Where Could I Go But to the Lord
Download MP3For those of you that I don't know, my name is Matt Francisco, and I'm the pastor of discipleship here at Redeemer. Last fall, my wife went on a trip to the beach with her mom and her sister. And when she got back, after she had dropped off her luggage and given each of our kids a big hug, She met me at the top of the stairs and she asked me a really simple question. Said how are you? It was a question I was expecting, of course, but it was one that I had been for weeks trying to build the courage to answer honestly.
Collin Hansen:And when the time came, the only thing that I could say was, I'm not okay. I had just gotten back from, a 2 month sabbatical. In case you guys don't know, you are incredibly generous to the pastors here on staff. That every few years, we get some time off and away for rest and restoration that we could come back refocused and reinvigorated for ministry. And I've been encouraged to have as much unhurried time for reflection and unhurried time before the Lord as possible.
Collin Hansen:I was a little nervous about that. I run at a pretty fast pace, and having nothing to do really stressed me out. And when I had nothing to do and had purposefully removed every distraction from my life, the only thing that was left was all that I had been distracting myself from. You see, for like years, I had taken pain and guilt and hurt and anger, and I'd sort of stacked them up like boxes behind me, thinking, I don't have time to deal with this right now. Maybe I'll be able to get to that one day.
Collin Hansen:But when I stopped running, I had nothing else to think about. It was like the weight of those boxes all came crashing down on me at once, and I was crushed. And there were mornings where I would wake up and I would walk into my office at home, and I would open my Bible, and I could barely read it. And the only prayers that I could get out were, God, help. God, help.
Collin Hansen:I knew better, but I think subconsciously, I believe that because I was trying to follow the Lord and obey His will, that He owed me at least a reasonably happy life or reasonably easy existence, one where all of my kids were relatively healthy, where we weren't worrying about money, where relationships that had been broken would one day be restored. But God didn't promise me that. He didn't promise you that either. And in those dark days, what I really believed was put to the test. Did I really believe what I said that I believed?
Collin Hansen:Was I gonna run to some worldly comfort to temporarily soothe my sorrow? Was they gonna look at the circumstances of my life and decide this is all a sham and walk away? Or would God, in his infinite kindness and mercy, meet me in the darkness of that valley and strengthen me with his unimaginable love? The Christian songwriter Andy Squires once wrote, if following Christ is assumed as a defense against the unpredictable, then Jesus proves himself to be an underwhelming savior. If we have ever become skeptical of his faithfulness, it was probably because he brought to us the bitter gift of the unexpected and unwanted, something that broke into our lives, something that broke us.
Collin Hansen:Where do you go at your lowest of lows? Who do you turn to when you have nothing left? I am unbelievably grateful for the faithfulness and the prayers of dear friends in that season and especially for the faithfulness and patience of my wife. But in the story that we are about to read, David is at his lowest point, and he has nothing and no one. Where will he go?
Collin Hansen:Let's turn now to 1st Samuel chapter 30 verses 1 through 6. And listen closely, for these are the very words of the lord your god. Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the 3rd day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way.
Collin Hansen:And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. David's 2 wives also had been taken captive, Ananias of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
Collin Hansen:This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Our father, we are here to hear from you because your name and your renown are the desire of our hearts. The best that I can offer these, my brothers and sisters who are gathered here, is advice, and that's not what they need.
Collin Hansen:They need good news. So I pray wherever they may be coming from this morning, you would give each and every one of us ears to hear from you, that you give us minds ready to understand your word, that you would make our hearts ready to obey you no matter the cost. And we plead these things by the blood of Jesus, our savior and our king. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.
Collin Hansen:Now at this point in the story, David and his men have been fugitives for years. Their lives have constantly been in danger, and Saul has marshaled all of his forces to relentlessly pursue David. Twice now, David has had Saul's very life in his hands. Once, as we studied a couple of weeks ago, where David where Saul walked into the cave where David and his men were, and in chapter 26, once again, just inside Saul's own camp. But much to the bewilderment of his men, both times David has decided to spare Saul's life.
Collin Hansen:He tells his men in chapter 26, as the Lord lives, the lord will strike him or his day will come or he will go down into battle and perish. And as he stood outside the camp, he said directly to Saul, the Lord gave you into my hand today and I would not put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the Lord, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation. Up to this point in the story, David has been portrayed as sort of an anti Saul. Right?
Collin Hansen:If Saul is the tall, strong leader, the king that all of Israel wanted so that they could be like the other nations, then David is the not obvious choice. The 8th born son of Jesse whose dad forgot to even bring him when the prophet showed up. The king that Israel needed. The one who would lead them to be a light to all of the nations. And this sort of classic hero villain story has been building to a climax.
Collin Hansen:We're waiting for that Okay Corral moment, where there's a great standoff and only one man is left standing at the end. But something really unexpected happens in our story today. Saul is spared again, and unsurprisingly, he only temporarily repents. But David David stops running. Instead of telling Saul, God will deliver me from your hand, he offers up this prayer, may God deliver me.
Collin Hansen:He leads the 600 men who were with him into the land of the Philistines, Israel's sworn enemy, and he serves Achish, the king of Gath, the very hometown of Goliath. Let's pick up in 1st Samuel 27 verses 1 through 7. Then David said in his heart, now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines, than Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand. So David arose and went over, he and the 600 men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath.
Collin Hansen:And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, and David with his 2 wives, Annoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal's widow. And when it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer sought him. Then David said to Achish, if I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be given me in one of the country towns that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you? So that day, Achish gave him Ziklag.
Collin Hansen:Therefore, Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. And the number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year 4 months. So for 16 months, while David was telling King Achish that he was raiding against the Israelites, he was, in fact, raiding against the enemies of Israel, including those very Amalekites that king Saul had failed to kill. Before he oh, and while David's actions may seem politically savvy, something very important is happening here. Before he and his men make their way into Gath, we read back in verse 1 that David said in his heart, now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul.
Collin Hansen:There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Those first few words are so subtle and so important. Then David said in his heart, Remember back when David was a boy? His dad sent him to the front lines of the war against the Philistines, and King Saul who was supposed to go out and fight, but was too scared to do so, what did he do? He sent out a child to go fight a giant.
Collin Hansen:And David, full of faith, he stares down Goliath and he says in 1st Samuel 17, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. A couple of weeks ago, we studied how David boldly and confidently full of faith, walked out of the cave even though his men were outnumbered 5 to 1 and announced his presence to King Saul. What's happening now? David said in his heart.
Collin Hansen:You see, the man after God's own heart is no longer bringing his heart before the lord. Unlike in chapter 24, David doesn't seem to be praying any longer. He's trusting his gut. He's no longer as concerned that all the earth might know that there is a God in Israel. He's trying to save his own skin.
Collin Hansen:And to be fair to David here, he's been waiting a long long long time for God to answer his prayers. Maybe he's grown weary, jaded, wondering if he misheard, wondering if God was asking him like Abraham before to take matters into his own hands. And David's unwavering faith now seems to be wavering. As Charles Spurgeon wrote, he who does not comfortably trust God will soon seek after comfort somewhere else. So rather than waiting on the lord and obeying his voice, David, just like Saul before him, takes matters into his own hands.
Collin Hansen:Once again, David offers up a white lie, a seemingly justifiable white lie meant to protect himself and his men, but the kingdom of God never comes under false pretenses. And this self protective lie, it almost becomes David's undoing, and it brings all of Israel to the brink of national calamity. As Joel reminded us last week, there is no such thing as a small sin. Put yourself in Saul's shoes here for a minute. His worst imagined fears have seemed to become a nightmare reality.
Collin Hansen:I mean, he had leveraged all that he had to try to kill David. Why? Because he was confident the first chance that David got, David was gonna kill him and take his throne. And now he is preparing for battle against the Philistines. And who is marching with them?
Collin Hansen:David and his men trapped by David's lies. Can you imagine what was going on in the heart and the mind of Saul as he went to the witch in Endor? Can you imagine what is going on in the heart and the mind of David's men as they are marching with the Philistines? How can this really be happening right now? How can the one who said he would never raise up his hand to strike the Lord's anointed be going to march in battle against him?
Collin Hansen:Is David really gonna lead us into war? Kill members of our own family? In the spring of 2010, I was working for a college ministry called Campus Outreach, and we were preparing for our summer project, a a 2 month training and discipleship program where a couple 100 college students would come down. We would teach them how to study God's word, how to pray, how to share their faith, deal with sin, all the while while they were working full time jobs. And my responsibility going into this summer was to help secure some of those jobs.
Collin Hansen:And I wasn't particularly worried because we'd spent a number of years in the Fort Walton, Destin area and had a number of good relationships. I wasn't worried, that is until April 22nd. Now that day may mean nothing to you, but it meant a lot to me. Because on that day, we learned that there was an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And as we started calling potential employers, we got the same response almost everywhere.
Collin Hansen:Hey. We really like you guys. We would love to hire your students. We just don't know how badly this is going to affect us, so we don't know if we can promise you any jobs. And you may know this by now, but all told, 210,000,000 gallons of oil were pumped into the gulf.
Collin Hansen:It spread out the size of the state of Oklahoma, and it touched the coastlines of 5 different states. In the end, BP would pay out over $56,000,000,000 in damages and fines. But to the families who had to up and relocate, the businesses whose doors shuttered never to reopen, The environmental cost, the cost of this is incalculable. And it's one thing to mourn or be sorrowful over a a natural disaster or a mistake, but imagine the fury when those affected learned that in January, 3 months before the oil spill, that BP had ignored a warning that their blowout preventer would collapse under pressure, or even a couple weeks earlier in April, that the cement that they'd used wasn't up to grade, or when it was later revealed that instead of using the recommended 4 part liner, they chose instead to use 1. You know, a small omission here, a reinterpretation of the rules there.
Collin Hansen:And suddenly, they had given birth to something completely beyond their control. And it didn't just affect them, but millions of people. And I share that with you because I think you and I, we tend to think about our sin in the same way. We may know that there's a small crack in our character, a few flaws, a few things that we need to work on, but we do mostly good things. Maybe we have our pet sin over here or something that we haven't addressed yet, but it's not that big of a deal.
Collin Hansen:We've got it under control. It's not really going to hurt anyone, And it becomes easy to justify cheating on that test, or hiding the flaws in your home from a potential buyer, or overworking to avoid the problems that you have at home or settling for a relationship that you know you shouldn't. But the problem is is that your sin and mine, both the things that we have done and the things that we have left undone, no matter how insignificant it may seem to us, no matter how hard we try to keep it below the surface, if we don't deal with it, it will inevitably bubble up to the surface from our hearts and poison absolutely everything around us, tainting everything it touches and impacting the shores of every single relationship that we have. There is no such thing as a small sin, and your sin never just affects you. But at this point in our story, it seems like David is gonna get away with it.
Collin Hansen:It seems like his sin is not going to have any consequences. King Achish, he vouches for David. But David, remember the giant killer, he makes the rest of the Philistines nervous and they don't necessarily wanna go into battle with him. And so they send David and his men home. And just imagine the relief that David must have felt on that 3 day journey back to Ziklag.
Collin Hansen:But David's relief is short lived. Something unexpected and unwanted breaks into his life, and it breaks him because God, in his severe mercy, loves David too much to let him get away with it, and his sin finds him out. Let's look once again at first Samuel 30. Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the 3rd day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire and had taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great.
Collin Hansen:They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. And when David and his men came into the city, they found it burned with fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. David's 2 wives also had been taken captive, Ananias of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of of Carmel. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters.
Collin Hansen:And may all of our self protective strategies and false comforts too be burned like ziklag. You can imagine these men so unbelievably relieved from the battle that they didn't have to fight, joking all the way home, talking to one another about what they're going to do when they finally see their wives and their children again, At the moment when their hometown would have just become visible across the horizon, somebody says, is that smoke? And then they look out, and they're filled with great fear, and they start running. And the closer and the closer they get to home, the more they realize that their worst nightmares have become their nightmare reality. For while David and his men were away conspiring with the Philistines, the Amalekites, those very same men that Saul did not destroy and that David was secretly attacking.
Collin Hansen:They came and they burned Ziklag to the ground, and they took all of the women and children captive, likely never to be seen again. The weight of their grief is unimaginable. Says David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. They grieve until they can grieve no longer, and it's at that moment that their grief, it gives way to fury. David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him.
Collin Hansen:You see those very men whose bitterness once drove them to David's side to fight alongside him, are now so bitter at him that they are ready to kill him. David's lies had caused them to leave their homes and their loved ones utterly defenseless, and now David himself is utterly defenseless and alone. He has nothing and no one. He is at the very end of his rope, a rope that his countrymen are strongly considering hanging him from. In this clear dividing line that the author of first Samuel has been drawing for quite some time between the king that the people of god want and the king that the people of god need.
Collin Hansen:It's begun to blur. Both Saul and David had been anointed as king to lead God's people. Both seemed to start in humility and start off well. But both men had stopped listening to God's voice and instead trusted their own wisdom, their own schemes, and their own ways. And now both of these men are in absolute desperate places with nothing and no one to turn to.
Collin Hansen:You see, this isn't the story of a hero versus a villain, or a good king versus a bad king, because the Bible isn't that simplistic. It tells us over and over again that there is no one righteous. No, not one. Not David. Not you.
Collin Hansen:Not me. And the ultimate difference between Saul and David is not that one's bad outweighed his good, while the other's good outweighed his bad, But it's where they, sinners though they were, turned for salvation. You see, 1 king in his sin, he hardened his heart once more and he went to spiritual to find spiritual guidance from a witch. He went to find salvation where it could never be found. While the other king, when absolutely all hope was lost, verse 6 tells us, he strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
Collin Hansen:When he was at the end and he needed a friend, where else could David go but to the lord? David has nothing, and it's when he has nothing that he remembers. He remembers that god had once been his refuge and strength, his ever present help in time of need. He remembers who God was, what God had promised, what God had said to him, and what that meant about his life and destiny. He knew that God then would never leave him ever.
Collin Hansen:In her excellent book, Prayer in the Night, Tish Harrison Warren writes, the hope God offers us is this. He will keep close to us even in darkness and doubt and fear and vulnerability. He does not promise to keep bad things from happening. He does not promise that night will not come or that it will not be terrifying. He promises that we will not be left alone.
Collin Hansen:My brothers and sisters, even if the troubles that you face in your life have come about by your own sin, Do not close your heart to God because he has not closed his heart to you. Do not turn for salvation where salvation can never be found. If you are his, your standing before God, it is never dependent upon your ability to obey. It depends on Jesus' finished obedience on your behalf. Your sin and mine, it is absolutely no match for God's grace.
Collin Hansen:So today, if you find yourself in despair and feel far off from god, do not harden your hearts, but rend your hearts and return to the lord for he is merciful and good. The mark of saving faith in the end is not that we perfectly obey, but it's that we continuously repent of our sin and believe in the good news of the gospel, that our god, for some unbelievable reason, loves us enough that he would save sinners like you and me and David. And David, in his moment of desperation, he once again seeks the lord and god answers him. And David's men, who were once ready to kill him, are now once again ready to follow their anointed king into battle to rescue everything that has been lost. And the Lord guides them on their way through the desert.
Collin Hansen:They don't know where to go, and they come across a dying desperate man in the desert. And they give him food and they give him water. And as he is restored, he tells them that he was an Egyptian slave to guess who? The Amalekites. But the good king saw someone who would die without his guidance, without his help, and he gave him food to eat and water to drink, and he welcomed him into the people of God.
Collin Hansen:And David and his men, they go to march out against the Amalekites. And at the same time, David is leading his meager forces into battle. On another battlefield, Saul is in the absolute fight of his life. At the end of the day, Jonathan, his brothers, and Saul himself would lie dead. Saul being wounded by an arrow and then choosing to fall on his own sword.
Collin Hansen:The mighty had fallen. When that news spread, the people of Israel, they were overcome with fear, and they fled just as the Philistines had done years earlier when their champion, Goliath, had been killed. But this time, it was the Philistines who cut off Saul's head and put Saul's armor into the temple of their God. You see, Saul, in his rebellion against god, had become Goliath, and his sin brought destruction to himself, his family, and the people of God, his countrymen. First Samuel 3 19 tells us that the Philistines sent this good news far and wide throughout their land, that their greatest enemy was dead, they could have peace in the land.
Collin Hansen:But that wasn't the only good news that was shared that day. We read in first Samuel 30 that David, though greatly outnumbered, came and he fought the Amalekites and recovered all that was taken so that nothing was missing, whether small or great sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken. David brought back all. David also captured all the flocks and herds, and the people drove the livestock before him and said, this is David's spoil. And when David came to Ziklag, he spent he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the lord.
Collin Hansen:You see, against all odds, the Lord's anointed, not the king that people of God wanted, but the king the people of God needed. A man after God's own heart whose closest friends had abandoned him. When he had nothing left, when he was all alone, strengthened himself in the Lord and he went out into battle and he won a decisive victory against the enemies of God's people. And while this victory may have seemed small in the face of such a tremendous tragedy, there was good news to be celebrated because the king was there. David's kingship was secure.
Collin Hansen:In his victory that day, he used not only to bless himself, not only to bless his fellow soldiers, but to bless those who had stayed behind, to bless those far and wide of the people of God, many of whom would not have even known that there was a battle going on that day, that God's people would rejoice that God had not abandoned them, but had given them a king. And centuries later, the promised true king, the great son of David, the son of God, he would lie prostrate in a garden. He would come before his father saying, if it be your will, let this cup pass from my hands, but not as I will, as you will. He asked his friends to stay by his side and to pray with him, but they couldn't. In his hour of deepest need, they all abandoned him.
Collin Hansen:And soon, he would be surrounded on all sides by men who desperately wanted him dead. But not because of his sin, not because of his lack of faith, but precisely because of his sinlessness, because of his righteousness, because of his faith. And in those desperate moments, he strengthened himself in the Lord his God. See, Jesus had no form or majesty that we should be attracted to him. He was not the king that we wanted, but he was most certainly the king that we needed.
Collin Hansen:And on the greatest battlefield of all, he took on the enemies of God's people, the greatest enemies of sin and death, and he conquered them once and for all by dying on the cross so that you and I might be welcomed in as God's family, that we might share in his victory, that those far and near people from every tribe, tongue, language and nation might know that there was a God in Israel and that God in Israel wants to be known in the whole world. On his by his death and his resurrection, Jesus secured that his kingdom would have no end. That one day, every knee would bow and every tongue confess the greatness of Jesus, our king, The king who has come. The king who died. The king who rose.
Collin Hansen:And praise god. The king who will one day come again. And in this Advent season, we look back and we look ahead. We look to that time when Jesus came to rescue his people when we had no hope, and we look forward to that time when his kingdom will come in all of its fullness, and every wrong thing will be right made right, and every tear shall be wiped from every single eye. And we come to the table and we remember, and we rejoice.
Collin Hansen:Because on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it. And after giving thanks, he said, this is my body just given for you. In the same way, he took the cup. He said, this cup is my blood, the new covenant, which is poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. The apostle Paul would later tell us that as often as we eat of this bread and drink of this cup, we proclaim the lord's death until he comes again.
Collin Hansen:So may you come this morning to feast at god's table, to put away broken cisterns righteous strategies and false comforts, and trust in the one who loved you enough to die for you that he might be with you forever and ever and ever. And here is how we are going to take communion this morning. We'll start with those in the balcony, and then if you guys down here would come later, come down these center aisles. You'll come up, pinch off a piece of bread, dip it in the wine, and then exit by the outside. This table, it's open to each and every one of you who've placed your hope and your faith in the finished work of Christ, but I wanna encourage you as I encourage myself.
Collin Hansen:Ask the Lord to search your hearts and see if there's any offensive way in you, that you might lay down your sin and rest and rejoice in the goodness of your God, the king. I'm gonna pray for us, and then if our servers would go ahead and come forward. Most merciful god, we confess that we have sinned against you in word, in thought, in deed by the things that we have done and by the things that we have left undone. Lord, we have not loved you with our whole heart, and we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We come before you pleading for your forgiveness, but pleading upon the merits of Christ's blood, That when Jesus said it is finished on the cross, that is exactly what he meant.
Collin Hansen:And we rejoice in you because who is a god like you, so kind, so gracious, so merciful? Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters here that they might remember and rejoice afresh in how wonderful you are. And if there is anyone here who does not know you, I pray that today would be the day of salvation, that they would not harden their hearts, but run to you because your arms are open wide. We pray these things in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.
