Okay, if you would take your Bibles now and turn to 1 Samuel chapter 30. We're almost done with the book of 1 Samuel. We're wrapping up the life of Saul and readying for the, really the inauguration, if you will, of David as the next king. But God has been working and teaching David much over the years through many, many trials actually. We have been looking particularly in the beginning of chapter three at a picture of God's sustaining David after wave upon wave, we said, of trials and challenges in his life, trouble that has come to him. Some of it at his own doing, really as a consequence of his own sin, others just of the fallen world that he's dealing with. But David was really disciplined by those experiences. God was not bringing wrath upon him. It was something God was doing in his life to bring discipline to him. And through that experience, he comes out, as we all do when God disciplines us, more mature. The book of James, chapter 1, tells us that when we endure these trials of many kinds, that it's working something in us. And so, as it says there, it produces steadfastness that we might be made perfect and complete, not lacking anything. God was doing that work in David's life as one of his children. And so as we look at David's life, we see that work. Now, David's not perfect yet by any means. But he is learning more and more the important lesson of turning to his God when he's in need, relying entirely upon God. And he's learning to call upon God, to inquire of God. There was a period in his life where he hadn't done that. Once again, he's learning to seek out God in the midst of his trials, and God's readying him through this lesson to be the king. He will face all kinds of trials as king over God's people, but God has care for his people such that he's preparing the one who is the king to lead him. But in this text today, we encounter another sign of David's maturing, and that is that he's beginning to learn the lesson of dealing with others according to the grace that God has shown to him. That's very evident in what we see today. God has showered upon him mercy after mercy. We focused on God's tenacious mercy in David's life. And today, David shows that same kind of response to those around him. Our earlier scripture reading in Matthew 18 clearly has the message that we have been forgiven much. And because we have been forgiven much, we are to have a ready heart to forgive others, to show that same grace. But the principle goes beyond simply forgiving others, as God has shown his bounty to us. We're going to show that today. God's bounty is something we receive by his grace, and we receive it all the time. And we must learn to imitate his grace when dealing with others and his bounty as we deal with others as well. So there's one more passage in the New Testament, Luke 12, verse 48, that says, everyone to whom much is given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand more. Let's see how David now does that. As God has entrusted him with much now and poured out his abundance on David, how much is David accountable for that? And we'll see how he deals with that. So let's begin in the middle of chapter 30, verse 16. I say that, but I can hardly do it without wanting to read the first part because what has happened is that God has shown his abundance to David. Again, he'd gotten himself into a terrible fix. God plows a way through for him to get out of it. He returns back home to Ziklag just in time to find the destruction of his town. The Amalekites have come in and wiped out the whole city, except has taken all the women and the children captive, and they're taking them away. And David has been allowed to go and chase them. And the way he finds an Egyptian servant And that's what we are talking about here when we get to verse 16. They've nourished this Egyptian servant back to health and he's now willing to tell them where the Amalekites are. Verse 16 then says, and when he had taken him down, behold they were spread, that's the Amalekites, are spread abroad over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. And David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day. And not a man of them escaped except 400 young men who mounted camels and fled. David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken. And David rescued his two wives. Nothing was missing. Whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken, David brought back all. David also captured all the flocks and the herds and the people drove the livestock before him and said, this is David's spoil. Then David came to the 200 men who had been too exhausted to follow David and who had been left at the Brook Besor. And they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And then, and when David came near to the people, he greeted them. Then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, because they didn't go with us, we'll not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and children and depart. But David said, you shall not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. Who would listen to you in this matter? For as is his share who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike." And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day. When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoils to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord. It was for those in Bethel, in Ramoth of the Negev, in Jeteer, and Aror, in Sipmoth, in Eshtimoah, in Rakhal, in the cities of the Jeremelites, in the cities of the Kenites, in Hormah, in Borushan, in Aphak, in Hebron, for all the places where David and his men had roamed. Let's ask God's blessing on the reading of his word. Let's first look at God's generous providence for David, how God bestowed such abundance on him. We've already addressed how merciful God has been. David has been one who, because of his sin and because of all sorts of other circumstances, has gotten himself into terrible situations. And we've talked about how God didn't pour upon David all the wrath that he could have, all of the punishment for his sins, for what he deserved. God, in fact, shows instead a way out for David, an impossible situation, and yet God carves a way out. And God allows him to avoid having to For example, fight against his own people, which he was in a situation where he didn't have to do. God allowed him to go back home just at the right time. The waves of trouble that had come upon David were not done yet, of course, but God was merciful to him in allowing David to discover the abduction of all of his people, of the wives, of the children of the city of Ziklag. And to begin to pursue those raiders who had taken them, God shows himself, reveals himself through the Urim and the Thummim and says, yes, you may go, David, and you will have victory. To that, then you begin to say, what does he win in the battle? What does he gain as he goes into that battle? And the amount of spoil here is hard to imagine. that God bestows upon David as he gains victory over those who had been on a major raiding spree, not just in Ziklag as one town, but in many cities of the Philistine area and in many cities of Judah. So the Amalekites have been on a huge raid, have gathered so much. You look at verses 27 to 31 there and all the cities that are given gifts. You've got to have a lot of spoil to do that, and the Lord has given that to David. Well, make no mistake, God was right, or David was right when he claimed in verse 23 that all of the spoil that he got was because, and I quote, what the Lord has given to us. Very clearly, the Lord had granted this to him. Now they had gone to battle, for sure, but consider how many men went with David to go to battle. This is one of those situations, kind of like Gideon, when Gideon only took 300 men to go and fight against the Midianites, and they won the battle. They smashed their pots, they held up their torches, blew their trumpets, and God gave them the victory. Here, it's only 400 men that are going against the entire Amalekite army. Probably, you know, I don't know how many people are involved in that, but who are these 400 men and what are they like? Well, these men are just people who have traveled 70 miles They have traveled, they're weary, they're worn out, they're exhausted. Some of them weren't even able to keep going. So the 200 weren't able to keep going, they were so exhausted. But 400 of them press on and they fight the battle and God gives them the victory. You gotta realize that the enemy must have at least three, four, maybe five times as many soldiers as what David has. But in God's providence, David caught them at a point when they had made themselves incredibly vulnerable. Doesn't that seem like a theme in the book of 1 Samuel? That David encounters his enemy always at a point when they're incredibly vulnerable. Saul in the cave when he's relieving himself or something of that nature. Saul in the middle of the field when he's sound asleep so that the Lord had put him under. Here we find these people in a condition where they cannot fight back. David's enemies are made vulnerable by the good hand of God's providence. I want us to see that it's not just spoil that the Lord gives to David, it's his providence is good and kind. So it's not hard to overcome the Amalekite army, no matter how many of them there were. They had no guards, they weren't watching for an enemy to come attack them. They were confident that the soldiers whose home they had just raided in Ziklag were 70 miles away fighting with the Philistines against Judah. So what are they doing? They're partying, they're drinking up, they're getting sloshed, if you will, dancing and being frivolous. So sure were they that their enemy is not going to be a threat to them. And when David's small little army arrives, they're in no state to fight back, right? Drunk, overstuffed with food, not on their guard. Well, that's the generosity of God. And when we consider the generosity of God, we must see that David actually ends the week in a far greater state than he was financially than when before the Amalekites had even attacked. That's an interesting point. David is better off at the end of the trial than before he went in to the trial. Before the Amalekites attacked, he had certain things, and afterward, He actually has more. The Lord has brought him through and been graciously abundant to him. Through all of the David's anxious moments and the tremendous heartache you can imagine of discovering that your family has been taken by the enemy and all your things are destroyed, God brought through that blessing to David. We don't always understand God's providence. We don't often, in fact, we almost never can see ahead of time what God is doing in those midst of the hard challenges. And it's altogether common that we don't see what good that God is working out to those who are called according to his purposes. But often he surprises us with his abundance and with his generosity. It would be like the tragedy of your home burning to the ground and the insurance company coming to you with a check that's five times the value of your home. You come out of this trial far ahead of where you were. Let's go back even one more step and see the providence of God and his kindness to David here. Consider the kind providence of God that as he's heading out, doesn't have any idea where the enemy has fled. The Amalekites are fleeing and he doesn't know where they are, that they come upon a person who happened to be a slave of the Amalekites, who would have been abandoned. They stumble upon this Egyptian young man, just happened to be connected with a raiding army that David is looking for. Finding that Egyptian slave was, as Dale Davis puts it, not an optional luxury. It was an absolute necessity if David and his company are ever to locate the Amalekites. God's providence is essential. It's not a neat little extra. I like that quote. God's providence is essential in our lives, and it's so abundant. They found a man who had the knowledge to help them find the Amalekites in a timely way when they would be vulnerable so that they could have victory. But even more so, in God's providence, they found a man who had been mistreated by those Amalekites and therefore was willing to give up this information to tell them where to find him. God is generous in granting his kind providences. And because of God's providence, David had been sent home to find the deed done, to chase after the perpetrators, to find the Egyptian slave, and be directed right to the Amalekites who were in no state to defend themselves. If you were a pagan Amalekite raider, And you have had one city after another fall. You have gotten all of their livestock, all of their wealth, all of their gold, all of their nice clothing, all the things you want. You've got everything you could possibly want. How would you respond? Well, if you'd stolen such a huge trove of wealth under those circumstances, you'd probably party hard. These are pagans. You'd slaughter animals. You'd fix a feast. You'd be eating until you were so stuffed you could hardly do it. You know, you'd dance. Wildly, you would have wild abandon. You drank until you were drunk. It was not hard for David's 400 men to have victory over the entire Amalekite army and recover everything that had been stolen. But beyond recovering all that was theirs, and notice how key that is, that nothing was lost, how that's emphasized over and over again. Nothing was lost, everything that had. All of David's 600 men would be able to share in the spoil and there would be so much left over. David had so much spoil and he realized that it had come from God's gracious hand that he wanted then to give it generously away as well, even to the people who were not able to fight along with him, the 200 men who were so exhausted that they had to stay by the baggage as it's said here. Those people had not fought along with them in this particular battle against the Amalekites. They hadn't gotten that bounty, and yet David realized that was not because they weren't willing to do the fighting, it's just that they simply were not physically able, and yet he doesn't hold that against them. And here is where we encounter in this text a battle with the old nature. Because we've got these men, some of David's men, who are known as affectionately as the wicked and the worthless men. How nice. These are the wicked and the worthless ones, verse 22, who don't want to give to the others the spoils that they have just won by battle. They were the ones who fought for them. The others are sitting there by the baggage. Before you wag the finger at those characters, what is the text of scripture trying to do in telling us the story in the way that it's telling us? What is God's spirit trying to say to you and me? Isn't he asking us to ask the question, how generous am I with the things that God has given to me that often I didn't even have anything to do with, that he has bestowed richly on me? How generous is my heart? Am I ready to give generously? How many times has my heart wanted to cling, cling to my wealth, to hold on tightly to it and claim it in some way that somehow it's rightly mine? When in fact all that I have is a gift of God's abundant grace and mercy. His rich abundant providence has allowed me to share in it. Well, David models for us in this passage the attitude of Christ. You won't be surprised at that. He's been a type of Christ for us in all the way through. He who had received so much at God's gracious hand now, and he recognizes that it only happened because God was gracious to him. He now evidences what I call a reciprocal generosity. a reciprocal generosity. When some of these men said they didn't want to share with their fellow followers of David the spoils that they had gotten, David quickly intervenes and he says, you shall not do so, my brothers. I just want to stop right there and say that's pretty gracious, David, for a very wicked attitude that you've got going on in these guys' hearts. You're very gracious because you call them your brothers. You didn't have to do that. But David pleads with these people as his brothers and says, that's not right, brothers. Let's go and think about this. That's the leadership of a king, by the way. We're starting to see it in his life. But then he points out the reality to them. What we have, we have because the Lord has given it to us. It's really good every once in a while to have somebody just say that flat out, that what you have, God gave to you, right? What you have, God gave it to you. We need to hear that sometimes bluntly stated so that we remember, if God gave it to me, I have to hold it lightly. I have to be free with my thinking about it. Jesus is going to teach this same truth to his followers in the New Testament. He obviously did that in the parable we read in Matthew 18, but he does so again in 1 Timothy 6-Paul 17-19. He says, as for the rich in this present age, Charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. It goes on. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, and to be ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. Generosity is so that we might truly grasp what is truly life. Notice that God has richly provided us with everything. It states it clearly again. And then David goes on. The Lord has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. That's a gift of God. Everything I have, the Lord has given. Since God had given all of it to them, they would share it with others. They would share equally with it. This stands in such sharp contrast with how the world deals with things. What do the Philistines do, for example? What do the Amalekites do when they have had a victory and they are celebrating before their gods and they do acknowledge that somehow, some sort of power, they're way off in terms of who did it, but they're calling it a god and they're worshiping some gods and so they, how do they deal with that when they have a benefited victory and gain spoils? What do they do? Well, they spend it on sensuality and in feasting and drinking and making merry with it. Now basically, They're thanking their gods by indulging themselves. The wicked and worthless men want to do the same thing. They're in David's camp, they're within the circle, the boundaries, if you will, of that covenantal, nice, caring people under David. But the wicked and the worthless, and that's an interesting title, isn't it, to be calling them that? A significant title to be labeled wicked and worthless. But what they want to do is the same thing that the world does, that the pagans do. But if you do that, to be stingy and selfish, clinging to these gifts as if they were some sort of right that was yours, is to be wicked. It's to be considered worthless. One writer suggests that these men who are the wicked and the worthless are probably the same ones who just the other day decided they would stone David to death. because David was responsible for allowing these people to come into Ziklag and so on. They were willing to kill David. They're being entirely selfish here. They don't want to share any of the spoils gained from the battle. They're willing only to return the wives and the kids. You can have your own wives. You can have your own kids. But consider what that means. If that's all they're going to give is the wives and the children, it means that they're not thinking to return what the Amalekites stole from them, their whole estate. You can have your wife and your children back, but you can't have any means to take care of them. These are the worthless and the wicked men. Just the day before, they probably would have given half of what they had just to gain the other half back. But you see, now that God has richly blessed them and given them abundance, they're living in luxury now. They're not content unless they can have somebody else's share as well. Oh, the heart of man. They're acting wickedly, just like the Amalekites. David realizes this isn't how God's people should be. This isn't how the people who have received God's mercies from the living God, Jehovah, should respond to his help and his provision of their providence. God was bountiful in giving David more than even he lost, more than he lost. For the Amalekites had been raiding several towns, Ziklag as well as other Philistine cities and even Judean towns. And so the plunder is so bountiful. And David recovered every last bit of it that was stolen from Ziklag as well as from these other towns. And on top of that, David is gaining what the Amalekites had. So add now all that they had as well as now yours. So this is quite a windfall. appalled at his men's response to God's goodness. Hopefully, when we stop to see that all the abundance that we have in our lives is direct result of God's abundant providence to us, we're going to have that same heart. We see that our own stinginess and our own reluctance to give to others and our own sense of entitlement to what we have, to our stuff, is equally foolish. Worthless, it's wicked. Like David, we have to resolve not to cling so tightly to that which we receive by grace as if it was owed to us. Well, as God has been so generous with David, David would be generous to those associated with him, his friends, his neighbors around him. He pledges to give an equal portion of the spoils both to those who had fought alongside him and those who were simply unable to fight because of God's providence. They were exhausted. They remained behind. And what's more, David gave gifts to these Judean cities, the elders of those cities, where he had at one time traveled. Maybe they had helped him along the way. We don't know. Those who had been raided equally by the Amalekites, he wants to give back to them who are in need. Psalm 116 that we sang says that's what you do. He gives wealth. He's received wealth, but he gives it abroad to the poor. That's what David is doing. It seems that the lesson of this passage is pretty simple, right? When the Lord has delivered you, and he's delivered you from more than just trouble, he's delivered you from sin, slavery, all the corresponding troubles of that sin, and he's provided you with so much abundance in your life. You too should be generous in your dealings with others. You should be forgiving. This certainly was a lesson that Jesus is getting at in that parable. Those who are forgiven much in thankfulness must have a ready heart to forgive others. And what does that heart look like? It's Christ-like heart. And David illustrates a Christ-like heart here. He didn't seek to enrich himself with all of that wealth. Christ didn't do that. But one, you see him giving and wanting desire to help and serve and bless his countrymen, the people around him. This heart comes from a humble grasp of the undeserved grace that David had received and the abundance that he had received. And that spirit often captivates people who have first come to Christ, doesn't it? You may see that in people who you know who just came to Christ recently and they have a grasp of what they've been forgiven from. You see that spirit early on at Pentecost when people first came to Christ there. It says this, that they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as anyone had need. Day by day, attending to the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food. They received what God had given them, it says, with glad and generous hearts. Interesting language there, praising God and having favor with all the people. Hear it again. They received with a glad and generous heart. David did that, were to do that. Not surprisingly, this demonstration of generosity and that understanding of a humility that recognizes how much we've been forgiven and so on comes immediately here after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. When God's spirit comes upon us and we really understand grace and what God has done in our hearts, then we are ready to have that same attitude. We recognize our undeserved abundance, and it comes purely from the kindness and goodness of our God. And what's more, we understand that we absolutely must have that same openness, that same open hand toward others, to those in need especially, and to those especially among the people of God. David's learning. David is growing, as we must. And he's growing in the connection between his human need and prayer. When I face troubles, when I face difficulties that I don't know how to navigate, my first response needs to go to God in prayer. He's learning that. And then he learns the connection between praying to God and God's good and rich, abundant providence. How God works all things together for good to those who are called according to his purpose. He sees a need that he has in his life, he prays to God, and God brings about that providence for good. And then he's learning the connection between God's providence, how abundant God is in that providence, and our generosity, and his generosity. He's learning that God provides our needs when we pray, so that we can be generous to others. In fact, that's what the scripture says, and that principle is laid out very clearly in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 9, verses 10 and 11. And I quote this to you, hear how clearly this is stated. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way. God will enrich you with his providence. He will give you that grace so that you might be generous. That's different from the health and wealth gospel, isn't it? If God gives you abundant providence, he will do so so that you can be generous with it, not so that you can hoard it and make luxury and everything live by that. God enriches David's life, not so that he can rejoice himself and celebrate himself in every revelry like the Amalekites did, but so that he might be generous, especially to those in need. And there were many people in people of Judah who were in need. God was blessing his people, Judah, through the anointed king. You see that? God the Father is blessing his people, Judah, through the anointed king. We're called today to look at our own hearts when it comes to our willingness to be generous and forgiving and abundant to others. Now God's not against celebrating. I hope you didn't get that message, that God doesn't want us to celebrate the bounty that he gives. Our chief end is to glorify God and to do what? Enjoy him forever. I think there's a real sense that God himself gave all those celebrations and all the festivals and all the feasts for his people to celebrate him, to enjoy the abundance that they had given. A lot of these were harvest festivals. So there's a real sense of acknowledging that God has good gifts and enjoying it and really saying thank you, God, for your good gifts, but at the same time, We can't do that unless we have a generous heart. In Ephesians 4, 28, we're to use the means that God gives. And part of those means are like a job. Think about Labor Day, the fact that God has equipped us with the ability to have labor to do, that we might then give, listen to what he says, let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with all his hands so that, so that he might have something to share with those who are in need. Notice he didn't say, work so hard that you have something to blow on nice things. Work so hard that you might really come to appreciate quality food and cars and entertainment. Work so that you might have an early and easy retirement. That's not what he says. He says, work so that you may have something to share with those who are in need. Well, especially today, as we come to the Lord's Supper and the celebration of that supper, We celebrate the Lord's Supper. We do celebrate. It's a blessed thing. The abundance of God. We ought to remember and be thankful. But then we're to recognize that God is calling us to something and that is to generosity in the same spirit. So let's go to him. Let's pray together. Our Lord and our