A LOST VISION
AND A DISCOURAGED HEART
Look around you this morning…what do you see? Among this dressed up, made up group of folks are people who have more in common than you can imagine. Hard as it is for some of you to believe, there are people who are going through some of the same issues you are facing right now.
Since we have a
hard time letting people see the real us, we often communicate a misleading
message—that somehow we have our lives together, that we always get it right,
and that we have never known what it is like to hit rock bottom. In fact, all of us know from personal
experience what “life in the pits” looks like because it is inevitable that
each one of us either has been, is now, or soon will be, trying to find our way
out of the depths of some kind of dark valley.
The Bible does
not allow “gloss overs” in its life stories of men and women of faith. David has already demonstrated his ability
to mess things up in previous texts about his life, so we know that what we
read about him is authentic…honest…occasionally even painful.
In these
chapters, we find David at the bottom of life…depressed and discouraged and
desperate by what he has had to face.
What we might not expect is what devastating choices he makes, what a
mockery he makes of his earlier commitments to the Lord, and how bad he allows
his life to get as a result of his exasperation with what God has let happen to
him.
Are there any here today who have become so
frustrated with the Lord that you have decided to pack it in and try to live
without Him for a while? Frankly, if
you have, I am here to inform you that you are probably not alone.
You really tried but nothing turned
out right. Every time you decided to
give the Lord another try, something else happened to disappoint you, hurt you,
frustrate you or just knock you down another notch or two. Eventually, you figured it was not worth
it…so you have given up and figure you will keep the outward appearance in
place but for all practical purposes you have no real hope of ever experiencing
the reality of a relationship with Jesus Christ that others talk about.
If ever there
were a passage of Scripture intended for your ears, this one is directly for
you! David, the man after God’s own
heart, threw in the towel and decided that if he did not take his life back
into his own hands, his life would never amount to anything…that is, if he even
survived!
1 Sam. 27:1 Then David said to himself, “Now
I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than
to escape into the land of the Philistines. Saul then will despair of searching
for me anymore in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his
hand.”
With this
starting premise, David launched out into the most deadly and devastating
period of his life. He lost his vision,
his courage, his calling…and most of all, his will to trust the Lord.
THESIS: Just because life sometimes gets the better of you
does not mean that God is finished with you—His grace is sufficient to pick you
back up and make something valuable out of your life.
As we walk
through these chapters, watch what happens when David chooses to believe his
own assumptions instead of God’s promises.
I. GIVING UP
WHEN LIFE GRINDS YOU DOWN
--Once in a while, life grinds everyone down…but that
doesn’t mean we are supposed to just give up!
A. THE
GRINDING PROCESS SEEMS RELENTLESS
1 Sam 23:14
…And Saul sought him every day…
--At some point, would you not want to say, “Saul, give it a
rest!” because the constant grind of knowing that you were never going to have
an easy day would eventually wear you out.
1.
Disappointment
--Life following God had some good moments, of course, but
David was beginning to sense that the occasional highlight was never going to
match the steady stream of disappointments.
--Relationships never seemed to last, and the only thing he
could count on was that there was no one he could count on in his life.
--Was this what it was going to be like following the Lord
all his life?
2.
Discouragement
--After so much stress and pressure caused by the constant
flow of difficult experiences, one can become discouraged as your courage and
hope wear out.
--Hopelessness often follows long periods of unceasing bouts
of discouragement as you begin to think that nothing will ever change, that the
cycle of failures and frustrations will never end.
3.
Depression
--In his little speech to himself, we can easily detect the
voice of a man slipping into some serious depression as he could see nothing
good ahead and no way to make any changes in a positive direction.
Rollo May, existentialist American psychologist, (1909-1994): “Depression is the
inability to construct a future.”
--Was David angry with God for not doing a better job being
God? How depressing is that!
George
Santayana, Spanish Philosopher
(1863-1952): “Depression is rage spread thin.”
--So David’s view of life moved from a series of
disappointments, to a time of severe discouragement, to a serious bout of
depression, all of which led him to act out of…
4.
Desperation
--The best he could come up with would have been unthinkable
under any other circumstances!
“…There is
nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines…”
--Even life with my arch enemies, and the avowed enemies of
my Lord, has to be better than what I have to put up with now!
B. GIVING UP
ON GOD SEEMS REASONABLE
--In taking this course of action, David not only leaves his
homeland behind, but with that decision he also gives up on God as well.
1. Isolated
--Instead of praying, David “said to himself” in isolation
from the Lord and from any sound counsel from others, the only good thing to
do, all that makes sense to me, is to get away from all has not been working
for me…including the Lord!
2.
Pessimistic
--Apart from any confidence in God, how else could David
look at his future prospects except with the limited vision of mortal eyes…and
that is a guarantee for a pessimistic conclusion!
3. Irrational
--To find peace, he concluded that he would rather risk his
life among his enemies than take his chances on the validity of God’s promises.
--The immediate relief he felt from the pressures of Saul’s
pursuit would never provide any lasting peace, but he chose to escape into a
temporary period of deadness rather than struggle with his failures and foes
anymore.
--No rational thinking would have reached this conclusion
but David was not thinking straight at this point because he had chosen to view
life without benefit of the eyes of the Lord.
Note: Saul would not bother him in Gath. But was he actually expecting to find peace in Gath among those
who had wanted to kill him when he served in Saul’s army?
So many confused people today have
suffered from the harsh realities of life’s failures and disappointments and
have chosen to seek relief away from the Lord instead of with Him.
They choose to run to another
land…the land of materialistic escape…of substance abuse with alcohol and drugs
offering temporary relief but creating more permanent problems…of a plan to
change relationships…of finding significance from inferior substitutes
(philosophies, politics, sports, clubs, etc).
Like David, the irrational nature
of such choices becomes clear when we realize we are trying to believe in a
created solution in the place of the solutions of the Creator!
4. Treacherous
--David decided, based on his impaired state of mind and
damaged emotions, that violating all of his previous allegiances and betraying
all that he once treasured offered a better future than remaining true to his
calling and commitments.
--And so he began a period that can only be described as a
death spiral from which he could not recover unless God intervened!
II.
BOTTOMING OUT WHEN NOTHING BREAKS YOUR FALL
--Once he made the move, his course was clear…to go as far
from what he once valued and as far from what he once trusted as he possibly
could go.
--Maybe then, the pain and desperation that he felt would
ease up and he could begin to live a normal life!
A. NORMAL
INHIBITIONS GRADUALLY FALL.
--Once David determines to run away from the Lord, he
quickly picks up speed heading in the wrong direction.
Again, Rollo
May: “It is an ironic habit of human beings to
run faster when we have lost our way.”
--Note the swift descent into destructive and inhuman
behavior once David chooses to abandon his place before the Lord.
1. Loyalty
– No longer loyal to God’s calling and anointing
2. Responsibility – No longer concerned with providing noble leadership for
his men and their families.
3. Perspective – No longer sees the need to pursue provision for his
people with honorable labor.
4. Humanity
– No longer values human life in his desperate efforts to cling to what he now
calls his life.
5. Integrity
– No longer cares about honesty and integrity
6. Allegiance
– No longer bound by national and religious loyalty to God’s people, Israel
--David had fallen so far that all the normal instincts and
inhibitions which should have influenced and tempered his actions fell by the
wayside as he chose to leave his place before the Lord God and go his own way.
--Someone recently said the five saddest words in the Bible
are in Romans 1:24, “Therefore
God gave them over…”
B.
INEVITABLE CONSEQUENCES ALWAYS FOLLOW.
--These were arguably the darkest days of David’s life, even
more bloodthirsty and cruel than his actions with Bathsheba and Uriah.
--But God’s love for David never quit, even as the
inevitable consequences for his radical rebellion and faithless treachery came
crashing down around him.
--Consider what David experienced and perhaps you can
understand why he hit the bottom so hard that the only place to look was up!
1. Hated and hunted by Saul (27:1)
2. Suspected and distrusted by Philistines
(29:3-4, 7)
3. Rejected and removed by Achish (29:7, 9-11)
4. Plundered and humiliated by the Amalekites
(30:1-3)
5. Grieved and broken-hearted (30:4)
6. Despised and threatened by his own men
(30:6a)
--What would it take for David to come to his senses? His course had led him far from the Lord for
a period of 16 months(27:7) during which time his atrocities marked him as a
man to be despised and dreaded!
§ He was a
traitorous deserter to the Lord and His people
§ He was a
marauding terrorist who killed for personal gain
--But just like the Lord, He let David hit the bottom so
that the only place to look was up…and there He waited with open arms of
forgiveness ready to bring David back and let him see that in spite of how hard
it all had been, God alone is able to justify our trust.
III. TURNING
BACK WHEN GOD BREAKS YOUR HEART
1 Sam 30:6, 8 6Moreover David was greatly
distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were
embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David
strengthened himself in the LORD his God… 8 And David inquired of the LORD…
A. THE LAST
STRAW – Distressed over his losses
--Having run from the Lord for as long as he could stand it,
now the consequences of his choices came back to haunt him.
--Frustrated at his treatment by the Philistines, he then
came face to face with the greatest loss he had yet experienced in his life.
1 Sam 30:4
Then David and the people who were with him lifted their voices and wept until
there was no strength in them to weep.
--For all David knew, the Amalekites had treated his family
the way he had treated those he had destroyed leaving no one alive…but God in
His mercy allowed the families to live until rescued.
--So David found that this was the last straw, the final
blow to his venture into rebellion against the Lord…he could take it no more
and so his heart cried out to the Lord for a strength he had once known that
only God could give!
B. THE
LORD’S STRENGTH—Encouraged in the lord
1 Sam 30:6b…But
David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.
--In other words, he “sought consolation and strength in
prayer and believing confidence in the Lord”, something he had pushed away now
for 16 months in protest against the only One who could sustain him and empower
him to handle such a devastating crisis in his life.
C. THE LOWLY
SEEKER—Inquiring of the lord
--But would the Lord listen to the prayer of such a rebel,
heed the cry of one who had betrayed Him and despised His ways?
Note: You may be wondering if you have gone too far. You may think that you have forfeited your
right to call on the Lord anymore because of the way you have treated Him…and
you have!
You never did have the right…but He
extended to you the gracious privilege of calling on Him, of coming to Him…no
matter how long you have been away…no matter what terrible things you have
done…no matter how far down you had to fall before you hit bottom.
As He was with David, He will be
for you!
--David found his priest and then appealed to the Lord
asking if there was any chance that he could rescue his family and his people.
--What would God say?
“Too little too late?”
--No! God said to
the prodigal son who had finally turned his heart toward home and said,
“Pursue, for
you will surely overtake them, and you will surely rescue them all.” (30:8)
--How great an answer is that!! No grudges or condemnation or vengeance from the Lord…only mercy and grace, power and love for this wayward child who had finally had enough and come home!
What are you waiting for this morning? How far will you have to go before you cry
out, “Lord! Enough! Let me come
home!”
Falling into the pits of depression and
despondency, even running into periods of desperation, do not mean you have to
push God away like David did. He made
horrible choices with severe consequences during this dark night of his
soul…but you and I can turn to the Lord instead of away from Him when the
darkness seems about to paralyze us.
The shortest way back is never to
leave. So if you are suffering today
from life’s failures and disappointments and they seem to keep grinding you
down, keep looking up day by day so that you won’t have to reach the bottom
before you do. As with David, the Lord
will be there and you really can trust Him!
November 21, 2004
© David
Horner 2004
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