MK040 Sermons
Survival (Audio)
I'm sure you're here with us fully this morning. This morning, we're going to talk about fear. And fear causes us to do odd things at times. Things that sometimes aren't very explainable. Things that sometimes don't make a lot of sense. I'm not sure what was going on in my dream sequence a few nights ago, but in the middle of the night, I woke with this loud yell, and then swung my hand over and kind of smacked my wife. I'm not quite sure, and she was so startled. She's like, are you OK? I'm like, I think I'm OK. I'm not sure. In my mind, I'm not sure I'm OK. But fear does those kinds of things to it. It causes us to do things that we're not quite sure about. And usually, fear results in one of two responses. It's called fight or flight. For some people, when they're afraid, when they're fearful, they kind of fight. And they go at whatever is causing them fear. And others, when they're fearful, they back up. And that tends to be my MO. Just avoid the conflict and run and possibly hide. And I'm not usually up for a fight. But when we come fear, when we come afraid, our minds do funny things with these things that show up. And I don't know if you've seen this acronym for fear. It's going to come up on the screen. It's this acronym. It's false events appearing real. And some have suggested that's literally what fear is. Fear is these events. These things that show up in our lives that if you ask somebody else about it, they kind of scratch their hands. And I don't know what the big deal is about that. But you're like, can't you see it? Can't you see it? Well, no, they can't. Because to them, it's not really the case. So what was the last time you were afraid? What was the last time you were afraid? Maybe when was the last time you felt like your physical safety was threatened? I don't know when that might have been. Hopefully it wasn't too recent. Maybe it was when you were a passenger in the car and your spouse was driving. Maybe that was the last time, or your teenage kid, when you felt like your physical safety was threatened. But when that happens, our minds kind of play-- we tell ourselves these kind of funny stories. We imagine things that could happen, and they may or may not be real. But they feel very, very real to each of us. Maybe it wasn't a physical thing where you felt threatened. Maybe it's emotionally where you felt threatened, where you did not feel safe. And what happens is our minds have this capacity to tell ourselves to imagine things to sometimes be worse than they actually really are. You imagine the report from the doctor was going to be worse than it really was. You imagine that she was going to tell you in this phone call, "I just want to be friends." You imagine that you did poorly on a test, and you were going to have to retake it again. You imagine you were being ignored. You simply wanted a little bit more attention. You imagine something in your life that produced a sense of fear, whether real or imagined. And fear causes us at times do things that are a little bizarre, sometimes odd, sometimes illogical, and sometimes very irrational. If you haven't been with us, we have been in a series entitled "Unlikely Hero." And it's a series about the life of a man by the name of David in the Old Testament. And as we've looked at this life of David, he's kind of a remarkable individual, not someone who signed up to be a hero, but someone who showed up and in God's providence said, "You're the man, you're the man." The stories are told of him that while watching his sheep, he killed a bear and lion that were threatening his sheep. Not only did he do that, but he defeated a nine and a half foot giant and took him down, and then he put in charge of military armies, and he defeated multiple, one multiple battles for the people of Israel. And so this is a kind of a guy who knew what being a hero, knew what stepping up was all about. But the reality is, is that fear is no respecter of persons, and David was no exceptions. It enters all of our lives, and we're going to see this morning, when and where and how it entered the life of David, and see how he responded to someone who had a very, very strong faith, and it might just surprise you. If you have a Bible, if you would turn to Psalm 1 Samuel 21, 1 Samuel 21, if you don't have a Bible, our guys have some of them, and they'll pass them out to you. We'd love to encourage you to follow along. If you don't have a Bible of your own, feel free to take one with you so that you can look back over this during the week. 1 Samuel 21, page numbers on the screen there, page 231, in the Bibles they're handing out, and as they're passing the Bibles out, let me just tell you a little bit of what's happened in the life of this man, David. He was anointed by God to be the king. God said, this is your purpose, this is your mission you're calling in life. Shortly after that, the Bible says, God's spirit came upon him. When God's spirit came upon, he was able to do amazing things. One of those was defeat Goliath, a nine and a half foot giant. In the midst of all of these activities, he was not only able to defeat Goliath, but he was given a commission to lead one of the armies of the people of Israel, and he won battle after battle after battle. Became a national hero. Songs were being written about this individual. In the course of this journey, he befriended the king's son, and they became friends for life, if you will, and committed to take care of each other even beyond the grave. You would have thought Saul would have been thrilled that his biggest enemy, Goliath, was gone, that David was winning all of these battles, but Saul and his insecurity and his fears realized that the tide was shifting, the perception the people was moving. And now David was the one looked to by the people much more than Saul was. Not only were the people turning from Saul to David, but Saul's own family, his son and his daughter moved away from support of Saul. Now we're supporting David. David was like this golden child, the MVP of the team, the golden boy, everything he did turned out well. And in the midst of all of this, Saul decides, I have to take out my closest competitor. I have to take him out, literally, physically, kill him. And so David is on the run. And two stories that we're going to look at this morning depict a part of David's life that might surprise you in some ways. Because one of the aspects about the Bible, although there's parts of the Bible that are historical, documented fact, that are true things that we know, the Bible presents its view of history of the individuals a little bit different than our modern-day history books. Because our modern-day history books present the facts of what happened, but they usually present only the good things, the accomplishments, the victories, the battles that were won, the movements that were accomplished. And they don't usually present the dark side of a leader. More and more recently, those things have come out where you see that these individuals who accomplished great and significant things had a dark side that they struggled with. And one of the things the Bible does is that when tells us stories about individuals, it doesn't just give us the news clips from the previous week. It gives us the good, bad, and the ugly. And tells us what all of those things are like about those individuals. And that's what we're going to see in David's life this morning. So David is on the run. He's been told by his good friend, Jonathan, that my dad is out to get you. You need to go. This is not safe. Go. And he takes off. And he ends up in a place called Knob. Not a very creative name, but that's where he ended up. And in Knob is just a couple miles from where Saul's kingdom was established. And in Knob is a location where the people of God would worship. And they had places where priests would lead times of worship. And so David ends up talking to a priest there in the city of Knob. And he goes to meet this priest that the story goes that the priest was a little bit uneasy about meeting him is what he says in verse 1. He was a little uneasy about it. You say, why would the priest be uneasy about meeting David? Well, it was quite odd for a military leader to not be traveling with his troops, military leaders in those days, wherever they went, their troops went with him. So it was a little odd not to have his troops with him. If his troops are not with him, then the only logical conclusion might have been that maybe there's been a problem with the king and maybe there's a problem with him being in the position of authority. If there's a problem, then there's a possibility that he's on the run that he's a fugitive. And anybody who helps a fugitive of the king, especially a paranoid king like Saul, their life might be in jeopardy. And so the priest begins with these couple of questions in verse 1. He says, why are you alone? Why is no one with you? Pretty normal questions. But look at David's response in the next verse. He says, the king sent me on a mission. And he said to me, secret mission. No one is supposed to know about this. I'm sending you. As for my men, I've told them to meet me at a certain place. Now, based on what I've told you this morning or what you personally might know about King David, is it likely that the king sent him on a mission? What do you think? Yes or no? Not really likely, is it? The king's out to kill him. The king's hunting him down. He's at the top of the most wanted list. There's pictures of his face all around. And David says, I'm on a mission for the king. Secret one, by the way. And my men, they're stashed away over here. Kind of odd. Kind of odd. David is on the run, and the one person you would think it would be safe to be honest with the priest, he tells a bold face lie to. Why did David do this? Well, I want to suggest to you that possibly David's fear got the best of him. And I think we're going to see some evidence of that in the next few verses. Well, David started down this path. And so the priest is like, well, why are you here? What do you want? And David goes on to say in verse three, he says, I need some bread. I need some food. What do you have on hand? You got some loaves of bread. Give me some bread. And the priest said, well, we've got some bread here. In verse four, he said, but this is kind of sacred bread. It's holy bread. It's set aside bread. Some people think that the communion bread is like that, and to see little kids running around eating and after church, but it's not really like that. But you say, what is he talking about there? Well, in the temple, excuse me, in the tabernacle, in the place of worship, one of the pieces of furniture in the place of worship was called the table of presents, or sometimes referred to as the table of show bread. And on this table, there would be six loaves of bread, likely round and flat, that would be stacked, and there would be two piles of them representing the 12 tribes of Israel. And these loaves of bread every week would be swapped out with a new fresh set of loaves of bread. And then the priest, who were considered holy, set apart by God to serve the people, they would be the ones that would be allowed to eat that bread. And that's what they, one of the things, they would live off of during that week. And so the priest says, I only have some consecrated bread providing the men have kept themselves from women. You're like, what is that all about? Well, obviously priest and those, the priest were not married men, and they would not be involved sexually with women, and so they would be considered holy and set apart by God. It was a ceremonial purity that they talked about that was important. And so David says, he goes on to say, he in the next verse, he says, well, obviously my men's bodies are holy on missions, they're kept from women. He's just continuing to spin the story. Obviously our troops, the men, they haven't been with him because they've been out on a mission. That's what he implies by his statement there. And so the priest says, go ahead and take it. He said he gave it to him and he gave him the bread. That leads you kind of scratching your head because it's obvious David needs some food, but he spins quite a story to get the food. The story goes on and then in verse seven, there's a strange statement that's going to make a little more sense next week. This guy shows up on the scene named Doak. He's an Edomite, a foreign nation that the people of Israel fought against. You're like, what does he have to do with the story? We'll come back next week and I'll tell you what he has to do with the story. But David not only needs food, he needs a weapon. And so he says this to the priest, a hymnal like he says, do you have a weapon? And he says, well, of course I have a weapon. He says, the only thing I have is a sword of Goliath of the Philistine whom you killed in the valley of Elets here. He says, if you want to take it, there's no sword here but that one. David says, there's none like it, give it to me. No, this is a sword that was carried by a giant, a guy that's nine and a half feet tall. David's likely, I don't know, five and a half to six feet tall. So the sword's quite a bit bigger. Anybody remember how heavy that sword was? We talked about a few weeks. Anybody remember a number? 25 pounds is how heavy that sword was. This is like a child wearing his dad's coat. That's what it would be like. And David says, well, and he's something to fight with, so give me whatever you got. So he's lugging this sword around. So he's taken the bread and he's taken the sword. And as I read through this story about David, I thought, well, it's obvious he needs these things to survive. It's obvious he's going to need something, food, something to defend himself. But something seems a little odd about this story. Something seems kind of out of balance because David is a guy who trusted God. David is a guy who relied upon God. David is a guy who, the Bible says over and over again that God's spirit was with him and helped him do amazing things. But David's telling this wild story to get what he needs. Something's a little odd about this story. So David leaves there and he goes the next day in verse 10. He fled from Saul and he went to Akish, King of Gath. There was a guy who lived in Gath who was very, very tall, nearly 10 feet tall. He was a warrior. He was the national hero, if you will. And this guy named David just killed him. So David lies to the priest to get his food and then to get the sword. And then he heads into the hometown of the guy he just killed. Seems a little odd, doesn't it? It's kind of like beating your arch rival and then saying to them, "Hey, I know you beat the team. "We're gonna play next week. "Can you give me your game plan "so we can go in and figure that out?" They're gonna take a hike, you know? It's like winning a bid on a contract and saying to the company, "Hey, I know you put in some good work on this. "You wanna share that with us "so we can go make money on this project." Why would David go to the hometown of the guy that he just defeated? Why? Seems really, really strange. Not only is it the hometown of the guy he just defeated, but look what happened when he showed up in town. The servants of Akish said to him, "Isn't this David the king of the land? "Isn't he the one they sing about "and their dances saw as slain as thousands? "David is playing as slain as 10,000s?" I mean, this song was at the top of the charts and they were playing in every one of the dances. This is what everybody was singing about, who, about David. So obviously he thinks he's gonna hide, but he's not gonna be able to hide. He's not a fugitive at all. He thought he could enter this town incognito, but it's not gonna happen. And then look at this next verse, describes David. "David took these words to heart "and was very much afraid of Akish king of gas." That's a little odd. Here's a guy that defeated a lion in a bear with likely a shepherd's crook and a scrub. Here's a guy that defeated a nine and a half with giant with a sling and a rock. Here's a guy that gets put in charge of the armies of Israel and goes and wins battle after battle after battle. So much so that he's a national hero. Everybody knows his name. Everybody knows who he is. They're singing songs about him. And he's afraid of this king. Say, why the fear? Why the fear? Well, think about it for a moment with me. If we can go back to the previous verse, look at that verse. He said, "Isn't this David the king of the land?" The people had read the polls. They knew what was happening. They knew that Saul was on the downward trend and that everybody was bailing jumping ship and he had hardly any support at all. Kind of like Chip Kelly, if you're an Eagles fan. No support for the man. It's just going down, you know. And then you got David on the other hand, he's going up the other side and his support is increasing and everybody's jumping on the bandwagon and everybody thinks this guy can do nothing wrong and he's going on the, and everybody knows about it. Even their enemies know about it. And so the future king shows up at your front door if you're the enemy, you've got a valuable commodity in front of you. You can either take him captive and hold him prisoner as a hostage, you could kill the next king and increase your potential standing in the land because you've just defeated the future king. There's a lot of reasons for David to be afraid, but the question is what is David going to do next? What is he going to do next? He's been exposed, he's all alone. There's no place for him to hide. There's no way for him to stay under the radar. What's he going to do? Is he going to leave town? Is he going to go into hiding? Is he going to call out to God for help? Is he going to pray? What is he going to do? Based upon everything we've seen in the life of David to this point, you would assume that that somehow he would turn to God and somehow there would be this reliance upon God and somehow something supernatural would take place because God's spirit is on this guy and he's able to do amazing things, right? Seems like that might be what happens next in this story. Now look at verse 13. So he pretended to be insane in their presence and while he was on in their hands, he acted like a mad man making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard. Wow, that sounds like a hero, doesn't it? That sounds like the guy that can't do anything wrong, the golden boy. He acts like a lunatic. He's laying there scratching the doors of the gates, drooling all over the place. You're like, what in the world is going on? You know, the reality is, is David not only relied upon God and God did amazing things in David's life. David was a pretty smart guy. David knew how to win a battle. David knew how to lead an army. Was God's spirit with him and allowed him to do remarkable things? Yes, but the truth was there was something amazing about this individual. And what it looks like David starts to do is he starts to use his skill and his cunningness and his creativity and his ingenuity to get him out of another pinch or two. But there's someone that's surprisingly absent from the story. Anybody guess who's absent from the story that's been in all these other stories about David? God, God's absent from these story. Go back and read those first 12 verses. Does God's name show up anywhere in these first 12 verses? Doesn't show up anywhere, nowhere. Here's a guy that said, God is with me and God's gonna give me the victory and we need to defend God's name and over and over and over and over again. And God'll go before him, but God'll go before us and God'll be with us. God's nowhere in sight. But David doesn't fall flat on his face. He still accomplishes some pretty creative, some pretty ingenious ways, regardless of whether you agree with his methods, to number one, get food and a weapon. And number two, avoid an enemy king that could easily do him harm. Because his acting job works. Look at the next verse. Aikish said to a servant, "Look at this guy. "He's a mad man. "Why'd you bring him to me? "I got plenty of crazy people around here." He said, "Must this man even come to my house? "Get him out of here. "Get him out of here. "Send him on his way." His acting job worked. He clearly fooled Aikish. Clearly fooled him. And what you'd begin to discover is David is no longer this innocent shepherd boy with no resume and very few skills. He's accomplished in battle. He's accomplished in leadership. He's come up with solutions to problems that no one else was able to come up with that allowed him to accomplish significant things. And what David appears to do in these two stories, he appears to use that same skill, that same cutting, that same capacity to solve his problems and he's very effective at it. But God is nowhere in the scene. God's nowhere in the story. And so David solves his problem using his skill and his ability in his ways. Does he get out of a pinch? Absolutely, he gets out of a pinch. Does he save his neck? Likely he does from King Aikish. Does he do it God's way or his way? I would argue that he did it his way. And God wasn't anywhere in the picture. You see, sometimes we have this notion that if God's not in my life, when I make choices and decisions and do things, it's all going to blow up and be a disaster and I'm going to fall flat on my face. That doesn't happen all the time. It doesn't happen because God has given you being created in his image with a mind and a capacity to think and be creative and solve problems and come up with solutions and fix things and move forward. But all of us have a decision to make when we find ourselves at places where we are fearful. And that's where I believe David was. David was fearful of his life, Saul was threatening his life, he was on the run. David was fearful, he went to this place called God. Not really sure why he even did that, but he ends up there and he has to act like a madman to get him out, but it's his fear that moved him to these responses. As you look at the story of David being afraid and David being on the run, in both of these stories, he took matters into his own hands. Little reliance upon God, little trust in God, little consideration of God's ways and God's plans. And these two stories reflect a different side of David that we don't often see. The Bible says that God was looking for a man after his own heart. And David is described in the book of Acts as a man after God's own heart. And as I sat with these stories and thought about these stories, I think these are a very, very important reminder to us that people who follow God at times when they are afraid will try to solve problems on their own. Just like David did in this story. In these occasions, he took matters into his own hands. He took care of it in himself. And I find myself often in conversations with people who are wrestling with things where they took matters into their own hands. Doesn't mean they were walking away from God. No, not at all. It probably means they weren't waiting on God. Well, John, you don't understand. This individual is kind of a, you know, they're a good person and I'm pretty sure they're a Christian and I know they don't come to church very often. And, you know, I gotta take what comes and I don't know how much longer, you know, is God gonna bring someone else. And I really think if I marry this person, then it might turn them around and bring them back to God. And I say, your way or God's way, which one is it? Well, John, things are really tight and we need some extra money. And I know the job's gonna keep me from working, you know, from being able to, you know, be in church on Sundays into worship. But if I have a little bit of extra money just for a time, then it'll free things up and we won't be so tight and things will be a little smoother. And I would say, your way or God's way. You know, my daughter was invited to play on this team and it's a significant team and a very good coach and it's a great opportunity for her to move forward. And I don't know how often she'll get another opportunity for her to develop these skills. But, you know, it's gonna pack our schedule a little bit tighter and I know we can't make it to a small group, but it's what we have to do. And I would say, your way or God's way. Plenty of examples of people in the Bible who came to a crossroads and they had to choose their way or God's way. All the way back in the beginning, the Garden of Eden, two brothers, Cain and Abel. God said, "Bring me this kind of sacrifice." Cain says, "I'm gonna bring it my way." God says, "That's not what I wanted." Abraham goes down to the land of Egypt with his wife Sarah and a very attractive woman. And in those days, the kings could take any attractive woman into their harem and he's afraid this is gonna happen and he would then be killed as the not needed husband. And he says, "Oh, she's not my wife. She's my sister." His way or God's way. God says to Moses, "The people need water." And God says, "I'll provide water." And God says to Moses, "Speak to the rock." Moses struck the rock and it cost him going in the Promised Land. His way or God's way. Over and over and over again and you find yourself with these crossroads of people who haven't abandoned their faith, haven't walked out on God, haven't rejected God, but they're at crossroads where fear and uncertainty creeps into their heart, false events appear real, they're not sure what to do and they decide I'm gonna go my way, not God's way. Plenty of examples of this over and over in our lives and David had to make a decision, he's resourceful, he's creative, he's gonna solve the problem and he chose to do it his way and not rely upon God. And I believe in this situation his fear moved him to rely on himself. I think a little bit, I think shortly after that, David was by himself, maybe after he left Akush and he sat and thought about what he did. He sat and thought about the situations that he was just in. He sat and thought through his responses when he was pressed up against the wall, when he was fearful and uncertain and afraid. And I think he wrote some thoughts about that in Psalm 34 and I'd like to invite you just to listen to some of what David said in Psalm 34. He said, "I sought the Lord and he answered me. "He delivered me from all of my fears." This poor man called and the Lord heard him and has saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. "Fear the Lord, you as holy people, for those who fear him, "they don't lack nothing." David was in a situation where he needed something, but his fear was of other people, not of God. Come my children, listen to me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry. Never heard David crying out to God. It's as if he forgot about God. He said, "The face of the Lord is against those "who do evil to blot out their name. "The righteous cry out in the Lord hears them." He delivers them from all of their troubles. The word is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Remember David's story? He did nothing wrong. He was asked to come face the giant and he did it. He was asked to go fight the battles and he did it. And now his life is being threatened. He's on the run, he doesn't have anything. The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. He protects all of his bones, not one of them is broken. The Lord will rescue his servants. No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned. I think David forgot about God. That sounds kind of awful. But if you take a look at your life and you think about the challenges you face this week, the crossroads you are at, the decisions you had to make, a moment in time when you felt fearful and afraid and uncertain, did you pause and think about tackling it God's way or your way? I know for me, I'm always about trying to find solutions. I'm always about what's the next step that needs to be done. I'm always like move things forward. It's just the way I think and the way I'm wired. And it's very hard for me to slow down and take a step back and think, what's God's way gonna look like in this situation? What's it gonna look like for me to lean on God in this scenario? That's something happened in my family this week and something I really had very little control over. And my mind right away went to, well, you can do this and you can do this and you can do this, but about midway through the week, I started to, I just kind of put life on pause and thought, man, I wonder what God's way is gonna look like. And what would it look like for me to lean into him and be patient and wait for him and not solve this myself? And I think David forgot that. He forgot that. And this morning, I don't know what's going on in your life. Maybe as you're sitting here listening, you're remembering a situation you face personally where you forgot to consider God in a situation you were confronted with. Or maybe there's one right in front of you right now that is clearly on your mind as I'm talking. And as I mentioned it, you feel some anxiety, you feel your heart start to accelerate, you feel your palms start, 'cause you, there's some fear associated with whatever this is in your life. Paul faced those kinds of challenges as well. And look how Paul ends his life journey in second Timothy chapter four. He writes these words, "But the Lord stood at my side "and gave me strength, God's presence and God's power. "So that through my, me, the message might be fully proclaimed "and all the Gentiles might hear it. "I was delivered from the lion's mouth." Verse 18, "The Lord will rescue me from every attack "and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom." Paul faced incredible challenges. But at the end of his life, he was able to look back and say, "God was with me, and God gave me the strength, "and God got me through it." He got me through it. He said, "John, is my fear gonna go away?" I don't know if your fear is gonna go away. I hope it lessens. I don't know what God's gonna do in your situation. My guess is likely he's not gonna do what you think he should do, nor will he do it in the time that you think it should be done. I'm always ahead of God. I don't know what's taking him so long, but I'm always ahead of God. It's hard to wait on him. It's hard to wait on him. And so as we close this morning, I have just a couple thoughts for you to walk away with, to think about. When you are faced with fear, what will you do with it? Number one, is will you rely on your way or God's way to face those fears? Your way or God's way? I mean, David in so much of his life is leaning on God and leaning on God in God's spirit and God's direction. And then in these stories, all of a sudden, he's like, "He just forgot about God." I hope this morning you walk away reminded about God. Second, wait for God's solution or take matters into your own hands. I said, "John, am I just supposed to do nothing?" No, I don't think we're called to do nothing. And then the situation in my family, there were some steps to take, but at some point we have to decide, "Am I gonna lean in and wait for God to resolve this?" He said, "How do I know? You don't. Can't you give me a formula? I can't." But I can tell you, there's a God that's gonna be present. There's a God that's powerful enough to do something that's available for you to access in your relationship with him. Lastly, number three. Remember God's presence and his power that will come through in the end, that will come through in the end. You know, I'm starting to learn something about the value of presence. I'm not sure where it came from, but for so much of my life, I kind of assumed that my role, especially as I started to serve as a pastor, my role with people was to give them advice. And there's a place for that, when someone comes and says, "What do you think I should do?" But most often, people just wanna know someone's there that's willing to listen and hear what they're going through and to be present with them in it. Because our greatest fear is being alone. And what causes our minds to race and the crazy stories to be told in our heads? What, when we are all alone? And when we are reminded of God's presence with us and God brings people into our lives, it gives us the capacity to move outside of these things that result in crazy, bizarre, even odd behavior that nobody understands and move towards saying, "I don't really know what I'm supposed to do right now, but I'm going to wait on God." And you're saying, "I'm gonna wait on God with you." And in the midst of that, we're gonna wait and see God show up and God do something. So I don't know where you're at this morning. Maybe you're remembering a time you didn't wait on God, you didn't lean on Him, you went your own way and you just need to talk with God about that for a couple minutes, confess that about your own heart. Say, "God, I want to do that the next time," or maybe you're faced with a crossroads right now where you need to lean in on Him. Let's bow our heads and just take about two minutes just for you to quietly talk to God. (wind blowing) (wind blowing) (wind blowing) (wind blowing) (wind blowing) (wind blowing) (wind blowing) (wind blowing) God, sometimes we read these stories in the Bible that are really weird. Last week, we're read about Saul rolling around naked and this week, David acting like a crazy man. And kind of wonder what in the world is going on sometimes. But in the midst of all of that, God, there's some really valuable lessons for us to hopefully carry with us about our lives and our journey. And we have these opportunities over and over again, all throughout our lives where we're at these crossroads and we can go our way or God's way. And most of us are creative, we're confined solutions, we can act on it to do it our way and it's really going to work out okay as it did in David's situation. (wind blowing) God, it's really hard for us to lean on you, especially when the answer's not clear. The timing seems uncertain and you call us to wait. When I pray that this morning has helped us to be reminded about God's presence that he offers in our lives. As Johnny said earlier, if we have a relationship with Jesus, he says, "This spirit will always be with you. "I'll never leave you or forsake you." Not only that, but your strength and power as we wait on you to do something significant in our lives. David had experienced that over and over again, he just forgot it, God. Sometimes we forget, sometimes I forget. What's this morning? To remember our God. And even when the outcome is uncertain that we would rely on you, in your name I pray. (gentle guitar music) This is the song that we're gonna close with.