Wednesday Night Service 7PM Back Where You Belong 1 Samuel 29-31

If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 29. 1 Samuel 29. When last we left David, he was in a backslidden state. He had come to a place where discouragement got the better of him. If you will, maybe even depression got the better of him. And he started talking to himself in the wrong way. Instead of reminding himself of God's promises and of God's faithfulness,

he started telling himself there was really no more hope. Saul was eventually going to kill him. And so the best thing that he could do is flee to the Philistines. Go to the world. Go indulge himself in the things of the world. Because that was really the best that he could do. That was the best that he had to hope for. And so that's what he did. He went down and dwelt among the Philistines.

They even gave him a city to dwell in. And he essentially became a band of raiders. They would go out to different enemies of Israel and raid them and kill everyone, burn the village down, and then lie about what they'd been doing. And he really found himself in a very backslidden state. To the point where Achish, the king or the general over the Philistine army,

made him his own personal bodyguard. And so David was in a really dark place in his life right now. And someone else was in a very dark place in their life, and that was Saul. Saul knew that the Philistines were mounting up for battle. And as he knew that the Philistines were mounting up for battle, he wanted to hear from the Lord so that he could know exactly what was going to take place.

But God had stopped speaking to him, either through a prophet or through any sort of word from the Urim and the Thummim. And so the only thing he knew to do was to use a worldly approach, to try to hear from the Lord. So he approached the witch at Endor, and she called up the ghost of Samuel, if you will, the spirit of Samuel. And Samuel told him, Why are you asking me these questions?

God has turned against you. Of course you're going to die in battle. You and your sons are going to die in battle. And you need to know that because you are now an enemy of God, because you refused to repent, because you refused to obey. And so Saul and David both find themselves in very dark places, and now the question is going to be, how are they going to respond in these dark places?

Well, tonight, as we come into 1 Samuel chapter 29, and we will finish the book of 1 Samuel tonight, as we come into 29, I've entitled the message, Back Where You Belong. And so we start off in chapter 29, and this is what it says. It says, Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek. And while the Israelites were camping by the spring, which is in Jezreel, and the lords of the Philistines, were proceeding on by hundreds and by thousands.

And David and his men were proceeding on in the rear with Achish. Then the commander of the Philistines said, What are these Hebrews doing here? And Achish said to the commander of the Philistines, Is this not David, the servant of Saul, the king of Israel, who's been with me these days, or rather these years? I found no fault in him from the day he deserted me to this day.

But the commander of the Philistines were angry. The commanders of the Philistines, The commander said, Make the man go back, that he may return to his place where you have assigned him. And do not let him go to battle with us, or in battle he may become an adversary to us. For with what could this man make himself acceptable to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of these men?

Is this not David, of whom they sing in the dances? Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? Now, in this chapter, Chapter 29, I've entitled this particular chapter, God's Protection. Because this is exactly what we're going to see God do with David. Because David, again, has found himself in an incredibly backslidden spot. He's not only the bodyguard, if you will,

the protection detail for Achish, but now he's lining up with all of the Philistine army in battle to go to battle against God's armies. Listen, when you find yourself backslidden, you need to understand, if not for God's protection, there is no limit to how far you will fall. And we have to be careful about the ground that we stand on. Because once we begin to compromise, one compromise compounds upon another, until eventually we find ourselves saying, what am I doing here?

But this is where we start to see God's protection. Because I want you to notice a question that is asked. And it's not asked by David. It's not asked by David's men. It's not asked by one of the prophets of God. It's asked, by one of the Philistine commanders. Look at verse 3. It says, Now that's a fantastic question to ask, is it not? Because David has found himself in a place

where he is aligned with God's enemies, if we will, one of God's arch enemies at this point in time, an enemy of the nation of Israel. And he has found himself not only on the side of them, but also ready to go to battle against God's people. Until this commander of the army looks and says, what are these guys doing here? Now you would think at some point in time, David would find himself, once he's lined up with all of the Philistines, looking at his guys as a man after God's own heart and going, what are we doing here?

What is this supposed to be? How far have we fallen? But David doesn't ask that. You would think that one of the men that was with him, who had seen God's protection all of this time, and who had seen David say, I can't touch the Lord's anointed, because God's in charge of this, and then watched David be faithful to God all this time, would have said, what are we doing here?

But you see, none of those guys were in that place because they were all in a backslidden state. No, it took one of the enemies of the armies of God saying, what are you doing here? To really make them think. Now I want to say two things about this. Number one, one of the greatest questions that we can be asked and that we can ask of ourselves, sometimes is, what are you doing here?

Do you remember when Adam and Eve sinned, and they were hiding from God in the garden? And as they were hiding from God in the garden, wearing the worst clothing they could have ever come up with, because Adam picked it out, they found themselves in this place where they thought God didn't see them, and God showed up to walk with them like he did every day. And what did God ask? He asked, Adam, where are you?

Not because the all-knowing, all-seeing, sovereign God didn't know where Adam was, but because he needed Adam to think to himself, where am I? What am I doing here? And listen, sometimes we need someone to ask us that question. When we find ourselves in a backslidden place, when we find ourselves where no longer is God who we're pursuing, one of the best things that can happen is for someone to look at us and say, what are you doing?

This is not what you're supposed to be doing. These are not your people. This is not your land. This is not what obeying God looks like. And listen, sometimes it's hard to hear that, but it's one of the best questions that we can be asked. What are you doing here? And if you're here tonight, and your walk with Jesus Christ has gotten off, and you found yourself in a little bit of a backslidden state,

maybe you're still going through all the motions, but there's just no passion there anymore. There's no vision there anymore. You're just, you're just existing as far as your walk is concerned. And maybe you need to ask yourself, what am I doing here? But I want to say one other thing about this. If there's not a man of God that will step up and ask us that question,

God is happy to provide one of his enemies to ask us that question. And listen, as bad as it hurts for a man of God to ask us, what are you doing here? Trust me, it hurts worse when it's someone of the world saying, but I thought, I thought you were a Christian. What are you doing here? But because God is faithful and because God protects us from ourselves,

he is always willing to provide someone to say, what are you doing here? And so they say, listen, David's loyal to me. And they're like, listen, you don't really understand. There's no way he stays loyal to you. He'll turn on us. And so it says in verse six, Akish called David and said to him, as the Lord lives, you have been upright and you're going out. You're coming in with me and the army are pleasing in my sight,

for I've not found any evil in you from the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, you are not pleasing in the sight of the Lords. Now, therefore return and go in peace that you may not displease the Lords of the Philistines. And David said to Akish, but what have I done? And what have you found in your servant from the day when I became, when I came to you,

that I may not go and fight, against the enemies of my Lord, the King. What did he just say? I want to fight against your enemies. Who are the enemies of the Philistines? The people of God. You see, when you find yourself backslidden, you find that the people that should be your allies become your enemies. And so he says, I want to fight against the enemies of my Lord,

the King and Akish replied, I know that you're pleasing in my sight, like an angel of God. Nevertheless, the commanders of the Philistines have said, he must not go with us to battle now that arise early in the morning with my servants, the servants of your Lord who have come with you. And as soon as you have arisen early in the morning and have light depart. So David arose early, he and his men to depart in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines.

And the Philistines went up to Jezreel. Now I've always had a question about this chapter. What would have happened if the Lords of the Philistines would have said, all right, David can stay. It's genuinely a question that I have. I mean, he is clearly showing himself to not be in the right mind, to be in a place where he's very backslidden. Would he have ultimately gone to battle?

Would he have ultimately fought against the enemies of the Philistines, which are the people of God? Or would he have turned on the Philistines in the middle of the battle? You know what? We'll never know. You know why? Because God protected David, God protected him. And I'm here to tell you right now, and I can tell you this from experience. I have seen moments where when I can't keep my business together,

God has protected me. I can tell you two different stories from, from when I was in school and I was not walking with Jesus and God absolutely protected me. One of them was my junior year of high school and it was in the middle of wrestling season. Everybody pretty well knew during wrestling season, you better keep your nose clean because coach would kick you off the team.

No questions asked. And I was cutting all the way down to 112, which is a whole lot of weight to cut for me at that point in time. And, uh, and there was a Saturday tournament that I had to make weight for. And there was some sort of a party that had taken place that night. Now I was at my house worried about my weight because I had all this weight that I had to lose so that I could make weight the next morning.

I was literally jogging around my house so that I could lose weight. So there was no way I could be at a party and there was a major party and it got busted and a whole bunch of people got in trouble. And the next day at the tournament, somebody asked my mom was Ryan at that party. And she said, nope, he was at our house stressed out about his weight. See, God protected me in my stupidity when probably I would have been at that party

not doing things that Jesus approved of. I would have gotten in trouble with all the rest of them. But you see, God protected me and kept me from my own stupidity. There was another instance where when I was not walking with Jesus, two of my buddies got themselves in some trouble that also involved the law. But, uh, I was walking with my friends and I was walking with my mom.

Uh, but something happened that night and I couldn't go with them and as they were getting arrested for doing things that they should not be doing, all I could think was, wow, I could have been with them and in the exact same trouble. But God protected me and I look back on so many things in life and I say, even in my stupidity, God was protecting me even in my stupidity. God was putting me in the right place even to the fact that when I started walking with Jesus, he absolutely put me in the right place at the right time for me to hear the message that I needed to hear in order to get my life back on track with Jesus because that's kind of who God is. He's faithful to protect us sometimes from our own stupidity.

And that's what he does here with David. He absolutely protects him. So we don't, we don't have to worry about what would have happened because God took care of him. Notice what it says in chapter 30 and chapter 30, we see David's repentance. It says, then it happened. When David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on Ziklag and had overthrown Ziklag and burned it

with fire and they took captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great without killing anyone. And they carried them off and went their way. When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire and their wives and their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. David and the people who were with him lifted their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep.

Now David's two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail, the widow of Nabal the Carmelite. Now they returned to Ziklag, which is the city that they'd been living in as they were living with these Philistines. Only something had taken place. You can imagine these men marching for three days all the way back. David and his, I think it's six or 700 men at this point in time coming all the way back to

Ziklag thinking, well, at least we can go spend some time with our families only on the way back. They noticed some billows of smoke rolling up and they go, what's that? And they come over the hill and they see their village completely destroyed and burned with fire and everybody gone. And did you take note of the people that did this? The people that did this were known as the Amalekites.

Why is that significant? Well, because if you remember all the way back at the beginning of first Samuel, when Saul became king, God gave a command to Saul. He told him, I want you to go and attack the Amalekites because they are enemies of God. And because they were the ones who took out the weak and the sick of the nation of Israel. When we were traveling from Egypt to here,

when we were in the wilderness and I want to show my judgment to them so completely. Take care of them. There should be no Amalekite left. And do you know what Saul did not do that? He didn't obey God. And now because he didn't obey God, who were the men who came and raided the village and took away all of the women and children captive and burned everything?

The Amalekites. And this is the first instance and the next couple of verses where I will say sin has consequences that we never intend. Because we don't. Don't always realize how much our sin affects everybody else around us. And so they come back and everything is gone. Everything is gone. And all the women and children, everything is burned. All of their stuff,

all of the spoils of everything that they had taken from all of these places, they're all gone. And I want you to notice what it says in verse four, it says, then David and the people who were with him lifted their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep. I think that there is a deeper reason for the weeping that David does here. Because remember David had led his family into rebellion and because he had led his family into rebellion.

Now his family has been taken from him. David led his men into rebellion and because he had led his men into rebellion, everything that belonged to his men had been taken from him. And so he knew that his sin had all of a sudden taken on an incredible amount of unintended consequences. His sin affected his family and his sin affected everybody that he was in charge of.

And now as he looks, everything has fallen apart. Listen, it had already fallen apart. He just now realized it. And David finds himself in a place where he is completely, and totally broken. You see, as much as I think David was probably upset about what had taken place, ultimately God was dealing with David's heart because he'd been living with the Philistines for far too long.

And the only way to get over living with the Philistines and get back where we're supposed to be is if it begins with brokenness and God and his mercy allowed the Amalekites to come in and take over the Philistines. And so David, he's called on the Philistines to come in and take over the village. But did you notice what did not happen? No one was killed. Did you notice that it's almost like God allowed this mercifully to get

David back where he needed to be. God would use this to get David back on track to where he needs to be. Because listen, if we ultimately want to be where God wants us to be, then in our rebellion, we must first of all, be broken. And that's where he finds himself. place that I call beautifully broken. Because now all of a sudden he's in a place where he is

absolutely going to surrender to the will of God. Because he's not surrendered to the will of God at this point in time. Nothing he's been doing over the last year and a half has anything to do with God. Remember how we said that there were no psalms written during this time? Remember how we said God was not ever sought during this point in time? God is not even mentioned at this point in time?

Because he doesn't want anything to do with God. In his depression and discouragement he said there's nothing else that I can do except live among the Philistines. But now God and his mercy has brought you brokenness to David. Do you know what we tend to fight the most? Brokenness. We don't like to be in that place. Because if I'm in a place where I'm broken it means I'm not in control.

If I'm in a place where I'm broken it means it's going to hurt. If I'm in a place where I'm broken it means God is the only one that can get me out of it. It can't be anything of me. If I'm in a place where I'm broken it means it's going to hurt. If I'm in a place where I'm broken it means everything is laid bare for everyone to see. Nobody wants to be broken. Everybody wants

revival. Nobody wants brokenness. But the only way to revival is through brokenness. And he does this in the life of David. I was listening to somebody talk about a verse the other day. They said, you know, we all like to talk about that verse in Romans where it says, and we know that God works all things together. For the good to those who love God and are the called according to his purposes.

And sometimes we view that as like the God's got this sort of verse. And we forget that that's actually a broken verse. That's actually the verse of brokenness. It's not the God's got this. It's the I don't got this. And I have to trust that in the worst circumstances possible, God is going to work it for good. Even, listen, when I can't see that God's got it.

Because right now, I think he's probably having a hard time seeing that God's got this. All he knows is he's as broken as he's ever been in his life. And all he can do now is pour out his heart to the Lord. And lest we think his brokenness was done yet, let's go on a little bit further in verse six. Moreover, David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him.

For all the people were embittered, each one because of his sin. And the people who were in his place were the sons and his daughters. A really bad place to be where all of David's mighty men, right? Like John Wick on steroids, like all of them, you know, Jason Bourne, the whole crew, you name it. They're all ready to kill David. He's going, I don't want to mess with any of these guys because I've seen them in battle.

And now they're all looking at me like killing him is probably going to help. And so everything has just fallen apart. But listen, when everything's falling apart, there's only one place to go. And that's back to the Lord. I want you to notice what it says that he does in the verse six. But David strengthened himself in the Lord, his God. If you're an underliner,

maybe just underline that real quick. But David strengthened himself in the Lord, his God. How did David strengthen himself? Well, I found three ways that David strengthened himself. And I've made it an alliteration, even though I don't do that very often. There were three ways that David strengthened himself. Number one, he strengthened himself through repentance. I believe he strengthened himself through repentance at this point in time.

There's a wonderful verse, and I had him just put the reference up there. And so in the margin of your Bible, you might write Hosea 6.1. At least I think I did. Or did I do like that meme that I sent you? Oh, there it is. Perfect. Hosea 6.1. I'm just going to read it to you. You might just write it in the margin of your Bible. It says this, come let us return to the Lord, for he has torn,

but he will heal. He has stricken, but he will bind us up. Listen, there's nothing more beautiful than to know that God is always ready to accept us when we come with repentance. That's why Hosea, when he was speaking to a people who were divided in their heart between God and the flesh, if you will, between God and the Philistines, he tells them, come, let's return to the Lord, because he's broken.

All of the Amalekites had taken all of their stuff away. He has stricken. Everybody wants to kill David. But he will heal, and he will restore. Let's return to the Lord. Listen, repentance is such a key for brokenness, because once your heart is broken, the only step you have now to take is right back to God, to go back to him, because the brokenness came because you left him.

And so, number one is repentance. Number two, he had to remember. He had to remember. Psalm 42. In fact, go to Psalm 42 with me real quick. This is not a Psalm of David. It's a Psalm of the sons of Korah, but it's a Psalm about remembering. And I just want to read through it. It's 11 verses. Hang tight with me. So turn there if you can. If not, just write Psalm 42 in the margin of your

Bible, and let me read this to you. It says, As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been shed, my tears have been shed, my tears have been shed, my tears have been shed, my food day and night, while they say to me all day long, where is your God? These things I

remember, and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, with the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. Again, this isn't David that wrote this, but doesn't it feel like it could have been David that wrote this in this point in time? And then I want you to notice what it says in verse five.

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him for the help of his presence. Jump down to verse 11 if you're following along in Psalm 42. Notice what it says. Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, the help of my countenance and my God.

How do we strengthen ourselves? And the Lord wants we've repented. It's time to remember. What do we remember? We remember who God is. He says, why are you downcast? Why are you in despair, O my soul? See, at this point in time, it'd be a good time for David to talk to himself again. Only not tell himself that there's no hope, but tell himself what God has done. Remind himself of who God is. He says, why are you

in despair, O my soul? And why are you so disquieted? It's time for me to hope in God. This verse has become one of the greatest sources of strength for me. It's become the verse that I hang my hat on, if you will. It's the cheesiest thing I can come up with, but it's the best way that I can call this verse. So today, of course, is September the 11th. And Aaron and I were

reminiscing on this earlier because, you know, the generation today, they weren't alive when this lot of them, when it happened. And that's really strange for me because September the 11th of 2001 was... A pivotal moment in my life, a pivotal day in my life. It actually, for me, I had just flown back from California two days before everything happened. I flew back on a Saturday. I think

that took place on a Monday, maybe a Tuesday. I can't remember the exact day. It was somewhere right in there. And when everything happened, it culminated what was a falling away time for me. And it caused me to go, where are you and what are you doing? Only instead of hoping in God, I began to fall into despair. Just like David. And it started for me about a two-year period of depression

that I didn't think I was ever going to come out of. It started for me a period that I didn't think was ever going to be a place that I would pull out of. And as I went down that road and prayed and sought the Lord and was like, Lord, what's going on? What's wrong with me? And all these different things, I finally came across a wonderful book called Spiritual Depression by

Martin Lloyd-Jones. Fantastic book. I'm actually reading through it. Again, right now, one of the things he points out is that we have to learn to talk to ourself, not to let ourself talk to us because ourself will put you into despair, but you talk to yourself. It reminds yourself who God is. And he uses this verse. He says, you have to first of all ask yourself, why are you in despair? Why are you downcast? You have to get to the root of your

problem, the root of why you're discouraged or depressed or anxious. Because a lot of times, getting to that root is actually one of the biggest issues that you have. And so once I got to the root of my issue, he said, now that you're at the root, hope in God. What does God have to say about the source of your depression? What does God have to say about the source of your

discouragement? What does God have to say about the source of your anxiety? Well, once you can do that, then every time it comes up again, you say, but Lord, this is what your word says. And I am going to choose to believe you more than I'm going to believe myself. And I'm going to choose to believe my feelings. I'm going to choose to believe you more than I'm going to believe my depression,

more than I'm going to believe my anxiety, more than I'm going to believe my discouragement. And I can tell you as a personal testimony that when you choose to believe what God has to say about your place of discouragement, depression, or anxiety, that God will heal you from it. Because that's what's called walking by faith. And that's what David does here, is David reminds himself of the truth of who God is and stops believing the lies of the discouragement and the depression. I don't know if you realize this or not, but this is, this is suicide awareness month.

I didn't realize that until yesterday, but that's what this is right now. And I think that's a really important thing for us to pay attention to during a month like this, because there are people who are depressed. There are people who have anxiety. And listen, there are Christians who have those things. If you're a Christian and you battle that, you probably feel,

pretty condemned because you're like, I'm a Christian. I'm supposed to have joy. I'm a Christian. I'm supposed to have peace. Why don't I have joy? Why don't I have peace? Well, because life is real and things are hard. And sometimes it's because of rebellion. And sometimes it's because the enemy wants to destroy you. But at the end of the day, you have to encourage yourself in the Lord. And the way that you do that is by remembering.

What does God have to say about it? And tell yourself, every single day. I remember reading a book by somebody and they said, I had to start putting the promises of God everywhere. And so that's what I started doing. I started writing things on note cards. And I told somebody, I said, first thing I did is I put it on my steering wheel. So it'd be the first thing I saw every day. But then I had a note card in the middle of my steering

wheel. And you know, when you turn like this or, and I was like, that made me dizzy. So I decided to put it on the dash. That was a better, that was a better move for me because my distractibility, it was, my steering wheel was bad. But I started putting them everywhere. Just, God's promises. And I would have to tell myself on a consistent basis, this is what God says.

Stop listening to what I have to say. He encouraged himself, strengthened himself in the Lord. So number one, he repented. Number two, he remembered. And then number three came restoration. Restoration. Because what we're about to see is that David is going to make an about face on the way that he's been living, right? So David has repented. And I want you to notice what he does next. It says in verse seven,

then David said to Abiathar, the priest, the son of Ahimelech, remember him? We haven't heard anything about him for a while. The guy that has the ephod, he says, please bring me the ephod. So Abiathar brought the ephod and I love it. David inquired of the Lord saying, shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them? He said, pursue for you will surely overtake them and you will surely

rescue all. How do I know that there was rescue? I know that there was rescue. I know that there was restoration. Well, because David sought the Lord and what did the Lord do? The Lord responded. The Lord spoke to him. But you know what we didn't hear about at all while David was living with the Philistines? We didn't hear about him seeking the Lord. You didn't hear Abiathar's name.

You didn't hear about the ephod. You didn't hear him seeking what God had, what God had for him, what God wanted for him to do. But you see, now that David has repented and now that he has remembered, he has been restored. And now his relationship is back on track. He's like, I may have been screwing up up to this point in time, but I can't do anything about the

past. I can do everything about the present. Let's seek God. God says, do it. Go. Now we're back on track. And so David goes after the Amalekites. So notice what it says, verse nine. So David went, he and the 600 who were with him, and he came to the brook Bezor where those left behind remained. But David pursued, he and 400, men for 200 who were too exhausted to cross over the brook Bezor remained behind. So 200 guys were

like, hey, we've been marching a long time. We're not in as good shape as you guys. You guys keep going. We'll wait here. So verse 11, they found an Egyptian in the field and they brought him to David and gave him bread and he ate and they provided him water to drink. And they gave him a piece of fig cake and two clusters of raisins and he ate. Then his spirit revived,

for he had not eaten bread nor drunk water for three days and three nights. And David said, to whom do you belong? And where are you from? He said, I'm a young man of Egypt, a servant of an Amalekite. And my master left me behind when I fell sick three days ago. We made a raid on the Negev of the Cherethites and on that which belongs to Judah and on the Negev of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag with fire. And David said, will you bring me to this band?

He said, swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver, me into the hands of my master. And I will bring you down to this band. When he brought him down, behold, they were spread over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. I want you to take note of one thing about the way he handles this young Egyptian man. What had David been doing up to this point in time when he went to these other

villages? He was killing everybody, right? He'd become simply a raider who killed everybody. He was killing everybody. He was killing everybody. He was killing everybody. He was killing everyone that was in front of him. But now, now that he's back on track, what does he show? He shows some compassion, some compassion to somebody that needs it. And because of that,

God blesses him. And this young Egyptian boy tells him everything that he needs to know. And so in verse 16, it says, when he had brought him down, oh, they were, yeah, they were partying and all that kind of good stuff. Verse 17, David slaughtered from twilight until evening of the next day. And not a man of them escaped except 400 young men who rode on camels, which is fair

camels are fast. So David recovered all the Amalekites had taken, and he rescued his two wives and nothing of theirs was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had, that they had taken for, for themselves. David brought it all back. So David had captured all the sheep and the cattle, which the people drove ahead of the other livestock.

And they said, this is David's spoil. And so now that he's back on track, God brings victory. Oh, what a victory because he's been through it a long time. David's a strong man. He's been through a lot. He's been through all these things in his life. But it was not just this kind of victory because God led him into battle, not the kind of victory because he was simply seeking it for

himself. And so it says in verse 21, when David came to the 200 men who were too exhausted to follow, uh, David, who had also been left at the Brook Bazaar, they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And then David approached the people and greeted them. And then all the wicked and worthless men among them, those who went with David said, because they did not go spoil that we have recovered, except his wife and his children, and they may lead them away and depart. And David said, you must not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us, who

has kept us and delivered us into our hands, the band, or delivered into our hands, the band that came against us. And who will listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down to the battle, so shall his share be who stays behind with the baggage. They shall share alike. So it has been from that day forward that he made it a statue and an ordinance for Israel to this

day. I would just like to point out that the other thing that comes along with having your life back on track with the Lord is that there's wisdom that comes from the Lord, and he handles this in a very wise way and prevents really a split in his army. He prevents a civil war in the way that he handles this. And I've been fascinated, again, if you're doing the Bible thing with us, you know, we're in Proverbs.

And I don't always spend an incredible amount of time. I kind of breeze through it sometimes, and I've really determined to take some time and focus. And do you know what I've noticed in the Proverbs is that seeking wisdom is the same as seeking God, and it's to be pursued wholeheartedly. And so if your life's not right with the Lord, then you're probably not seeking wisdom either. But when your life is right with Jesus, it's amazing how wisdom seems to follow

that. And so he set up this statue, which exists to this day. And when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, Behold, a gift for you from the spoils of the enemy of the Lord, to those who were in Bethel, and to those who were in Ramoth of the Negev, and to those who were in Jetear, and to those who were in Aror, and those who were in Sifmoth, and to those who were in Eshtimoah, to those who were in Recall, and to those who were in the cities of the Jeremelites, to those who were in the city of the Kenites, and Hormah. to those who were in, I don't know how to say that, and to those who were in Athak,

and to them who were in Hebron, to all the places where David and himself and his men were accustomed to go. Again, one last thing about once your life is back on track with the Lord, is that not only is your relationship with the Lord restored, but relationships with other people get restored as well. Remember, David had left behind the people of Judah, and ultimately had kind of made himself a little bit of an enemy of the people of Judah. But now he sends some of the spoil to these cities.

Why? Because he wants to restore the relationships that were potentially broken because of his rebellion. And I'm always reminded that the gospel doesn't just restore our relationship with Jesus, it restores our relationship with each other as well. And so we see David's repentance. And then as we come to chapter 31, we see Saul's judgment. It says, now the Philistines,

meanwhile, back in the back, the Philistines were fighting against Israel. The men of Israel fled from the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons. And the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Malkishua, the sons of Saul. The battle went heavily against Saul, and the archers hit him, and he was badly wounded by the

archers. And then Saul said to his armor bearers, draw your sword and pierce me through with it. Otherwise, these un- uncircumcised will come and pierce me through and make sport of me. His armor bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it. And when his armor bearers saw that Saul was dead, he fell on his sword and died with him. Thus Saul died with his three sons,

his armor bearer, and all his men on that day together. Now, I would like to point out a bit of a contrast. When David came to a place of brokenness, he was not alone. He was not alone. When David came to a place of brokenness, it led him to repentance. When Saul came to a place of brokenness, it led him to bitterness. Because when God begins to deal with our hearts, we will

handle it one of two ways. Either one, it will be godly sorrow that leads to repentance, or two, it will be worldly sorrow that leads to death. That's what we're told in the New Testament, is that there's two different types of sorrow. One, it leads to death, and the other, it leads to sorrow in our lives. When you're sorry because you've sinned and you want your relationship with

the Lord to be restored, then it brings about repentance and restoration in your relationship with God. But when you're caught in sin and you're just upset that you got caught in your sin, then it leads you ultimately to death, because no true repentance takes place. And what we find in the life of Saul here is that God gave him opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to repent, and he never did. And so ultimately, his end, was death. And so, we see that Saul died with his three sons and his armor bearer and all his men

on that day together. Verse seven, when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley with those who were beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel fled, that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled. And then the Philistines came and lived in them. It came about on the next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa, and they cut off his head, and they stripped him of his weapons. They sent them throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to the house of

their idols and to the people. They put his weapons in the temple of Ashtoreth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-Shan. And when the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men rose and walked all night. And they took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-Shan. They came to Jabesh, and they burned them there. And they took their bones, and they buried them

under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days. And so we see the end of Saul, the end of a life that started so good and unfortunately ended so bad. But I'm reminded that one man's sin does not end the work of God. The tragic thing is that we do see judgment of a man who started good and started bad. And so we see the end of Saul, the end of a life that started

so good but couldn't finish well. We see that God's enemies found themselves in a place praising their gods because they felt like they had gained victory. But remember, God was still on the throne, and God was not done with the nation of Israel. And God's plan for redemption had not ended just because one man fell into sin. Because God's plan is bigger than one man. And God will always

do what he's been called to do. God will always do what he promises to do. And so next week, we'll get into 2 Samuel and see what happens next in the life of David as he picks up where Saul has left off. Let's bow together. Father, I thank you, Lord, that you are a God who always protects us from ourselves. And Lord, that you are a God who is always ready for us to repent. Lord, just waiting for us to come back home

when it's never going to happen again. And Lord, I thank you, Lord, that you are a God who is always in our lives. And so, Lord, I thank you for your patience. I thank you for your grace. I thank you for your sovereignty. Lord, I thank you that your plan continues even when it seems like all has fallen apart. Lord, that though we are faithless, you remain faithful. We just thank you for that,

Lord. And so continue to do your work in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.