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[0:00] The greatest times often in scripture that men have in their fellowship with the Lord, we see them in their humanity. David is much the same.

[0:11] I love the fact that the Bible tells us David is a man after God's own heart. And the reason I love that reality is because we see David being a man just like us. We see him in his weaknesses.

[0:23] We see him in his strengths. We see him in his imperfections and we see him in his great righteousness as he's standing before God at times. And I love that scripture testifies that way because it shows us, we know that ours is an imputed righteousness from Christ.

[0:43] But he is counted righteous because of the heart, not necessarily because of the deeds. So we don't judge him necessarily by his works. I know we tread on dangerous ground there, right?

[0:56] Especially in the Old Testament because we're pre-Christ, pre-cross. But we also know that God is sovereign in his decisions. And when God calls him a man after his own heart, we dare not argue with that.

[1:11] Now I say that because when we come into the 27th chapter, we are following probably one of the grandest accounts of a displayed righteousness in that David had once again spared the life of his enemy Saul.

[1:25] We have seen in the last three chapters, David has spared the life of his enemy twice and was stopped from taking the life of one who had disrespected him as he was on his way to take his own vengeance.

[1:41] Between those two accounts of sparing the life of Saul, Abigail comes and stops him from taking his own vengeance. So God is working with him in his heart. In those periods, we know that David is penning a number of the Psalms, the Psalms that testify to the sovereignty of God, the greatness of God, the fact that God will deliver him.

[2:00] We see him even in this last account in the 26th chapter, when he dares not take the life of the Lord's anointed, he makes the declaration that God will take care of it.

[2:13] That he knows that the Lord is aware of the situation, that either Saul will die, the Lord will take vengeance and take him out, or he will die in battle. But he knows with a certainty that God's got it under control.

[2:27] The problem is, is we turn to 27th chapter and we see his humanity. And we see it and we're like, wow, I didn't expect to hear this coming from David or to see this, because this is something he has dealt with before, as we'll see in just a moment.

[2:46] And we would think that this would all be gone. And it shows us that man in his humanity is desperately in need of a savior.

[2:57] He's desperately in need of the helpmate, the paraclete, as he's referred to, or the helper, that's the Holy Spirit that we have in the book of John is referred to that way.

[3:09] Man in his own righteousness falls woefully short. And we see it starting for us in 1 Samuel chapter 27, verse 1. And I'm going to read to the second verse of 28, and then I'll read chapter 29, okay?

[3:25] By the way, the key phrase, if you need to have it, is the very first one in all this section of scripture. Then David said to himself, Now I will perish one day in the hand of Saul.

[3:38] There is nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines. Saul then will despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand. So David arose and crossed over, he and the 600 men who were with him, to Achish, the son of Maok, king of Gath.

[3:56] And David lived with Achish at Gath. He and his men, each with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinnon the Jezreelites and Abigail the Carmelites, Nabal's widow.

[4:09] Now it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he no longer searched for him. Then David said to Achish, If now I have found favor in your sight, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may live there.

[4:23] For why should your servant live in the royal city with you? So Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.

[4:33] The number of days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months. Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites and the Gerzites and the Amalekites, for they were the inhabitants of the land from ancient times, as you come to Shur, even as far as the land of Egypt.

[4:50] David attacked the land and did not leave a man or a woman alive, and he took away the sheep, the cattle, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothing. Then he returned and came to Achish. Now Achish said, Where have you made a raid today?

[5:03] And David said, Against the Negev of Judah and against the Negev of the Geramalites and against the Negev of the Kenites. David did not leave a man or a woman alive to bring to Gath, saying, Otherwise they would tell about us, saying, So has David done and so has been his practice all the time he has lived in the country of the Philistines.

[5:23] So Achish believed David, saying, He has surely made himself odious among his people Israel, therefore he will become my servant forever. Now it came about in those days that the Philistines gathered their armed camps for war to fight against Israel.

[5:39] And Achish said to David, Know assuredly that you will go with me in the camp, you and your men. David said to Achish, Very well, you shall know what your servant can do.

[5:50] So Achish said to David, Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life. Now let's stop right there because we're going to go to the 29th chapter. This is the battle that will end the life of Saul and his sons.

[6:02] Okay? The intermission that we have here between the 29th chapter is when Saul consults the witch of Endor. But we're going to go to the 29th chapter and we're going to stay with David.

[6:13] Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek, 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.

[6:31] Then the commanders of the Philistines said, What are these Hebrews doing here? And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, Is this not David, the servant of Saul, the king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or rather these years, and I have found no fault in him from the day he deserted to me to this day?

[6:49] But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him, and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, Make the man go back, that he may return to his place where you have assigned him. And do not let him go down to battle with us, or in the battle he may become an adversary to us.

[7:04] 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 and in the dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?

[7:18] Then Achish called David and said to him, As the Lord lives, you have been upright, and your going out and coming in with me and the army are pleasing in my sight. For I have not found evil in you from the day of your coming to me to this day.

[7:32] Nevertheless, you are not pleasing in the sight of the Lord's. Now therefore return and go in peace, that you may not displease the Lord of the Philistines. David said to Achish, But what have I done?

[7:44] And what have you found in your servant from the day when I came before you to this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my Lord the King? But Achish replied to David, I know that you are pleasing in my sight, like an angel of God.

[7:58] Nevertheless, the commanders of the Philistines have said, He must not go up with us to the battle. Now when they arise early in the morning, Now then arise early in the morning with the servants of your Lord, who have come with you.

[8:10] 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.

[8:23] 1 Samuel 27, verse 1 to 28, 2 and in 29. Okay, just kind of a side note, don't get caught up in the reality that Achish uses the covenant name of God or even the proper name of God, because he does refer to him as Yahweh and he uses the name Elohim.

[8:41] Don't get caught up in that thinking that Achish must be a believer, quote unquote, or even a follower of the true God. It's very common for the Philistines in their practice to ascribe to a multitude of gods.

[8:54] And when talking to an individual, they would always refer to that individual's God. He would have referred to David in the name of David's God and he would have talked to him in that name with kind of that respect for David's God, but that does not necessarily mean he is a follower or believer in Yahweh, okay?

[9:11] Because we just understand these things. I want you to see the danger of self-focused wisdom. The danger of self-focused wisdom. In case we've missed it, in the 21st chapter of 1 Samuel, David flees there to Gath as well.

[9:29] And there's a king named Achish. We're not certain if this is the same king or if this is a title given for the king of the Philistines. I think more than likely this is the same king.

[9:41] He has went there the moment he left the presence of Saul. In danger of his life, he decided he was going to flee to the city of Gath, go into the presence of Achish. And Achish's men find David and bring him there.

[9:53] And David is so fearful that he feigns insanity, lets drool run down his beard, he's scribbling on the walls, and he pens a psalm of his dependence upon God when he had to feign insanity to be delivered because he was afraid that Achish was going to kill him.

[10:10] And he very well could have because Gath is the hometown of Goliath. And when David showed up, he had Goliath's sword with him. Remember that? I thought it was kind of odd that he walks in carrying Goliath's sword, but he's alone.

[10:24] And he barely gets out of there. God is so faithful, and he comes back to the promised land, comes back to the land of God's people. And it is there that God begins to bring men around him, kind of his 600 men, and then you have his 30 mighty men.

[10:40] These people keep coming around him, and that's what transcribes after he gets out of Achish. He's living in a promised land. God's drawing people around him. He's well supported.

[10:51] Fast forward seven years, he decides to go back. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but he does. He decides to go back, and I said the key to it all, I believe, is in that first verse.

[11:04] Then David said to himself, he began to reason with self-focused wisdom.

[11:21] Nowhere in the account is it said that he prayed to the Lord, that he consulted the Lord. He had a priest with him and the ephod, remember? Nor does it say that he asked for the Lord's decision-making in this.

[11:36] When he went to go defend certain cities, he would ask, God, should I go here? And God would give him a yes. God, are they going to hand me over? God would say, yes. Where should I go?

[11:46] Then flee here. He was constantly, at this moment, David says to himself, it's not for a lack of counselors.

[11:57] It's not for a lack. The scripture tells us that a wise man seeks a multitude of counsel, right? He's got mighty men around him. He's got the only remaining priest of Nob there.

[12:08] The ephod is there. The thing that was used to make decisions was there with him. The opportunity was there, but David says to himself.

[12:21] You remember those strategic moments that we said, there are a number of things that have happened. Samuel has died, which is his spiritual mentor. He is no longer on the scene.

[12:32] Saul has pursued him a number of years. He has gotten very close in the short span of time of being kind of caught by Saul and his 3,000 men.

[12:43] He has spared the life of Saul twice. Saul has made these empty promises, which shouldn't surprise us. Yet in the midst of all this, David professed confidence that the Lord would judge, that the Lord would redeem, that the Lord would preserve.

[12:59] And then there seems to be, when we read Scripture, this moment of weakness where David just begins to think like a man. He begins to think things through on his own strength.

[13:12] And he says to himself, I'm going to die. Theologically, it doesn't make any sense because he has just professed that the Lord would deliver him, and he has had the promise given to him even by Saul.

[13:25] Saul has confessed two times, you will be king. Abigail, when she is stopping him, says the Lord will make you king. And there comes this moment of weakness where he says, something just doesn't feel right.

[13:42] And he again departs from the people of God and the land of God. Mark it every time in the Old Testament, once people come into the promised land or even when God is bringing Abram into the land of the promised land, Abram gets into trouble two times.

[13:59] When there's a famine in the land and he leaves the land. Right? This is where he lies about his wife twice because he left the land. The famine in the land, he left the land. Anytime God's people begin to leave in the Old Testament, the promise is connected with the land.

[14:17] That's where God, not that God is confined to that land, but that's where God wants them. And when they begin to depart from that and pull themselves away from it, they're breaking covenant relationship with God.

[14:29] They're breaking that covenant. And things don't go the way they're supposed to. And it's this danger of self-focused wisdom. Four things I want you to see. Okay? Four things.

[14:39] I don't always tell you, but I'll tell you the four things. How do we get there? First thing is doubt. We get there because of doubt. Self-focused wisdom or self-focused thinking quite often leads to doubt.

[14:52] David said to himself, now I will perish. He who was so confident in the Lord, go back and read the Psalms. He who is so trusting, even when they're waiting outside of his house long before he, you know, seven years prior to this, he is trusting that God will fight his enemies.

[15:11] The Lord will deliver him. The Lord will deliver him. The Lord will deliver him. When he feigns insanity, the Lord will deliver him. When the people, you know, the people hand him over and Saul is pursuing him, the Lord will deliver him.

[15:25] When he is confronted over and over, the Lord will deliver him. And then there's that moment where he says, but will he really? The enemy only needs a small foothold to cause us to doubt.

[15:40] And quite often, those greatest moments of weakness come after the greatest moments of victory. David has just displayed his righteousness by sparing the life of Saul, testifying to his men, standing on holy ground of making the right decision.

[16:01] And then the very next thing he does is, I'm probably going to perish. He loses confidence, not in his own ability. He's got his mighty men around him, but he loses confidence. I mean, if you want to get to the ultimate end of it, in God's ability to protect him.

[16:19] He loses confidence in God's ability to sustain him because that's what doubt is, right? Doubt ultimately is saying, God, you can't do it. And he says, I will surely perish and there's nothing left for me to do, there's nothing better for me to do than to escape to the land of the Philistines.

[16:37] Why? Because in the land of the Philistines, there are cities. He actually is given one. He's given one that's kind of in a rural area. He's given Ziklag that becomes property of the kings until that day, at least when this book is written.

[16:49] But he's been living in caves, and he's been living in the wilderness, and he's been living in the desert, and he's been living in this desolate land. There's nothing better to do because quite often the enemy's territory looks so much more appealing than where God has us.

[17:02] And it's doubting the goodness of God in that desolate, barren land somewhere around the Salt Sea, which is really not that fruitful in case you haven't noticed, in that southern portion of the land of Judah.

[17:20] He says, it's not real good here. There's nothing better. I'm just going to go to the land of the Philistines. Now, think about his reasoning for just a moment. The doubt had got so prevalent that he thought the Philistines are the enemies of God.

[17:32] It's better to go hang out in the land of the enemy than live in the land of the Lord. So doubt leads him because he's thinking things through his own lens.

[17:48] Doubt leads him to go hang out with the enemy. Most people end up hanging out with the enemy of our own soul because of a doubt for God's goodness and ability when things don't appear to be going as we thought they would.

[18:06] It's doubt. Doubt leads us to this next dangerous thing that we see happening in the life of David because doubt in God's goodness inevitably always leads to this second thing.

[18:19] Deception. Deception. So David, this time, comes in with 600 men and their families. Could be well over 2,000 people that come in one time into the city of Gath.

[18:37] Gath is a very big city at this time. He goes to the kitchen after some time. He says, you know what, King, there's a lot of us. We don't need to overcrowd your city. And he kind of feigns this, you know, I'm not worthy to live in your city.

[18:49] Give me another place to live. So he gives him Ziklag. Ziklag later on becomes one of the prominent cities in the life of King David. But he's there and he goes over there and he's giving it to David and David's hanging out.

[19:02] And the scripture tells us that while David and his men are there, well, they're still doing the Lord's work, quote unquote, because they're raiding the people of the land. Now, the people that are listed that were raided by David, don't look on and say, oh, poor pitiful people, David should have never raided these people.

[19:17] No, that's not the point there. Because the people that are listed that David and his men are raiding are the people that when Joshua came in, the people of Israel failed to drive out. God had given a command to drive them out.

[19:32] You remember the book of Judges? They didn't drive them all out, sometimes because of fear, sometimes just because of laziness. They stopped short of doing what God told them to do. Remember, one of the requirements or one of the commissionings of the king of the people of Israel would be that they would complete what God had assigned the nation to do, right?

[19:51] They would go before them into battle. They would defeat the people of the enemies. So the people that they're raiding are people that God had already decreed that the men and women of Israel would fight and drive them out of the land. So they're doing, we're not here to dispute the rightness or wrongness of that.

[20:08] Now we could, and you say, well, that's so wrong, it says that he killed all the men and women and all this other stuff. Right. It's also wrong that they were offering their children as living sacrifices. It's also wrong that even though Abram had sojourned in this land and built a number of altars and cried out to the God, you know, it says he called upon the name of the Lord.

[20:27] That literally means to make a public declaration of the goodness of God. It's also wrong that he had sojourned in the land. It's also wrong that they had had a witness and denied that witness and now God was calling them to account.

[20:39] Okay, so balance it out. God is a righteous judge. Even though we may not understand it, who is the clay to say to the potter you're doing this wrong?

[20:50] What's amazing to me is that God was so patient in bringing his judgment upon the inhabitants of the land. So David is kind of God's instrument but what I want you to focus on is the fact that David would go make these raids and then he would come back but it's the deception he was living with.

[21:07] He was always telling Achish, oh I was raiding over here and they were careful not to let anybody live because they didn't want anybody to come back and report to the king this is what they've been doing because as he would go raid he'd bring all this this plunder back and I'm sure he was sharing part of the plunder with the king of Achish.

[21:25] He was, you know, befriending him here and he was doing all these things but he was always having to say well we raided over here we raided over there we raided over here. Nowhere in scripture have I ever found that it's okay to lie and deceive.

[21:38] But when you hang out in enemy territory long enough before too long you start deceiving. When you're not where you're supposed to be you eventually end up saying things you ought not to say.

[21:51] You kind of paint a better picture than there is. Because if David had said you know what Achish we're raiding these people you'd say well none of these are the Philistines. Right, they're not the Philistines but they are allies with them.

[22:02] We've been raiding your allies the whole time we've been here. Achish wouldn't like that. So he deceived him by saying we've been raiding the inhabitants that are allied with the Jewish people.

[22:17] And he put forward a picture that he was an enemy of his own people. And Achish, well surely he's made himself odious to his own people. He is loyal to me.

[22:29] Surely he's on my side. Because I promise you you cannot hang out with Satan and fight those who are allied with him. You can't do it.

[22:41] You cannot hang out in dark places and you cannot live in sinful lifestyles and fight against that sin. You just can't do it. Before too long you end up deceiving yourself and deceiving others.

[22:54] And what happened is that David's doubt in God's ability in the promised land led him to go live in the enemy's land which inevitably caused him to live a life of deception.

[23:06] Oh, I'm on your side. I want you to leave me alone because I'm on your side. Now, he was doing what God had commanded him to do but he's not doing it in the right way.

[23:18] It's a life of deception. And this deception really, I mean, can you imagine what it was like going to raid and say, hey, make sure nobody lives because if they live then somebody gets back it's over.

[23:33] Right? just the fear of that? How much better to be hanging out in a cave in freedom knowing that you can make any raids you want to you're just going back to a cave. But when you're fellowshipping with the enemy you have to live kind of this half-truth life.

[23:52] We see it going on daily in our churches. to live in complete fullness and obedience and to live openly with no fear and no shame no ridicule because we're not living a life of deception but of openness because doubt has not come in and allowed us to live lives of deception.

[24:17] This deception eventually will bear fruit which brings us to the third thing which we find in the 28th chapter in verses 1 and 2. For about a year and four months things were going well.

[24:30] David and his men are there they're in Ziklag hey Saul heard that they went to the land of the Philistines he's not going there. Right? Leave them alone that's okay. He never pursued him again. He never went after him.

[24:40] So in one hand David had exactly what he wanted. He had a great base because of the locale of Ziklag it was right there in the area it was kind of close to the inhabitants of Judah right on the border but he could also raid the enemies of Judah and that's what he was doing.

[24:54] But then there came this day it says now it came about in those days. I love how scripture makes it very clear. It came about in those days. What days? The days when David was living there. It came about in those days.

[25:05] Now I believe in a sovereign God who knows the course of history. I believe in a God who has the heart of the kings in the palm of his hand that he turns them how he wants to. I believe in a God who is sovereign over every military conflict.

[25:16] I believe in a God who ordains those days. Right? So it came about in those days the days when David was living in a land that he should not have been lived in that the Philistines decided it's a good time to battle.

[25:30] It came about in those days that all the lords of the Philistines started gathering together to go fight the Jewish people. And Akish says to David know assuredly that you will go with me and this is the third thing doubt which leads to deception will always bring us to a moment of decision where your loyalty will be found out.

[26:04] Akish says to David know assuredly that you will you and your men will go to battle with us. The day that David probably never wanted to see has now come about.

[26:20] David has got to make a decision because to say no is to all of a sudden make himself the enemy of the Philistine in whose land he's living in. This is why it's so hard to resist the enemy when you're hanging out in his territory physically and spiritually.

[26:36] because when you're hanging out in the land he rules you kind of have to obey the rules he applies. And Akish has been favorable to him.

[26:48] He's reaped the rewards of that. He's been given a city and now he says hey now the day has come. The enemy will always bring us to a day of reckoning. He says now today you will go with me.

[27:04] Now I agree with Warren Wearsby where David's answers are more than likely kind of tongue in cheek veiled responses because David never really says I'm for you Akish.

[27:20] He makes this declaration when the king looks at him and says know it surely that you will go out with me in the camp you and your men. David said to Akish very well you shall know what your servant can do.

[27:34] He doesn't say hey I'm going to go fight against the Jews. He says you shall know now one way I agree with Wearsby's commentary on this that Akish could know what his servant would do is he could take the head off of the king while he was riding right beside him.

[27:48] That's happened before. That had happened before in a period of the judges. It happened before when people had allied themselves with the Philistines and turned. It had happened when Jonathan Saul's son remember when he went up on the hill and his armor bearer with him and he went into the camp of the Philistines and people who had allied themselves with the Philistines decided oh now we need to be on the victor's side.

[28:10] So he never really veils it even in his response later on where he says what have I done against my king he never says Akish you're my king he could very well be speaking of Saul but either way we see this David is now forced to make a decision and David cannot remain neutral because one thing we can never do is remain neutral.

[28:30] As a matter of fact Jesus says neutrality is worth spewing out of his mouth he said when he writes to the church in Laodicea in the book of Revelation he says you're neither hot nor cold right you're neutral he said I would rather you be hot or cold but since you're lukewarm I will spit you out of my mouth you have to make a decision and David couldn't just say I'm going to sit this one out no he had to go and again when you think about it when you put yourself in that position David is not trying to kill Saul David is fighting the battle for the Lord's people the Jewish people he's fighting against their enemies and now all of a sudden David is in a place where he and his men have to go with Akish at least on the surface with the appearance of fighting against his own people whom he has been anointed to be king over I mean you talk about ruining your election for king you know the people love him but they're not going to like him a lot when he shows up on the enemy's side but David when he was hanging out in a place he should have never been was forced to make a decision he should have never had to make live in the enemy's territory long enough and time is going to come where you have to decide and your loyalty will be tested scripture is very clear you cannot serve two masters

[29:57] David was trying he said well God is sovereign he allowed it right remember that phrase then David said to himself David said to himself so David says okay I'll go with you and he rides with him and the whole time you have to be thinking that as David and his men are going I just put myself in their position that's the only way I can do it they have to be thinking how are we going to get out of this one right how are we going to get out of this one here's the good news in all the accounts Romans 8 speaks to this right we have a sovereign God who works all things out according to his purposes David had messed up he feigned obedience once and God delivered him he gave the glory to God he said to himself the second time and went back now this does not mean careful on this one

[31:00] I'm careful in presenting this one because we don't go into it expecting God to do these things but we see the fourth thing that's deliverance and that 29th chapter is all about how God delivers David he delivers David from a place that he should have never been and God delivers him I mean he can deliver him however he wanted to right they could ride to battle and God could bring down hell and fire and brimstone and deliver David he could spare David but God delivers him when the generals of the Philistine army looks up and says hey king what is that Hebrew doing here and the king said oh he's loyal to us I don't know about that king we remember a time in history where we thought we had some people with us that were loyal and then they turned their back on us and they sing songs about that man over there king

[32:00] I don't know about him and so the king comes back regretfully and says David you have to leave and again David said oh what have I done you know again he has to play the loyalty card because he's kind of in the middle of their camp I mean literally he's in the middle of their army camp right but God in his sovereignty here gets David out of there so that David doesn't have to fight that battle he doesn't have to go there he doesn't but don't get too comfortable in that because we turn to the 30th chapter we're not going to tonight and David comes back home thinking everything's alright and he finds all of his wife and his children and all of his soldiers wives and children everybody's been taken why because every decision has a consequence and the Lord may bring about a great deliverance but he's also going to let us reap what we've sown now he gets them back again God's grace

[33:00] God's mercy but I can't help but think that there's probably some upset wives we hung out in a cave and nobody ever came and took us we go live in a city called Ziklag and all of a sudden we go missing why because you're hanging out where you should have never been when you use self focused wisdom we dare not go into it saying well God will deliver me that's using grace as a crutch right that's using well even if I mess up God's got a way of delivering he does have a way of delivering it amazes me in scripture God was not going to let David do that because God's sovereignty and his grace and his mercy is greater than David's faults and that's wonderful that's the man he has called anointed and appointed to be the king of Israel and he cannot be the king if he fights against them God is going to work out his plans and purposes God is going to bring it about often in spite of us which gives us you have to think at the end of this

[34:06] David has nothing to boast about on his way back he did not deliver himself he did not get himself out of that jam has to give all glory and honor and praise to the Lord his God who set him free from this mess he got himself in and it reminds us that while David confesses all these things he always opens himself up before the Lord and he is quit later on you know he has a lot of family trouble later on he has a lot of deception in his family he has a lot of doubt in his family he has a lot of problems in his family it's because he was sowing those seeds early on now God is gracious and merciful and awesome to work his plans out but on our side of it how dare we tempt God with our self focused wisdom and say

[35:06] God see if you can get me out of this one because he is going to bring about his purposes but we must be careful we must be careful and I'll preach to myself in this that we don't say to ourselves this is what I should do rather we cry out to the Lord and say oh God since ultimately I'm relying upon you what should I do we see here we turn to these chapters and I'm thankful that they're here because if not we would say man look at David man look at David man look at David I want to be like David right I want to spare my enemies I want to have that countenance and we would just have the tendency to kind of promote David more than we should but we shouldn't say look at David what we should say is look at David's God and look how powerful he is and look how wonderful he is and look how amazing he is and look what he did with David for David and through

[36:14] David often in spite of his own sins because that magnifies his grace and mercy in our own lives and we have nothing to say look at me look at me look at me we have to say look at my Lord and Savior who's redeemed me who has set me free that when I stumble and I begin to say to myself and think things out for myself and begin to make my own decisions and I get myself in a place I should never be he is so gracious and so merciful he doesn't remove the consequences of those decisions but he redeems that for his purposes and he brings about what he's promised look at him when I read the Old Testament and I'm wrapping up here I'm thankful that when I read the books of prophecy often when you read the books of prophecy you know they can get so dark I don't know if you've noticed that I mean they're just so dark the prophets are called by God to deliver hard messages I mean Jeremiah you don't read the book of

[37:15] Jeremiah and Lamentations and not even really I mean Isaiah the last half of it you can but you don't read all those and think oh I want to read these to feel better I don't call him the weeping prophet for nothing you read those but one thing that I have found in all those prophetic books it's almost like God and his mercy as we're reading it because he knows right this is the word of God he knows all these things from the beginning that there's all this doom and gloom doom and gloom doom and gloom and boom there's this ray of sunshine that shows us God still in control and then we get back to the message and then it pulls back and you get a relief for just a moment when I read those prophetic books I'll just be honest I can't wait till I get to the relief right that I see God is still on the throne he's still doing things he's still amazing people are messing up but God is still great right you get to the book of

[38:17] Isaiah and you get to the end you're like wow I wanted to see that right right you want to see he's on the throne he's restored Isaiah ends with God bringing his people into the city and I read it not too long ago as I'm finishing it up and I told Carrie that's so good where it says God says they will be so old they will work they will wear out the work of their own hands I love that it means whatever they make it'll wear out before they wear out because God is faithful to them earlier in that book God is saying I'm about to wear you out right but he's still on the throne he's doing something and when we read the Old Testament accounts of people we see God is using them in a mighty way and all of a sudden we get a flash of their humanity and it offers us hope it offers us hope in this we're not perfect quite often we think self-focused wisdom but if God could use David then he could use us right if God could work through these people why can't he work through us so we read it with a holy expectation and we say

[39:26] God why not me why can't you use me for your purposes and your plans if he did it for David surely he'll do it for us but there is danger of self-focused wisdom and we see it 1 Samuel 27 1 28 2 and 29 verses 1-11 thank you brothers for me and for and for me to see the the!

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