2nd Feb 2014.
In light of what God has been doing this year in Life Church, all the prophesies about restoration and God's glory, we have to address what has led us to a place requiring restoration. This might seem odd as on the face of it things are going well! Yet God wants to restore to us things that we don’t even know we have lost.
1 Samuel 30: 1-10: David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, 2 and had taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way.3 When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. 5 David’s two wives had been captured – Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 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.7 Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, ‘Bring me the ephod.’ Abiathar brought it to him, 8 and David enquired of the Lord, ‘Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?’ ‘Pursue them,’ he answered. ‘You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.’ 9 David and the six hundred men with him came to the Besor Valley, where some stayed behind. 10 Two hundred of them were too exhausted to cross the valley, but David and the other four hundred continued the pursuit.
Today I want to speak about restoration and recovery. Over the last few weeks we've had many prophetic words as well as teaching about recovering that was once lost. I believe that God is pointing us in the direction towards growth, blessing, and great influence in our city.
We must be wary of recovery to selfish reasons. Any restoration and ground that God gives us over the coming weeks, months and years is not for our benefit but also for the benefit of those around us. Whilst we enjoyed the season prophetic flow, freshness in our worship, freshness in our worship, of excitement in the church, we must also remember that if we are to be fully restored as individuals then principles are laid down in Scripture for us to follow.
There is a danger in the church that recovery is seen as an opportunity for selfish gain. Be wary that we're not merely seeking recovery so that we can have material things, the stuff of life, given back to us.
Recovery and restoration can be spiritual, emotional, material, as well as numerical growth within the church.
We read today about David's ability to recover that which was lost. I want us to look a little bit at the background to this passage of scripture and discover where he went wrong.
I believe that the Lord wants to restore to this church everything that has been stolen by the enemy. But listen to this: the enemy cannot steal that which is purchased for us on the cross of Jesus! So how does the enemy end up stunting or curtailing the life of a church?
In looking at a small part of David's life we’ll discover how this happens.
1. David Forgot God’s Promises
In 1 Samuel 27:1 we see how David missed it:
But David thought to himself, ‘One of these days I shall be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.’
David forgot that God had promised that he would be king; this meant that Saul could not kill him. The problem David faced was one of weariness, he had been pursued by Saul for 10 years at that point. So he began to think things through and comes up with a plan to go and live with the Philistine's.
Now if know your Bible history you will remember that Goliath was a Philistine. You also remember that this is not the first time that David has gone into Philistine territory. He did it before, back in chapter 21, when he lied to Ahimelech the priest to get bread for his men. That episode ended in humiliation with David slobbering on his beard to make Achish think he was mad.
Have you ever thought to yourself, “I think the best thing would be this?” This is exactly what David has done. Let's not be too harsh on him, he's been carrying the burden to 10 years. He's enjoyed some amazing successes in that time, and has proven himself on at least three occasions worthy of being the king.
He had spared Saul’s life once in the cave at En Gedi (I Samuel 24).
He had spared Nabal’s life when Abigail interceded (I Samuel 25).
He had very recently spared Saul’s life again when he crept into the camp and found Saul sleeping (I Samuel 26).
Even on the back of spiritual success weariness can overtake us. When we're weary it's not a great time to make decisions. When we make decisions when we're weary we're liable to enter the realm of discouragement and negative thinking.
Discouragement will effect our perspective.
Let me illustrate this for you: for those of you following my notes this is a visual illustration. In my outstretched hand I have half a glass of water. You would all be expecting me to ask is the half full or is it half empty. I’m not ask that! I'm going to ask you how much does this glass of water weigh? Let me put it this way: if I hold this glass for a minute I will not feel any tension. If I hold it for an hour I might start to feel uncomfortable. If I held it for a month I would be in almost constant pain. If I held it for a year I would more or less be disabled. The point is this: when we allow small things to take over our lives they become debilitating. The Bible refers to these as little foxes (Song of Songs 2:15).
David found himself in the situation where tiredness had become debilitating.
When this begins to happen we begin to compromise. However compromise seems to produce some fruit initially. If we were to read through chapters 27 to 29 we would see that David is welcomed by the Philistine ruler. He gained some favour there, and has even given the place to settle called Ziklag.
2. David’s Compromise Leads to Lies and Death
Disobedience often results in a temporary lessening of pressure. Remember that sin has a fleeting pleasure (Heb 11:25).
1 Samuel 27 : 8-11 describes raiding parties David had while he was living at Ziklag. We need to know a little geography to get the picture. Ziklag was a tiny village off in the wilderness between Gaza and Beersheba. David would take his men and raid the villages to the south and southwest of Ziklag.
27:10: But when Achish asked, “Where did you go raiding today?” David would answer, “I’ve been to the Negev of Judah,” which was south and east.
He’s lying but in his heart it is justified. The implication of David’s answer was that he had been raiding his own people Israel. Actually he had been going the opposite direction. The deception served the purpose of convincing Achish that he was truly loyal to him.
So what? We all lie right? But lying has in it death. There is no such thing as a white lie - it is a lie! There’s no such thing as a half truth; a half truth is a whole lie.
The result of the lie is death, verse 11: “He did not leave a man or woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he thought, ‘They might inform on us and say, ‘This is what David did.’”
Are we surprised? That’s what happens to all of us when discouragement leads us to compromise. We end up trying to maintain a situation that was never God’s will for us in the first place.
David is caught in a terrible downward spiral and the worst is still to come. There is one final result of compromise. It climaxed with an order to join the other side
1 Samuel 28:1 puts it this way: “In those days the Philistines gathered their forces to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, ‘You must understand that you and your men will accompany me in the army.’”
What’s worse, he names David as his personal bodyguard (28:3). That means that if the Philistines win the battle, it will be the bodyguard’s duty to kill the defeated king. Which means that David will be forced to do the one thing he has steadfastly refused to do—kill Saul (NB: Saul does die as a result of battle 1 Sam. 31:1-6).
David never intended to get into this mess. Unless God intervenes, he will be forced to fight against his own people.
It is only when other's point out that this is the same and David that killed Goliath that David and his men are sent packing (1 Sam 29:3-7).
It's on the return to Ziklag that they discover that the Amelakites have take In their wives, families and possessions in Chapter 30.
3. David Recovers What Was Lost
So how does the restoration actually happen? There're several key things that David does to bring about restoration in his life and life of his followers.
If we want to see God restoring things to Life Church we should do the same.
Weep!
30:4: So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep.
Sometimes we have to hit a place of despair in our own abilities and plans before we’ll turn to God.
We need to understand that what has been lost is not the point - but sometimes God softens out hearts in the middle of this.
Repent!
You know it’s a tough thing to end compromise. It’s even tougher when that compromise has now affected our relationships with others. David’s men want to kill him!
30:6b: But David found strength in the Lord his God.
What does this mean? He got back to God! He began to renewal of his love relationship with his first love.
Seek God First
30:7-8:Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, ‘Bring me the ephod.’ Abiathar brought it to him, 8 and David enquired of the Lord, ‘Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?’ ‘Pursue them,’ he answered. ‘You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.’
I find it odd at first that David would enquire about going after them - they have their families. Surely it’s a no-brainer?
When he seeks God he realises that some of the people and the ‘stuff’ in his life were not there by God’s will. So He asks, “Can we go after them?”
The answer that is “Yes” is a sign of God’s grace, love and favour. We should only go after what God has told us to!
Sometimes we are more concerned with the “stuff” of our lives. This because we have believed a “name it and claim it” philosophy that entered into the church but is actually a justification for ignoring the tenth commandment.
Jesus put it this way:
Matthew 6:33: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
We cannot use God to get our stuff. God is the stuff! everything else becomes ours if we seek Him first.
What does seeking the kingdom look like?
It looks like a set of changed priorities.
It looks like reading our Bibles.
It looks like praying.
It looks like being with the church.
It looks like being generous with what God has given us.
It looks like packing out our prayer meeting.
David was gracious with others.
When some were too tired to carry on the pursuit he allowed 200 of them to stay behind and guard what they had left (30:10).
Then when they had successfully recovered what was lost he made sure that everyone got treated generously - everyone got what they had lost plus a share of the plunder (30:22-25).
You know when God starts to move in the life of a church we cannot turn around and say, “Well that one doesn’t deserve it because they were not at this or that meeting.” When God blesses a church He touches the whole church.
But here’s a point: it is not that the 200 didn’t want to go - they were exhausted on the way! They weren’t resisting, they just could go further. They stayed behind but they stayed behind with a right attitude.
Wrapping this up:
We need to grieve what we have lost. For many of us with that will mean examining our lives for seeing where we have disbelieved God's promises, where we have allowed discouragement to overwhelm us, where we have allowed compromise to take us to a life of lies.
Our loss maybe corporate. It may have been personal. We need to have our hearts softened.
We then need to repent and restore our first love relationship with God.
We need to seek Him first and His Kingdom. All the 'stuff' needs to be a secondary priority.
Finally, we need to treat others fairly in God’s eyes.
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