Allen Jackson - Lessons from David - Part 2
If you are standing in the purposes of God, I would tell you that the lesson, the message of scripture and from my own life experience, God will provide what you need. And his timing and my timing, not always fully aligned, but God will provide what you need. Now, if you wait to have all the provision you need for every moment along the journey, you’ll never start. You’ll never begin. They didn’t have any manna when they were still in Egypt. They had to get into the wilderness. Moses didn’t practice parting the Red Sea on the Nile River just for chuckles and grins.
You see, you and I, we want to have such a mastery of all the things that God will do that we never face those anxious moments that faith inevitably requires us to respond to God. What I’m inviting you is to an imagination of serving the Lord in a way where you realize if the Lord doesn’t meet you, the outcome is going to be awkward. Not foolish. We’ve had this conversation many times, folks, don’t be foolish and blame God. When you’re out of gas, don’t pray for guidance. Get a gas station and some cash. If you’re merging on the interstate, you don’t need to be led by the Holy Spirit, you need to look.
Come on, I’ve driven with some of those weird people, but only once, okay? And I’m not doing life with people that do that stuff. That’s not faith, that’s something else. We can talk about some of that another time if you want to, but God will provide, but his provision comes in real time. And so we take measured steps seeing the Lord’s provision. God gave David what he needed, whether it was a victory over Goliath or a commander of his armies with enough courage to tell him something that nobody else would tell him.
There’s a third life lesson from David, and that’s that life presents battles in each season. You know the David and Goliath narrative, most of us learned that in Sunday School as children. The battle with David and Saul. I mean, he comes away from the battlefield with Goliath and they’re celebrating David. They said Saul has slain his thousands, but David is tens of thousands. Well, that puts him on a collision course: the egos of leadership at that level. I mean, it takes more than a decade for David to win that. He lives as a fugitive. He hides in caves, he does all sorts of stuff nobody wants to do. We’ll look at a few of them.
Then there’s David and Bathsheba. There’s a whole different kind of a battle there. This isn’t on the… David was a pretty good military tactician. His courage, but he lost that battle with Bathsheba. Cost him a great deal. And he had battles within his own family. He had a son who raped his half-sister. His one son, Absalom, led a revolt against him. I put some passages in your notes. 1 Samuel 19: «Saul tried to pin David to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall». God anointed him to be king, and he left Saul in place.
Does that make anybody else here uncomfortable? I have to recalibrate what it means to serve the Lord. I want you to be an influence where you work. Well, they’ve told me I can’t mention my faith. You think God said, «Oh, well, in that case»? Just… No, I don’t think so. 2 Samuel 11: «One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her». There’s a whole series of mistakes there. «The man says, 'Isn’t it Bathsheba, the daughter of somebody and the wife of somebody else? '» And David not only commits adultery, he orchestrates murder. I’m telling you, there’s battles in every season.
2 Samuel 15: «In the course of time, Absalom,» this is David’s own son, whom David has restored over the advice of counsel, «provided himself with a chariot and horses and with fifty men to run ahead of him,» there’s warnings. «He would get up early and stand by the side of the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone came with a complaint to be placed before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out, 'What town are you from? ' 'Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel.' And Absalom would say, 'Your claims are valid and proper, but there’s no representative of the king to hear you.'»
Do you know the Hebrew word for that behavior? Slime ball. I’ll have to spell it later, but imagine doing that to your own family. He would have killed his father. That’s a battle. After Goliath and overcoming the drama with Bathsheba and the turmoil in his family, every season of David’s life there are challenges to be faced. I point that out because I don’t think we live with that expectation. I think we’re disheartened, I think we’re frustrated, I think we imagine that God has withdrawn from us or sometimes people say to me, you know, «I’m just tired of this. I don’t wanna do this anymore». Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize we got to pull that lever. I mean, Jesus wrestled with that: «Father, I don’t want to do this,» he said in Gethsemane. «I really don’t,» I believe he was sincere. But he said, «Nevertheless not my will». What did it say about David? He would do whatever God asked him to do.
Folks, every season of this journey we’re gonna have to be overcomers. There’s things to be overcome if you’re a teenager. There’s things to be overcome if you’re a new parent. There’s things to be overcome if you’re an empty nester. There’s things to be overcome as you approach the end of life. There are things to be overcome. What are we gonna do with that? I’m grateful you’ve got a baptism certificate. What are you doing to be an overcomer for the purposes of the kingdom of God today? It’s one of the lessons from David. It’s true in Jesus’s life. I didn’t bring you all the scriptures because this is lessons from David, maybe we’ll do lessons from Jesus later. But I mean, when he’s an infant, they kill all the babies in Bethlehem.
Mary and Joseph run to Egypt. They believed Gabriel. They accepted the assignment, and they had to run for their lives. That bugs me. I mean doesn’t bug me 'cause I think God’s wrong. I just think, oh, really? I mean, I’m thinking like an immaculate conception and a virgin birth and the heavenly host and the shepherds’s field and wide-eyed shepherds and wise men and gifts. Surely, you could distract Herod. No, I think I’m gonna send you to Egypt. And when he’s 12, he’s in the temple talking to the priest, and Mary and Joseph are a little torqued.
You know, «Hey Pop, could you communicate with the babysitters»? And when he begins his public ministry, there’s a consistent drum roll of challenges. He’s baptized and God says, «This is my Son,» and then he goes into the wilderness and the devil himself comes to tempt him. He goes to Nazareth, his hometown. There’s got to be some anticipation of that. He knows these people. He’s eaten at their tables. He’s been in synagogue with them. He’s played soccer with the kids. I mean, he knows these people. And they wanna kill him. And in Jerusalem, he’s with the leaders of the people, the biblical scholars, they should know that he’s the fulfillment of the prophets. I mean, they understand. And they want nothing to do with him.
Every season, as we grow and mature with the Lord, and God can trust us with assignments. Are we willing to overcome? Or do we have this mentality, «No, I’ve already done that. I did that. I did that for a little while, but now let somebody else do that». Oh, really? Would you tap out? What has happened to us, church? Are you paying attention? Do you know what’s happening in our world? Do you understand if the momentum of the direction we are traveling isn’t blunted and a new direction isn’t charted, our children will lose their freedoms? I don’t mean decades from now.
There’s battles in all those seasons. The fourth one is the obvious follow-up to that. We’ve got to commit to learning about God and his kingdom. David certainly did that. This scrawny little kid that knew how to sling a stone in a straight line has to become the leader of the nation. I mean, there’s some brilliant, brilliant tactical moves that David engineers. Choosing Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, Jerusalem wasn’t under the authority of any of the 12 tribes. If he’d had chosen any city in any of the tribal areas, it would have brought tribal angst and battles and confusion. He chose an independent city to be the capital. Much like we have the District of Columbia where our capital is. Imagine if the US Capitol was in Nashville.
Well, the national anthem would have to start with a good country riff. I mean, there are so many things David had to learn and grow into to follow the Lord. What did God say about him again? «He’ll do whatever I ask him to do». Don’t you want that to be said of you? I don’t want them just to say in heaven, «You know, Allen said the sinner’s prayer. Bless his, you know, he was baptized when he was nine. They have the picture on the wall in heaven. It was in the Atlantic. It was kind of stormy that day, they almost drowned the poor child on his way to the baptism. And you know, since then he’s pretty much just sat on his good intentions, bless his heart».
I don’t want that to be my legacy. I want to do what the Lord wants done, most of the time. And I’m working on the rest. I don’t think we’ve had that imagination. «Well, I go to church, what do you want me to do? Jeez. I mean, I came to the building. I parked, what, three counties away? I was so weak by the time I got in. And somebody was in my seat. Then Pastor said I couldn’t bring my pets. I don’t know if I can take it anymore». Well, when you get to heaven, you go hug David, give him your report and then run. And pray that he’s mellowed. Folks, we have to keep learning and growing and maturing. We can’t use these lines, like, «Well, that’s not how I believe».
Is it in the Bible? We should be able to talk about the growth edge of our faith. What’s God doing? How’s it emerging? How’s it changing? There’s just some simple points I put in there about learning. Learn the nature of spiritual conflict. Learn about it. I’m amazed at the Christians: «I mean, I just don’t know if I believe in demons». Really, well, spoiler alert, Jesus did. Jesus did, and he’s the boss. He created the place. «Well, now in the first century, people were less sophisticated, and so they used spiritual explanations for things».
Okay, let me see if I understand this correctly. You just called the Creator of heaven and earth and your Savior a dummy. I wouldn’t wear that T-shirt. It might be Rapture time and you’d be wearing that when you meet the boss and that it’s gonna be awkward. So perhaps we learn the nature of spiritual conflict. Gain confidence in the authority you have in Christ. The only way you gain confidence is by beginning to let it inform your experience, your behavior, and you gain experience and from that you gain confidence. Develop an awareness of the Holy Spirit. I don’t mean just language around it. Every denomination I know has beautiful language, almost without exception, around the person of the Holy Spirit, but most lack any intent whatsoever of welcoming him into their behaviors.
And finally, treasure those learning seasons. They’re still valuable. It’s unfortunate, you know, when children start to school they like it. We demotivate them. That’s another sermon. Ephesians 6:12, it’s there: «For our struggle isn’t against flesh and blood, but against rulers and authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms». The question I’m asked 100 to 1 over anything else I’ve told you is, «What can we do»? You know why we ask that question? We have so little awareness of spiritual conflict. You can pray, you can become an intercessor. «Well, yeah, I mean, I know, but what can I do»?
You can pray until God gives you an assignment. And then when you recognize that evil is being expressed in your arena and there’s a place where your voice can make a difference, then you don’t need direction, you go use your voice. That’s wrong. «Well, I mean, I didn’t mean like that. That could, like, lead to conflict». Oh, you were accepting the assignment to be the ambassador for all peaceful resolutions. 1 Peter 5:7: «Cast all your anxiety on him. He cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith».
You can’t resist the devil unless you’re standing in your faith. You can’t resist the devil from a platform of disobedience. You can’t practice sin and resist the devil. He has a legal right to you. «Because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings». That’s a little how-to manual for a learning season: «Cast all your anxiety on the Lord». That’s not easy to do. «Be self-controlled and alert». I promise that’s not easy to do. Do you know self-control is one of the fruit of the Spirit? And finally, and my time, I did not do a good job. Because I think we have to, from David’s life, there’s a lesson to be learned that you’re gonna face rejection often in the midst of God’s purposes.
From the time David went to see his brothers at the battle lines before he faced Goliath, his brothers were mocking him. I mean, he has very… the only reason he gets a spot in the battlefield is everybody else is terrified. But the rejection follows him right through. Saul certainly doesn’t want him to be king. Many of the tribes don’t want him to be king. There’s a physical civil war after Saul’s death. There’s not just, like, a coronation parade. His son leads rebellion against him. I mean, there’s a consistent, there’s one snapshot in 1 Samuel 22 that I think highlights this so beautifully. «David left Gath,» he’s had to go live with the Philistines 'cause it’s not safe for him to live amongst his own people because of the anointing of God on his life.
Are you tracking with him? Do you understand how far we’ve drifted from this? So he leaves Gath, and he escaped to the cave. So he left his enemies and he’s living in a cave. I don’t, I guess that’s an upgrade. «When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him». And then there’s gonna be a group of people migrate towards David, listen to their description. «All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him,» oh, wonderful. «And he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him, and from there David went to Mizpah in Moab,» which is a country across the Jordan River, «and he said to the king, 'Would you let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me? ' So he left them with the king of Moab. And they stayed with him as long as David was in the stronghold».
David had to take his place, his parents to another nation to be safe. He said, «I don’t know when I’ll be back. I don’t know what God’s going to do». «But the prophet came to David and said, 'You can’t stay in the stronghold, '» in the place where you feel safe, «'you’ve got to go into the land of Judah.'» Now, if you’re taking notes, David escaped the Philistines and he lived in a cave. And when he did that, God sent men to help him, and he sent men in distress, men in debt, and men that were discontented. And he had to take his parents to a foreign king and say, «Will you protect them,» a godless king, a king who didn’t worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. David, the anointed man of God, the man after God’s own heart. Do you think that would cause some internal turmoil? And finally, the prophet came and said, «You can’t stay in a safe place. You gotta go back into Judah, right in the heart of the conflict».
If I have to describe it, David’s unwanted, he’s hunted, he’s unwelcome, he’s the perpetual outsider whether he’s with the king of Moab or the Philistine king. If you got to summarize all those words, the best word I know is he’s rejected. In the next session I’m gonna pick up this idea a little more fully, but I at least want to table for our discussion that following God, the purposes of God, the plans of God, with the anointing of God and God-directed outcomes can lead you through seasons where there is resistance.
And you will be excluded. And you won’t always be celebrated. But follow God anyway. And I would ask you to reject the notion that following God is about a singular experience. I believe in the new birth and conversion and salvation, but I believe that birth, that spiritual birth into the kingdom is to enable us to be faithful followers, to take up our crosses daily. So I brought you a prayer. And it’s really a proclamation, a declaration of intent. And spoiler alert, I concluded it differently. Rather than concluding it with amen, we’re gonna conclude it by saying, «Thank you».
You know, sometimes you have to make a choice with your emotions before your feelings get there. So we’re about ready to say to the Lord, I’m up for this. And then we’re gonna say thank you. And if you don’t feel like thank you, offer thank you as an expression of faith. Why don’t you stand with me for this? You know, I fix my own outlines and then I send them to some really clever people who format them. And they sent me a note this afternoon and said, «You didn’t end your prayer right».
Yeah, because sometimes, thank God, they catch my… if they didn’t proofread, my outlines would be exciting. And I said, «Yeah, it’s okay, we don’t need an amen,» and they came because I had two thank yous there. Then they came back and said, «Well, there’s two thank yous». And I said, «Thank you». So I knew that, you know, it’s wonderful, I mean, we like our seats. And it’s hard to proofread for somebody that’s half crazy. So you should pray for those people that have to help, but let’s read this prayer.
Heavenly Father, I thank you that you love me, that you gave Jesus to die on my behalf, that he bore my sin, that he took my rejection, that he paid my penalty. Because I come to you through him, I am not rejected, I am not unwanted, I am not excluded. You really love me. I am really your child. You are really my Father. I belong in your family. I belong to the best family in the universe. Heaven is my home. Thank you, thank you. Lord, we do thank you, in Jesus’s name.