Open your Bibles if you would please to 1 Samuel 30 (page 292 of pew Bibles). We are winding to a close our series that weve been on: Is There Life After GM? or Is There Life After Loss? The bad news that has come to our community-were talking about the things that are associated with that: dealing with fear and dealing with anxiety. What does Gods Word say to us about those topics? Its rich in what is said to us about change, about faith. This morning were talking about discouragement. Its something we all face. How many of you here have been discouraged by something this week? Almost everybody. It could be a big thing, or it could be something small. Weve been discouraged by something. Maybe your athlete didnt win the event. Everybody was kind of sad when the mom, the 41-year-old, didnt win the gold. She lost by 1/100th of a second. That was discouraging. Maybe youre discouraged because your favorite football player was traded to an East Coast team or something. As a Bears fan, Im encouraged by that news because he scared us, and he hurt us many times. Depending on where youre at, there are things youre encouraged about and there are things youre discouraged about. Maybe there is something in the home relationship, something in your marriage or with your children that just causes you to be discouraged. Maybe on the job, things arent going as you hoped. Maybe in school, things arent going as you planned. Maybe youre in a weight loss program, and the scales not cooperating. Its just discouraging. There could be health concerns, some problem that doesnt seem to get any better. Maybe its a ministry thats not being blessed as you thought it would be. You can think of any number of things that you and I struggle with on a daily, weekly basis. There are plenty of reasons to be discouraged. Were going to see what David did. [These are] some very discouraging times in his life. In fact, its hard to imagine having a worse day than David is about to have. Were going to see what he does to deal with that discouragement. That will help us to deal with discouragement in our lives as well. So whats happening here in 1 Samuel? David is a young man. David came to prominence when he slew Goliath, as you and I know. David became a warrior, and he fought many great battles for Israel. He gained a reputation as a man of God, as a warrior. As a result of that, King Saul became jealous because the people seemed to love David more than they loved Saul. In fact, it got so intense between the two that Saul actually tried to take Davids life-pursued him, hunted him down to try to take his life. Twice, Saul was delivered into Davids hand, and David spared his life. David knew that he was not safe in Israel, so David wanted to go to the one place in the world where he knew he was safe from Sauls attack. That was, of all places, a city called Gath. Remember Gath? Who else was from Gath? Goliath, Goliath of Gath. Of all places for David to take refuge but in the land of the Philistines-very ironic; but he developed a relationship, a faith and a trust, with a king whose name was Achish. Achish loved David and began to trust David. He began to think that David had indeed broken off of Israel, and he [became] welcome in the land of the Philistines. Long story short, David asked for a city. He said, There are a lot of us here. David had 600 men with him, fighting with him along with their families; so there are maybe 1,500 Israelites that have been displaced. David asked for a city, and he gave him a southern city by the name of Ziklag. David built houses there and they had a settlement there. For over a year, they lived there in peace and quiet; and that was their home. One day, David is put in a precarious situation. David thought he would buy time. One day Saul would die, and then it would be safe to go back home; but the Philistines go to war, and they go to war against the Israelites. Guess who they enlist to join their army? Its David. If David doesnt go, his cover is blown, right? Because he still loves his people, but Achish believes David no longer loves his people. He says, Youre going to come with us, and youre going to help us fight against the Philistines. What will David do? Will he fight with the Philistines against his king, against Jonathan and against his own race or will he turn on Achish and fight against the Philistines? We dont know what will happen because the drama never unfolds. When David gets to the city of Aphek, guess what happens? The other Philistine commanders say, Were not going to fight with that. No matter what you say, King Achish, were not going to fight with him because as soon as we do, hes going to turn on us. Hes going to fight against us. We dont trust him; so regardless of what you say, he needs to go home. Achish says, Listen, David, youre a good guy. Im sorry I have to do this, but you and your men need to go back to Ziklag because we cant use you here. So David and his men return home. As they are approaching their city, they begin to notice some eerie and strange things. Number one is they smell smoke. It seems to be coming from their village. There is a stench and aroma coming from their building, from their village. Secondly, as they get closer, they dont hear any sound. They dont hear the livestock; they dont hear children playing; they dont hear the sound of community. This is very odd; this is very strange. Im sure at a certain point they began to run toward the city. When they reached the clearing and came into the city, the sight that they see is devastating to their eyes. Their city has been burned to the ground. Who has done it? Why did they do it; they dont know. All they know is their homes, their place of worship, their place of businesses; everything is down and smoldering in ruin, and their families are gone. Not one child; not one wife; not one elderly parent; not one animal is left. The good news, if theres good news in this situation, is that theyre not dead-as far as they know. Theyre not lying on the ground somewhere. Theyre gone. They may be dead, but they may very well be alive. Had they seen them dead, there would be no hope. Now at least there is some hope, but where do you go? They dont know where to go. They dont know who took their families. They dont know what direction they took them in, so they are just desperate and helpless. They break down and they start to cry. These brave warriors cry. The Bible says they cry until they had no more tears to cry. They dont know what to do. Then, their tears become anger. They say to David, Youre our leader. You brought us to the land of the Philistines. You brought us to Ziklag. It was your idea to follow after Achish for this war that never happened. Youre the problem. You made us leave our families. If it hadnt been for you, they would still be here. They decided that they were going to stone David, kill him. So heres David. The king is trying to assassinate him-the head of state. Hes in exile from his country, his family, his friends, his home. His family is now missing along with all of his comrades, their families; and the men who hes gone to battle with-his friends-they want to kill him. Do you think that qualifies as a day that could lead one to be discouraged? I mean that is a bad day. What will David do? Will he try to commit suicide? Will he run? Will he curse God? What will David do? Were going to find out what David does; its going to help you and me when we encounter our discouraging days. Look at Verse 6. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God. Other versions render that, but David encouraged himself in the Lord, his God. David encouraged himself. You know, you can encourage yourself, or you can discourage yourself. Have you ever discouraged yourself? Do you ever have a pity party and youre the only one invited to it? You just start negative talking about I never do this. This never works out. Its all my fault. Im a loser. This is bad. Itll never be good. Next thing, you know, you have talked yourself into a bad mood. Youve talked yourself into discouragement. In that same way, you can do things that will allow God to encourage you rather than discourage you because you and I as a people are very prone to negativism. Somebody says a compliment about you, and you go, Aw, shucks, and you brush it off. Somebody says something bad about you, true or not, and you soak it in like a sponge. You think about it all day, maybe into the next day. You cry and you get depressed. Youre like, Why dont they like me? Whats wrong with me? You just really take it in. Its easy to do. If youre around a negative influence at the workplace or someplace else, if youre around people that talk negative long enough, pretty soon, its starts to impact you. You begin to thing negatively as well. I was playing ball a couple weeks ago. We were playing some full-court basketball, and our team was winning. I was happy. Then we started to make bad decisions, and they started gaining ground. We needed one more basket to go. We just couldnt get it done. There was a guy on our squad who kept saying, Were going to lose. Thats it. Were going to lose. Hes yelling at everybody; hes mad. Hes like, Were going to lose. Thats it. Thats it. The games done, and I would say, No were not. He would say, Yes we are. Were going to lose. He keeps this up. Finally the games done, and we lost. So I go over to him-hes a friend of mine. Hes a good guy. I say, Look, that doesnt help. When youre yelling at everybody, that doesnt help any of us play better. In fact, it makes matters worse. When you say were going to lose, that makes it even worse. He goes, I said we were going to lose; I thought we were going to lose; and we lost. I go, Well, keep it to yourself. You know, in Jesus name (congregation laughing). Im being polite. But just keep it to yourself because I dont want to hear that. Lets be positive the next time we play, all right? It brings you down. So heres David. Theres loss, theres devastation and negativity all around him. Where does he go? He goes to God. He says, Im going to go to the one source that doesnt change, and Im going to reflect upon His promise. I cant die this way because Gods promised through Samuel Im going to be king. So he focuses on Gods promise; he focuses on Gods goodness; he focuses on Gods faithfulness; he focuses on Gods love. The next thing you know, in the midst of this despair and this chaos, David finds encouragement and hope. Isnt that amazing? David finds encouragement and hope. David had been doing this since he was a lad. Goliath comes and he challenges the armies of Israel. Everybody goes, Oh, Goliath, look how great he is. Look how strong he is. We cant beat him. Hes too great; hes too strong; hes too mighty. David comes on the scene, and what does he do? He encourages himself in the Lord his God. He says, I was shepherding the sheep, and a lion came. I grabbed it by its beard, and I killed it. I was shepherding the sheep, and a bear came, and I killed it. The same God who was with me when I killed the bear and the lion will be with me as I battle this uncircumcised Philistine. He has defied the God of Heaven, and this day he will know that there is a God in Heaven. He began to speak of life and truth and encourage himself in the Lord his God. The next thing you know, he has a whole army of Israelites and a king believing this pimply-faced teenage boy can take on that monster giant because he spoke words of life and hope. So here is David in his time of great despair. He seeks God. He enquires of God. Now he had to enquire of God in a different way than you and I enquire our God. We seek Gods written Word, and we pray. We trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit who indwells us as believers. Before the Holy Spirit came and Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did not dwell in believers. He would come on an individual for a task, but He did not live within us. So to seek Gods guidance back in those days, they relied on something that was in the ephod or the high priestly garment. There were some stones there called the Urim and the Thummim. Thats kind of a funny name. It means light and reflection; and somehow, God would speak to them through this. We dont exactly know how it happened. It may have been a casting of lots in some way. Maybe one stone meant yes, and another stone meant no. We dont know that. So David received clear guidance from God that he was to pursue and that he would overtake. So he gathers the men together. He says, Men, we are going to go after our families. Were going to go after our property, and God is going to give us victory. Now heres the problem. They dont know where theyre going. They dont know who the enemy is. They dont know what direction to go-north, south, east or west; so they are just trusting God. Sometimes when you trust God, you dont always know where to go, right? You dont always know which direction to take, but David and his men are tired and in spite of their fatigue, they are going to persevere. In fact, the Bible tells us that theyre so tired that when they get to the Stream of Besor, 200 of them cant go on any farther. Verse 10 (still on page 292), …two hundred men were too exhausted to cross the ravine. But David and four hundred men continued the pursuit. So here they are. To go from Ziklag to Aphek was 45 miles. They went there on foot. Can you imagine hiking for 45 miles with all your gear, all your food, your equipment? You get there and they say, We dont need you, and you have to hike 45 miles back. Ninety miles! You finally get home; you finally get to rest and see your family. Your family is now gone. Your feet are blistered and sore; youre hungry and youre thirsty; and you have to turn around and march right back into the wilderness. This time, you dont know where youre going. Persevere-they persevere because God had given them a promise. God had given them a purpose that allowed them to endure. God will also allow us to endure and persevere through those times of disappointment and discouragement because we, too, have a purpose and a promise. There was a man who lived back in the early 1900s. He was a brilliant man by the name of Clarence Jordan. Clarence grew up and received two PhDs-one in agriculture and one in Hebrew and Greek; so he was a farmer and a theologian. He combined those two educations beautifully by starting a ministry called Koinonia Farms in Georgia, in the Deep South. The concept was, Listen, were going to help the poor. Were going to start these farms. He bought over 400 acres, and they began to farm them. They would distribute them, and the poor would be able to buy food very inexpensively. So he was helping to solve the hunger problem. He was also providing jobs and a place to live. On this land, they built houses, so families would actually come together and live in community. Now, there was not a cult. There wasnt anything weird going on. Nobody was worshipping Clarence Jordan or anything like that. It was just a community, and they would grow these crops, they would sell them, and they would help the poor with them. Blacks and whites were working together in harmony-as it should be. Well, there were some white supremacists that didnt like what was going on. They wanted to cause some trouble for Clarence Jordan. They let him know in no uncertain terms that if he didnt shut down the farm, some bad things would happen. He informed the authorities but there was some corruption going on, and nobody was coming to his defense. One day, the KKK-these idiots-came into the farm, and they burned it down. They burned down every building. They burned down the farm; they ransacked the fields-every home except for one because Clarence Jordan refused to abandon his home. They burned them all down. It was gone. Koinonia Farms was gone. The next morning, a reporter from the newspaper came. Clarence Jordan would later say he recognized that mans voice as being one of the men under a hood the night before. Clarence Jordan was out in the field with his hoe. He was working. [There were] charred remains, rubble, smolder, smoke all around. The reporter pulled up kind of smug, and he said (Pastors speaking with a southern accent), Well now, Dr. Jordan, Im here to do a story on the paper about the closing of Koinonia Farms. How do you feel about that? Dr. Jordan just ignored him and kept working, kept hoeing. The reporter decided to get a little rise out of him. He said, Dr. Jordan, you have two PhDs. Youve given 14 years of your life to this farm. Now, you have nothing to show for it. Now tell me, how successful do you think youve been? That caused Dr. Jordan to stop. That would have caused me to wrap him upside the head with my hoe, but he was a more Godly man than I. He stopped, he looked the reporter in the eye, and he said, How successful have we been? The reporter had his piece of paper and pen in hand ready to write a story on the closing of the farm. He said, I think weve been as successful as the cross of Jesus Christ. You see, Sir, this farm is not about success. This farm is about faithfulness, and were not going anywhere. Were staying right here. Good day, and he went back to work. You can go online today, and you can type in Koinonia Farms in Georgia. You would find that its still thriving. Its still going strong. The communities there have devotions in the morning and devotions at night; and in between, they work. In fact, you could even go and stay a couple weeks if you wanted to and hear the story for yourself and work on the farms. Theyre still doing wonderful work. They could do that because they had received a call from God, a purpose from God and a promise from God that He would never leave them nor forsake them. The same God who was Davids God in his day of discouragement is the same God who is Clarence Jordans God who is your God. It doesnt matter what discouraging times you go through, what dreams dash or what is taken away from us. In those times, we encourage ourselves in the Lord our God, and we press on. Youre going to find a theme. Weve found a theme, havent we? We found a theme. That is we see Gods providence; we see God working in adverse situations; and we also see God bringing restoration. We see His providence, and we see His restoration. David and his men take off. They dont know where theyre going. They run across a man who they think might be dead, but they arose him and they found out he was alive-but just barely. They give him rice cakes; they give him raisins it says or figs and cakes of raisins. He eats them and he drinks, and hes revived. David says in Verse 13, Who are you? To whom do you belong, and where do you come from? He explains, I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite. He goes on to say that he had been a part of the raids in the Negev and that he had been in Ziklag. Hed been a part of that raid as well. Hed become ill, and his master had left him there to die. Hed been there for three days. David says, Will you take us? Do you know where they are? He says, Yeah, I know where they are. They told me where they were going to go. He said, Can you take us there? Now the man knows that hed just been a part of a raid that had taken these mens families captive and destroyed their village, so he wants to first secure his own well-being; and he says, I will if you promise you wont kill me. David says, I promise. You take us to our families. We wont kill you. So the man then becomes their guide, their means to find their loved ones and their possessions. What a coincidence, ha? What a coincidence that this guy is abandoned by his owner, that hes still alive three days later and that hes exactly the guy that they need to give them the directions to find their families. What a coincidence. Just by chance, ha? You ever notice that when you truly trust God and put yourself in His hands and His care, all of the random coincidences that you have happen? All the divine appointments, the people that you just happen to meet? I had a lot of time with Pastor Sean this week. We spent several hours together. It was just fun to hear all the divine coincidences that happened for him to provide for he and Heather and for their ministry. God will do that. Youll see His hand in those situations. I remember I was on a trip-this was before GPS was available. This was when you had to rely on your instinct or the gas station, if you didnt have a map. I pulled into a lot of gas stations back in the day. Im on my way, and Im late. Im in a region Im not familiar with, and Im pretty lost; and now Im getting pretty late. I finally pray. I say, Lord, Im lost. I dont know where Im at. I dont know where Im going. Please, Lord, can you guide me to my destination? I felt a prompting to pull off to a gas station. I pulled off to the gas station, and I get inside the convenience store. There is a clerk, myself and there is one other individual. I go in and I say, Im looking to find this industrial park. She says, How did you get out here? Youre lost. I said, Yeah, I know. The man behind me in the checkout, he says, Im going there. Just follow me. I thought, Well, how about that? I pull in, and there is only one customer in the store besides myself, and he happens to be going to the exact same location Im going. Coincidence, right? If I hadnt prayed, Id still be lost. I dont know if I would have ever found my way home. I would have started a church in Timbuktu somewhere. God will do that when you trust Him with that reckless abandon. Hell send people across your way. Look at these negative circumstances. This man was left behind to die. He became their guide. They are sent back from Aphek. If they stay any longer, there is no hope to find their family. Because they come back so quickly, they can be hot on the trail. Ziklag is destroyed, but that will serve as a catalyst for David to move back to Judah and become king because Saul will die in that battle that David will not get to participate in. Saul dies there, and David becomes the king. Then the bounty that David gets, he distributes it to all these regions. That endears him so when he does become the king, they love him. Have you noticed a theme? Pastor Tim talked about Joseph and all that was lost, and God gave back to Joseph everything he had lost and then some. We talked about Job, and Job lost everything; and God gave him back everything hed lost and then some. Here, David loses everything, and God gives back everything hes lost and then some; because he comes into the village and it says… Remember now, these are the men who were cowards; and they know that the Israelites have left the village. They know its vulnerable because its only men and children and old people left. Thats when they choose to attack. These guys are thugs and bullies; so when David finds them, it doesnt go well for these guys. It says in Verse 16, this Egyptian led David down, and there they were, scattered over the countryside, eating, drinking and reveling because of the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from Judah. They were just having a good time. Theyre not ready to fight. In fact, half of them are drunk; theyre reveling-theyre drunk. David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day. None of them got away except 400 men who rode off on their camels. David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. One he had taken in as a widow. This is another culture. Were not going to go there right now. Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else that had been taken. David brought everything back. He took all the flocks and herds, and his men drove them ahead of the other livestock, saying, This is Davids plunder. Friends, when we go through those discouraging times, we focus on Gods Promise. We persevere; we encourage ourselves in the Lord our God, and were going to find inevitably that God will restore what was lost and then some. We know there are times were discouraged. We know there are times we want to quit, give up or run and hide; but God is faithful. There is a song that is sung by Martina McBride, a country music artist. She occasionally has a song that crosses over on the popular charts. This song was such a song. Its called, Anyways, so lets listen and reflect on the words of this song. Its powerful. (Lyrics can be found here: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/m/martinamcbridelyrics/anywaylyrics.html) Lets close our service in prayer: Father, thank You for the things that Youve shown us in our series, and thank You for the encouraging words today in the example of David. In the midst of this incredible adversity, chaos and heartache, he found hope, faith and courage in the Lord his God. I pray that these who come forward would find that same encouragement. Those who could have come forward who are facing discouraging situations will not give up hope. Because You have given a promise, and because You have given a purpose and because we live for the glory of our God, that we will persevere with the strength of Your spirit; that we will press on to see You work in and through the negative circumstances; that we will not succumb to them and begin to speak negatively. Lord, we will hold fast to Your promise, and that we will see Your restoration because Youre the God who gives back and then some-the same God of Clarence Jordan, the same God of David is our God. We trust and hope in You. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.