First Baptist Church in Amboy,IL Podcast
Consider The Life Of King David
To begin this morning, before we get back to the Book of 1st Samuel, which we have been studying 1st Samuel 19-21 this week, you've got a message that's going to come from there, but I want to start with New Testament Romans 8. You've got to bowl it in, you've got some things there to fill in as we go through and some other things that maybe you can jot down and God speaks to you as we go through the message this morning, I encourage you to follow along your Bible and jot things down as God speaks. And he said, "Well, I don't think God spoke to me." Well, he spoke if you're listening. If somebody reads the Bible, God spoke to you if you're listening. If you're not listening, he probably won't speak to you. Well, he'll speak, you just won't hear. And Romans 8, I want to read some verses here that I know there's a number of things that are very familiar to you in these verses. And I want you to see because I've been thinking of these verses always because I've been studying some things just for people like them, they just jump back to the Old Testament here in just a moment. But there's a lot of things in these verses that are very easily taken into just the chains and really don't mean anything, but we bring things up all the time, so don't realize the significance of them. And you see them as we go through there, there's some things written down in your notes, in your bulletin. And you see the words that go through there as we go to something you probably already know what they are. But you're going to stay in your seat, if you will, because the length of the reading, I'm going to start at verse 26 and read down to the end of Romans chapter number 8. And likewise, the Spirit also helped with our infirmities, but we know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit itself make a intercession for us with groanings, which you cannot be under. I say this, that what a delight it is to have this kind of a prayer life with God. Most Christians never really experienced that. And verse 27, "And he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he makes it an intercession for the saints according to the will of God. But we know that all things work together for good, and you then that love God to them that are called according to His purpose, and you have ever heard that verse quoted to you, and you just want to slap the person quoted to you." I've been there, and we say it sometimes. For whom he did for, no, he also did predestinate and be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren, moreover, whom he did predestinate. And then he also called, and whom he called and he also justified, and whom he justified and then he also glorified. But what shall we then say to these things, if God before us moved to the against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he now with him also freely give us all things also. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justified. Who is he that condemned it as Christ, that died gate, rather than is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also make an intercession for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Who shall put us from the light, and who shall break us from the light of God, and who shall be saved, and who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall live, and who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? 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Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall be saved? Who shall we now, who shall we now, who shall be saved? that we're going to take time to go through a few chapters in Romans, and this is one of them, first by verse, and see so many things in these verses. And I want to share with you right now the moment. But I do think of this, that God's overall picture is so beautiful. From a distance there are a lot of things that we can do us. The reality is, from a spectator, the things that we think about when we read these verses, to a spectator they look great. But somebody that's in the race, they see a far different picture. Somebody that's fighting the battle sees things that a spectator wouldn't see. It's kind of like when people talk about the good old days. Either their senile or they weren't alive in the good old days. Because those good old days weren't all they were cracked up to be. But from a distance now that they're long gone, they look great. And so too the overriding theme of Scripture. Looks great, the message of God, the revelation of God, and how God so loved the world. But when you get down to the realities of what Jesus went through, and the Gospels, what his life was like. And the Old Testament characters, boy we look back at them, and boy they were great men of faith. When we look closer at their life and find out, they saw something more alive than what we see. From a distance things always good. And so too everyday life, in our life today, in reality, is a mess. It's a disaster. We're a walking disaster. And I know that man always makes a mess of things. Even when we're trying to do the right thing, we always make a mess of things, don't we? Look at our government. Look at any government. Governments are necessary, aren't they? Boy they sure make a mess of you, won't they? And anything that we attempt to do. You know when I look at the life of David, this life was a mess, just like mine was. And we see some great things. We read about the great things that David did, but his everyday life. I've just been enjoying digging in and studying some things about David, and not just the overall picture of David, because while we see the beautiful psalmist, the way God used him, the great shepherd, the great king of Israel, but he'd do a whole lot of harding. He certainly knew what it was to be treated. He knew what it was to have traitors underneath him. He knew what treachery was all about. He knew injustice. He knew sin and failure in this life. We think of his great victories, but he also knew great new things. He knew love, he knew what it was. He knew discouragement. I don't care if this works or it's time that they use anything of it, the word depression. He knew the overwhelming burdens in everyday life, more than he could possibly be. He even cried out, "Lord, it's not worth it. I'm sure he may stay like that." In fact, in the Psalms, we read often of the discouragement that he faced. I think of Psalm chapter number six. He says, "I am weary with my groanings, all the night make I my bed to swim. I water my couch with my tears. My eye is consumed because of greed." David knew days like that. I can do many days like that. We look back at his life and, "Oh, to live in those good old days under King David." In the big picture it might look like that, but in everyday life he was a mess. Folks may look at our lives and say, "Oh, there's a big picture, but that's great and wonderful, but in reality for all of us." We all know discouraging times. We all sometimes want to just throw in the towel and say, "Forget it. Chuck the whole man." We've been studying the life of David this week and first name of the 19th of 2001. Actually, the scene, the heading of this section of scripture is the Mad King where our focus is not solved, but I've been spending more time my own life focusing on David than on Saul. That's what I wanted to do this morning. Father, we pray that you would help us to understand some things that David understood in his day. Help us to grasp those truths that will give us through the heartaches and the treachery of everyday life. You used to get David through the heartaches and the treachery and the failures of the burdens of everyday life. You've got to teach us some things from David's life today in Jesus' name. I want you to consider for a few moments the life of David and then I'm going to just give you some things at the end of the message that are on your bulletin. You've just got a word to fill in there. Before we get to that, let's consider some things about David. I'm not going to look up all the texts, but you remember reading these? Some of them were previous weeks, last week or the week before. I think a couple of them go back far enough. But we read in David's life a few different times where it says very clearly the spirit of the Lord was walking. Isn't that good? The spirit of the Lord was upon him. By the way, that wording there causes me to remember and reminds us that in the Old Testament the spirit of the Lord came upon. The Holy Spirit came upon certain people for a certain task and then he would leave. But we as New Testament believers, oh boy, we don't realize this and I think we've taken too much for granted and we really don't meditate on it nearly as much as we should. But we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. And he will never leave us. He's always there. He is your best friend. Did you talk to him this morning? Did you have a conversation with him this morning? Oh, we missed so much. But the spirit of the Lord was upon David. And of course, when we look at David's life, we have the great advantage of hindsight. We can look back, but David didn't know he was living through most days in his life. I'm not sure if this is going to be the day that my life ends. Whether I'm facing a giant or facing the king who's a crazy man. We don't know when it's all going to end. But we look back and say, oh God bless David. God took care of David. Well, in his day, he sure didn't see that like we see him today. But every day was a struggle. Every day he thought maybe his last day. But God noticed this that God's desires and plans seldom line up with our desires and plans. Can you imagine David as a little boy? You're the next king of Israel. Wow, the king of Israel. I'm going to sit on the throne and wear a robe and have a crown in my head. Oh no, it was nothing like that in many years before he would ever sit on the throne. And even when he sat on the throne, it wasn't all that it was a practice of the people. God's plans are always far different than our plans could ever be. And his situation certainly seemed impossible. Oh God, in our life, in our burdens. God picks us to do something. He always provides the grace to do it. You know, I fear, and I'm just going to go on back a little bit here. I fear that a lot of people don't see their everyday situation like we should. We had to learn to look with the Romans 8 glasses. God works everything together for me. His purpose, God has planned everything that happens in our life. And I thought of that this past week, one early morning, I had to take a run to Sterling. They get them in ours when they open, which is six o'clock in the morning, by the way. They look that up when they get there too early. But if I was driving there, I saw some real dark clouds coming. I thought, this is good. This is good. I'm going to hit a good old badge and I looked on the radar and showed up. I mean, there's every color of everything that means that's fast coming. And I'm going towards it, it's coming towards me. I'm going to see a great show here. And as that storm front, they have big scary terms for it. Now they probably had a name for the storm, I don't know. It's just to scare everybody about, man, this is going to be good. It's so beautiful to see the blue sky above my head, but out there, it was just black. And then it was just, I mean, like a wall coming. And then a little bit down at wall, there's a big black line all the way across. This looks so great. It looks so wonderful. And then you saw the lightning flashing and everything. Oh, I could hear the thunder rolling and I thought this is going to be good. But I noticed this as I got closer. I know I'm a little bit crazy. Some folks make it go to the basement and I go off and walk here when I see something like that coming. And I saw it coming. I thought, well, this is going to be great. But then all of a sudden, it came. You know what I saw when it came? I could hardly see the front of the hood in my truck. I mean, the windshield wipers are going as fast as they could, but they couldn't keep anything clear. Like, I'm driving through Dixon and I'm not sure where I'm at. All of a sudden, everything's just a blur. And you know, that's the way like this. It looks so great. And you are, boy, this is going to be wonderful. And by the way, when the storm got by, little of that storm. And there's our light right there. And here's David's light. David, you know, the nation of Israel wanted a king. And they chose Saul to be their king. The people's choice. No question about it. And even God put his endorsement on King Saul. Well, that didn't turn out too good. Any golfers in here? They're about how past your pool. They call it. And I like to be outside. I'm not chasing a silly little ball, but I like to go in the woods when I hit it. But you go out and play. You know, golf, they call this a mulligan. Right? Let's just, I have a lot of those. In fact, I have about 15 of them. I have every hole that I go golfing in. This is another mulligan. How many of those do I get? Let's just, this is just a do-over. They had a button. King Saul ended up being up. Boy, he was, he was walking. He was the first game, but we won't count him. And so, God anoints David to be king. And David needs, of course, some experience. He's just a little boy in a behavioral. I don't know. Great place to get experience. Be a king at the side of the other king. You can learn from him. You can sit right next to the king. You can be right next to him. Well, that didn't turn out to be such a good idea. Especially when they start chucking spears at him. That's not going to work out too good. That's not the place to learn from a mad king. How to be a king. And then we read how, and David went after Goliath. The great giant. Oh boy, here we see David. This little boy going out to fight the giant. Of course, we know how the story ends. So it's a lot more fun to tell it when we know how it ends. David didn't know how it was going to end. He saw the great big giant that he could probably talk to. You can see the top of his head. And he's going out there with a sling. And the giant mocking him and laughing at him and his god. And I'm coming to you with the name of Jesus Christ. I'm coming to you to name a god. God, I'm not sure you can handle that one. You ever been in that place? God has a big giant out there. I know I can't handle that one. And of course, he killed the giant. We already talked about that last week and our vibrating. Saul, of course, gets jealous and envious. And David tries to take his life. We see all these things that David was going through. And he can't see. Up from down. He doesn't know what's going to happen the next day. And then David is given Michael to be his wife, the king's daughter. And I won't go to all that. There's some funny things in that story, I think. My weird sense of humor. And you don't even lack of my children's. I'm a little offended at that, by the way. But we'll go on. But Saul, of course, attempts to not only murder David, but David's son, Jonathan, stands up for David. And crazy old Saul tries to kill Jonathan, his own son. Can you imagine that? My kids are going to be with me the next week. So maybe I might identify with that. No, I'm just kidding. I had a double in his mind. Great, no, I'm just kidding. But I mean, here's this crazy man. And then David sleeps from the presence of Saul. He leaves the nation of Israel. And on his way, he stops to see the preacher of intellect. And this will tell a bit more like a story. And he begins a life of seeing things like that. Well, it's just a little lie, right? You ever justify that? Well, we'll just tell a little bit of a lie here. And of course, we demand things out of other people that we don't demand of ourselves. But he, of course, he's that little lie, by the way, costless. Yeah. 85 preachers. There's just a little thing. He said, "Well, I'm on my..." He didn't tell him this, but he leaves from a bimilex house to go to gas. Somebody was walking in. We've got about her. There's more gas. A lie. There's more gas. The champion. There's no electricity. Not only David takes refuge in gas, but he has one weapon on him. The grand of this sword is probably about as big as he is now an adult. Bigger than him when he was child when he used the glass. It's a sword of Goliath. They need not the smartest thing he's ever done. You know, sometimes we do some pretty stupid things in our desperation, don't we? Do the city of Gath, the house of Goliath, and carrying Goliath's sword, everybody recognized that sword. Everybody recognized it. Hey, isn't he the one that Israelites that killed tens of thousands of phyllis teens? And now he's living among us? I'm not so sure this is a great idea. And David finds out, oh boy, I'm in a lot of trouble. Here I put myself in this situation. And the people are turning against me, so in order to escape this, he pretends to be like the king with easily the problem. He learns a good lesson from him. He pretends to be like the king with easily the problem. He learns a good lesson from him. He pretends to be like the king with easily the problem. He learns a good lesson from him. He pretends to be like the king with easily the problem. Now again, there's someone say this week, and it is so true. The hardships of our life, most often times, are selfish. The struggles we have, we brought upon ourselves. In fact, in reality, every struggle we have is brought out by ourselves, by our sin nature, because we are sinners. And because we are sinners, we are enmity with God. And the natural thing for sinners to do is to see it. And we make a lot of stupid choices along the way. Sometimes in our mind, they're fully justified. They make a lot of sense at the time, but then in the midst of the strong, we don't know what we're doing. We're not sure what's up and down. How did David make it through the storms that he makes in this life? You know, when I study Bible characters, the things I've learned, and James says this, they're no different than you and I, Elijah was a man of like passions like you and I. He had the same sin nature. He had the same flesh that you and I have. He had the same struggles that you and I had. He was no super hero. He was no super giant Christian. David was no superhero. He was just a sinner, just like you and I. He was put in circumstances that he didn't know what to do, and sometimes he did the right thing. Sometimes he did the wrong thing. How did David get out? I think maybe the same way he did that. Just a couple of things that he learned from lessons from David's life. And I noticed when we speak of David, even in the New Testament, when it speaks of David, there's something that God points out in life on. David was a man after what? God's own mark. Wouldn't that be good? If we're always remembered, not only by others, but by God, this is a man after God's own mark. Somebody who speaks God, somebody who desires to walk with God above all else. Not that they were great in their career, not that they were great in their family, not that they were a great citizen of their country or their community, but someone had a heart for God. But there's a great testimony right there, a Christ-like person. Someone in whom, one of Rhonda Hamilton's Psalms, I saw Jesus in view. Wouldn't that be a great testimony? I've heard some people say that, but I couldn't do this. It's a good vision because I couldn't see Jesus in person. No, I didn't write it. But I hope that folks can see Jesus in me. Sometimes maybe they need some high-powered glasses to see Jesus in me. I don't know. But we would hope that we would have that testimony that he had a man after God's own mark. But what carried him through these dark times, these struggles, these difficult things, I think, maybe the first thing, and you probably know what it is by the verse that's there. We knew the good, what's the word? A separate Psalm 23. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God used him to give us that great Psalm. Just in a nursing home. Well, last week I guess it was. I'd like to ask folks what's your favorite Psalm, usually three or four people, Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. By the way, when the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not. He makeeth me to lie down in green pastures. You know, there's an interesting word in that statement there. He makes me lie down in green pastures. In other words, when you make somebody do something, that's the inspiration in growing that they didn't want to. God sometimes grabbed my little heads and it's there, laid out. But I don't want, he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me besides the waters. There. Yea, though, I walk to the valley of the shadow of death. I'll prepare us a table before me. The presence of my enemy, my cup, running over. Surely goodness, I think I left something out there. Surely goodness, in particular. All of me, all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of Lord. Well, when forever gets here, I'll dwell in the house of Lord. I'm not sure where I'm at right now. You're up into that place. David knew the shepherd. In John 10, Jesus says twice in that second, actually, I think it's three times in that section of scripture that I put down in John chapter number 10, I am the good shepherd. Do you know the shepherd today? Do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior? And not only as your Savior that's going to take you to heaven, do you know that he's in control today? Do you know that whatever befalls today, God is still on his throne. Jesus is still in the shepherd. I'm sure there were days that David struggled with that. I know that there are days that I struggle with that. I'm sure there are days that you struggle with that. Is he really the good shepherd? Come on, God, where are you at? What's going on? And oftentimes David writes now in the book of Psalms. I can't find you, it's dark, it's lonely. We're going anymore with that, but David didn't know the shepherd. Do you know the good shepherd? And then secondly, he trusted in a higher, not a higher power. That does not go in there. I want you to turn to Psalm, I was looking to Psalm this week, and this is so good. Psalm chapter number 61. Let's just look at that Psalm quickly. Psalm chapter number 61. And this is again a psalm of lament of David. He's crying out to God. "Here my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer." God, where are you? I'm calling for you, but I don't think you're hearing me. God, hear my cry from the end of the earth. Will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than my heart. David's here. Jesus is that rock. Thou hast been a shelter. Sleep on thou. I will abide in thy capital forever. I will trust in the covert of thy wings. See the praise of Lord. Pause, think of those things for a while. There's something to meditate on. When I'm overwhelmed, when I'm overcome with anxiety and fear and heartache, and burdens forward, lead me to that rock. Help me to fix my eyes on you to rest in you, for you are the place that I can hide. For thou, O God, hast heard my power. Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. Thou will prolong the king's life in his years as many generations. He shall abide before God for ever old, prepared, rehearsing, and community which may preserve him. So will I sing praise unto thy name forever that I may daily perform my vows. God, I'll treat my promises to you because I can have your promises to me. I'll trust in you. I'll be faithful because you are faithful. I will love you because you first loved me. He trusted in a higher rock. Of course, in the New Testament, we see that rock was in the New Testament. That they look to the strength, the shield, the banner. And number three, not only David knew the good shepherd, he trusted in a higher rock, but we now love the Lord. And I love this back in 1 Samuel, chapter 22. I want to read the verse here first, 1 Samuel 22. I want you to look at this verse. God showed me something that I never really thought on much before, but I thought, oh, that's there. That's there. 1 Samuel 22. This is the first verse where we're going to pick up next week. We end in chapter 21 this week, but we're going to pick up in chapter 22. I want you to see this, right at the start of chapter 22. David, therefore, departed from thence. He was leaving from the city of Gath as he feigned to be a mad man and escaped from Gath. He departed thence and escaped to the cave of Dumas. And when his brethren, all his fathers, house, heard at his kinfolk, they came down to their tomb hymn. They came to fellowship with him. And everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in death, and everyone that was discontented, gathered themselves on the hymn, and he became captain of them. What an RVing race up there. He became captain of them. And there were with him about 400 men. The third thing I see about David is he found comfort on one of his house. I see a church here made up of his brothers, his brother's family, his kinfolk. And then not only was the church, it was a Baptist church. I mean, here's a bunch of debtors and outcasts and criminals. Well, there they were. A bunch of sinners gathered together. You know, sometimes people think, well, the church is, you know, we've got to go on and put on our best air and think that we're somebody. And we look at other people. And why I'm as good as them. And we need to puff our chest up like an old turkey out there, strutting before its hand. And we think that we're really somebody. In reality, we're a bunch of men. You know what God says that he is. Now, that David, you don't say this past a time, you know, so we said years ago, well, you must be great to be a pastor because you see all the myths in everybody. Yeah, maybe sometimes, or most of the time, I see all the works in everybody. And I think, oh, what a mess we got. But then God reminds me, yeah, we're a bunch of sinners here. You all are a mess, aren't you? You're a bunch of sinners. You're a bunch of criminals and thieves and sinners. But I get to be your leader. Ha! In fact, I'm the worst one. God reminds me that sometimes. But that's the job of a pastor. I get to be the leader of all of them. But David found the first among the little optimists. His great and mighty men that we read about later, they put so much, oh, David had these great mighty men, you know who they were? They were a bunch of thieves. They were a bunch of thieves hiding from the law. They were criminals, living in caves. Like a Wild West. They were hiding in, of course. You were a mess. But that's the kind of people that died. Yeah, good. God first. In their life. Trust. You know, lessons from the life of David. You knew the shepherds, you knew the shepherds. He trusted in the rock that was higher. You know, you don't come first among the little optimists, you know. Hey, roll a mess. We all got problems. Maybe we can help each other along the way. Maybe we can encourage each other along the way. And that was a lot that David cast like this. The poor, the good shepherds, the rock that is higher than him. The wild cats. The spill-off cats. You've got to be through the years. Well, what a privilege that was a bit. Oh, yeah, the wow. I think we can learn that David and we do well. He started in the midst of the storm, in the midst of the trial. And all the heartache, and all the pressures, and all the burdens of life. God's got a bigger picture out there. And we read of David. We think of David. He's the one that out of his seed in the sight. What a privilege that is. But when you zoom in on David's life, you find out. He went to great after all. He was just a sinner, just like you and I. And sometimes people go into, you know, they look at somebody else's family. They look at another city to live in. They look at another church to attend. Another job that they can have. Oh, that looks all wonderful and great. Yeah. From a distance. Oh, God. They're like this. It's just a mess of life. It'll be best to do it, just join together. There's a bunch of messed up people that say, "You know what? It's not about us. And let's fix our eyes on David. And let's get to know him as a good shepherd. Because he's the only good shepherd. And trust in a rock that is higher than not. God can do more than I can. Realize that we need each other. You get through these battles and struggles. Like I'm going to ask you to say in your piece, we're going to have you.