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And now we hope that this message from God's Word will be
a blessing to you. Second Samuel and chapter #5
This evening as we continue our series after God's Own Heart,
looking at David and you know, it's exciting for David because
he's finally had a few victories, hasn't he?
He's had victory over Ishbosheth and then finally the victory of
being crowned, of being coronated the king of Israel, as
he was supposed to have been for some time.
However, now the time has finally arrived.
And remember, there was over 300,000 of the nation of Israel,
soldiers of all 12 tribes who are coming together and they all
with 1 accord have now placed the crown upon David's head and
he is now king and things are good.
Now, if you understand anything about the Christian life, you
know that when good things happen, it seems like Satan's
not usually too happy about that, is he?
It's one thing to be able to have good things happen in the
Christian life. And we're thankful for the
mountaintop occurrences that we have in our Christian life.
But I will say this, that Satan very much wants us to be off of
those mountaintops and into the valleys He loves to be able to
put us into the midst of the storm that we just sang about
just a few moments ago. Well, tonight that is going to
be the case, David, and it's going to be the case of the
Philistines coming back. Remember the Philistines, the
last time we saw them back at the end of First Samuel, they
have invaded. Saul is dead, Jonathan is dead,
Israel flees. And the Philistines actually
pick up some level of territory within the nation of Israel
because it is a complete and utter route of the Israelites
there in that battle that took place.
But the Philistines are back. Why?
Because they have a new king. And I have no doubt that they
wanted to intimidate that new king and try to reassert the
authority that they have had over the Israelites really over
these last two years while chaos reigned, trying to figure out
who was actually the king, David or Ishbosheth.
But Davidde response to how he reacts to this that takes place
is very instructive for us this evening.
And I think there's some things from our text tonight that I
think will be very, very helpful for us to see as David inquires
of the Lord. And that's the title of my
message this evening is David inquires of the Lord.
So will you stand please, for the reading of God's Word?
We're in second Samuel chapter #5.
As we stand together, Second Samuel chapter #5 we're going to
begin in verse #17 But when the Philistines heard that they had
anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to
seek David. Now, do you think they came to
seek him because they wanted him to be their king too?
Remember, they were on pretty good terms the last time they
met each other, weren't they? But, well, that's not what's the
case here. And David heard of it and went
down to the hold. The Philistines also came and
spread themselves in the valley of Refium.
And David inquired of the Lord, If you mark in your Bible, I've
marked that down in my Bible. And David inquired of the Lord,
saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines?
Wilt thou deliver them into mine hand?
And the Lord said it to David, Go up, for I will doubtless
deliver the Philistines into thine hand.
And David came to Bail Parism, And David smote them there, and
said, The Lord had broken forth upon mine enemies before me as
the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of
that place Bail Parism. And there they left their
images. And this is talking about the
Philistines leaving their images, their idols.
They ran so fast that they left their idols behind.
And it says, And David and his men burned them, and the
Philistines came up yet again and spread themselves in the
valley of Refium. So now this is happening for a
second time. And when David inquired of the
Lord, And I have that underlined again in my Bible, David
inquired of the Lord, He said, Thou shalt not go up, but fetch
a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the
Mulberry trees. And let it be, when thou hearest
the sound of a going in the tops of the Mulberry trees, that then
thou shalt bestir thyself, and then shall the Lord go out
before thee to smite the host of the Philistines.
And David did so, as the Lord had commanded him, and smote the
Philistines from Giba until thou come to gaze her.
And so we'll take a look at what this has to do with us this
evening, David inquiring of the Lord.
And I hope there will be a help and encouragement to you from
the Word of God this evening. So please be seated and let us
pray together. Heavenly Father, we do thank you
for this night and we thank you for your word.
I pray that you'd help me to preach clearly and in a way that
the word of God is not confused by my presentation.
I pray that your Holy Spirit would work and that we would all
learn from David inquiring himself of the Lord.
And we do ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
What you have to love from our text here this evening is the
fact that twice over we see that David encouraged himself and the
Lord. Now let's compare that to Saul
for just a moment. Remember, Saul had 40 years of a
reign before David became the king of Israel.
And for about 40 years Israel lacked a leader who truly
followed the Lord as he should. Short.
Saul in those very early days had some humility within him.
In those very early days he was filled with the Spirit of the
Lord. He did some great things.
Remember, Saul started to feel very lifted up in pride.
So Saul started to take too much upon himself, and the Spirit of
the Lord was removed from him, and the Kingdom itself was
removed from him. And Saul from that point on, was
not a man who was filled with the Spirit of the Lord.
Instead, he was a man who was filled with the spirit of
madness. In fact, we could compare the
very end of his life when he needed direction from God in a
very similar situation. Remember, the Philistines were
upon the Israelites and Saul didn't know what to do.
He was in the very twilight of his time leading Israel, and he
can't hear from God. He can't hear from Urim and
Thummim. Remember we saw that in those
final chapters of First Samuel. And so he got to the place where
he said this. I don't know what to do.
And some of his most trusted advisors, the men who were the
closest to him, the men who should have led him closer to
God said, did this. Hey, if you want to get some
information about what to do next, why don't we go see a
witch? And remember, they went to the
witch of Endor, those witches that were supposed to been
removed by Saul. But yet through all of that,
Samuel was conjured up. And Samuel had a message that
went something like this. Tomorrow you're going to be with
me, meaning this, you're going to die on the battlefield.
And so Saul at the end of his life was consorting and
consulting with the witch. But here is David who is in a
very similar situation. It's the same enemy.
It's that same group, that same host that is pressing upon the
people of Israel. But David, not once but twice,
inquires of the Lord to know what he is supposed to do.
Isaiah 55 verses 6 and eight say seek you the Lord, while he may
be found, call you upon him while he is near.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways
my ways say at the Lord in verse #8 that I just quoted to you is
going to come into play on Wednesday nights pretty soon as
we look at first Corinthians chapter #2 is that's referenced
in a very real and powerful way by the apostle Paul.
But seek the Lord while he may be found.
Listen, if you want to know what you do in your life or what you
should do in your life, don't consult with your heart, consult
with God. The problem with consulting your
heart, it's like trying to follow a compass that has a
magnet next to it. Now, Now, can you follow a
compass? Now?
Probably a lot of us in the last who knows how many years haven't
exactly pulled out the compass. If you have, you probably pulled
it out on your phone. And if you had your phone out,
you probably said, I don't need this compass.
I can just use Agps. But if you have a compass and
you're trying to find your way, if you have a magnet next to it,
guess what? It's going to naturally pull
wherever the magnets going. Instead of pointing north as it
ought to, our hearts should point to true north, which is
the Lord. But because of sin, what does it
do? Our emotions pull that like a
magnet to whatever direction we want to go.
An emotional living friend is dangerous living.
Let me run that by you one more time.
Emotional living is dangerous living.
You say, Pastor, what's wrong with emotions?
Didn't God give us emotions? He did give us emotions.
And emotions are wonderful things.
Can you imagine if we had emotions?
I mean, would you imagine if we just live life like robots or
live like like like ChatGPT or, or AI or something like that?
I'm glad that we have emotions. Emotions are great as long as
we're not ruled by our emotions. Because when we are, it's like
that, Meg, that that's pointing the compass in the wrong
direction. No, what do we need to do?
We need to seek the Lord in every area and every facet of
our life. Seek the Lord, seek ye first the
Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Then all these things shall be added unto you.
And so David is seeking the Lord, and it's interesting here
how he seeks the Lord. It says in verse #19 that David
inquires the Lord the first time, and he asked the question,
should I go up against the Philistines?
He's not even taking for granted that he should go into battle
against the Philistine. This is not David as a coward.
This is not David trying to avoid a fight.
No, this is David being prudent. He says, if I'm going to take
men to battle, I need to know the Lord's with us.
And so he inquires of the Lord. And the Lord does say that yes,
you are to go up in the battle. And the Lord also gives him a
promise with the direction as well.
God doesn't always do this in his word, but he doesn't hear.
It says, Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the
Philistines into thy hand. And it says that David went, and
then David fought David one. In fact, he says, the Lord had
broken forth upon my enemies before me as a breach of waters.
And that phrase as a breach of waters makes it sound as if when
David was empowered and his men were in power of the Lord, they
came upon them as if a wave was crashing down upon them.
In fact, in my mind, I even think of the Red Sea coming down
upon the armies of the Egyptians.
And that's kind of the, the, the, the, the word picture
that's given to us here. The idea that David with the
empowerment of God, David with the direction of God, David,
because he inquired of the Lord, was able to break forth upon the
Philistines in such a way that everything came crashing down
and the Philistines had nowhere to go, nowhere to run, and they
hightailed it back to their home.
But again, wouldn't it be great if we fought Satan just once and
never had to fight him again? I don't know about you, but it
feels like sometimes we could have victory in one hour, and an
hour later he's back for more. And I'm not as prepared an hour
later as I was the hour before. And before you know it, you feel
like you get yourself in a real mess.
Now, I don't know exactly how long that we have during this
time, but they are going to come again.
And by the way, verse #21 that this isn't my message, but I do
need to mention it says that they ran away so fast the first
time they dropped their idols with them.
By the way, those idols didn't help them very much in battle,
did they? It seems.
Like those idols were pretty inept.
Why? Well, because they are not gods.
Those idols are not helpful because they are not.
And David and his men did the right thing.
They didn't take them and say, you know what?
I could put this in my pocket. Maybe I could use this at home.
Maybe I could. Do.
You know what they did? They burned them.
I want no part of this. It makes me think of the people
of Ephesus after they got saved and they had those curious arts.
They had books of witchcraft and all those things that they had
spent a lot of money on. And they had them for a little
bit. And as they grew in the Lord,
they got to the place where they realized, listen, we can't have
these things anymore. They didn't take them to the
used bookstore. They didn't sell them on eBay.
You know what they did? They got a big old fire and they
threw things in the fire. We watched teenagers before when
we were and when I was a youth director in Tampa, where we'd
have a bonfire and teens would bring magazines, teens would
bring CDs, teens would bring cassette tapes.
I didn't say 8 tracks. I said cassette tapes.
All right, Don't try to label me too far back.
All right? Amen.
But they brought those things that they knew we're not
honoring to the Lord. They didn't give them to
friends. They didn't give them to
neighbors. They didn't donate them
somewhere. They said this.
Listen, this ain't fit for man or beast, and we just want to
get rid of it. And these men didn't come up and
say, hey, you know what, maybe I could take this home.
Maybe we could start praying to it.
Maybe that would be a good idea. They just watched the Lord work
in a mighty way. They say, you know what, we'll
stick with the Lord. Let's take these things and burn
them. And this is in verse #22 that
second time that the Philistines came up yet again and spread
themselves in the Valley of Refiem.
And when, David? Inquired of the Lord, there it
is again. He said, Thou shalt not go up,
but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against
the Mulberry trees. Now it's interesting here that
David inquires of the Lord, but the Lord gives him a different
answer. Now, the Lord does not always
work the same way in our life, does he?
You know, it's interesting that sometimes you might have a
financial emergency in your life.
And there have been times that we have had a financial
emergency and all of a sudden we open up the mailbox.
And there's a check. Money that we weren't expecting.
Maybe it was a refund from a company, or maybe it was from
someone who was led of the Lord to send us money.
The Lord works that way sometimes.
There were other. Times that the Lord opened up a
part time work opportunity for Diana myself, where we're able
to earn more money because we had a financial need.
There were other times that maybe I was working outside of
the home. I was always on staff somewhere,
whether at Westgate or here, but maybe I was able to make more
money at a part time job, whether it was working at the
Saint Pete Times Forum for the hockey team or whether it was
working for Uber, to be able to have some more money, to have
some more opportunities. Listen, God provided in each of
those scenarios, but he always provided a different way.
And so we can't presume that God is always going to answer our
needs in the exact same way. That's why we inquire of the
Lord and the Lord answered in a completely different way the
first time. Could we put it this way?
It was blunt force trauma. It was go right at them, go
right down their throat, and the Lord is going to be like a
breach upon them. It's going to be like the waves
crashing down upon them. That's big and it's loud and
it's bold. But the second time he says
this, fetch a compass. So David got his iPhone out.
Got his GPS fired up and he put in Mulberry trees and this time
the Lord says this. Go behind him that.
You're not going up front. You're going to go around.
You're going to you're going to put a flanking maneuver upon
them. As we folks say in the military.
You're going to flank that. No, that's just a joke, all
right? Dave's not here tonight, all
right? But you're going to flank these
opponents. You're going to come behind him.
You're going to go softly. You're going to go behind a
patch of Mulberry trees. And if I was to tell you I
understand how all this took place, took place.
The answer is I don't. I've read some thoughts and some
theories from some commentators even this week about what they
believe happened here. But what I believe happened here
doesn't have to be supernatural in the sense that there was
something great and big and mighty going on.
What was happening here was the Lord was just leading a man who
was inquiring of him says get behind the Mulberry trees, get
quiet and listen. You're not going to know when to
attack. When that wind kicks up and the
Mulberry trees start moving, that's the time you need to move
forward. By the way, that's miraculous
enough. Amen.
You know God. Works in all kinds of ways.
There were times like Elijah says to his servant says hey,
open your eyes and look and and see the host that's around us.
There are times the Lord did that.
There was times that the Lord had men dig ditches and water
filled the ditches and all of a sudden the opponents thought it
was blood and ran away. There were times that men
thought that they heard the sounds of horses and Chariots
and they just left everything behind.
The Lord works all kinds of ways, and the Lord can work in
the Mulberry trees. He works in the large and the
small. And this time he says, listen,
just listen. And they listened and they won.
How much do they win? Well, verse #25 says they did
so, and the Lord had commanded him and smote the Philistines
from Geeba until out. Go come to Geezer.
Now that doesn't mean a lot to us, but in doing some Bible
geography study even this week that the distance from Giba unto
Gazer rather was somewhere around 25 to 30 miles.
In military terms, this is a complete and total.
Route of the enemy. They have been repelled and
basically what it seems like to me here was that Israel has
regained all of the territory they have lost when Saul
tragically died at the end of First Samuel.
So that the Philistines have now been completely repelled out of
the boundaries of Israel, at least the boundaries of Israel
during the reign of Saul. So through all of this, through
all of the the difficulty, through all of the hardship,
what do we find that David inquired of the Lord, that David
asked for direction from God and God answered the first way,
first time, in a big way. He did it again.
He answered in more of a quiet way, but in both ways.
It was God who is the one that answered.
It was God who is the one who provided.
It was God who is the one who gave direction.
All the glory and all the honor goes to God.
The only honor that could be given to David was this, that he
was humble enough to be able to ask of the Lord in the 1st place
what to do. And when the Lord told him what
to do, he was humble and obedient enough to do that which
God told him to do. That's why Brother Sam Davidson
often says his favorite hymn is trust and obey, because you can
really bring the whole Christian life down to this trust and obey
if you do those two things. There is no other way to be
happy in Jesus. Here's David.
What is he doing? He's trusting and obeying.
Lord, what do you want me to do? I trust that what you want me to
do is what I'm supposed to do. And I'm going to do it.
And a lot of our problems in our Christian life will be fixed if
we would just handle ourselves in the way that David has
handled himself here in this text tonight.
Now this is good. I mean, this is very good.
David inquired of the Lord. But I will say this, there's a
problem lurking in this chapter. And listen, I know what some of
you are thinking. Like Pastor, what problem could
you possibly find? With what we just read over
these last few verses and my answer to you is this.
I'm a Baptist. Preacher, I will find fault.
Don't worry about it. All right?
No, no, actually, the the problem and fault that I find
here is not actually found in the text that we just read.
I don't know how many of you caught this, but the text that
we read last week and the text that we read this week did not
actually line up. There was a small set of verses
in between that we skipped. Did anyone notice that there
there's just about 3 or 4 verses that were there that are a
little bit awkward. They're there that that that
they might not be. Well, why don't we just go look
at them? All right, so go backwards.
You might just need to go back a page like I have to but go back
to verse #13. We.
Ended at verse 12 last week. We started in verse #17 this
week, but look at verse #13 And David took him more.
What's that next word? Concubines and wives out of
Jerusalem after he was come from Hebrew, and there were yet sons
and daughters born to David. And.
These be the names of those that were born unto him in Jerusalem.
Shamwa and Shobab and Nathan and Solomon, Ibhar.
Also Elishua and Nepeg and Japha.
And Elishama. And Eliada and Elephant.
Now that section of scripture. Is a lot different than what we
just read from verse 17 and on. And there's a few things I want
to say about that. First of all, when we read
sections of Scripture like this, and I know we've ventured this
before already in our study of First Samuel, but there are
times when it seems like is God approving this?
Is God saying that this is OK? Remember, David has already
taken on wives as it is. We've already seen this in the
first Samuel that he has gone beyond what God has said is what
man and woman should be able, should have, which is one man
and one woman within the confines of marriage.
That's God's plan. David has already gone beyond
that and there are times that the Word of God reports these
things, but a reporting of facts does not mean it is God's
approval of those facts. This is not God saying this is
OK. This is God telling us in the
biblical record. This is what David did.
So do not take that. We read this here that David is
taking wives and concubines unto himself as God approving of
that. Listen, we're going to go
further on and every time you see a man who takes multiple
wives to himself within the Old Testament, every time you see
this, listen, it never ends well.
There may be people who say, well, I don't see the big deal.
I mean, David did it and Solomon didn't, and Abraham did it as
like you're using those as case examples because none of them
found that that experience was really what it ought to be.
We still have problems today from Abraham taking a concubine
unto himself, trying to take the plan of God within his own
hands. We see that Israel was
materially separated from the 12 tribes because of what Solomon
did in taking 1000 wives and concubines he sells.
He sowed the seeds for the descent that would take place
with Jeroboam and Rehoboam. And where did Solomon learn that
from? From his father David.
No, this is not God's approval of this.
This is just God's simple recording of the facts.
If you want. God's opinion on this, if you
will. And why opinion?
I mean what does God's word say about this?
Deuteronomy 1717 says this when it talks of kings.
Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn
not away. Neither shall he multiply wives
to himself that his heart turn not away.
David was a great man in Scripture.
Let's be clear about something tonight.
David was a great man in Scripture.
He was a man after God's own heart, but he was not a perfect
man. Just as there are many
characteristics of David that we should emulate, there are also
several that we are wise to avoid.
And you know, I think it's interesting that you have the
juxtaposition of these 4. Verses.
Next to the verses that follow that shows David's great heart
and ear for the will of the Lord.
And I'll be honest with you, even in the study this week, as
I was reading this, I was having a hard time wondering why are
those verses seemingly shoehorned in to the verses that
follow of David having victory over the Philistines?
And I have to wonder if the reason for it is this.
And I'm not saying that I can say this with all authority, but
I have to wonder if the reason for it this evening is this.
See, God's direction is needed at the times that we don't think
we need it. In fact, I would put it this
way, God's direction maybe is most needed at the times we
don't think that we need it. Here's what I'm saying.
I was talking to someone this morning about Brother Richard
Rossiter. He's a pastor in Florida.
It was very influential to me in my life.
And I remember when I was in high school he said something to
me, or maybe it was through preaching.
I don't remember exactly how he said it, but I do remember him
saying it. But he says I have the most
trouble asking the Lord to help me with small things.
And I thought, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Small things, it seems like big things are the things would be
hard to trust with God because big things are, well, they're
big. Of course, God could answer the
little things, so it would be easier.
But, you know, the older I got, the more I came to realize I
know what he means. You know, when I had a tumor in
my jaw four years ago, I knew I couldn't handle it myself.
It was very easy to bring that prayer request to the Lord
because I knew there was nothing within me that could handle it
and only the Lord could do what only the Lord could do.
It was very easy, if you will, to give the Lord that prayer
request. There's things in life we know
that we can't handle. It could be a tumor.
It could be a massive bill. It could be a wayward child.
It could be an addiction that you can't shake.
A prodigal spouse, a lawsuit that you never saw coming.
A diagnosis with no cure. A betrayal by a close friend, a
church split, a mountain of debt, a sudden job loss.
These are all things that we know need prayer.
And to be frank with you, these are things understand what I say
when I say it. These are things the Bible
doesn't answer explicitly. The Bible does not say thou
shalt be fine after your tumor surgery.
Now that gives a lot of principles about how to seek the
Lord through that and how to handle yourself and compose
yourself during those things. And I believe it gives you
principles about how to handle after if the Lord heals you or
if the Lord doesn't. The Lord gives, but it doesn't
explicitly say what is going to happen during those times.
And so because of that, it's easy in my estimation, it's easy
to be able to give those things to the Lord.
And a good example of that is David.
David when his back was to the wall.
When? The chips were down.
He always sought the Lord. This would be a great example
here in Second Samuel chapter #5I.
Think of The Cave of Abdullah. What was happening?
He was hiding for his life because Saul was chasing after
him of Ziklag. When he'd gotten away from the
Lord for a while, but he realized he finally got his back
to a wall because the city had been burned.
His wives and children and all of his men's wives and children
had all been taken away. They're talking about killing
him. And he realized I'm in trouble.
And what did it say that David encouraged himself?
What in the Lord when? Uzziah died, or rather Aza died
after they attempted to bring the Ark of the Covenant to
Jerusalem. That's going to happen here
soon. They bring the Ark of the
Covenant in a new cart. I don't want to go there because
that's a whole different message.
They bring it on a new cart because they saw the Philistines
do this and all of a sudden that the cart shakes and Aza puts his
hand to steady the Ark of the Covenant.
They weren't supposed to touch the Ark of the Covenant and the
Bible says a breach was laid upon him that the power of God
literally upon Aza and he died in a second.
And what did David do? He immediately went to the Lord
God. What do I do?
I'm not going to move this ark until I know how you direct me.
And then he went back into the word of God and found how he was
supposed to direct the ark back to Jerusalem.
And things were better after the census.
Later on in his reign, he's going to try to have a census of
the people. He wasn't supposed to do that.
He didn't need to know the numbers.
He was just supposed to trust the Lord of his Kingdom, Joab.
Remember Joab, the enigma, the one that said something great
one moment and kill somebody the next?
Even Joab had the sense say, hey, David, you know, this
probably isn't a good idea. And David said, did I stutter?
Go out and count the people? And Joab was so incensed by it,
he started to count. He didn't even finish.
So I can't do this. I know you're going to get
yourself in trouble with the Lord, which he did.
And the Bible says that the Angel Lord came and brought
death upon Israel for three days.
And what did David do? He laid himself down and said,
Lord, save this people, it's me. I'm the problem.
When we think of Uriah and the whole issue with Bathsheba, that
after Nathan said, thou art the man that he admitted he was, he
was the man, and his child was laying there nigh unto death.
He ate no bread and drank the water until that child passed.
He inquired of the Lord. You see, David was very good at
inquiring of the Lord when things were hard and things were
difficult. But I will say this.
If David had only inquired of the Lord from verses #13 to 16,
that his life would have been changed forever if he had just
asked the Lord, or he had sought counsel of the word of God.
What am I supposed to do in my home?
What am I supposed to do in my family?
And if he had done so, his family would have been changed
forever. But instead, it was changed.
It was changed for the worse. And you could mark the end of
his reign as more of a soap opera than anything else.
Because he has sons trying to take over the Kingdom.
He has turmoil within his own children, intrigue in the
palace, and it all comes back down to this.
He ignored God's revealed will and God's revealed word.
Word in Deuteronomy 1717. See, God's direction is most
needed. At times, we don't think we need
it. David figured he had this whole
family thing figured out. Hey, I know how to handle a
family, but he didn't know how to handle a family.
The only way he should have known how to handle a family is
by following the word of God. And we get ourselves in a lot of
trouble when we get to those little things, quote UN quote.
And those little things end up being far bigger than we ever
imagined. And some of those big things
like that. Bill, you never knew how you
thought you'd pay. 10 years from now, you won't even remember
that, but you'll be living with the disaster of 10 years ago,
something that seemed very small, that was never prayed
over, or that you never sought the Lord in His Word to know
what He wanted for you in your life that could end up cascading
into a great disaster, far greater than you ever imagined.
We can see this in several different ways from our text.
Listen, God's direction is needed in times of peace, not
just in times of war. God's direction is needed in
times of peace and not just in times of war.
I'm having a, a difficulty, if you will, I'm, I'm interacting
with a few different pastors and having some some level of
conflict with them over an issue.
And it doesn't really matter what that issue is here tonight.
And I'm having to go back and forth with them about this.
And I find myself praying about this issue quite a bit.
And I find myself literally praying about this issue every
day. But I asked myself, even in
going over this message this week, ask myself, I wonder how
many times I pray for my pastor friends when things are well.
When it's times of peace, I don't seem to bring their names
up to the Lord very often, but when it's times of war, all of a
sudden their names are very close to my lips.
In our prayer life, are we just asking the Lord for what we need
in the times of war, or do we need it in times of peace?
David was seeking the Lord in times of war, but he really
needed the Lord in peace time too, because that's where the
groundwork got laid for some great turmoil in his home.
God's direction is needed for questions in the home, not just
questions outside the home. Questions in the home, not just
questions outside the home. So often we feel that the home
can be administrated by our own wits.
And lived experiences. But God's direction is needed in
every area of our life. I'll be honest with you.
I seem to remember not that long ago being as this young couple
is here where you just get married and and everything's new
and everything is what I remember when we got married and
we lived in Oklahoma obviously and and I lived in.
Florida before that, where all we ever had for heat was a heat
pump that we turned on like twice a year.
When it got cold, when it got cold, and I remember we got into
our apartment. This is not a joke.
We got into our apartment. I was looking around and looking
at everything. I told Diane.
I said I looked in this utility closet.
I said there's a fire in there. There's a, there's an open flame
in that utility closet. I've never heard of what a pilot
light was. And I'm melting down over the
fact that there's A and, and, you know, basically the
apartment told us, well, if you'd like heat, this is the way
it works. A pilot light just, you know,
stays on. I had no idea.
I mean, that's how that's how ignorant I was about, well, a
lot of things in life and a lot of things in marriage.
But I will say you get to this point where you reach a critical
mass. Where you get to a place and you
don't have to be married to be in this place.
Just in in your home, in the way that you live life.
You do things a certain way. You pay the bills a certain way,
you get the groceries a certain way, you drive a certain way,
you take trips a certain way. You do things with the family a
certain way. And you could just go on
autopilot. And you don't pray about things
in the home. You just pray for things on the
outside of the home. When was the last time you
prayed over your bills? Say, Pastor, I got plenty of
money to be able to handle my bills.
Well, why do you think you have plenty of money to handle your
bills? Maybe you ought to pray to the
one who has helped you provide that money for those bills.
And unless I'm not, I'm not having a go with you, friend.
This. Kind of kicked me around this
week, to be quite honest with you, because I remember we were
young and we were scrapping. And I'm not saying we're rich
now by any stretch of the imagination, but I remember we
were young and scrapping and paying the electricity was a was
a, a major prayer request. I like electricity.
I don't know about you. I mean, I, I happen to be real
fond of it within my home and I'm not fond of it when they put
a letter outside your home saying, Hey, do you like
electricity? Then we need money.
But I will say I've gotten the place where where.
I don't really worry about keeping the lights on, which
means I don't pray about keeping the lights on very much.
No, no, I didn't say I was rich. I'm just saying you get to that
place where you're a little bit more comfortable, but I need the
Lord to help me keep the lights on just as much today as I did
in year 1 when we got married. But you see, we kind of get a
little bit confident, got put on autopilot.
Some things get dangerous. You start making decisions like
David, that you ought not to be making because maybe you have a
maybe you have a month where things are a little bit low and
you start making decisions about what you're going to do.
And before you know it, maybe you know what I can, I can miss
a couple Sundays. I'll pick up those shifts and
then I'll have enough money, never even asking the Lord if
that's a good idea or not. I'm just going to never even
praying about Lord. I want to be committed to
church. Can can you help me find a way
to be able to have the money that I need for my bills and
still be able to be in the House of God?
You see, see what I'm talking about?
When was the last time you paid it, prayed about your bills?
When was the last time you prayed about direction in how
you spend money, in your budget, in your savings?
You know we need to pray about things on the inside of the
home, not just the outside. Last time you prayed for your
children, your grandchildren, as you ought to now.
These are important. God's directions needed when we
feel comfortable, not just when we feel troubled.
You know the old saying is true. The best sailors learn on choppy
seas, but they also must keep their guard up when things are
clear as well. You might have just read like I
did about a week ago. There was a young lady, about 8
years old, who on a cruise just fell off the side of a railing
45 feet. Now praise the Lord, her father,
who was just a step or two away, dove in after her.
The only reason she's alive today was because her father
took quick action to be able to hold on to her long enough for
them to be able to rescue them both.
And what I say is no offense to this man whatsoever because I
don't know the situation. I can't even imagine what was
going on. But I do know this.
It just takes a few moments of carelessness and things can go
wrong. I will tell you this, if the sea
was choppy, a child would be nowhere near a railing.
But in calm seas, all of a sudden, things that we normally
would think of, we're not thinking of anymore.
And again, I'm not making judgment upon this situation.
I wasn't there, but just as a general illustration, understand
when things are calm, we're very likely to let things like our
prayer time slip. We're very likely to let things
like fasting slip. Cuz things are good man.
This is good. I was just talking to someone
just a few days ago. And he we're.
Talking about a situation and some difficulty that he was
having in this one area of his life and he looked at me and he
said, pastor, he says, you know, things are good in my life.
And he said this, this is good and this is good and this is
good and this is good. He said basically every area of
my life is really good except this one area.
He says, I'm so thankful to the Lord that this one area is not
good because if everything was just great, he says I wouldn't
be relying on the Lord like I know I need to.
Now I thought, that's really a mature thing for a fairly young
person who I was talking to, to be able to say that he realized,
listen, I may need to feel a little bit uncomfortable so that
I make sure that I seek the Lord like I ought to.
Great calamity can happen when we don't seek God's protection.
Our times of comfort, we get lulled to sleep.
I also see that God's direction is needed when things seem
clear, not just when they seem unclear.
Often we pray the hardest when we know the Bible won't give us
the answer. Should I pursue this treatment?
Should we move? Should we sell our car?
Should we give more to faith? Promise.
Missions this year. These are things that the Bible
does not answer explicitly. You will not find these answers.
Thou shalt give $200 to faith promise missions this year.
Wouldn't that be great? It sure would make missions
conference a lot easier for all of us if we just looked in the
Bible and gave us the number. But we seek the Lord through
prayer and we understand that. But we see David right here that
he sought the Lord for the question that he couldn't
understand that he couldn't wrap his head around, how are my
300,000 men going to beat this mighty host, the Philistines?
He inquired to the Lord and he got an answer.
But there was something that seemed clear.
There's some women, they like me, I like them, let's get
married. And never once did he think,
What does the Bible say about this?
You know. Now follow my logic here for a
moment. He.
Didn't even have to pray about this.
The pastor, we pray. About everything.
Peyton comes up to me at the end of church or at the end of the
night, and she says something like this, Dad, do I have to
brush my teeth tonight? I'd say I'd say, what?
Why are you even asking me that question?
Well, the rule is set that at the end of the night, you brush
your teeth. And AJ, you should brush your
teeth too. OK, All right.
Good. Now he's happy.
He's involved too. We we don't have to wonder about
that. Do you know why it's already?
Been laid down. No questioning is needed.
The edict has been made. It's not going to change.
Just go brush your teeth. That's it.
Why are we talking about it? Why are we still talking about
it? I don't know.
But there's certain things, Lord.
Should I go to church? Was the door open?
Don't need to pray about that. Go to church, Lord.
I kind of. I kind of think this woman is
cute. You're married, right?
That woman you're talking about is not your wife.
What are you praying about? Why are you thinking about it?
There's not even a conversation to be had.
Lord, I, I think if I, if I move these numbers around a little
bit on the spreadsheet at work, I think, I think maybe I could,
I could make a little bit more money.
Well, is, is that honest? Well, I mean it not really, but,
you know, a lot of other people do it too.
Why would you even pray about that?
The answer is no. It's already been revealed.
David didn't even ask the Lord about this.
He's already said don't do it. And when it comes to our
Christian life, listen, there's things that are clear that we
don't need to be asking the Lord about.
Just obey His revealed word. There are things that aren't
clear. Thou shalt not get treatment.
Thou shalt get treatment. Thou shalt put thou house in the
market, or should not. Those we have to bathe in
prayer. Seek the Lord, and I believe you
will be found. But there are some things He's
made clear. Just don't do it.
See, God's direction is needed most at the times when we don't
think we need it. How would have David's life been
different if he'd inquired the Lord in verses #12 through 16
instead of just in the verses that follow?
And I'm not taking away the fact that he inquired of the Lord.
It's wonderful that he did. But we have to inquire in the
Lord of everything in our life, both the big and the small, the
clear and the unclear, wartime and in peace time, at home and
outside the home. Everything has to be given to
God in prayer. And that means we have to be
serious about prayer. I was riding on the Amtrak a
couple weeks ago to go down to Brother Pete Montoro's church
for a meeting. And I was riding on the Amtrak
and it was fairly busy. And of course the Amtrak is, it
may be busy, but it's not like a airplane.
You don't have three people on each side, you know, eating like
if you have something to eat, you got to keep your, your
elbows against your sides and you'll eat like this, like it is
on an airplane. You know, it's fairly luxurious,
you get to spread out and all that, but it's still very busy.
And I was looking across and over a couple.
Rows to me. And there was a Jewish man who
had a kippa on his head who sometimes called a yarmulke on
top of his head. And I just noticed it briefly,
didn't think very much of it. But at some point, he got to a
place in the trip into the journey where it was the
appointed time for him to pray. And he pulled out his shawl, his
head covering, and in the middle of the train, covered his head
and said his prayers. Now I'm not advocating that we
are to have a performance driven type prayer life as often can be
the case in other religions. And I think the case could be
made with the Pharisees of Judaism that they were very glad
to make very long prayers in public.
But what I took from that, and again, I'm not calling an
equivalence between Judaism and Christianity, because Judaism
will not acknowledge the fact that Jesus Christ is God.
The people of Israel are lost if they do not accept Jesus Christ
as their Savior. And I believe there will be a
time when at the end times that they will realize that they have
held Jesus's arm length and that the nation of Israel will be
redeemed as they accept Him. We're not there yet in God's
prophetic calendar. When I looked at him, I saw a
man who was surrounded by a bunch of other people who cared
not what they thought, what they saw.
All he said was this. I'm going to talk to my Lord
now. Again, understanding that his
concept of God is flawed because he accepts not Jesus Christ as
his Savior. But I will say this.
How many of us does that put to shame our own prayer life?
I don't need to have a shawl over my head.
I can just pray. I can pray in my car, I can pray
when I walk, I can pray when I shower, I can pray when I get
ready in the morning. I can pray when I brush my teeth
at night because I'm supposed to brush my teeth at night for two
minutes. Set a timer.
That's the rule set to a 2 minute timer.
But we can do this, but we don't very often.
You know why? Because a lot of those things we
could pray about know that down time or things we can handle
ourselves. I've got it.
I got the schedule tomorrow. I do it every day.
I got the commute. I know the way.
My car's reliable. No big deal.
I just checked the bank. There's plenty of money.
Hey, the budget's doing wonderful.
I feel great. Our marriage is wonderful.
The kids are perfect, the grandkids couldn't be better,
and we forget the things that really we should be praying for.
Those small things could end up being the very large things that
are our downfall if we don't bring them before the Lord.
David didn't inquire of the Lord in 4 verses.
That ended up being the biggest stumbling block of his entire
life. I'm thankful he inquired the
Lord for the Philistines. There's some like Saul who
wouldn't have done that. But we must inquire the Lord in
every area of our life, not just the ones that we know we can't
handle. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.