The process of renewal

Today we will be looking at 1st Samuel chapter 30. 1 Samuel chapter 30. We've been journeying through um the life of well David and Saul uh and uh and journeying through this book and we are almost to the end now. And this is one of the most dramatic and probably powerful scenes. There's some powerful scenes throughout this book. It's a fantastic book. But this is this is the plunge. This is deep. This is a hard moment. And so we're going to hear really uh a very devastating story that begins to take place. Something this is a low moment in David's life. Um we'll be starting in verse one. Now when David and his men came to Ziglag, you'll remember they had been booted from the war. The Phil we looked at chapter 29. They could not fight with the Philistines. The Philistines said, "Get out of here." Uh and they sent them back to Ziglag. And so David and his men are journeying back. So they come back to Ziglag on the third day and the Amalachites had made a raid against the Negev and against Ziglag. And they had overcome Ziglag and burned it with fire and taken captive the women and all who were in it both small and great. And they killed no one but carried them off and went on their way. And when David and his men came to the city and they found it burned with fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive, then David and all the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until there was no more strength to weep. David's two wives who had been taken captive, Ainoam and Jezrael, and Abigail the widow of Nibbal the car 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. And David said to Abi Athar the priest, the son of Alec, "Bring me the ephod." So Abiar brought the ephod to David. And David inquired of the Lord, "Shall I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them?" And he answered him, "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake. You shall surely rescue." And so David set out, the 600 men who were with him. And they came to the brook Basur where they where those who were left behind stayed behind. And David pursued he and 400 men. 200 stayed behind who were too exhausted to cross the brook bases. They found an Egyptian in the open country and brought him to David. And they gave him bread and he ate and gave him water to drink. And they gave him a piece of cake and figs, two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights. And David said to him, "To whom do you belong? And where are you from?" And he said, "I'm a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalachite. My master left me behind because I fell sick three days ago. We had made a raid against the Negev and the Cherites and against that which belongs to Judah and against the Ngev of Caleb. And we burned Ziglag with fire. And David said to him, "Will you take me down to this band?" And he said, "Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this band." And when he had taken him down, behold, they were spread abroad over the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. And David struck them down from twilight until the evening the next day. And not a man of them escaped, except 400 young men who mounted camels and fled. David recovered all that the Amalachites had taken. And David rescued his two wives. Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken. David brought it all back. And David also captured all the flocks and herds. And the people drove the livestock before him and said, "This is David's spoil." And then David came to the 200 men who had been exhausted to follow David and who had been left at the brook basur. And they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near to the people and greeted them, then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, "Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that they have that we have recovered, except each man may lead his wife and children and depart." But David said, "You shall not do this, my brothers, with what the Lord has given to us. He has preserved us and given into our hands the ban that came against us. Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes into the battle, so shall his share be who stays with the baggage? And they shall share alike. And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from the day forward to this day. And when David came to Zlag, 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. It was for those in Bethl in Raoth and Negev and Jatir and Raar in Cphimoth in Echimoa and Recall in the cities of the Jer Heramalites and the cities of the Kennites and the Horm and Bosrashan and Athaca in Hebron for all the places where David and his men had roamed. This is God's word. one of the things that we that we begin to see in this text because there's a dramatic shift of events that takes place. I mean, we begin with just destruction and despair and disaster. And at the end of this text, we have this complete transformational shift that takes place. Everything's been recovered. Everyone's rejoicing. There's this just complete restoration where everything's been made right. like and the reversal of this the the pendulum by which this swings on is something that happens right there in David's heart in David's life when David is on the verge of being stoned. It says that he strengthened himself and the Lord is God. That something happened in David's life and David's heart in this moment which I think we could call renewal. Because as we will remember and look at is David has been drifting away from God. He's been going in a different direction. You know, commentators often talk about this the past few chapters in David's life and say God is not named, not called upon, not mentioned in any way. David even went into the land of the Philistines without calling on God. And he's been drifting in this. And something in this moment happens in David's life and David's heart. And through that act, everything changes course and direction. And so one of the main things I think we begin to see is this process of renewal and restoration that happens in David, but then also through David to the people around him. Now, there's many things we could look at and say, but this is one of the the big things that seems to shift this whole passage in a different direction. And and because this is a huge moment in David's life, David is called by God to be the next king of Israel. He's been anointed for this. God has this great purpose and plan for David. And it's all at risk of being shipwrecked. David's sitting in the land of the Philistines. David almost went to battle to fight against the Israelites, ruining everything and his his chance to be king in this moment. And David has not been living quite the life that he has been called to live. and something is sort of turning and drifting away from God, you know, and and and and the the subject of renewal is so crucial and so important. It's even important for us today if we really think about it because, you know, the reformers always talked about the need for the reformed church is always reforming. the need for us to always be renewing and reforming our hearts and our lives because there is something about us that we are just prone to wander. We're prone to drift from God. And we live even in a land today if we look at just the United States or the the church of the west and we see just the drift that takes place. The average attendance in uh any evangelical church today is below two times a month. We know that there's biblical illiteracy. Our engagement with God and our our disciplehip and our understanding of his word as well as our engagement of him is thin. Our understanding of his holiness and his glory is something that often is reduced. And so often the world looks at the US church today and doesn't see much of a difference between us and them. And God is wanting to renew David in this text, but I think it has a a crucial message for us today as well, this call to renewal. So, as we look at this text today, we're going to be looking at why does David need renewal, how he finds that, and what the result of that is. And so, today we're going to look and as we start in, we see why does David need renewal. And part of the thing that happens is in this is that David and his men have gone down to Zlag and and everything. This seemed like a good plan living in Zlag. You'll remember that David, you know, had had come up with this plan. He thought Saul's eventually going to c catch me. He said in chapter 27, so I've got this plan and I'm going to go into the land of Philistines and I'm going to start living this life. And it seems good on paper. They're comfortable. They're not sleeping in caves anymore. They have homes. They got safety. They're not worried and looking over their shoulder to see if Saul's coming over the horizon looking for them. They're not worried about betrayal. They're safe. But yet at the same time, they are dwelling in the land of their enemy. And it's brought them into a place of of schemes. It's brought David into ways where he has to live a life of deception and where he has to serve this overlord of the Philistines. and he plunders and raids and he tells them lies like, "Oh yeah, we we attacked those Israelite guys, but he's really just attacking other people to the south." And we talked about all the deception and the cunning that's going on and how he would wipe out entire villages, not in worship to God, not in holiness, not any of that stuff, but to cover up his lie, to hide his tracks. and this scheme that is being lived out in David's life and this this drift that is happening and he doesn't even see it and sometimes sometimes we don't understand how David and even in our own lives we can drift from God and we can think well I'm God's person I'm doing the best I can and I'm trying to live for the Lord but there's just this way that we just begin to put distance more and more between us and between God and it's often the disasters in life. It's the trials. It's these moments of the valley that have a way of revealing the drift of our own heart. Because in those moments, we we begin to look around. Sometimes we look within ourselves and we're like, I I need help and where is God in this moment? And sometimes in those moments, we begin to realize our geography has changed. And it's changed in David. And it's changed in David's men. And this plan that seemed good is all of a sudden beginning to unravel very quickly. And they travel down to Zlag. And it says that it's been burned with fire. And everything is gone. Everything's been taken. David's wives, David's children, his men's children. And it says that they wept until there was not strength left to weep. And so this is this low moment right now as they're just sitting in their mourning. And it doesn't take long before that mourning and that weeping begins to produce a bitterness in their heart. And it that bitterness then begins to lead to anger. And that anger begins to make David's men whisper to one another and start looking at David and point to David and say, "You did this. You let us here." Right? The men are are beginning to turn upon themselves. This this group that God has surrounding David, protecting David, working with David, the future king of Israel that was that God was constantly giving deliverance has now drifted as a band of people. And even that band is on the verge of disintegrating and killing their leader at this point. This is a perilous moment in David's life. And it seems like God's plan is on just on the verge of ruin. But God, as we've talked about in this text, is always at work. And he's at work to accomplish his purpose and his plan in David's life. And part of the disasters and the trials and the valleys of the life have a way of awakening us and showing us that God is not as close as we thought. That our geography has changed. Our location has changed. And in these moments, you can begin to look within yourself, right? That's not the right plan. And David knows he has no strength left within him. He has nothing to get. And and and one of the things to remember in this is when you're looking for the way out of the valley, you're looking out or your way out of the disaster. Looking within is not going to help you. Looking within is what got David into this mess in the first place. And know that the the grace and the strength and the faith of the past seasons of life are not enough to float you through this season of life. the faith of the past seasons which you had and the walk that you had with God. If you are not careful, if that's not cultivated and walked out through these disciplines and these rhythms of life with God and you're just sort of relying on the the gas tank to just replenish itself by itself and you've not been walking with God, that thing is depleting. It's depleting and the faith that you had at that moment is diminishing whether you know it or not. It will not be enough to carry you through the season. David will need renewal in this moment. And so God brings him to the to the end of himself. Brings him to the end of the plan to show him that he needs this this renewal that he can't cope. He can't quit. He can't be cunning and try to weasle his way out of it. He needs to look to God in this moment. And that's exactly what David begins to do is just to be honest with the state of things to face the reality and his need for renewal in this time. David would find renewal not by accusing God because that's one of the things that we can do in moments when things go wrong. Right? One of the dangers in life is David in this moment when everybody wants to kill him. Think about that just for a second. He could sit in this in his grief in this moment and like David's men look for someone God to accuse, to point his finger at. I've been running for all these years. You have called me to be the next king of Israel, and yet my life has constantly been at peril. I've served you. I've walked with you. I've trusted in you. And yet, what has it gotten me? Where has it led me? And now at this moment, I've lost everything. My family's gone. My stuff is gone. Our homes are burned with fire. And the guys that that are around me, they want to kill me. And David could raise his finger up and anger at God and accuse God in this moment. And we could do the same thing. And we could let that bitterness fester in our heart, but that's not going to renew anything in our life. That's not going to make us better. And I've seen so many people in life have things like that where God seemingly offended them. They went through the valley and they didn't come out whole. They've just proceeded through life wounded and bitter. And the other thing that you can do sometimes in life is is sometimes in our, you know, theological circles, we say, "Well, God is sovereign. He's going to do what he's going to do." And that's not the way to find renewal or to find your way out either. God wants you to come to him. So, how do we find that renewal? How does David find that renewal in this passage? And it says right there that that David found it by strengthening himself in the Lord his God. David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. And what does that mean? What does it mean for David to strengthen himself? In some ways, you know, the text doesn't give us all the pieces to what happened. But one of the things that we do know is we have learned so much about the character of David, not just through Samuel, but we've actually learned it from the Psalms. We have all of these things that David, these songs and these prayers that David has recorded in his life about the trials. Eventually some of them we know he wrote from things like the cave. Moments when David was in despair and on the run, moments of peril in David's life. And we know that David had begun in his years in the wilderness to learn how to walk with God, to learn these rhythms of coming to God and being honest about the state of things, like pouring out his heart and his prayers to God and seeing how that actually pulled him near to God so that he could talk with God and find the renewal and the relationship that comes through those kinds of rhythms in life. Um, one of the ways that that we see this is that David David uses these prayers and these rhythms of worship to position himself for renewal. I one thing I don't want you to hear is that like you you you do these things and you kneel a certain way and you pray a certain way and you you you follow this set of practical tips that that's somehow going to actually get you the renewal that you need in this moment. No, it's it's a it's a posture. It's a lifestyle. And in these ways, there's like a grace that God meets us in this. And this is what he does to David. And and one of the ways that I think actually really shows us where we get a peak into how David does this is actually Psalm 13. I'm going to I'm going to look at it. It's a it's a very short psalm, but I think this is one of those where literally in a moment of life like this, David could have written this psalm. We don't know where he wrote this psalm from, but it's in Psalm 13. And uh and I just want us to know that, you know, David David used these prayers as a way to allow the grace of God and the power of God to transform his heart. Because prayer and time with God, it changes us. It changes us. You don't go up the mountain of God and come down the same. And so we see in in uh Psalm 13, he says, "How long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?" Like, think about where David's at. what I just described, the sorrow and the potential frustration and the anger. And it's so easy for him to forget that he didn't. It wasn't God that drifted from David. David drifted. But in this moment, you can just feel like God is against me. Where has God been? Where's he been in these moments when I've been on the run? Where's he been in these moments? And forget the deliverance of God throughout this book where God has just in time delivered him from the hand of Saul. But he's reasoned in his own head a different story. And so David brings his frustrations to God. This is what you should do. Your prayers don't need to be pious. We need to learn how to have honest relational prayers with God about where we're at and how we feel. If you just have pious prayers, you can't open up the depths of your heart to allow God to come into those places. God will always remain in your head and in your mind and distant. God already knows. He knows what's going on in your heart. He knows what's going on in these places. Will you allow your own heart to be open and honest before God so that he can meet you there? Because this is what David has learned. Verse two, how long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day, weeping until there's no strength left? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Those who say with our tongue we will prevail. Our lips are with us. Who is master over us? Oh, sorry. I read the wrong verse here. My bad. I'm on the wrong I looked in the wrong column there. Consider me. This is David. Consider me. Answer me, oh Lord, my God. Light up my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death. If you don't answer, I'm on the verge of peril. These guys are going to take me out. And in verse five, he says, "But I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me." Do you see what just happened? Do you see the pivot that just took place in this psalm? In the first several verses here, David is just wrestling with God. Where are you? Where are you at? Where have you been? Do you hear me? Are you going to let just the forces that be fall upon me? Are you going to deliver me over the hands of my enemy? And then all of a sudden, he says, "But I have trusted in your steadfast love." See, what happens in prayer? What happens when you connect with God? If you will sit long enough with him in your grief, if you will be honest enough with the Lord, the Lord will begin to meet with you and he will move your heart to worship. He will move your heart to reflect on his mercy and on his grace and on his goodness. David is weeping his eyes out till he has no strength left. But it's psalms and prayers that he's learned in his time of the wilderness that he had drifted away from that in this moment, David turns back to to be honest with God about where he's at and to see how God moves his heart to show him, I got a plan, David. Will you just find me, lead, come back to me? David all of a sudden finds the strength again. It's back and it changes everything about the direction of this story and the ways that this story is going to play out in David's life. And so David finds, this is how David finds renewal through these rhythms of repentance and prayer that ultimately leads you to a place of worship with God. And in that worship, you know it, you know it, it strengthens you. You know these moments, it's not just the singing of songs. You know these moments in your prayers or these moments when you sing and you just feel the presence of God in a very deep and powerful and thick kind of way where God meets you and you feel just this the strength and the encouragement and the power of God, the holiness of God. You're meeting him and David meets him or rather God meets David in his hour in this hour. And so what does David do from this? We're going to flip back to 1st Samuel chapter 30. What does David do in this moment when he finds the renewal in this? When God begins to change the course and the direction, well, David says to Abiar, the priest, bring me the ephod. Bring me the ephod. And now David is not just coming to God with prayer, but now David is once again inquiring of the Lord. He hasn't done it since early back several chapters ago pre- chapter 27. David has not called upon the Lord when it was about going into battle with the Philist against the Israelites with the Philistines or when he went into the land of the Philistines. None of these did David inquire of the Lord. But in this moment, David remembers who God is and he remembers that that sort of reminder that God does not change that his plans will prosper for him. And David says to Abi Athar, "Bring me the ephod." And David remembers that God is working all things for the good of those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. And with that strength, David calls upon uh the Lord and he says, you know, will we will we recover? Are we going to catch up to him? Will we overtake them? And the Lord says, surely you will overtake them. It's it's it's repeated the way you emphasize in the Hebrews, you say it twice, right? Overtake. overtake and it emphasizes that fact you will surely definitely overtake them. You will and then he also emphasizes the fact that you will get everything back. You will gain back. You will restore it will come back to that. So what do we find? What is the effect of the renewal that happens? What's the effect of it? It's restoration. It's restoration. Restoration flows out of renewal because as something changes in the heart and as we gravitate and grow closer to God, things about us get reoriented in a way that that God's presence and power and calling begin to flow through us, around us. And David turns to his men who hate him and ready to kill him. And what does he do? Somehow through God's presence and God's renewal, he is able to to convince these 600 men, let's go. The Lord is with us. And he leads these guys into this charge to overtake the Amalachites in this place. And God providentially somehow leaves this slave who's half dead in the field starving to death, no water. And he finds the and he gives them direction to where the Amalachites because the the plains are open before them. And he leads them on and helps them to find that. And it says that they went down and they slaughter the Amalachites. to take him out and it says they got everything back. It's really remarkable in a sense that the restoration of God that the deliverance, the rescue that begins to take place in this story because of that one pendulum shift because David came to God reconnected with God. This is not, by the way, a story about if you get your life right with God, he's going to make everything work out right. He's going to restore and make everything happen the exactly the way that you want it to. That's not the message of this story. The message is is that you need renewal. And the message is is that when you find renewal, God does that renewal not only works in you, but it does begin to radiate out of you and through you into other people. It begins to that's the thing that you see often times when people find these moments of renewal in their life. It changes it's the horizontal effect. It changes the relationships. It changes the marriages. It changes the friendships. It changes the broken things. It repairs. It heals. It restores. This is the flow that we begin to see. And this is exactly how it flows in this passage. David not only begins to repair things with him and his men, they get out there and they find this slave. And and this is this was just such an odd thing, I thought, as we saw restoration. this guy number one is dying out in the field and they feed him and there's this element of like him being restored and rejuvenated back to life. And it's it's interesting too because when he says I'll show you where they're at, but he says don't don't kill me. Promise and swear to me that you won't kill me or you won't hand me back over to my master. Right? So let me have my life. Let me have my freedom. And David presumably grants it. We don't know for sure, but we can presume that he honored his word in that sense. And then David goes and he gains everybody back from bondage and from captivity. There's this restoration that happens in the text there. But then not only that, they have all this spoil that had been captured from other lands and David has all of that surplus. And does he does he take it for himself? Because even they said in the text, this is David's spoil. Is it for David alone? No. David takes that and he's generous with it. Even when his own men don't want to share it with the other guys, they weren't they weren't involved in this. Don't give it to them. And yet, David wants to be generous towards these men because the restoration of God allows us to be that kind of way. Restoration isn't just about deliverance from captivity. It's when everything begins to be made right. It's when things are shared. It's when there is generosity. It's when there is grace. It's when relationships operate the way that they're supposed to. It's when life abounds and not death. It's when freedom abounds and not slavery. And the restoration of God begins to flow through David and his life. And it's a reminder maybe even to us as we look at this that nothing nothing's beyond the reach of God. David's family and all the men's family, they're gone. They shouldn't be dead and all their stuff. And yet God brings it back through David. And again, it's not it's not that we get everything, but it is the reminder that one day God will renew and restore all things in a way that will take our breath away. And we just get that small peak into that reminder that nothing is beyond the reach of God. And as God restores you, he begins to work that work through you. And part of the reason that I that I bring this up and we see this this story taking place in David and how it changed and positioned and postured and moved him in a way that God's purposes began to realign David so that he would become the king that he's about to become in a few chapters really in just a few days here in many ways that God began to renew and restore and work this. And so he wants to take his people, the people of God, individually but also corporately and renew us to deepen us in him to call us ever ever time and time again back to himself to be reconnected with him to grow more deeply with him and not to drift so that he might work his plans and his purposes through us individually and corporately. Our world needs that restoration. You and I need that restoration. But it begins with the process of renewal. If we want to see God stir our baptismal waters. If we want to see lives completely restored, marriages restored, families made whole, if we want to see the culture changed, if we want to see a church that's made up of a reflection of God's kingdom to come, of young, of old, of single, of married, of ethnically diverse, a reflection of all things restored in God, then we need renewal. You and I need renewal. And yet we probably don't recognize the drift that takes place that has taken place in the US church or maybe the drift that has taken place in our own hearts. Statistics reveal that Christians are burned out, stagnant, and lonely. Materialism, porn, and anxiety are constant struggles for Christ followers. The average Christian has a shallow understanding of the gospel and its implications for life. Bible and biblical uh literacy is now at a stage which they call illiteracy. We have a shallow understanding of God's word. We have an acquaintance level with knowledge with God but know little about how to abide in him to seek him deeply to know him deeply. That's the state of our church in the US. The statistics show it. We often don't look much different than the world around us. And the call for us is to call for that renewal. Seminary professor Richard Loveless remarks that much of what is currently passed off as Christianity today is actually a set of techniques for self-improvement, not a life of faith energized by the Holy Spirit. I think of right now one very popular pastor that's nationwide recognition that always says um better decisions fewer regrets and that's the goal of the teaching in the church practical tips for life living. Loveless goes on to say that the tragedy of uh much contemporary Christianity is that it has learned to live not with too much of God but too little. So, how do we find renewal? We find it like David. We find it by recognizing the drift in our lives. We find it by these honest moments of where we just sit. We shouldn't have to wait for the valley moments. The valley moments are here. The valley moments of the church in many ways can be here. We have need. There's a there's a darth. There's a there's a disaster on the verge. Our culture in many ways. You can look and see. The valley is here. The disaster is here. and we've not been there to meet it. Will we recognize the drift corporately? Will we recognize the drift in our own hearts to repent corporately but also personally to learn as a community about God as he reveals himself in scripture and through that to learn the rhythms of prayer of confession of worship. You know it's not easy work. I think of awtoer who used to talk about the fact that there are no microwave solutions when it comes to walking deeply with God. There's no fast path. It takes time and count no time before him as wasted. Our world desperately needs the church, men and women of God, who will allow God's renewal to work out of them and to bring restoration and healing through the gospel to our world. David found renewal and through this it mustered his men to go and to do the work of restoration. He embraced the lonely moment by turning to God in praying and surrendering and worshiping his father in heaven. God strengthened him and prepared him to achieve a work of restoration. You know, and as I thought about it this week, I really thought about the fact that, you know, Christ also embraced a lonely hour in the garden of Gethsemane when his guys couldn't pray for an hour when all would abandon him. And as he prayed, it re it says that an angel of the Lord came and strengthened him. A reminder just like David found the strength in the Lord his God. And Christ approached the cross so that he might receive restoration for all who would come and receive it from him. And he did it so that you and I might be restored in our alienation and enmity with God. that we might no longer be slaves to the power of sin and bondage. And until that final day of complete restoration, God wants to build us up into a holy people who proclaim his restoration to the world so that we must continually find that renewal in him so that we might be positioned to be used in this world for him and his glory. Let's pray.