and last week he goes to the last place he can go. He goes to the house of the Lord. He finds rest, and he gets bread. And then from there he moves into enemy territory. He is a man hunted and on the run. Our text today is 1 Samuel 22. As I've said, we will do verses one to five, and then we will read verses 20 to 23, that in-between section we covered last week. Please listen as I read the word of God. David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers in all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul gathered to him. And he became commander over them, and there were with him about 400 men. And David went from there to Mitzpah of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, please let my father and my mother stay with you till I know what God will do for me. And he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. Then the prophet Gad said to David, do not remain in the stronghold, depart and go into the land of Judah. So David departed and went into the forest of Herod. To verse 20. But one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahiathub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priest of the Lord. And David said to Abiathar, I knew on that day when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house. Stay with me. Do not be afraid. For he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me you shall be in safekeeping. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. So verse two said, and everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter and bitter in soul gathered to David. This man on the run ends up collecting an army. There's a beautiful poem, you know a part of it. It begins like this. I'm not too good at reading poetry, by the way. Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, with conquering limbs astride from land to land, here at our sea-washed sunset gate shall stand a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lighting, and her name, Mother of Exiles. It goes on, keep ancient lands your storied pomp, cries she with silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. You may have recognized those words, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. the wretched and refuse, the homeless. It's a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty. And this was a poem that was written by Emma Lazarus. It's a sonnet called The New Colossus. And she wrote it to raise money for the erection of the Statue of Liberty. Of course, it was a gift from France, but this would help pay for the building of it and the pedestal. It's sentimental, it warms our hearts. But that really, what we'd want for our land? Like if you were to build a country, would you ask for those people? When I see job ads or colleges and universities, they say they want the best and the brightest, not the wretched and the refuse. The most famous comedian of the 90s had a whole routine about this. And he said, I am for open immigration, but the sign we have on the front of the Statue of Liberty, give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. Can't we just say, hey, the door's open. We'll take whoever you got. Do we have to specify the wretched refuse? I mean, why don't we just say, give us the unhappy, the sad, the slow, the ugly, people that can't drive, and on and on. In other words, any dysfunctional, defective slob that you can somehow cattle prod onto a wagon, send them over, we want them. It's a joke, but there's a profound truth being expressed in that poem. Where do outcasts go? Where can they go? No one wants them. They're a nuisance. Outcasts, cast out of society. Yet do they not have value? And what is a person's value? How do you value a person or life? Is it what they can offer you? or society, how one benefits to society as a productive member of society. Of course, if you go there, what would you do with babies? Oh, maybe you say they have potential. How about the elderly? The severe handicapped? People in nursing homes? How about those in prison who keep ending up in prison? What about the homeless? What's the line between how a person is valued or valuable, and where does their worth come from? Today we see David is on the run, but something happens. People gather to him, and not the best and the brightest, but the poor and the wretched and the pitiable, those in distress, those who are in debt, those who are bitter in soul. Now get this. David's on the run and he can't provide for himself, right? He has to go and beg the priest for food in last Sunday's text. He can't even provide for himself rest or food or a place to sleep and now he has an army to feed. What we see in the text modeled here in David, God's Messiah and the King of Israel, is a physical example that points to a cosmic reality about our need for the greater son of David, who came lowly. He said, birds have nests and foxes have holes, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. And yet people flock to him because he can provide for them. And maybe this whole text is a message to us all on how we're supposed to view ourselves. The need that we actually have and what the remedy for our need is. The problem is most of us don't view ourselves as being actually in need most of the time. David is on the run, and we've been saying this, and why if God placed his favor on David, and he's doing what he's supposed to be doing, we said that, right? David didn't do anything to be on the run. David didn't ask to be anointed the next king of Israel. He didn't ask for the successes he had in battle. He just followed the Lord faithfully, and he's being hunted for his life. Why is he on the run then? Last week we said David is like in the middle of, in the midst of a storm that he couldn't outrun, that he didn't cause, and yet he finds rest in that storm, the house of God. What we recognized last week is David had to be put in a position where he became an outcast. And we saw that this was a pattern that God does in the scriptures, where people, men and women, he is gonna raise up, he often brings them low first. Before God will use them, he has to help them see what they need to be used. So if David is gonna lead people, he has to understand what it means to be led by God. If he wants to be a blessing to people, David has to see himself as needing the blessing of God. If he is gonna provide safety and rest and prosperity for people as a king, he has to see himself as somebody who needs safety and rest and prosperity and that that only could come from God. If he wants to foster hope in people as their king, he has to see somebody that only hopes in the Lord. If he's gonna be valuable to people, he has to recognize that he is first worthless and yet gets infinite value in his identity in the Lord, and then he can provide value to people. If David is gonna be a strong leader, he has to recognize that he is weak. And what happens to David in this state, and he was in a very much of a woe is me state, is that he attracts a crowd. because misery finds company. Now what we saw last week is David, he goes to the temple or the tabernacle, because the temple's not built yet, but that's where worship happens, and he lies about why he's there. And we looked at all that last week, because he's being hunted by Saul, and he's trying to protect the priest or whatever it was, and there was a spy there. And the part of the text that we skipped this week, but we talked about it last week, was that spy tells Saul, and Saul goes back to that priest, and he says, why did you help David? And then Saul slaughters, by that spy, Dog the Edomite, all the priests and everybody in that town. Everybody. Man, woman, child, cattle, and 85 priests. What's ironic about that is Saul was supposed to do that to Israel's enemies, the Amalekites, and he didn't, and that lost him the kingdom. We saw how that evil terrorist group, and that's what they were, have continued to plague Israel. But Saul won't do that to Israel's enemies, but he does that to the people of God. There is persecution for the people of God. So this priest comes. And he comes to David, and David receives him. And all these outcasts come. Everyone who was in distress, and who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul. It's almost like David's like this Robin Hood, and not that David's robbing the rich and giving to the poor, but like he's being hunted. Robin Hood was hunted by the Sheriff of Nottingham or whatever it was. And the authorities can never find him, but all the outcasts can find him. And somehow he can provide for them. How many of you know that you can't think of your own problems when you have to care for other people who have problems? And so many of you that are caretakers of elderly parents or spouse, and it's like you're in your own world of hell, but there's a greater purpose because you're serving somebody who's even in greater need than you, and you can't really even think about yourself. So God is teaching David. David has an army. 400 men, it says. He gets a priest now, and he has a prophet. Prophet Gad, verse five. It's almost like David's his own nation now. And there's gonna be great temptation for David, because 400 men who have nothing to lose, and David, who's a mighty warrior, obviously, and he's got a priest and a prophet. He can take over the kingdom. And he will have to resist that urge time and again as those men tell him to kill Saul, every time he has a chance to kill Saul. But David has learned his place. And he doesn't go against the word of the Lord. In this case, anyway. And so through David's suffering as God's anointed, people look to him to save them. People who have no hope. people who have great need, people who are going through great suffering, look at this suffering king-to-be, and they go to him. And I wonder, what would it take for you to leave everything, your house, your family, and your possessions, to go follow somebody who's on the run? What would it take? When I was in college, I had a best friend. I've lost touch with him now 20 years later, or actually more, almost 25 years later, because he lives in Spain. He's a Spaniard. And he was my roommate in college for almost four years. And he was wealthy, had money. Obviously, if you're coming to college overseas like that. And he had a brand new car. And he was such a good friend. He would let me use this car. He'd leave it for the whole summer, I could use it. Winter breaks, I crashed the car twice. And then one time when he was driving somewhere, because of where I had him go, he actually backed into something. So three accidents, he didn't care. He was such a good friend. And this guy, one time, I saw him, because we were roommates and stuff, and we rented an apartment together, just in a huge struggle. Like in anguish, like I'd never seen him. He was always happy-go-lucky, and I'm like, I could just tell something was wrong. And I don't even remember now, again, this is 25 years ago, what it was. There was something going on back home in Spain, and I think there were issues in his coursework, and maybe it had to do with his visa, and there was all kinds of, it just seemed like he was being attacked from every angle. Now, I mean, I wasn't walking with the Lord, But I just looked at him and I said, but I would go to church and he would know I would pray and he would kind of, I wouldn't say he would mock it, but he might scoff a little about it, I don't know. And I just looked at him and I said, well, have you considered turning to God? Like, what about prayer? Like, you can't help all these situations, not one of them you can solve. Why don't you try God? And what he said to me, heartbreaking. It hasn't come to that yet. It hasn't come to that yet. And I'm thinking, man, what would it have to come to? It's heartbreaking. And I remember Jesus' words, his own words, which says, I have come to seek and save the lost. But he also says this, it's easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle, in other words, it's possible, impossible, than for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven. And I don't know if my friend was relying on the fact that he had money and resources or what. Jesus came, he said, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He says, the well have no need of a doctor, the sick have a need of a doctor. Paul says, Christ doesn't come for the strong, but for the weak. Jesus says, if you wanna be great in the kingdom, you must be least in the kingdom. If you wanna be first, you need to be last. Matthew chapter five, this section of teaching on the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, Jesus says this, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you. and utter all kinds of evil against you and falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Does this mean Christ is not for the rich or the powerful or the strong or the self-sufficient? Well, God is for everyone. The problem is not that God doesn't care about them. The problem is so often they don't care about God. When Jesus says, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, is he actually making a claim that we can be righteous? No, he's making a claim about how you view yourself. And I think when we look at the people being valued and outcasts, we're like the Pharisee and the tax collector. Lord, I thank you this about me, I thank you that about me. You gave me good parents, you made me holy. Thank you, I'm not like him. Jesus says, the him who says, be merciful to me, Lord, I'm a sinner. I have a great debt that only you can pay. He went away justified. Because he had faith in not himself, in his own accomplishments, in what he could provide, in his own value, but in him who gives value, in him who forgives debts. That's one of the categories here, right? Everyone who's in distress, and everyone who has debt, do you see yourself as having great debt? not to a mortgage lender, not to a car dealership, to the eternal God of the universe. Do you see yourself as having a debt? It's counterintuitive to go to the one you owe things to, to them to pay your debt. But everyone who's in distress and everyone who's in debt and everyone who's bitters in soul goes to David And we go to Christ, the son of David. You know, oftentimes the strong, when they are drawn to Christ, and there are a lot of people that are wealthy and powerful and strong, and they see the truths of the gospel, and the Lord is working in them, and they go. But do you know, oftentimes they think, God must be lucky to have me. Oh, they might not say that. Most people wouldn't. The way they would say is, Well, I'm gonna do great things for the kingdom. In other words, there's an implicit, like, because of my position, because of my power, because of my righteousness, I can benefit God. Now, I've had this thought, not about myself, I don't think, I'd have to evaluate myself, but about certain friends of mine that I'm like, man, it would be great if they became a Christian because of what they could do for the kingdom. And then I had to catch myself and say, why would that person be any better serve God? Because they have money and power and they're charismatic? It's upside down. You know, Paul had the whole world at his fingertips in Judaism. And yes, the Lord used him. but he threw him to the ground and blinded him and made him an outcast among his family, among all his friends, and they tried to kill him all the time. He had to be taught, like David, to become weak before he could be used for the kingdom. He thought he was serving the kingdom. Do you know that Paul's whole life then He had a reminder of that weakness that the Lord reminded him of. You've heard it, it's called the thorn in the flesh. Like, we still use that phrase today. I got a thorn in my side, or that guy's a thorn in my side. So we don't know what the thorn in Paul's flesh was. If it was physical, if it was an ailment, if it was a person plaguing him, but the point is he had a constant reminder of his weakness. Paul says, when I'm weak, then I'm strong. When Jesus came, he calls out of the world this ragtag group of men, and then the women that followed him didn't have the best reputation. And he welcomes them. And he gets these smelly, hardened, foul-mouthed fishermen, Jewish outcast tax collectors, a conspiracy theorist revolutionary. That's not like the band you would start your ministry. If you're in a form of religion, that's not who you look for. A woman who's had seven demons casted out of her and had a very terrible reputation. Do you know the only respectable member of society that Christ had as one of his disciples, who he was? Judas. Maybe John, he was, John was a young man, he might have had a great reputation, I don't know, but Judas was the only one. He mocked that woman, Mary, He stole the money, and then he betrayed Christ. But the truth is, the rest of them really aren't very much better than Judas. They're fighting all the time. Who's the greatest? So much so, Jesus hears the commotion. What are you fighting about? And then, well, I wanna sit on your right hand, and he wants to sit on your left hand. That's when Jesus says, if you wanna be great in the kingdom, you have to be last and least. Peter's motto was, I can do all things through me who strengthens me. It's his bumper sticker or a t-shirt. All these will betray you, Jesus. Not me. He did. And then even as a Christian, Paul had to call him out publicly for forgetting. And so David, God's anointed, who was in the palace, he was with King Saul. He married Saul's daughter. He was a son-in-law to the king. He was a great general. Everyone loved him. We saw last week even enemies called him the king of the land. He was in the palace. Loses it all, he's being hunted, and yet he draws those in debt and distressed and anguished and stressed out and bitter in soul to himself. And this whole thing foreshadows the one that David calls Lord, who was David's son. So we know Jesus Christ is called the son of David and David called that Messiah, that Christ, that King who will rule forever, Lord. And David's life and pattern here follows that. Jesus comes, Jesus who lives in the palace comes here as an outcast. They mock him as being, having an illegitimate birth, being the son of a carpenter. They seek to kill him, John 7, 1. After this, Jesus went in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. John 8, they picked up stones to throw at him, but he escaped. John 10, again they picked up stones to throw at him, but he escapes. And yet, like David, he's attracting people to himself. Matthew 4, so his fame spread throughout all Syria, this is Jesus, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures and paralytics, and he healed them, and great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. He's collecting for himself, Jesus Christ, an army, and that's why they thought he was gonna be an earthly king. In the same way David gets bread, from the tabernacle, Jesus Christ, the temple of God, gives them bread. And they're like, man, this guy can attract an army and he could feed them. And you know what else? You see what David does here? Christ does. So the last verse in our text. Verse 23, stay with me, do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me you shall be in safekeeping. Like David has compassion, he says, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house. David identifies and he has compassion on his face, he says, stay with me. Mark chapter six, when Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them. because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them saying, then he told the disciples, I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me for three days and I have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry and they will faint, feed them. And so you see this pattern in David's life is typological, it points to Jesus Christ. who though he was in the very form of God, gave up equality with God, he didn't view it as something to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, he was found in human form, and he became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Christ gave up everything. Or Galatians 4, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, he's a normal person, he gives up heaven, comes to earth, is an outcast on the run and he's attracting, as a matter of fact, he's drawing all people to himself. Isn't that what Christ says? And when David says here, stay with me, do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. Isn't that what Jesus says? If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. Come to me, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. For I'm gentle and lowly of heart, I have compassion. I'm drawing you to me. And what does it take for this group of people, these outcasts, the refuse of society to come to David? Faith in David, I guess. Like why did they think they'd be better on the run than in their homes? They recognized that there was hope in David and Saul was leading them in a terrible direction. Oh look, this story, we can view it from two perspectives, probably more, but one is from the perspective of David, and one is from the people's perspective. So if we identify with David, as I've said, we see that the Lord is the one who puts David on the run, and David is being taught to rely on God. And so that's our call, that when we suffer, we seek the Lord in that, we rest in the Lord in that, we seek to be fed by the Lord in that, and we are then in a place to have compassion on others in the same boat, like David. So I don't talk about my problems too much here. I tell you little bits and pieces, but some of you know, and I have said it before, like I struggle or suffer with two, at least two, or maybe they don't know, inner ear issues. They think it's Meniere's disease and they think it's eustachian tube dysfunction. Anyway, it causes vertigo, severe bouts of nausea, Everything could be spinning and it could last for a few hours. It can last up to, I've had it once for six weeks. Not the spinning, but the just severe nausea and heaviness of the head where I couldn't function. And, you know, I remember I just started a new job at the time. I was all excited. And then I got this terrible attack and I'm like, Lord, how come I'm having, how come I'm having this? And I'm trying to serve you, you know, and every day, Every day, I would wake up in the morning, and I'd open, and I'd feel it, and it got to the point where I would prefer to be dead than have woken up. I wasn't suicidal, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying I wish I didn't wake up. And I'd say, why, Lord? And I kept looking, I kept saying like, okay, maybe the next day it'll be over, and maybe the next day it'll be over, and then the job was starting, and I had to be done, and then it never was over. And after a week and two weeks, I stopped praying for it to be over, and I started praying, Lord, just give me the grace for today. Your mercies are new every day. I'm wasting the resources you're giving me to get through today on worrying about tomorrow. And Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow is enough. Just worry about today. And God gave me the grace for the day. And I'd go to bed, and the next morning, rather than being discouraged that I'd wake up the same way, Okay God, give me the grace for today. You gave it to me yesterday, you're gonna give it to me today. And every day I'd go to work and then I'd come home and just go to sleep. That was my life for six weeks. And then I got over that bout. And you know what I realized after it and through it? I was not a very compassionate person before that. I was very much a self starter, very much a set goals and accomplish them. Very much when somebody was in a problem thinking, pick yourself up and get over it. And through this miserable six weeks and all the bouts I'd had before it, it made me have compassion on those who are in real struggles. A lot worse than me, battling cancer, battling chronic pain that has no relief. in deep, deep anguish over some relational issue going on in their life. Because I know what it is to be in anguish. And again, I'm not saying my issues are on par with anybody else's issues. I'm just saying, God gave me a glimpse, and it's made me more compassionate. And so what is it for you that you question, why, Lord, are you bringing this into my life? Maybe you have an adult child who's wayward and you don't understand why. Maybe one thing you can do with it is help other adults dealing with the same thing. Or maybe you're battling cancer and it's been a miserable fight and it keeps coming back. Well, maybe you're there to give encouragement to others in that boat, even as you need encouragement yourself. Maybe you're struggling in your marriage. You've been praying and it's an unanswered prayer. Well, maybe you're able to come alongside others who are struggling in their marriage and they can help you and you can help them be in community. Maybe you're not doing well in a class for you kids in school and you just, or maybe your parents are giving you a hard time or you don't understand or you can't relate to them, well maybe you can be an encouragement to other kids who are in the same boat. I think we can learn from this little episode with David, like don't waste your suffering. Piper says that in different contexts. Don't waste your cancer, don't waste your this. God can use it. Like, 1 Peter, but in your hearts, honor Christ, the Lord is holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet you do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile you, your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. But why would they ask if you have hope if they can't see that you have hope? But I think the greater lesson we learn from this text is not so much how to be David. David is just kind of thrown into this, right? And there's fruit from it. People come to him. But the greater lesson, I think, is do you see yourself as the outcast? Everyone who's in distress and everyone who's in debt and everyone who is bitter in soul. You think, well, I'm not in any debt, but maybe I have distress. or stress, or depression, we all have debt. An unfathomable large debt. I saw a video online, I've got to stay off social media, but this PCA pastor decrying how You know, they said, well, how can you stay in the PCA when so many people saying what you're doing is wrong? And he says, well, yeah, these people owe me millions of dollars, but Christ, my debt to Christ was trillions of dollars. And I was like, man, you don't get it. You think the sins that others are doing against you, and they're not sinning against him, by the way, just identifying what he's doing is wrong. is millions of dollars, but Christ pays trillions of dollars? The debts that we have against each other are pennies. And the debt that Christ paid for you and me is hundreds upon hundreds of trillion dollars. There's no comparison of one cent to hundreds of trillions of dollars. Do you realize we have that debt to a holy God? And yet it's, We owe him, and he says, come to me. And he pays the debt. Do we view ourselves like that? You feel like you're a failure? Come to Jesus. He says, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Do you believe it? You feel like your sins are too much? Come to Jesus. He paid for them. You feel like you're stressed out? Broken hearted? Tired? Come to Jesus. He gives you rest. Are you persecuted? Lonely? Misunderstood? Undervalued? No friends? Family hates you? You have a friend in Jesus, go to Jesus. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. David, verse 23, stay with me, do not be afraid. With me you shall be in safekeeping. You picture those words on the lips of the greater son of David, Jesus Christ. All he requires of anyone is to believe. To believe. To believe you have a great unpayable debt and that He's willing to pay it. To believe that He's the Son of God and you trust your life with Him. To believe that you need to turn from your ways and go to Him, but that He's the only one that can even empower you to turn from your ways and go to Him. To believe. It's a gift that you can tap into as you come to your wit's end. You repent of your self-saving, I think I'm good enough stuff, and you see yourself as in distress and in an immeasurable debt and bitter in soul, and Jesus Christ gives rest, and He wants you to come to Him. David will ascend to the throne. And when he does, he brings this ragtag group of outcasts that nobody wants, and they become generals in his army, and they become stewards over his stuff, and that's what Jesus Christ does. He is on the throne, and when he comes back and establishes it visibly on earth, he brings us ragtag outcasts who are in distress and have all this debt and are grieved and bitter in soul, and he brings us and he says, here, have crowns in my kingdom. And then we give the crowns back to him. Come to Jesus. You can do that today. Let's pray.