Michael Youssef - Where the Arrows Land
Sir Francis Drake was a great world explorer. He sailed around the world several times. And right after his fifth voyage around the world, he got caught, or his ship got caught, in a severe storm at the River Thames when he was almost home. His vessel was tossed about and appeared to be running aground. At that point, this great mariner clenched his fist and he pounded. "And can it be that I, who have braved the seven seas and all the danger associated with it, must now be drowned in a ditch"?
Can it be? Can it be that the man who braved, the great Philistine giant, which we saw recently, is now running in fear? Can it be? Can it be any man or woman of God, can it be that anyone here or watching, after experiencing great victory give in because of a temporary challenge in life? Can it be? Can it be that this young man, David, who killed the lion and the bear with bare hands now fleeing for his life? Can it be? Can it be that this man of whom the women sang he slayed his tens of thousands now allow fear to get hold of him? Can it be? Can it be that this man, who wrought great victories of the armies of the living God, is now fleeing in a sense of self-pity? Can it be?
Can it be that this man, who witnessed faithfully when he said to Saul, "Your servant by the power of God," tore the lion and the bear? And who is this Philistine who mocks the armies of the living God great testimony? Now he is drowning in a ditch of despair. There may be someone here today, listen carefully, please, or maybe watching around the world, whose love for Jesus with all of his or her heart, but now they're lukewarm toward him. Once, you may have had a great testimony, but now you allowed that testimony to rust. Once, you were on fire for Jesus, but then you allowed the cares of this world to weigh you down. Once, you have exercised great courage, but now you have surrendered in fear.
David gives us an amazing example of courage. He gives us amazing examples to follow in many ways, but then he also shows us a very solemn warning for each one of us in our lives. While he taught us that a willing heart God uses, a courageous life God honors, that God totally protects us when we are focused on him first and foremost. And yet, here today, that same David teaches us that defeat comes to any of us and all of us when we allow the flesh to dominate. Fleeing takes over when self-pity sits in. Running away in failure takes over when you take your eyes off the living God. David runs off to the prophet Samuel first. The Lord's prophet, you remember from the very first message, whom God sent to the house of Jesse and said, "Anoint for me, David".
That very prophet. He goes there because David, at this moment in his life, needed human encouragement. And beloved, listen to me. All of us need human encouragement. We all need it. But Saul tracks David to where Samuel was. First of all, he sent his servants. He said, "You go kill him". But God protects him. You see, I told you when you're in God's protection program, nobody can harm you. Because David was in God's protection program, these servants come in and they get into an ecstatic trance. And so, when Saul basically said, "These rascals, they don't know how to kill him. I'll kill him".
So he shows up in person. He, too, gets caught in that ecstatic trance. What is God doing? He's protecting David. He's protecting him. When you are in your fleeing mode. Now, I'm not talk about physically. When you are spiritually in a fleeing mode, God might be doing amazing things all around you for you. He is doing these great things to assure you that you are in his protection program, but because you are in a fleeing mode you're oblivious to what God is doing. I've been there. I know what I'm talking about. You're oblivious to it. God rescued David from Saul's messengers, then he rescued from Saul himself. And that is why the Word of God here today is showing us that even great men of God have clay feet just like the rest of us.
Hear me right, please. I want to declare to you this day on the authority of the Word of God, and I know it is my testimony, but on the authority of the Word of God that when God is you, you, as he said to Moses, he will ride the clouds for you. He will let his everlasting arms to come underneath you. He will turn the rock into a fountain of water. He will command the ravens to feed you just as he did with Elijah. He will use Rahab to protect you just as he protected Joshua's men. He will command his angels to pull you out of Sodom and Gomorrah even as he did for Lot. He will command his angels to come down and zip the mouth of the lion as he did for Daniel. He will send his angels to open the prison door just as he did for Peter.
And even he may show up himself as he did for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. Amen belongs here. I hope you already turn to 1 Samuel chapter 20. David panics and he runs and he goes to his eternal friend, Jonathan. And there he says to Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my guilt? What is my sin that your father want to kill me"? I want you to notice, in case you haven't. Have you noticed how many times he says, "I," "mine," and, "my"? And I want to say, my, my, my. Question: how many times at this point when he's talking to Jonathan did he say or give his testimony and says, "You know, your servant killed the lion and the bear," or, "Look what happened to how God used me to defeat the Philistines by killing Goliath"?
How many times does he witness here? Zilch. Not one time, not one time. In David's case, he thought that Samuel could help him. But then he thought, well, Jonathan might be able to help me. And indeed, Jonathan gave him all of the sympathy that a friend can give a friend, there's no doubt about it. And David got some encouragement, but only the Holy Spirit can give the healing. Only the Holy Spirit can renew you from the inside. But it gets worse. It gets worse. Beloved, listen to me.
If you are internally on the run, if you are fleeing from the will of God, if you're thinking that you can really hide from God and what God is calling you to do, if you allow your fear and your doubt and your disappointments to break the line of intimacy with God, you will never stand still. You'll never stand still. You'll keep on the downward slide. It goes from bad to worse. Look at here, look at the things will slide into downward direction unless and until you make a U-turn. Can I get an amen?
Look at verses 5 and 6 of 1 Samuel 20. David asked Jonathan to lie for him. So he didn't only lie, but then he asked Jonathan to lie for him as well. And that is why it is not a surprise when you read David writing in Psalm 119:29, "Remove from me the way of lying". "Remove from me the way of lying". David's greatness is not because he was a perfect man, he was not, but because he recognized his sin. When he was convicted, he turned and wept tears of repentance and turned to the Lord. That's his greatness. We have seen this in people in public life. You know, when they get caught, they start lying, shake their finger at the camera. "I've never done it. I didn't do it". And it goes down from there. These folks not only develop a siege mentality, but they become paranoid.
Here, David is asking Jonathan to lie for him. What a letdown. From the valley of Elah when he said, "Who is this Philistine, is mocking the armies of the living God"? A downward slide. This is not harsh, this is not heartless, this is not careless. This is pure love. God promised to never leave us nor forsake us. But when we leave him and forsake him, we bring pain on ourselves. Listen to me, God never moves. He never moves. And all along, even when we do run away, whether internally or physically or emotionally, spiritually, in any way, the whole time we're running away his arms are wide open.
Come back, come back. If you are in a run in any way, if you are retreating, if you stop moving forward, if you have settled in your Christian life, if you have lost your first love, if your heart has been hardened toward the Lord and his will in your life, if you're running in place, if you have stopped producing fruit, if you have lost the joy in the journey, if you are just going through the religious motions, listen to me. I want to plead with you. Hear the voice of God calling you. Come back, come back. I know I'm speaking to someone today. Come back. Come back to the loving arms of Jesus. Come back to the forgiving heart of Jesus. Come back to the waiting Father. Come back to your first love.
I don't know what is causing you to be in a mode of inward fleeing from the Lord. I don't know, only you know. Is it unresolved bitterness? Anger? Is it unforgiving spirit? Is it unhealthy relationship that the Lord says it doesn't belong there? Is it unfaithfulness with God's money? Is it sexual immorality of any kind? Whatever it may be, you can never run far enough away from the grace of Jesus. You could never run far enough from the grace of Jesus.
Look at the latter part of 1 Samuel chapter 20. Jonathan and David sign a contract. I want you to look at this contract with me together. Contract is really very simple. David is gonna hide in the field, he's gonna hide in the bushes, and Jonathan was gonna go home and sound out his father to see if he really serious about killing David or he just blowing smoke. That's really what it says, but I give it to you in a vernacular so you understand it. Look at verses 20, 21, 22. Here is the signal that Jonathan and David have devised together in this contract, this agreement. Which way his father is leaning is going to indicate where those errors are gonna fall. If the arrows are falling in front of the stone Ezel, then it is safe to go home, "Come home, David". But if the arrows are gonna go beyond the stone Ezel, "Keep running. You're in danger".
It means a separation from Jonathan, separation from his wife, separation from all that is hold dear and near to him. I don't think that I'm doing violation to the scripture when I tell you that you can easily view the stone Ezel as you view the cross of Christ. Before the cross, there is a worldly kingdom to which we belonged and in which we lived, but after the cross, beyond the cross, there is a separation from that world and only Jesus. That is why the apostle Paul could say, "I only glory," that is, "I only brag," "in the cross of Christ by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world".
To glory in the cross of Christ means that you can say with Henry Lyte, that's L-Y-T-E, "Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow thee; destitute, despised, forsaken. Thou, from hence, my all shalt be. Perish every fond ambition, all I have sought or hoped or known; yet how rich is my condition, God and heaven are still my own," amen. You may be experiencing some circumstances totally out of your control, totally out of your control, and you might be just like David at this point in his life. The arrows have been cast beyond the stone Ezel for you. The arrows of losing a loved one, the arrows of deteriorating health, the arrows of financial reversals, the arrows of betrayal by the nearest and the dearest, the arrows of children that deeply disappointed you. These are arrows that have fallen for you beyond the stone of Ezel.
Perhaps no one else can feel that nothing in your stomach, but let me tell you this morning, God does. God does. You are trying so desperate to hold on to something or someone, but it has been snatched out of your hand. Your heart is clinging to that which is ripped from you. The arrows have landed beyond the stone of Ezel for you. The arrows have landed beyond your preferable target. The arrows have landed where you have nothing and no one except God, but he's everything. In this case, I want you to remember. I want you to remember, like David, God is leading you onward and upward, amen. God is supreme above all your current circumstances. God is supreme above all your current surroundings. God is destining you to the throne. Did you know that? Say it with me, "I am destined to the throne". You are, and I hope you believe it.
Some of you mumbled it because you don't believe it, but for those of you who believe it, say it with me, "I am destined for the throne". God is working his purposes out in you. Oh, but listen, listen. Sometimes you're gonna reach the throne by way of the cross. But I can tell you that in my life, I've been there several times, when I watch the arrows fall beyond the stone Ezel. Three of those times, my precious wife and I had to follow these arrows and leaving the familiar and the comfortable. I am here to testify to you, with all of those puzzlements and all of those apprehensions, with all of those knots in the stomach, with all of the, yes, confusion and anxiety at the time, with all of that fear and uncertainty that accompanied us as we watched those arrows fall on the other side of the stone Ezel, we have fully trusted in God, we have fully trusted in God, and he never fail us.
We have fully trusted in the God who asked us just to trust him. In fact, the greatest honor you can give God is to trust him when you cannot see a way out. And here's with testimony. We found him. We found him, in all these years, to do exceedingly, abundantly, say it with me, exceedingly, abundantly, and beyond what we could imagine. What a great God we have. What a great God we have. Give God glory. Give him glory. Amen.
One of the early verses that I taught our children as I was driving them to school in the mornings those many years ago, you try to memorize different verses of the scripture. One of those that's really left an indelible mark, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways," now, beloved, all your ways means whether the arrows fall beyond or before the stone Ezel.
"In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your ways". I don't know where you are, I don't know where you are, whether you're in a fleeing mode or not. If you are, turn around, turn around now. Some of you are puzzled and apprehensive and concerned. Lest the arrows, you don't know where they're going to fall and you really don't want them to fall beyond the stone Ezel. Some of you are anxious and worried and, lest the arrows land beyond the stone of Ezel for you. I want you to publicly declare to heaven and earth and to everybody else, testify, "Lord, I trust you".