APR 29 2018 | David the Fugitive S1E13 | 1 Samuel 31:1-13

Sea Change Church · David the Fugitive S1E13 · "1 Samuel 31:1-13" · Adam Stadtmiller · April 29, 2018
1 Samuel 31:1-13
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

I love those kisses. They're good. My ministry at the church here has been prayer. Why? Because prayer is always the answer in every situation. It's worked in my life. It's worked in your life. God answers prayer. This morning I have the privilege of reading from 1 Samuel 31, 1 through 13. Now the Philistines fought against Israel and the Israelites fled before them and many fell dead on Mount Gilboa.

The Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons and they killed his sons, Jonathan, Abinadab and Melchizedek. The fighting grew fierce around Saul and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him critically. Saul said to his armor bearer, draw your sword and run me through or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me.

But his armor bearer was terrified and would not do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it. And when the armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him. So Saul and his three sons and his armor bearer and all the men died together that same day. And when the Israelites along the valley and those across the Jordan saw that the Israelite army had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their towns and fled.

And the Philistines came and occupied them. The next day when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. They cut off his head and stripped off his armor. And they sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among their people.

They put his armor in the temple and the Ashtoreths and fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan. And when the people of Jebesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all their valiant men marched through the night to Bethshan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Bethshan and went to Jebesh where they burned them.

Then they took the bones and buried them under a tamarask tree at Jebesh and they fasted seven days. Saul had prepared his entire life for this moment of failure and destruction. That's my sermon part. Oh. But you can preach it. I've always wanted to preach it. You wanted to preach? You go, girl. So awesome. Yeah. Do you know how awesome it is to have almost died through self-destruction?

And all the stuff that we went through, the fighting, pushing my mom, fighting against the doors, her chasing me around town at night. And then to be here. Like here with my mom in the front row, preaching the word of God with my wife. And that has nothing to do with me, by the way. That has to do with prayers and that has to do with victory and with God's grace.

And if you are going through hell, keep going. So Winston Churchill said, if you are going through hell, keep going. Never give up. I have some quotes from Churchill today that I want to read to start with. Churchill is one of my favorite figures in history. Because in the darkest nights of World War II, he was willing to have the courage to lead not only himself, but to lead others into victory.

The sign of victory that came through that time. The sign of saying, hey, there are men lost at Dunkirk. And let's find another way to go pull them out from death's door and back into life. And to save an entire generation of men. To save an entire world, perhaps, of what was coming in those dark days. If you're going through hell, keep going. Never give up.

You've heard that. One of his most famous quotes is, never give in. Never, never, never, never. In nothing great or in small, in large or in petty. Never give in. Except to the convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. Last quote from Churchill this morning before we get into God's word.

Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. That is so good. Let's read that again. Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. We're in the final chapter, the final episode of ten of the most profound weeks personally for me that I have ever preached for myself.

I don't know how it's affected you. But in regard to me and shaping my mind and putting together the shards of things I've believed from very deep places into a coherent narrative of victory has been very powerful for me. I have a massive amount of enthusiasm today. Perhaps you can feel it. You know, I'm a little bit off the radar a little bit today.

But I am so encouraged by seeing what happened yesterday and the things that God is doing and preaching the word on Thursday night to surf church. And, you know, four kids made a commitment to, I believe, were first-time commitments to follow Jesus. Over and over again, God is having waves and waves of renewal in this place. And I brought up the originals, which I like to call them, the OGs, because they are a group of people that you sit here today, because them and others never gave up.

They weren't willing to give in. And this message, this final message, is a juxtaposition between Saul, who had spent a lifetime preparing for failure, and David, who had spent a lifetime, even in the darkest of nights, eight years as a fugitive, running, not knowing when it would end, preparing for a moment of victory. It was powerful. He never gave in.

I even broke the sword out today, and I don't break it out all that much. This is the Aragorn sword, the 54-inch broad sword, and I love bringing it out. And I hang it in my office for a reason. If you go into the pastor cave, right, because there is a pastor cave. My wife won't let me have a man cave at home, okay? So I have a pastor cave. And she says, it's all the things that I won't allow in the house.

This would be one of them. And it is filled with things that inspire me. It is filled with things I look at, and there is nothing that is of artistic or inspirational value in my office that doesn't have a meaning. There is a story behind everything, and there's a story to what these things mean. David was a man who carried the sword of Goliath.

He knew how to find victory in the midst of overwhelmingly seeming overwhelming defeat. He knew how to get home. We learned that in the first week. He knew how to create a sanctuary out of a cave. He knew how to get home. He knew how to get home. He knew how to get home. He knew that running faster wasn't always the answer to getting away from the demons that chase you at your heels.

He believed in rest. He believed in strongholds. He believed in gathering others around him and liberating them all the way. And what will be so interesting, I don't want to give you the spoiler alert, but a little spoiler alert, okay? That David, when David's dark night ended, when Saul was taken down by his own self-destruction, when Saul's life was ended and David's doorway to victory was opened, David wasn't even part of it.

David was just doing what David do. David was off liberating his people at Ziklag from the Amalekites. He was being generous and giving the spoil. He was on a tour of Judah. Taking the spoils that he had gotten from the Amalekites that they had said, this is David's plunder. Remember, you remember that two weeks ago. They were saying, this is yours.

Who wouldn't say, yes, it is? Now, you know what he did? He went on a tour around Judah and started giving the spoil away to the towns of Judah. You see, when David was liberated, he wasn't even part of his own liberation. God did it for him. David was just doing what David do. That was a spoiler alert as we get into it. And yes, I know, that's bad English, but I like it.

It makes me happy. As we look at this passage, we see a very sad picture of the ending of Saul. The complete self-destruction of Paul. And as I look back to his life, I see many of the same characteristics in our society today. That maybe were started somewhere in the 60s or before, but self-destruction really came into the focus in the 1990s, where many young people got very, very good at self-loathing, very, very, very good at self-destruction.

Perhaps you remember the movie Fight Club with Tyler Durden, who with Edward Norton was playing a character. Brad Pitt was in that movie. Don't recommend it. I saw the edited version on an airplane. That's always my answer. And the whole movie was about the self-destruction of one man. How to destroy yourself better. That's the theme. How to be as self-destructive as possible.

Beck singing, I'm a loser, baby, so... Excuse me? Why don't you kill me? I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me? You see that song. Then you see a band like Nirvana coming out of Seattle. And I was a youth pastor when this was happening. And it was all self-loathing over and over again. The self-loathing of individuals to want to take your own life.

Suicide rates are spiking. Columbine happens in like 1999. These things... And all of a sudden, before the trade towers even fell, before Y2K, which if you're a millennial, you probably don't know what that is. But before Y2K happened and all these different things, there was this building of self-destruction. I want to do a paper on it. I want to do more research on it.

And look, as we sang our way into self-destruction, as we acted our way into self-destruction, and you wonder how we got to where we are today. A place of no meaning. A place of self-destruction. It was little by little, incrementally. Living the dream, so to speak. And a lot of this comes out of white culture, by the way. Nirvana. Fight club. A lot of this comes out of white culture.

And so much, especially with young people, have been saying, you can have everything. And maybe they have had the door of privilege opened up to them. But let me show you where it's leading. It's leading to self-destruction. It's leading to cutting. It's leading to kids coming to the end of the door, to the opiate crisis. My brother-in-law himself was self-loathing.

Carrie's brother, self-loathing. Heroin addict. Took his own life. Because he gave up. I can't do it anymore. And he was one of the young. He was one of the privileged. He was part of that society. He would sing those songs. He would speak to those poems. And we have acted and sung our way into this. And somebody has to say, no more. Not on our watch. And we're going to stand here like we did yesterday.

And speak to young girls. And say, you are loved. You have worth. That everything that is on social media. Or how many days you can keep your Snapchat streak going. Or how many followers you have. Or how many likes you have. Or how sexualized you can become. So that men will like you. Or whatever the thing is. We will stand and talk to that group. We will talk to young men.

And say, no. There is a better way. There is a way that is not of self-destruction. That's David. That's the way of victory. That's the way we want to go. And so today I am fired up. Because I was encouraged. Because we took that sword. And we anchored it to the ground yesterday. It was a sword of God's word. And we tied it to ourselves. And we say, if we can't fight with it.

If we can't fight. Then maybe we'll just put an anchor in the ground. And tie ourselves to it. And we will fight to the last breath. We will not give up. Like Saul did. We will never give up. Never. And if we're going through hell. We're going to keep going. And I just invite you on the journey. Welcome to a journey through hell. But I'll tell you where we're going.

We're heading to heaven. We're heading to the cross. We're heading to victory. And come along. Encourage myself. I'm happy now. You go, Adam. Okay. I'm so bummed that this series has ended. David the king is coming next. Saul, look in your notes. Saul had prepared his entire life for this moment of failure and destruction. Saul had prepared his entire life for this moment of destruction.

What are you preparing for? How are you preparing? Do you even know that you're preparing? If you take a 30,000 foot view and say, are the words that come out of my mouth leading to life? Are they leading to death? Where are you going? Saul was doing this. Verse 1. It says, now the Philistines fought against Israel. And Israel did what? What they always do under Saul.

Almost always. Because there was one season where he had some military victories. But for the most part, the Israelites did what? Fled before them. And many fell on Mount Gilboa. Saul had made it an art form of fleeing. Now David obviously fled at other times. And there are times where he fled, but he always fled to strength. And if he fled, it was for a different reason.

And it says here, when your moment of opportunity or calamity comes, it's too late to prepare. And I asked you, what are you preparing for? You see, Saul had turned fleeing into an art form. And how many times have you laid down in the valley of the shadow of death? And this is not to guilt you. Okay? I'm not trying to encourage you. There are very difficult things where we struggle.

I can't imagine the darkness that was over my brother-in-law. Before, you know, he took his own life. By his own volition. On purpose. He had every opportunity. Newly married. In a graduate program. Sober. Five to ten years. I think five to seven years off of heroin. Had been sober. And then one bad thing. He was so used to fleeing. He fled back. And within three weeks of going back to heroin, he was dead.

He had everything going for him. A family that cared. A sister that mattered. A sister that wanted to be there. Parents that cared. Every opportunity. But eventually he gave up. Because for years he had prepared for a moment of failure. Maybe it's time to start preparing for something else. Maybe it's time to start helping other and liberate other people.

Rondi, who was here yesterday. And it's her story to tell, not mine. But let me just give you a brief 30,000 foot view. About 15, 12 years ago, we were in a small group at church. And she was asked to lead the devotional. And she shared in a very deep way about some things that were going on in her life. It's her story to tell. But she was open with everybody.

And she's been open in these conferences. But it was very dark. And then she went subterranean for about three years. I don't think I saw you for about three years. What eventually came out of that was what happened yesterday. What came out of that darkest part of her life was out of that darkness was someone that said, I'm going to fight. I will not lay down.

I am going through hell. And I'm going to keep going. No matter what. I literally, we worked on the same campus together. I felt like I didn't see you for three years. But you came out of it. And she came back and said, I want to do a conference for young women. She's been to India where there's a rape culture. And she's gone. And she's gone there and had a conference in India.

She had a conference here. She wants to take this globe, wherever God wants to take it. But it's somebody that says, I'm not willing. And I will hold the sword until my hand will no longer. You'd have to pry it off the hilt. Don't give up. Look around. There's so many people here. And there's other stories. That's just one. One story of somebody who did not give up.

David never gave up. He fled from Soya. Look at 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 10, 22. At the beginning, it says he had turned his fleeing into an art form. Retreat had become the culture of his life. In 1 Samuel 10, 22. So they inquired further. And this is when he was anointed. He fled from his anointing. God said, I'm calling you. And some of you, God is calling you to something.

And you're just running. I need a couple more weeks on the streets of PB. I need a couple more months in this bad relationship. Edited myself there. I need a few more months of misery, of suffering, of alcoholism, of pill abuse, of whatever it is. I just need a little bit more time. But God's saying, you know he's called you to something greater.

But you're running. Change the culture. You can change the culture with God of your life. You can stand up and say no more. I've done it. I did it through the grace of God. Many others. I can point, and I won't, but through here, so many people that have walked through the death of their spouses, the death of their children. There's a half dozen or more people in this congregation since I've been here that have lost children in this congregation.

You know how painful that is? God knows how painful it is because he sent his son. Painful that people are still walking one foot in front of another. People that have gotten sober. People that have gone through betrayals. Watched loved ones die. Over and over again. Don't give up. He had turned fleeing into an art form. And I say, move ahead. Saul had run from his anointing, and God's called you to something deeper.

And it says, so they inquired for him, has the man come here yet? This is when he was being anointed as king. Early on, when he started this fleeing. When he started this hiding. And the Lord said, yes. And the Lord said, yes. He has hidden himself amongst the supplies. When David was, excuse me, when Saul was called to be king, the anointing was on him.

You could find him in the closet rack. Hiding in the baggage. If you're in the baggage, I'm not telling you. I'm not here to be your parent. I'm not, I don't want, I'm trying to, I'm not trying to be, don't, please don't misinterpret my passion for this subject for being paternal and pointing at you like a dad scolding you. I'm not doing that. Okay?

I hope it doesn't come across that way. But what I want to say is, if you're hiding in the luggage, and you know it, it's time to get out. It's time to step out and say, God, I want my calling. I'm going to surround myself with people. I want to move towards what you've called me to be. Never give up. The next thing is, when he fled. It said he fled before the Philistines in 1 Samuel 13, 6, when the Israelites saw that their situation was critical and that the army was hard-bressed.

What did they do? They do what they always do under Saul. Almost always. They hid in the caves and the thickets amongst the rocks and the pits and the cisterns. Some of the Hebrews even crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul's final suicidal decision. And that was interesting. I guess I knew it, but it really hit me strong that Saul committed suicide.

Like, I knew it. I mean, if you would have asked me, I guess I would have told you. But I didn't realize that he took his own life. It was the ultimate saying, God, it was the ultimate ending it all and saying, God, I don't trust you. I don't trust that you can save me. I don't trust that there's forgiveness. And granted, I mean, it's a huge backstory of his relationship with God and Samuel.

But it really struck me that he had given up. And David is a guy who, as we know through the Psalms, dealt with some very strong darkness in his heart. But he never gave up. This is a message to you. Never give up. Saul's final suicidal decision was not made in an instant, but rather crafted over a lifetime. Better to die courageously in battle, trusting God, than falling upon your own sword.

I'm not sure I'll be that man. I want to be. I know there's others that would be like that. I know Dick Cotton, who we lost. I know CP, other Jews of you have actually served in combat and different things. But there are many people in this church that have faced death and said, I will fight until you take my life. You know, it's interesting. Even Jesus didn't take his opportunity out until the Father said it was your time.

Jesus said he could have called a legion of angels, but he didn't quit. He didn't quit on the cross. He didn't quit for you. And I want to say that what Saul did was completely antithetical to everything scripture is about. I know in certain cultures there's honor. In the Japanese culture with, you know, Harry Carey and these different things. And I thought through all those things.

But as I look through the biblical culture and through Jewish history, this was not a sign of honor. This was not something that was honored in Jewish society, giving up into your final because you're afraid of what might come. I just don't see David ever doing that. I see David fighting there to his last breath, swinging the sword to his last bit of strength and being taken down.

And if they were going to hack him down, he was going to be hacked down, standing up and fighting for God, fighting for the truth. And like Job says, even though God himself slay me, I will what? I will praise him. To the last battle, to the last breath, to the last bit of strength, we never give up. Never give up. Never give up. Even in the darkest darkness, never give up.

Someone else has been there. Come alongside them. Find the hope in God's scripture. As we move on, Jesus, as you see, that's the scripture in Matthew 26, 53. Do you not think I can call upon my Father and at once he will put to my disposal more than 12 legions of angels? I want to say Satan is in the business of tempting people to give up hope.

He can't make you give up hope. Giving up hope is a decision. He is in the business of tempting you to give everything away. Satan cannot take anything that is not given. But he is in the business of deceiving and stealing and taking away all that can be. The thief comes in John 10, 10. Jesus says the thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy.

I have come that they might have life and that they can have it to the full. David's dark night finally ends. And you never know. Just like when a dark night can begin, you never know when it's going to end. And for some of you, you know, you've been in those times before. I've been in some difficult times in my own life. And all of a sudden, when that dark night ends and you look back now and you say to yourself, how did I ever survive through that place?

How did I make it? One step at a time, one breath at a time. And David's dark night, eight years of living in caves and thickets after he had the anointing of God upon him. Eight years it ends. And this is what really struck me. I had never seen this before either. David's victory. I gave you the spoiler alert either. David's victory came and he wasn't even a part of it.

He didn't strike down Saul. He wasn't part of the battle. I don't even know how close he was to it. He was just off doing what David do, which is what David always do, which is generous, giving, blessing others, liberating others, and not allowing himself to be the victim even though he was being victimized. See, that's the model. That's the model of Jesus.

That's the model of the first century Christians who had it rough, who were taken and put into the arena and killed. And if you read about the first martyrs that would sing the songs of praise and speak glory to God as the lions tore them apart, this is the message of Christianity. This is the message of hope. This is the message we give. And not that we're not empathetic with people that are struggling.

We have to be so empathetic and come alongside and heal their wounds. Some people are deeply wounded in very strong and powerful ways. And God has an answer to meet them in a depth that I never can through just preaching. But God can meet you. God can heal your suffering. I want to take another step. Make it till tomorrow. One step at a time. We see David's victory came when he was not even present.

When Saul fell, David was doing what David do. David was preparing for the next moment. I love that. You know what David was always doing? Preparing in the moment for the next moment. He was literally on a tour of Judea just giving generosity. Who in their right mind in that position on the run takes all the treasure they just got and just goes and gives it to the other Judean towns?

David. He gives away the things that God's given. He leads others into victory. In 1 Samuel 30, 26, you'll see it. It says, when David reached Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah who were his friends saying, here is a gift for you from the plunder of the Lord's enemies. David understood his enemies. That's one of the most powerful things that has come out of this 10-week series.

Is that David was not a creature of darkness, but he understood the darkness. And he knew how to take his darkness and to speak into the darkness. He knew how to fight his enemies. I want to say, maybe it's time to take up the battle again. Maybe it's time to research, hey, this is a darkness in my life and I need to research it and I need to go after it and I need to attack it.

I need to once again stand and come against it as we come in for a landing. We're going to be moving now after David's liberation into his kingship years. David's dark night ends now. David's open door to everything he, well, maybe it's everything he ever wanted. But the thing, the shiny thing was his. We all feel, right, that if we get that shiny thing, then you're going to be happy.

That thing that you want, the book deal, whatever it is. The husband, the wife, the kids, whatever. If you get that shiny thing, you're going to be the best you. What we're going to find from David is that David's biggest challenges were not a giant when he was a kid or a whole world chasing him through the desert. Matter of fact, David was probably the best David he ever was as a fugitive or on the run.

David's biggest moral failures, and I think the only ones I could find, happen after he becomes king. You see, sometimes the best us is when we're fully dependent upon God. When David had too much time on his hands, he was on the roof looking at women. When David had too much money, when David had too much power, he got lax. And the thing that you would have thought he always wanted was the thing that took him down.

The final message is this, and the final conclusion of this episode, that David never had a major moral failure as a servant or as a fugitive. But now his greatest challenge was about to come, the fulfilling of all of his dreams. Hashtag Bathsheba. Hashtag census. Hashtag Absalom. One of the worst fathers in the Bible, David. One of the worst friends, with many friends and difficult friendships.

David was a difficult and complex guy. But his biggest failures came after he got everything. And I guess what we're going to talk about in the fall is how do you walk intimately and closely with God when the oxygen once again has filled the room? How do you walk intimately and closely with God when you don't have to? When everyone's telling you and your bank account tells you and everything tells you that you're doing awesome.

You are hashtag winning. How do you keep breathing desperately for God when you're the king of your world? We'll find that out in September. Let's have the worship band come up.