1 Samuel 30, look it with me at verses 7 through 10. And we want to deal with David this morning and what God did for David after he turned from that which was wrong in his life. I've entitled the lesson this title, When All Is Lost, Not All Is Lost. and i want to show you that from the scriptures this morning and it should motivate us that if we are out of step with god we ought to get in step with god so that we can experience god's mercy in our lives and i want to share some principles with you this morning that i believe can be a help to you in your life and a strength to you as we look at the life of david let's bow in prayer and we'll get started our father we come before you today and lord we realize that, Lord, your throne room is a holy place. And Father, we stop our lives and, Lord, we look up this morning. And Father, we understand that, Lord, that you would speak to us is quite an amazing thing. And God, I pray that we will listen this morning carefully. In the morning service, in the Sunday school hour, in the evening service, Lord, use your word today in our lives. Lord, may we be soft and pliable, tender, Lord, ready to receive the engrafted word which is able to save our souls. We pray for the needs, Lord, in our congregation. We pray for Sharon today. And Father, we thank you for the surgery. Thank you for the doctor and all that took place this weekend in her body. Lord, we're asking for a quick recovery and, Lord, that she might have healing from the seizures. Lord, We're thankful for what doctors do, but Lord, ultimately, we know that you are the healer. And so, Lord, we look to you today. Lord, we also look, Lord, and ask that you would strengthen Lord Gina, and thank you for the good week of EBS over in Africa. Lord, just strengthen her as we pray for her this morning, and let her body come back to 100% recovery. We pray for Harry Witham, Lord, who's under the weather today, has been all week. Lord, strengthen him this morning, and encourage him. Father, we lift up before you Jennifer Hart. And Lord, we thank you, Lord, for the new addition about ready to arrive in their family. And God, we ask that you'd help her through this week. Father, we're joyful today because we're in the house of the Lord. And Lord, we're joyful because we are together to worship You. Lord, to study Your Word together. Lord, some are tired, some are fatigued this morning. Lord, help us to fight to be alert so that we can hear You speak. In Jesus' name, Amen. Look at verse number 7, 1 Samuel chapter number 30. 1 Samuel 30 verse number 7, And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought hither the ephod to David. And David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? and shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. So David went, he and his six hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed. But David pursued he and four hundred men, for two hundred men, for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor." You ever talk to somebody who lost everything? Maybe through an earthquake, maybe a hurricane, maybe a famine, maybe a flood, but they've lost it all. That's quite a difficult position to be in. When we read about David in 1 Samuel chapter 30, remember he had come back to Ziklag after being away from the Lord for 16 months. And when he came into Ziklag, the city was burned. Much of what they had enjoyed as far as security and protection and provision was gone. Not only was the city burned, but all the families, the wives and the children were gone. All the families of these 600 men and David's family and his wives were gone. They had lost everything. I have not lived there before. But they wept, the Bible says in this chapter, until they couldn't weep anymore according to the Scriptures. The weight of these words and the weight of this situation shows us that David was under chastisement from God and that's where we ended last time. But David submitted to the Lord. The Bible says in verse 6 here that he encouraged himself in the Lord or he came under the Lord in his life. After being away for 16 months, David realized, it is best for me to come under God in my life. You know, all of life is about submission. I was talking to someone the other day and we were talking about this and how that every time that we refuse to submit We step out of the will of God in our lives. Every time that we hold our hand against God and we refuse to submit, we leave where the Lord wants us to be. When one returns to the Lord, I want you to see the salvation of God this morning. And when I say the salvation of God, I'm not talking about being saved as we know it, where a person realizes they're lost, they're a sinner, they turn to Christ who died and rose again on the died and rose again from the dead and they received Christ. I'm not talking about that salvation. I'm talking about the salvation that God offers to somebody who returns to Him and how God can put some things back together in your lives. Psalmist said this, Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. He was not talking about salvation and being saved and born again. He was saying, Lord, we need you to save us in the situation that we're in. I want to give you four things that David experienced and why we can say when all is lost, not all is lost. Number one, if you're taking notes, he heard God speak again. He heard God speak. Look at verse number 8. He had not heard God speak for 16 months if you read 1 Samuel 28 and 29. But, in 1 Samuel chapter 30, he inquires of the Lord again. By the way, he could not have inquired of the Lord unless he had been right with the Lord. Because the scripture says in Psalm 66, 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart, what? The Lord will not hear me. He will not hear me. But David inquired of the Lord, and God heard him, and God responded to him. I want you to see it. And David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? The people that had taken his family members. The people that had burned everything that he had. He didn't even know who these people were. He said, Should I go after these people and overtake them? And he answered. God answered. pursue. For thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all." We know he was right with the Lord because God answered him. He got direction from the Lord. He was given a promise. I want you to understand something this morning, believers. When you're not clean, you don't get answers and neither do I. When we're not clean before God, we don't get the direction we need in our lives. We don't get the answers. We don't get the wisdom that we need. David had to get clean so David could hear God again. But thankfully, when David got clean, God was ready to speak. I'm so thankful for that in my life, that when I confess sin, when I make things right with God, God is right there and He's ready to speak to me again, and He's ready to give me His will, and He's ready to give direction, and He's ready to give answers in my life. God heard David again. There was a time when David didn't speak to God. David couldn't speak to God. Are you going through a time like that in your life? Oh, you're coming to church. Oh, you're living your life. But you know deep down inside you can't speak to God. And you know deep down inside God's not speaking to you. And there's no fellowship with God. One of the greatest things that David got back when he got right with God was fellowship with the Lord. He was able to talk to God. God was listening to him again. And God was talking to David. How's your talk life going? How's it going, this vertical relationship? Are you talking to God? Is God talking to you? David got that back. Oh, Ziklag was burned. Oh, his family was taken from him. He didn't even know where they were at. But, he was hearing from God again. When all is lost, Not all is lost. David got something back that was most valuable in his life. And truth of the matter is, if David could get it back, so can you. So can I. We have to become clean again before the Lord. Without it, brethren, we make messes, don't we? We make messes in our lives. Sometimes we make messes in other people's lives. And the messes grow. We need a talk with the Lord. We need to talk with God. We need God to talk with us. He was able to talk with God. There's something else that he began to see in his life. Not only did he hear God speak again, but he saw God's sovereignty. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 30. and look at verse number 11. Now David is pursuing after the troop. He doesn't even know who he's pursuing after. He doesn't even know where he's pursuing, but God told him, go ahead and pursue. Read verse number 11 down to verse number 14 with me. Follow along in these verses. And they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David, this being David's men, and gave him bread, and he did eat. and they made him drink water. And they gave him a piece of cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him, for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water three days and three nights. And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick. We made an invasion up the south of the Cherethites, and upon the coast which belongeth to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire." Not only did David hear God speak, but he could see God's sovereignty in things. Look at this. First of all, the Egyptian had to fall sick. He fell sick, the Bible says, out in the field. And secondly, his master had to do something that is not like a master to do and that is leave him there. Leave him there to die for three days and three nights. We have this Egyptian out in the field. Third, they could have come upon him, his men, and killed him. They could have just killed him or they could have let him go. They could have walked by him like many did with the man that the Good Samaritan ministered to. But David's men took time to take him to David. They fed him. The Bible says his spirit revived. And then what do they do? They get information out of him. That's the sovereignty of God. all of those things lining up so that David could attack the troop, so that David could attack the Amalekites. Can I give you what we struggle with in our lives many times? We struggle by only seeing one piece of a puzzle. One piece of a puzzle in our lives. A situation that comes down the pike in our lives and we look at that one situation and we say, this puzzle piece doesn't fit. This doesn't make sense. Why is this happening? when God is arranging things. And He put all these things together and it was for David's good in his life. Brethren, not all is lost when you've lost a lot because God is sovereign And when David returned, when he returned to God, God began to put ducks in order in his life. And it wasn't too long that his families were recovered. He was able to recover most everything that they lost. Why? Because God's a sovereign God. Do you trust God this morning? The puzzle piece in your life that doesn't look to be fitting right now. It doesn't look to be fitting with everything else. It looks to be out of place. Do you have a bigger picture that God's got all kinds of puzzle pieces in your life that He's working? Because that's what David experienced. He saw the sovereignty of God in his life. They were able to give food. And by the end of it, they were fighting against the Amalekites. They didn't even know where the Amalekites were. They didn't even know. We don't believe they knew that it was the Amalekites that came in and burned Ziklag with fire. You say, God, how are you going to put all that together? Just trust God. God can put it together. God knows how to bring things together. What is it that you're up against? It's not what you're up against that should be magnified in your life. It's whether you're completely right with the Lord. That's what you ought to be looking at. That's what you ought to be spending time evaluating. That's where you ought to be on your prayer bones, seeking God. Lord, is there something that's out of place in my life that needs corrected? Lord, most important to me is that I be right with you. You'll take care of the puzzle pieces. But Lord, I must be right with you. Are you entering the situations in your life with being in tune with God? It may be the most difficult situation you have faced in life. And listen to me, when you go through a situation like that, you better have access to God. You better be right with God going into it. You better be able to shake heaven. You better be able to go to the throne room of God and get what you need from God in those times. David got his life right. He heard God speak again and he saw the sovereignty of God in his life. Number three, he experienced God's strength. Look at 1 Samuel 30, verse number 10. 1 Samuel 30, verse number 10. But David pursued he and four hundred men, for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor. The Bible says, the Bible uses the words of these men, that they were so faint. But we must come to the conclusion that the other ones had to be faint. These people were weak. These people were weak emotionally. They had walked into Ziklag and saw everything gone. Mentally, they were weak. They were physically weary from traveling. They were mentally weary. Just a few verses before, the 600 men were ready to stone David. David, we're going to take you out. Look where you've brought us. Look what's happened. They were weak in every way. David needed strength to face the discouragement of losing 200 men on the way to battle. God said, Pursue. Okay, 600 men that were ready to stone me just a few verses ago, we're going. 600 men following, 200 men when they get to the brook of Besor. We can't go. We can't do this, David. He leaves 200 behind. That's discouraging. That's weakening, if we want to use that word. To lose a third of your battlemen. That's a weak proposition. David must have been questioning, Lord, You still want us to go? David probably was weary of God's correction. God had taken everything. In Proverbs 3, verse number 11, it says, My son, despise not the chasing of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. There's a temptation when we face correction to become weary in it. David must have been living with that, but God provided strength. Look at verse number 17, 1 Samuel 30, verse number 17. The Bible says, And David smote them. from the twilight even, until the evening of the next day. And there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels and fled." Here's what I want you to get. David got completely right with the Lord. And when he did, God was ready to show himself strong on his behalf. 2 Chronicles 16 verse 9 says this, "...for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him." As a result of David getting right, God said, I'm going to show him my strength. He's going to see my strength on his behalf. And God allowed him to defeat the Amalekites. God began to move on his behalf. Do you want God to move on your behalf? Boy, I do. There are mountains that in our family we're praying for. We have seven of them in our family right now that we're praying for in our family devotions and seeking God and asking God to be strong on our behalf. Do you have mountains? I guarantee you do. I guarantee you most of the people in this building this morning have mountains. You need God to work in some things in your life. You need God to work maybe in your family. You need God to work in a job situation. You need God to work in everyday life things that are big things to you. And God says, My eyes look throughout the earth to show Myself strong on behalf of the person whose heart is perfect towards God. God says, I'm looking for that. I want to act like that. He did that on David's behalf. David fought from one night till the next night. And the Bible says they got all of them. except the 400 that traveled by camel, they got all of them. God supplied the necessary strength, watch this, despite the fainting of others, to fulfill God's promise that He would overtake them. Sometimes when others faint around us, it causes us to do what? I'm getting faint. That was not the case with David. Two hundred men were left behind. But David had strength to accomplish what God promised that he would accomplish. He saw the Lord's strength. In Psalm 89 verse 8, Psalm 89 verse 8, Psalm 89 verse 8, Psalm 30 verse 7, "...Lord, by Thy favor Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong, Thou didst hide Thy face, and I was troubled." God's a strong God. He experienced the strength of God. He experienced the sovereignty of God. He heard God speak. There's a fourth thing I want to get to you in closing this morning and that is this, He experienced the salvation of God. Look at verse number 8. shall I pursue after this truth? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all." David's trouble was urgent. David's needs were great. David's family was lost. David's odds, they were against him. David's mistakes? They were great. David's soul? It was heavy. But God's salvation was greater. Look at verse number 16. Let's read down through verse number 20. The Bible says, "...and when he brought him down..." This is the Egyptian bringing David down. "...behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah. And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day. And there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels and fled. And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away. And David rescued his two wives. and there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor anything that they had taken to them." And here's the words again, David recovered all. And David took the flocks and herds which they draved before those other cattle and said, this is David's spoil. I want you to get into a couple of things here. Number one, David was able to recover all from the Amalekites, but what was burned at Ziklag was gone. Sin never lets us be able to have it just like we had it. Sin always has consequences where we end up losing something. But, because I believe David confessed and he forsook his sin. We see the mercy of God in this chapter. That God said, I'm going to give you an awful lot back. That's the mercy and salvation of our God. How David responded to chastisement, watch this, opened the floodgates of God's mercy. how you respond to chastisement in your life determines whether or not God's going to open the floodgates of mercy. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh shall have what? Shall have mercy. Make haste to help me, O Lord, of my salvation, is what the psalmist wrote. He was able to recover much Moses wrote this, the Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. What's he talking about? He's talking about when the nation of Israel had to cross the Red Sea and they had lived under Egypt's rule and they had lived through the ten plagues of God. But God, rich in mercy, delivered them and opened up the Red Sea and then closed it on their enemies. And Moses writes the song in Exodus 15 and says, He's become my salvation. He's not only my Savior from sin and has given me a home in heaven, but in life He saves me out of difficulties. He's a merciful God. Some don't experience God's mercy because they don't respond to God's chastisement properly. And when you study the Scriptures, When you don't respond to God's chastisement properly, what happens? More chastisement comes. You don't see the mercy of God. Instead, you experience the heavy hand of God. David experienced the heavy hand of God, but David got back to being right with God, and when he did, the mercy of God came into his life, and he began to see it. Have you lost a lot in your life? Maybe lately. I look back the last five or ten years and I've lost some valuable things. I've lost some valuable relationships. I've lost the resources that I used to have in my life. I've lost peace. I find myself discouraged and depressed frequently. I find myself under a lot of weight of stress. You know, it would be wise for you to take time and look at your life before God and say, Lord, I want your mercy. And from the life of David, you can recover a lot in my life. But Lord, I need to be right with you. Lord, that's what's most important to me in my life. When a heart becomes right with God, the resources of God are made available again. And remember, those resources you can't get anywhere else. You can't get peace from anybody else. You can't get comfort from anybody else. You can't get mercy from others. You can't get the sovereign hand of God working on your behalf from others. You can't see somebody else act strong on your behalf like God can act strong on your behalf. Other people can't save us from the things that we've lost, but God can. The voice of God. Do you hear it? And does God hear you? For David, there was a time where that didn't take place. But thankfully, David got back to that. Maybe somebody needs to get back to that this morning. You haven't been hearing God. And you haven't been talking to God. And maybe it's been a long time. It was 16 months for David. It may be a long time for you, but God is ready to receive you. When you come back to God, God's ready to talk again. God's ready for you to talk to Him again. God wants that line opened up. The sovereignty of God, do you trust Him? God arranges details, lots of details, outside of David's life to keep His promise to him. Or are you only looking at one puzzle piece right now? And you don't like the puzzle piece by itself. You know what? There's a lot of puzzle pieces in our life that by themselves look out of place. But God puts the puzzle pieces together. And when He does, they fit. The strength of God. When I'm weak then I'm strong. Have you been faint in battle? Is your heart perfect so that He can show Himself strong on your behalf? Have you grown weary in correction? The Bible gives us the command not to do that. That means that there's a temptation to do that. God who is in rich in mercy saved the day for David. The truth of the matter is God can do something for you. God can recover things in your life that you've lost. And I don't want to say that to say something that God's not in. We have a biblical example in the life of David when God said, I want to recover some things for you. I want to go back and recover your wives. I want to go back and help you recover from the Amalekites, from the enemy, the things that they've taken. Can I give you something else this morning as we close? There ought to be another thought that ought to motivate us to be completely right with the Lord and to get everything out that's between me and God. That is, what the enemy has taken, how long do you want them to have it? How long do you want them to be able to have what they've taken from you? For David, he came upon Ziklag. He wept until he couldn't weep anymore. He had lost everything. He stopped his life and said, Okay, Lord, You got me. And You take all of me. And Lord, may I be right with You. Because the enemy had things that he didn't want the enemy to have. It's amazing today that Christians can let the enemy have things And it doesn't bother us like it should. When the enemy's got a grasp of something that belonged to us, something that God was using, something that was precious to us, and the enemy now has it. And we're not tender enough to say, Lord, is it because of me? Lord, is there something in my life that has caused this to happen? Because Lord, I don't want the enemy to have these things. I don't want the enemy to have control of things that the enemy didn't have control of in my life. When all is lost, not all is lost. David lost physically what he could see with his eyes, but David gained some things that he had to have for life. He had to have a talk with God. You've got to have a walk and a talk with God. So do I. He had to be able to see God's sovereignty in his life again. He had to have the strength of the Lord for the battles that were ahead. He had to see the hand of God's salvation in his life. And though David lost a lot, he got all those things back. And you can too.