Derek Grier - You Will Recover All
1 Samuel chapter 30 and verse 1. «Now it happened». We will all have it happened moments in our lives, moments that are so unthinkable, so painful, so difficult we don’t even wanna dignify that day with a word. But what I find is God wants us to grow through whatever we gotta go through. And he’s a sovereign God. And if you’re in it you must have what it takes to get through it. It happened when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day. He had just finished a three day 50 mile march. David had been hunted for years by his mentor, by his hero, King Saul. And he was hated by a part of the nation that was loyal to Saul.
David had done some wrong things and some right things during this time of extreme stress. But David at this point had reached a level of physical, spiritual and emotional exhaustion. David was super tired. But we must work, fight through often, the worst days to qualify for the best days. So far though, everyone in this room has survived 100% of your worst days. So this too, whatever it is, shall pass. Pull with me now. The Amalekites, the fierce tribe, Bedouins, raiders had invaded the south and attacked Ziklag and watch this, and burned it with fire.
Now, three chapters earlier David had defeated the Amalekites. But have you ever had a situation in your life, a situation you thought that was behind you, a situation that you thought was in your past, show up to try to destroy everything you had built since? Somebody’s thinking of an old girlfriend’s name. «And he had taken captive the women and those who are there from small to great». I want you to catch this story. David’s wife is gone. David’s mama is gone. All his children are gone. But then we see this next clause, «But they did not kill anyone». Even in our darkest moments, we can find a blessing. There is always something to give God praise for. What happened to his family was horrifying.
Listen, prisoners of war were treated horribly. I don’t even wanna say the types of things that were done to women that were taken captive in war. His children, his wife, and he had beautiful wives and his daughters and everything that belonged to him had been taken, but here’s the deal, but at least they were still alive. You may be barely breathing, but thank God you’re still here. Thank God you’re still here. Now, «They didn’t kill anyone, but they did carry them away and they went their way».
So David comes back. He was hanging out with the Philistines by the way and that’s a whole long story. But he came back home to nothing, no one and just rubble where there used to be a home. I’ve learned in my life the closer you get to the blessing, the more intense the battle. So when it gets tough, keep your head up because the battle only means you’re closer than you think. So David and his men, David was crying too, by the way, came to the city, and we’ll get to that in a moment, and it was burned with fire, all his stuff gone, and their wives, their sons and their daughters had been taken captive, all his people gone.
Now David, his name literally means beloved. David was God’s beloved. The Bible even calls David a prophet. But neither his high calling or the fact that God loved him or God’s love for him exempted him from dealing with loss at times. No one, no one is exempt from life’s ups and downs. Prophet, apostle, evangelist, teacher, deacon, bishop. 50 years in the Lord, 15 days in the Lord. No one is exempt from life’s ups and downs. And as anointed as you are, sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. But when we lose, it’s just a set up to win because we might lose some battles but we will win in the end. We will win, we always win. I’ve lived long enough but I always win. Just give it enough time, God will turn it around. He’ll turn it around, God will turn it around. Just give him time. We win. «Then David and the people who were with him,» watch this, «Lifted up their voices».
So again, this is David and all these people, all these men lifted up their voices and wept. There is no greater pain than being helpless to protect those you love. I remember my boys were in harm’s way and it, man, I’ll tell you it took everything in me to be a bishop. But what I do wanna say is these were war-hardened veterans. These guys have seen the worst of life in the world. They’ve seen cruelty and blood. As hard as they were, this broke them down and they cried like babies. They wept until they had no more power to weep. When you were a kid, do you remember crying so hard and so long, you just shook and inhaled? You had no more, no more, no more tears left. Yeah. You remember?
I want you to imagine 600 inconsolable, brokenhearted, grief-stricken men wept. 200 pounds, 250 hairy men, scars, tattooed, men wept and David was in the same situation himself. And this was a culture where men cried and they didn’t hold back like we do. They didn’t stuff it down and that’s probably why they lived longer. And on top of that, David’s two wives, be careful, Ahinoam and Abigail, a different covenant, had been taken captive. So David was not only in a military crisis, David was in a deeply and very personal crisis. His family too had been taken, but everyone could lead when everything’s working. But the best lead when everything’s falling apart. And we’re about to see that David was ready for promotion. After this chapter, David becomes king. But before he became king, he had to pass this final exam, this final test.
And some of you, many of you, 99,9% of you in this room, many of you watching by livestream, you are right now in your final exam. You might be saying, when will this end? This is the final exam before your promotion. Now David, man of God, prophet, sweet Psalmist of Israel. I mean, he was singing. You know, if they had a top 10, his songs were number one. Everybody was singing his songs and his psalms and David, a man after God’s own heart was not just a little bit, it wasn’t just, I had a rough day at the office, but was greatly distressed. The greatest accomplishments in scripture came from weary and disappointed people who just refused to quit. So if you feel discouraged at times, if you get tired at times, you too are a candidate for great things. But watch how it continues because dark clouds have rolled in and has been, the people spoke of stoning David.
This is not one rock, you hear what I’m saying? This is not I’m mad at you, David. This is not a pox be on your house, David. This was, David, we going to kill you and it’s gonna be painful. But you know, in 1 Samuel 22:2, it records when David met these men they were all nobodies. The Bible called them discontented, indebted and distressed. It hurts when those you’ve done the most for, those you have worked so closely with and loved for so long, so quickly forget. The people spoke of stoning him, literally planning to kill David. But here’s what my 50 years of living has taught me. The worst thing about betrayal is that it can only come from friends. You see, you expect the enemy to fight you. But not the people you have a track record with. Not those you have loved and cared for the most.
That’s why every time we take communion, we mention it was on the night Christ was betrayed. He didn’t just hurt physically. He was beaten up emotionally when he went to that cross and made it a thousand times harder. And they spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved. Every man for his sons and daughters and everybody blamed David. Everybody wants to sit in the tall chair. Everybody wants to sit in the top seat until they realize what it costs. Mark 10:38, we’re gonna learn some things new here.
Listen to Jesus when two of his disciples, James and John asked him to sit at his right end, at his left. Jesus said to them, I appreciate your ambition, your aspirations, nothing wrong with wanting more than what you have sometimes. But you don’t know what you ask. And He poses a question. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? You may not realize it, but Jesus went Compton on James and John. But He was letting them know, pay attention to what I’m about to teach you, that you could only get jumped into that type of authority.
All the military, all the military in this room, you may not realize it, but you would jump into your particular branch. It was called basic training. Psychologists call it conditioning. Jesus though called it baptism. He called it a cup. Gangs call it initiation. It’s about to get good. But every Joseph gotta contend with a Potiphar’s wife. Every David, a Ziklag, every Daniel gotta deal with a lions den, and everyone who walks with Jesus gotta face a cross. And if you want what’s next, you gotta go through some things, face some things and stand up and show yourself, a man and a woman of God that I can take it. And I’ll fight the good fight of faith. I won’t fight with the arm of the flesh. I’ll look to Jesus, use my spiritual weapons and love them and be patient and be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
People say, but can you drink the cup? Can you be baptized with it, to baptism? Can you handle the initiation? Well, I wanna tell you 99.9 of you can 'cause you have. And we are at that final place in that journey before a promotion. Back to verse six. But David, when in effect he’s spiritually being jumped in by his own men, all that’s happening and David strengthened himself. He couldn’t lean on his wife, she wasn’t there. Couldn’t lean on his men because they were the ones trying to harm him. Couldn’t call on daddy but David strengthened himself in his God. God always gives us what it takes but sometimes it will take everything to get you to where you need to go.
A diamond is really just a piece of coal that handles stress exceptionally well. Then David, he stopped crying with everybody else. He let them cry. He looked to God and he said to the priest Abiathar, Ahimelech’s son, «Please bring the ephod here to me». You see, it’s not how fast you can run away, but who you run to that determines your readiness for promotion. I am preaching good, shoot. Like I got an angel on my left and right hand. I wanna look back, say, you all doing a good job. And David inquired of the Lord. When he couldn’t look to people he looked to God.
He said, God, shall I pursue this troop that hurt me? This troop that has defeated me and destroyed me. Lord, I’ve walked with you long enough. I made some mistakes in this journey because David didn’t always do the right thing when he was in a jam. God was mentoring him for kingship. He said, Lord, I’ve learned enough. I’m not gonna fight this battle in my own strength. Lord, just give me a word. Just like with David, you come against me with sword, spier and javelin. But I come against you in the name of the Lord almighty. My weapons are spiritual. It may look like it’s me but it’s really God behind that rock, it’s God propelling that rock, it’s God causing that little rock to land just in the right, the only spot that was free from armor.
He said, Lord, he’s not just making brash statements. That isn’t being braggadocios and arrogant and cocky. He asks the Lord, shall I overtake them? Now, if you know David, David’s a very emotional man. We know that about David from the stories we read in the Bible, but we also see it in the Psalms. He was a highly, highly emotional man. Nonetheless in this extremely difficult betrayal, loss, everything he had burned to rubble. Closest people getting turned on him. But we see that David remained under the authority of God’s word.
A pilot that learns how to fly has to be instrument rated to fly certain types of planes. Why? Because I hear, and I don’t fly planes, but when you fly a plane and fog hits, a storm hits, when you know it is kind of like if you’ve ever been seasick or have you, when stuff starts moving and bouncing around you can’t always tell up from down, right from left because the thing in your head starts spinning, I don’t know all the terms for it, but your natural orientation leaves.
So, when you can fly looking through the window you can fly by sight. But when storms come, you can’t fly by sight anymore. You have to fly by the instrument panel on your plane. An instrument rated pilot says no matter what I feel, my panel tells me I’m going down. My panel tells me I’m going up. To be an instrument rated believer says, well God’s word tells me that I should turn right. God’s word tells me I should pull my nose up. God’s word tells me I should move left. And if you’re not instrument rated, you’re not make it through certain weather in life.