July 8, 2012
After God's Own Heart - Strengthened in the Lord
- 1 Samuel 30:1-6
- Rev. Jim Capps
It must have been in 1975 or 1976 and I was doing one of my first chapel services for the St. Louis Cardinals and the visiting team, the Montreal Expos. One of the most exuberant, engaging players on the Expos was a guy whose nickname was “Kid” because he played with a childlike passion. He had the most special smile and a vibrant faith in Jesus Christ.
I’m speaking about none other than Gary Carter who after 11 years with the Expos was traded to the New York Mets after the 1984 season. He was instrumental in helping the Mets defeat Boston in the 1986 World Series.
Listen to these words from Carter in his acceptance speech into Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York on July 27, 2003:
“I want to take the time to thank the most important people in my life. Above all I want to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. A verse which spoke to me while I was writing my speech and kind of explains what it’s all about comes from Psalm 118- ‘I love you Lord; you are my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior. My God is my rock in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the strength of my salvation and my stronghold. I will call on the Lord who is worthy of praise.’ (Psalm 118:1-3)
I praise the Lord my God, my best friend, for giving me the ability, the desire, the love, and the guidance that has brought me here today. Without you, I would be nothing.”
Shortly after I read those words a little over a year ago, I read similar words in both local and national news once again coming from Gary Carter. This time as he was speaking with his typical passion about God’s care and strength it was on the occasion of the diagnosis of his brains cancer which was in advanced stages.
In his last public appearance shortly before he died on February 16th of this year, surrounded by many of his old team mates, he once again, with the same genuine passion, talked about finding strength in the God of David who wrote the words of Psalm 118.
This morning we are going to be looking once again at the life of David as we continue the series, “After God’s own heart. “ Last week we talked about how David and his loyal band of 600 men fled from King Saul, and then found sanctuary with their enemies, the Philistines. They are rejected by the Philistines when they are preparing for battle with Israel. As men without a country at the end of chapter 29, they are making a hard 3-day journey from the Philistines at Aphek, down south to the Philistine town of Ziglag, where they have left their families and possessions. That’s where we pick up the story in our passage for this morning, I Samuel 30:1-8. Please follow along with me as I read it.
DAVID AND HIS LOYAL MEN HIT BOTTOM.
Moving as quickly as possible, the dejected David and his men can’t wait to be back home with their families in their home away from home, Ziglag. I think I can relate to what they must have been feeling. After disappointment, rejection, failure, or turmoil of any kind, going home to my wife, Alice, is like my place of safety and understanding. In difficult days, there is no place of greater respite than home, where I can rest my troubled mind. It’s there with Alice where I am understood, supported and loved even when I have made mistakes and failed. So it must have been for David and his men. Their anticipation heightened as they approached Ziglag.
A few miles off, they saw wisps of smoke on the horizon. At first they weren’t very concerned. But the closer they got to Ziglag, the more apprehensive they became. When they traversed the last hill and looked down into the valley, their worst fears were realized. There were the charred remains of their dwellings. In panic they raced toward the places where they had said their “good-byes,” when they last left, and discovered everyone and everything missing. They seemed to know immediately that this was the work of the Amalekites.
Emotions were high with all that they had just been through. Being rejected and without a country is one thing. To have your family violently taken away is another thing, much, much more difficult. Verse 4 tells us that “David and his men wept aloud until they had no more strength left to weep.”
Have you ever cried so much that you could cry no more? I will never forget such a time. My sister, Sue, who is a couple of years younger than me, didn’t particularly like high school. She just wanted to get married and have a family. She couldn’t wait to be a mother.
Hers was my first wedding as I performed her marriage ceremony shortly after she was out of high school. It wasn’t long and I heard the great news that she was pregnant. She was so excited. A couple of months before her due date, there were complications and the baby was born prematurely. Just over a pound, the baby died a couple of day after birth. I’ll never forget, coming home from college and going into her bedroom and seeing her red puffy eyes and grief-stricken face. She had cried until she had no more strength to cry.
So it must have been with David and his men. They could not go any lower. This was the last straw. How could things be worse? If you have been there, you can begin to imagine what it must have been like.
DAVID FINDS HIMSELF INCREDIBLY ALONE.
For David things did get worse. Even David’s men turn on him. All of a sudden, needing someone to blame and hold responsible for their horrendous loss, David is the only one left. If it had not been for him, none of them would be in this place. If they had left part of their number behind to guard their most precious ones, they wouldn’t feel the gnawing pain of loss. It was all David’s fault.
David now is the lowest he has ever been. He literally has nothing at all. Everything has been taken from him. He is incredibly alone. He was as alone as any person can be.
Are you feeling alone today? Sometimes the loneliest places in the world can be where there are hundreds of people. I can remember, as a college student, walking to and from work in the vast valley of skyscrapers in the Loop of Downtown Chicago. Each time the light changed, armies of people would march toward each other, barely being able to navigate the sidewalks without being squeezed out into the bustling traffic. Each person seemed to be in a world of his own. There could be no emotion express as you pressed forward looking straight ahead with a blank stare etched on your face. I felt so alone, even though there were hundreds of people in every direction.
Sometimes busy churches can be the loneliest place in the world. We all have on our church masks which we have learned to wear and our spiritual greetings which we have become accustomed to speaking to one another. Yet, deep, down in our hearts, we feel incredibly alone.
Maybe you are single and you see all of the couples, and feel alone. Maybe you are childless and see the children and families, and you feel alone. Maybe you are have lost a husband or wife to death or divorce, and are feeling alone. Maybe you are an empty-nester and are feeling alone. Possible you have lost your job and you are feeling alone. Maybe you are an older person and you rarely see your family and you are feeling very much alone today. Maybe you have done something wrong which you have not confessed and dealt with and you are feeling separated from God and alone. Maybe you are in the throes of depression and are feeling alone. Maybe you are addicted to something or someone and have not admitted it to anyone and are feeling alone today. Maybe you are on the edge of a momentous decision which only you can make and you feel alone.
If you are incredibly alone today, admit it. Don’t deny it nor run from it, like maybe you have in the past. Don’t try to blame it on others. Face it this morning.
While the church, with its hundreds of people can be a place of very real aloneness, it can also be the place of greatest hope, where you can meet God.
DAVID FOUND STRENGTH IN THE LORD HIS GOD.
In his moment of the deepest aloneness he had ever experienced, David goes to his reservoir of strength, the One to whom he had always gone in the past. In I Samuel 30:6, we read these simple, yet, profoundly instructive words, “But David found strength in the Lord his God.”
The “but” here denotes an important contrast, as it is in many places in scripture. Instead of succumbing to self-pity; instead of trying to run away as far as possible; instead of denying his situation; instead of shaking his fist at God, David found strength in the Lord his God.
Please note, turning to God at a very difficult time is nothing new for David. He first met this same God in his early years in Jesse’s home in Bethlehem. He had built a strong relationship with God during his long hours of herding sheep out on the Judean hillsides. That relationship with God had been shaped and molded on the anvil of experience when he had confronted the impossible odds of taking on a raging lion and a battling bear. David had experienced the impossible dream of seeing God bring down the great giant, Goliath. David had seen God’s marvelous hand at work in a myriad of ways as he remained alive, even though the jealous King Saul wanted him dead.
God was not some nice bed-time story character whom he heard about when a child. God was not some theological theory. David found strength in the Lord HIS God. There was a relationship on which David could depend and draw during his moment of deepest aloneness.
I like the may Phillip Keeler puts it in his book, David 1:
“David was at the point of extremity.
There was no place to turn—nowhere to flee!
Only God remained!”
David finds strength when he turns to the Lord. In himself, he was totally powerless. He had nothing left to give anyone. He couldn’t go a step further by himself. But there was strength to be found in the Lord, the One who had created him and knew him better that he knew himself. He found strength in the Lord, who truly was the architect for his life and the one who would ultimately determine his fate.
Turning to the priest, through the common method of that day and culture, David heard God tell him to pursue the Amalekites. In a wonderful manner, David recognizes and heeds God’s voice, as do his faithful band of men.
Today, if you are feeling alone, maybe if there is no one, or at least very few people who seem to understand and care about your situation, you, too can find strength in the Lord. It all begins with a relationship with the God who created, knows, understands and cares about you more than anyone.
Let me be quick to add, if you don’t have a personal relationship with our Great Creator God, you can today, right now. All relationships have a beginning point. By faith, in the midst of your feelings of aloneness, you can come to God just as you are, find forgiveness for your sins, and a living hope, based upon an eternal relationship which can never be severed. As was true for David in his greatest moment of need, the relationship is a journey of faith, on which you will never be alone again.
There will be people over at the cross afterward who would love to explain to you how you can enter this life changing, life enriching relationship. Let me know after the service and we can talk about how we enter into this relationship. Talk with one of the pastors or elders, who would be overjoyed to share with you how they began this journey of faith. It all begins here.
Maybe, you already have entered into such a relationship and in your aloneness need to reach deep into that reservoir of strength God promises each one of us.
I’ll never forget being in Southern California in the summer of 1978 when I heard Robert Schuller tell about an event that taken place in his family earlier that summer. With great emotion and tears he shared the story of how he and his wife, Arvella, had been in Korea when their teen-age daughter, Carole was in a bad motorcycle accident while staying with extended family in Iowa.
Carole was riding with her cousin when she was thrown from the cycle into a ditch, severely breaking her leg. The worst part was that the ditch was next to a meat packing plant, where some of the refuse from the plant had been allowed to drain. Since the skin was broken, she got a horrible infection immediately. The only way to save her life was to amputate the leg. The decision had to be made and implemented before Carole’s parents could be there or even talk to her by phone.
Dr. Schuller told us about the horrible panic and pain which he and Mrs. Schuller experienced as they flew those thousands of miles as fast as they possibly could. Carole was the athlete in the family. How would she ever accept it? They desperately needed to be with their daughter.
When they arrived, what they found was truly amazing. Carole had entered into that relationship of faith with the living Creator God, even though she was young. When she was most alone and helpless, she experienced God’s faithfulness. She drew on God’s deep reservoir of strength not only then, at the beginning of her season of need, but during the long days of rehabilitation.
Dear friends, in every bit as real a manner, God deeply desires for us to be in that same kind of relationship of faith. We will never be alone and will have His strength in our moments of greatest aloneness and need.
Based upon personal experience and not just theory, God wants to give you strength today, no matter how alone you may feel. I invite you to turn to Him as did David, and allow Him to give you the strength and guidance you need for all of the difficult moments of your life.
GOD TURNED A TERRIBLE TRIAL INTO A TREMENDOUS TRIUMPH.
While there are several lessons to be learned from the events taking place at the end of I Samuel 30, for our purposes here today, let me summarize what happened. First, somehow, someway, God gave David and his men who were depleted completely the courage and the strength to pursue the Amalekites. However, when comes time to traverse a difficult portion of landscape, 200 of the 600, are too tired to continue. So, David graciously leaves them behind.
They come upon an Egyptian slave who has been discarded by the Amalekites. After David cares of his need for food and water, he leads them to the encampment of the Amalekites, who, in celebration for their victories, are partying and drunk, with their guard completely down. They are confident that all of the Israelites and Philistines capable of warfare are preparing to do battle, leaving them safe and much, much richer.
To make a long story short, David and his 400 men catch the Amalekites by surprise, utterly defeat them, and regain all of their families and possessions. More than that, they are the recipients of the considerable plunder which the Amalekites had amassed on their very successful campaign.
Proving that it was God who had given them the victory, David insists, over the objections of many of his faithful warriors, that they give an equal share of the spoils to the 200 worn-out men who had stayed behind. To go a step farther, David sends a portion of the spoils to the Israelites who have pursued and tried to destroy him. In both of the actions of extravagant grace David wonderfully demonstrates that he is a man after God’s own heart.
In his classic book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl writes these famous words about his experience in the Nazi concentration camps of WWII:
“We who lived in the concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: The last of his freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Dear friends, David had chosen well. First, he found strength in the Lord his God. Then, He had the courage to pursue the enemy and the grace to share his gains with those who may not have deserved it.
APPLICATION
Today, you may be feeling incredibly alone and discouraged. It may seem like everything has been taken from you, and that your life is out of your control. But remember this, like David, you always have the ability to choose to turn to the Loving God who created you and wants to give you strength. I challenge you to do that today.
The story is told of Admiral Byrd living by himself for five months in a small shack in Antartica. Blizzards blew around his hut and the temperature was sometimes as cold as eighty-two degrees bellows zero.
Then he was terrified by a sudden discovery; carbon monoxide was escaping from his stove. Try as hard as he could, Byrd was unable to fix it. When he tried to repair it, he was almost overcome by the fumes. If he turned off the stove, he would freeze to death in a short time. The nearest help was 123 miles away and they wouldn’t be able to reach him for months. He lost his ability to eat or to sleep, and was so weak that he stayed in bed.
Incredibly alone, Admiral Byrd was forced to seek a power higher than his own. He reached out with his prayers and experienced the loving touch of the presence of God. In his diary he wrote, “I am not alone.” Byrd knew the One who loved him deeply all of the time, bringing him a peace which would lead him to face the future with true spiritual strength. Like David, Admiral Byrd found strength in the Lord his God.
So it can be for you, my friends. God can bring you strength.
For many of you today, this message may not feel like it applies. Your life is going well with very few blips of pain or frustrations. If that’s the case, I would encourage you to turn to God, or, for some of you continue to turn to God and grow in your relationship with Him. That growing relationship will include Bible Study, Prayer, Fellowship with other Christ Followers, Worship, and service to others. As you grow in that relationship with God, you are preparing for a day when you may be incredibly alone as was David. You will be able to find strength in the Lord, your God.
Again, if for any reason any of you would like to speak with someone afterwards, there will be people at the cross in the alcove to my right. They would consider it a privilege to listen to and pray with you.