Lord, thank you for the privilege of being able to meet for Bible study tonight, and pray that you'd just bless our time in your Word tonight. You would direct, help us to have open ears and eyes for what you would want to instruct us with, Lord. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well some of you may have heard the story of the three pastors that they got together on a Monday morning to kind of debrief from the day before. So they're debriefing together and they're talking about their goals for the future and Lintz and I never did that. We just talked about the Word of God. Honestly, it's so funny because neither one of us were like, you have to have this purpose-driven church or whatever. So they're talking about their goals for the future, and then they shared prayer requests together. In the process of sharing the prayer requests together, the topic of Sunday morning offerings came up somehow. So the guys begin to discuss and realize this is just a story, but they begin to discuss, how they handle a Sunday morning offering. So, Brother Jones spoke up first, and he said, well, when we get the Sunday morning offering, I go back home, I get into my office, I've got this circle in my office, and I stand in the middle of the circle, and I throw the offering up in the air, and whatever lands on the inside of the circle is mine, and whatever lands on the outside of the circle is the Lord's. And so Brother Smith spoke up second, and he said, well, when I get home in my office, I've got a line straight across the office floor. It's just split right in half. And he said, so I stand with my right foot on one side of the line and my left foot on the other side of the line and I just throw the offering in the air and whatever's on the right side is God's and whatever's on the left side is mine. Finally, Brother Peterson spoke up and he said, well, when I get home with the offering, I take the offering into my office and I have a very large a very large office, he said, and I stand in my office and I pray, Lord, here is today's offering. As I throw it up in the air, you take what you want because whatever hits the ground is mine. We laugh at those stories, it's kind of a nervous laugh because we're hoping that never happens. And the truth is, most pastors never see the offering, you know, so that makes it more humorous. That's not all pastors, but most. But I tell the story for this reason, and that is, how do you make decisions? What are the methods, what are the things that you use in making a decision? Do you have a pattern or a process you go through? Now, some things in life you certainly do, like there's some positions or jobs you have where you have to check these boxes as you're making a decision or as you're doing something. But with just living our life, do we have some type of pattern or do we just wing it as we go, make it up? I'm going to head down the hill and decide when the first bump comes. When you have a decision, especially a big decision, do you ever seek counsel, advice or counsel? Or do you roll the dice? Do you draw straws? Do you pray? What method do you use? And it's interesting because we don't We don't often think about that. We don't think about, is there a right way to do this and a wrong way? Now, no, as we're Christians, we're going, oh yeah, we're going to. we're gonna attack a prayer in there. A prayer's gotta be a part of the decision, but maybe not other things. So most of us are probably inconsistent when it comes to making decisions. We probably know what we should be doing in the decision process. We should be seeking godly counsel. We should be praying, even waiting on the Lord. But at times, and often, too often, we are in too much of a hurry to follow through with that, because it takes time to seek counsel, right? And a prayer, I mean, you can pray pretty quick, right? That doesn't mean you're waiting for a response, but you throw it up real quick just to tack it on, you know, to get God's special blessing on there, and then you make a decision. So we quickly draw a line, we draw a circle, we throw a prayer up in the air, And wherever it lands, we take off and sometimes, to be truthful, speaking for myself, okay, you don't even pray at all. You just, a decision has to be made and you just make that decision. Too often, the counsel we seek is self-counsel. And you know what that's like, right? I said to myself, Salve, how would you handle this situation? Now we don't really say it that way, but we do that, right? And by the way, I give bad counsel to myself. I don't know about you. And the reason I do that is we're in 1 Samuel chapter 26 and 27 tonight, so it'd be good for you to find that, 1 Samuel 26. This is a position that David finds himself in. And so when you look about decisions, the question is, all those things I described, is that walking by faith? Is that a faith-walking decision? Does faith-walking mean winging it? Is it faith to seek counsel within ourselves? The world says, believe in yourself and I mean, you pretty much can do anything, right? According to the world's description. Last Sunday, we saw David's faith. He's convinced that God can take care of him and God does take care of him. He finds himself walking among the enemy. David's convinced, at least at that moment in his life, that God will take care of him and God will take care of his enemies as well. Look at chapter 26, verse 10, just as a reminder. David also said, as the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him, or his day will come when he dies, or he will go down to battle and perish. So he's talking about King Saul, remember? And he's walking amongst King Saul. He's right there. There's 3,000 men all around him, and David says that. So David's faith moves him to a forgiving mercy. He doesn't take Saul's life. It's the second time that he spares Saul's life. And he uses the phrases, I don't dare touch the Lord's anointed. So today we move from David's faith to David's failure. And I don't know about you, but sometimes it's hard to read through scripture. It's hard and it's also a relief at times because we read through scripture. Scripture is very honest. It doesn't, you know, it doesn't try to whitewash things and it doesn't just give you, you know, there's skeletons in the closet when you read through scripture. There's these times when, you know, if you were having somebody write your family history, you'd just rather them leave that part out. And this is one of those settings with David. You know, maybe I want more from God's word. Maybe I just want to God's word to include the faithful acts of men. but and I honestly so when I'm reading through scripture sometimes I kind of put myself in position and I'm a bit frustrated with David in this passage of scripture tonight, but I want to tell you I'm more frustrated with Mark Kennedy because when I see what David does I'm going oh I've done that a hundred times, you know, so I get impatient with myself when I move from faith to failure to faith to failure and you know you've they've talked about this in the church for a long time you know you have those mountaintop experiences and then the next day you're like in the lowest of the lowest valley it's just horrible and you're wondering how in the world did I get here, you know, when yesterday was so great. So God's Word is realistic. It shows men as they really are. Some use this fact to condone their own sins, but Scripture never does that, by the way. Even when Scripture is honest about an account, Scripture condemns sin. So Some people will say, well, if David sinned, well, then it's okay for me to sin. And that's really not the case. God's word calls us and demands for us to live holy lives. That's why when we look in the bigger Christian world out there today, and we see somebody, a man of faith or a woman of faith fall, we expect more, don't we? We expect them to do differently. We expect them to live holy. We don't expect perfection from them, but we do expect holiness. So flip over, keep your place there in 1 Samuel, but flip over to 2 Peter 1. And I just want you to see something from scripture that might be helpful when you're making decisions or you're wondering, you know, I had somebody say to me one time, well, God's word covers a lot, but it doesn't cover everything, right? I mean, there's some things in God's word and we would agree with that, right? There's, you know, I haven't found how to rebuild a, VW bug carburetor in the Word of God. So we could say that, but it's interesting, Scripture declares itself differently than that. So I've had people say that because they'll say, well, we have to seek the world's counsel because God's Word doesn't cover everything. So 2 Peter 1, verse 1, Simon Peter, a slave, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received the same kind of faith as ours." So he's talking to believers, right? And he says, by the righteousness of God our Savior and Jesus Christ. So what's the source of faith? Well, it comes from God, he says at this point. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the full knowledge of knowing him who called us by his own glory and excellence. So you hear this phrase in there, everything pertaining to life and godliness. So no, maybe it doesn't give details on rebuilding a VW bug carburetor. Does help me do it in a godly way though. So everything pertaining to life and godliness. So how is this everything provided? It says in the passage, seeing that his divine power has granted to us. So let's flip back over to 1 Samuel. And I wanna pick up. So I want us to look at David's failure. I want us to consider our own failures. I want us to think about the need for repentance when we do fail. And then finally, I want us to ponder God's forgiveness. So that's the amazing thing is when we fail and we fail badly, we don't seek the Lord's will or his counsel or his direction. And we ask his forgiveness, guess what he does? He forgives us, you know, and it's just, what an amazing God. So picking up 1 Samuel 26. Verse 24, this helps set the scene for where we're gonna be in 27. So 1 Samuel 26, 24, this is David speaking. Now behold, as your life was highly valued in my sight, he's talking to Saul, this day, so may my life be highly valued in the sight of the Lord, and may he deliver me from all distress. Then Saul said to David, blessed are you my son, David, you will both accomplish much and surely prevail. So David went on his way and Saul returned to his place. Then skip to first Samuel 27 verse one. Then David said to himself, the legacy standard version says this, then David says in his heart, Now the world is like saying self-talk is really important. You can even hear that in commercials. So 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 the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand. So let's just break this down. David said to himself, First problem, what's his first problem? He's not asking the Lord, he's not praying, he's just talking, David's talking to David, right? What could go wrong, you know? So Proverbs 3, verse 5, and we do 5 and 6 a lot, but Proverbs 3, 5 says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. So this wasn't a good move for David to make. So David says to him, now, I'm not saying you wouldn't do the same thing, or I wouldn't do the same thing, or there's not some reasons behind why he's doing what he's doing. So the first problem is, who's David talking to? Second problem, notice what David concludes. He concludes four things, okay? Number one, I will perish one day at the hand of Saul. Number two, there is nothing better for me than to escape. Number three, Saul will despair of searching for me. So if I get out of here, it'll work, okay? And number four, I will escape by going and living with the enemy. He says, I wanna go into the land of the blissings. They are the enemy. I mean, David's been there once already. Remember, he acted like a madman when he was down there. So what's wrong with these statements? Let's consider them one by one. Okay, number one, I will perish one day from the hand of Saul. What might David be overlooking at this point? God made him king, clear declaration, right? He's been anointed, and God's made a promise there. Let's flip over, keep your place there in 1 Samuel, but flip over to Psalms 139. So David wants to escape. I will perish one day from the hand of Saul. What is David overlooking? Whose hand is he overlooking? Psalms 139, verse one. And I brought the Legacy Standard version tonight. I like the reading here. Psalms 139, verse one. O Yahweh, You have searched me and know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You understand my thoughts from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down. You are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Yahweh, you know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before. You have put your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is too high. I cannot attain to it. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed and chill, behold, you are there. If I lift up the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest parts of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, your right hand will lay ahold of me. So back to 1 Samuel when David says, I will perish one day by the hand of Saul, whose hand is the overlooking. And so then think about it this way, is the hand of the Lord upon you too? The stress that you're a believer in Christ, you put your faith and trust in Christ, is his hand on you? I mean, is his hand of protection and care, and I know that we live in a sin-cursed world, I know that we battle with that, but is his hand on you? And it is, just as David was. So David's overlooking the hand of the Lord. The second thing he said again was, there's nothing better for me than to escape. Nothing better. I mean, that's kind of interesting. What's up with that? I mean, is that really true? Is it a true statement? Is that a true statement? There's nothing better. Why or why not? Why would you say it's not a true statement? Because it's not. What's he seen happen so far? The Lord's hand has been on him all the time and delivered him from his enemies. I mean, David has seen the Lord's blessing. Yes, this is a very difficult time for David. He is on the run, and his family is on the run, and he's got men that are on the run with him. So he says, nothing better for me to escape. How has David escaped this far? Well, he has moved, but so has God. Here, God seems to be left out of the picture, right? We looked at that earlier. And again, last week we looked at a statement that David made. So look back at chapter 26. I'm gonna just look at verses 19 and 20 and just remember what he said. And we don't know the time period between 26 and 27, but it couldn't be too long. So, chapter 26, verse 19, In other words, David says, I'll repent if it's something I've done wrong before the Lord. But if it is men, cursed are they before the Lord. For they have driven me out today that I should have no attachment with the inheritance of the Lord, saying, go serve other gods. So David realizes what's happening, right? So last week we looked at, he's going, why would you push me away from the hand of the Lord? Why would you take me away from his inheritance and say, go serve other gods? David understands what it means to be driven away from God's people and from the inheritance of the Lord. And he's been promised to be. king of that inheritance. And then verse 20, he says, now, then do not let my blood fall on the ground away from the presence of the Lord. He doesn't want to die while driven away from his people. Yet now he says, there's nothing better for me than to escape. Now, could he have gone down into the land of the Philistines and been executed? Well, if they were smart, they would have just done that, right? But God is in control, not David at this point. So what has changed? Well, and then the third thing, again, he said was, solvable despair of searching for me. Despair means to, obviously, to be desperate. It means to see things as hopeless. The word refers to the sense in which you conclude that what you desire is out of reach, so why should I do it anyway? Why should I try? And you stop trying. What's the use? One commentary said this, the one despairing here is David, not Saul. David's the one in despair right now. God has proven that he'll take care of him, and David is the one. Have you ever despaired? I have to say, I'm a pretty positive guy. I'm a glass half full, and maybe really it's three quarters full type of guy. But I have to say, there have been times when I have felt unworthy to move on. Like I'm done. That's just it. I'm not saying you should ever feel this way, but why should I even get out of bed tomorrow? Why should I prepare for another class? So this is that position. So you want to quit. What helps when you're in that position? Well, the fourth thing he says is, I will escape by going and living with the enemy. That won't help. You know, that's the wrong direction to head into. I mean, I think you probably, if you were his mom and you were on the cell phone, or he was texting you, David's texting his mom saying, hey, I think we're going to go down to the land of the Philistines. What do you think his mom would have said? Are you nuts? Are you crazy? Escape. I will escape from his hand in the land of the Philistines. What type of exchange is this? Have you ever made a move like this? Have you ever put yourself in the land of the Philistines? Have you ever moved into the enemy's territory? I mean, other than God telling you to? Because I realize that sometimes with missionaries, God will say, oh, I want you to go there. And yes, that is enemy territory, I understand that. But I mean, just, you know, who does, and this is a question, who does David move into the enemy's territory? Who's he bringing with him? All right, look at verse two. So David arose, we're in 27, crossed over, he and 600 men who were with him, to Achish, the son of Moach, king of Gath. And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each with his household. And David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's widow. So David brings his family into enemy territory. What could possibly go wrong? A lot, right? A lot. But, and again, I understand why he's making this move. He's on the run from Saul all the time. The people just need rest. We need a break. I mean, I can hear this conversation going on in his head. It doesn't seem like he's talking to his men, but he is the leader and they're gonna follow him. Verse four, now it was told to Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he no longer searched for him. Hmm. Out of sight, out of mind. It appears David's plan works, right? I mean, would you be debating with David at this point? Before we make a move like we see David make a move, and there are some questions I think we should ask. One question would be this, has God been faithful to us in the past? So I'm talking about you personally, me personally, we're getting ready to make a bad decision. We haven't sought godly counsel, we haven't sought God, we haven't prayed about it. We ask the question, has God been faithful in the past? The second question would be, does this align with the promises of God for me? Are there any promises of God for us as believers in scripture? There's a lot. I know people can misuse Scripture, but believe me, there's a lot of sweet promises from God in Scripture to us. And then ask this question, what has David experienced in the past, or what have you experienced in the past? I mean, before you make that hasty decision, think, well, how has the Lord taken care of me in the past? a promise of future. God's promise for David's future has been repeated numerous times. In 1 Samuel 23, Jonathan tells David, you have a future. My dad knows you have a future. He knows this is all going to be yours. Remember me at that time. Abigail, remember, she says in 1 Samuel 20, 25, my old husband, he was a jerk, but God's got a great plan for you. Don't do this stupid thing, she says to David. And in Samuel, in chapter 16, when he's set aside and anointed as a king, he says, God has something amazing in store for you, it's a promise. And then Saul, like Saul, even when Saul is chasing David, multiple times he says, oh, I know God has this great plan for you. Now Saul's ticked off by it, but he knows God has a plan. So what are the results when we make decisions and we leave the Lord out of the picture? I would love to say to you, failure is always the result. But it's not. You know, it's interesting. It's not always failure. Sometimes it seems like it's great success. I say seems like because it's not really success. If you've purposely not asked the Lord and you're seeking your own way, it seems to work out all well. But is our faith to be pragmatic? It's just based upon if it works, let's do it. In this statement, success alone is not a sign of God's approval. neither is failure, you know? So David will experience some success, his own personal counsel will seem to work out, but as one Bible commentary said, and I think it was probably J. Vernon McGee, it is a godless section of scripture in which God is left out. You can hear McGee saying it, right? He just left God out of the picture, you know? Verse five, then David said to Achish, Now I have found favor in your sight. Then give me a place in one of your cities in the country that I might live there. For why should your servant live in the royal city with you? So Achish gave him Ziglag that day. Therefore, Ziglag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. And the number of days that David lived in the country with the Philistines was a year and four months. Now David and his men went up and raided the Gersharites and the Gerazites and the Amalekites, for they were the inhabitants of the land from the ancient times, as far as you go to Shur, as far as the land of Egypt. So to the enemies of Israel, David's plan seems like a good plan as well. Verse nine. And David attacked the land and did not leave a man or a woman alive. And he took away the sheep and the cattle and the donkeys and the camels and the clothing. Then he returned and came to Achish. Now, so the reason he returns and goes back to Achish is he's now living in Achish's territory. So anytime he has a victory in battle, Achish is supposed to get a percentage of the take. So that's why he's going back there. verse 10. Now Achish said, where have you made array today? And David said, against Negev of Judah and against the Negev of the Jeremelites and against Negev of the Kenites. So David lies. He says, I've been attacking the people in the south of Judah and Israel. I've been attacking them, but that wasn't what David was doing. And somebody can say, yeah, but David was doing, God wanted those enemies to be wiped out completely, right? So does the ends justify the means? And I don't think it does at this point, okay? In verse 11, again, David did not leave a man or woman alive to bring to gas, saying, lest they should tell about us, saying, so David is done, and so has been his practice all the time he has lived in the land of the Philistines. So Achish believed David, saying, he has surely made himself odious among his people Israel, therefore he will become my servant forever. So what's Achish's conclusion of what David has done? I own David. I will run his life. Proof, look at 28. We'll just look at a couple of verses 28 verse 1, Now it came about in those days that the Philistines gathered their armed camps for war to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, Know assuredly that you will go out with me in the camp, you and your men. And David said to Achish, Very well. You shall know what your servant can do. So Achish said to David, very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life. What in the world? I mean, is David actually going to go to war against the people of Israel? Well, we'll look at that next week. I read this statement years ago, and I wish I had the whole part of it. But the statement was this, because what do we do in those situations in life when we have hard decisions to make? So if it's a medical decision, it's a serious medical decision, do you call your brother if he's not a doctor? I mean, who do you go to at times like that, right? God's given people with wisdom and you go to them and you seek their help. So what do we do in the church? I mean, what's our task in the church to do when it comes to how we care for each other, when it comes to hard decisions? I mean, wouldn't it be great for each of us to have a small like prayer team? of people that we know that we could bring anything to. We could say, hey, would you pray for me about this situation that's going on in my life? You know, the saying I read was this, the reason mountain climbers are tied together is to keep the sane ones from going home. And the description, I'm pretty sure it was Charles Swindoll that was using it, the description he was using was to describe why we so desperately need each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Yes, we first need the Lord, right? He's our first, and sometimes He's the only one that we can go to in those situations. There is nobody else available, you know, but you can go to the Lord. But second is our brothers and sisters in Christ when it comes to those difficult decisions that we have to make. And, you know, and so it's just that need. I mean, why do I love our Bible class. Why do I love my fellowship, my brothers and sisters in Christ? You know, for me, my go-to guy, you know, and I shudder to think today when this isn't the case is I can call my dad still. You know, my dad's in his 90s and I can call, I say, dad, you know, and I know he will listen to me and I know he will give me a godly response. And I know if he thinks I'm doing a stupid thing, he'll just say in a kind way, that's not the wisest decision you ever made, you know, but it's how we need each other. So I want us to flip back over to 2 Peter chapter one and we'll finish up with this. So the questions we're thinking about is, how could or should have David operated differently? So that's the first thing. So what would you say? How could or should have David operated differently in this situation? What if he's asking you and he's saying, well, what would you do? Here's what I'm thinking. How could he have operated or should he have operated differently? Any ideas? Go right to prayer. Yeah, and then Nehemiah is also the one with the sword in one hand and trial, trial. Yeah, building and defending, yes. Other thoughts on what could have David done or should have been done differently? Obviously, David's not here, you're not giving him advice, but you are. You know, will we take our own advice in those situations? So, 2 Peter chapter, and I wanna pick up at verse three. 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter one. Verse three, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. For by these things he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence knowledge, and in your knowledge self-control, and in your self-control perseverance, and in your perseverance godliness, and in your godliness brotherly kindness. love for if these qualities are yours and increasing they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our lord jesus christ for he who lacks these qualities is blind or shortsighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you. For as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. For in this way the entrance to the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you." And so Peter offers such great advice for us, you know, in regards to the everything that's been granted pertaining to godliness, but there's also that part that we take in that, right? a part of moving ahead and, you know, in the list of, you know, the perseverance and all those things that are listed, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, brotherly kindness, and certainly love. And so we move ahead that way. So not sure what is in front of you this week, not sure what you know, big events or decisions you go, but I am prayerful that the Lord would use this study and learning from the life of David, you know, slow down a bit, you know, seek godly counsel, make sure you have that group of mountain climbers that you're tied to to keep the sane ones from going home. And remind each other of the promises of God, because that's what Peter's doing here, and that's what David will learn. Now, David will do better. And by the way, Psalms 139 that we read earlier, who wrote that Psalm? David did. He wrote about the hand of the Lord when he was worried earlier about the hand of Saul. So may the hand of the Lord be on you, let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the privilege of looking at your word tonight. Lord, thank you that we just pray we would learn well as we look at the life of David when he sought his own counsel. Lord, that didn't go well. Lord, we thank you that you have given us the Holy Spirit and you've given us your word and you've given us brothers and sisters in Christ. You've given us a good and godly group of people. And I just pray, Father, that we would surround ourselves with a circle of godly people that When we're making decisions, we're seeking your face and we're seeking Godly advice and prayer. And you would direct our lives, Lord and Lord, that you would remind us again of all the promises of your word towards us. You are a God who will never leave us nor forsake us. And we're grateful for that, Lord. Now, as we go into a fellowship time, Lord, we just pray your blessing upon our time of visiting and the snacks that we'll have in Christ's name. Amen.