine of difficulty.

Concl:

Psalm 18 – Of David the servant of the Lord. He sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:
Rd. Psalm 18:1-3; 49-50
Who do you trust when all you have is promises? How does your story end? With praise to God?