Open your Bibles this morning to the book of 1 Samuel chapter 30. I'd like to read the first 10 verses of this particular chapter and deal with the thought of the Lord, our encouragement. 1 Samuel chapter 30 verses 1 through 10. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. We'll bring the message that the Lord has given. Father again, it's my privilege to approach the throne of grace and petition you for your blessing upon the reading of your word and on the preaching of the message. on every heart and life, each one that's here today. And we do pray that Jesus Christ be exalted, honored, and glorified in this particular place today. And we'll thank you for it, for we pray in that name that is above every name, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 1 Samuel chapter 30 and verse 1. It came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire. Had taken the women captives that were therein They slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city. Behold, it was burned with fire. Their wives, their sons, and their daughters were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept till they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam, the Jazraelites, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. David was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. David said to Abathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. Abathar brought thither the ephod to David. David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? 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 the 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 400 men, for 200 abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor. And thus we have the text. Now if you go ahead and read the story, you'd find that these 400 soldiers that were under David would find an Egyptian that had been taken as a captive and made a slave and he would show Israel and show David the camp and lead them into this camp secretly and they would pursue the Amalekites and just a very few of them would survive. That part of the chapter you can read for yourself and get the history. But I want to deal with the first part of this particular chapter and we find our text and The fact that David would encourage himself in the Lord, or the Lord would be his encouragement. Verse 6, And David was greatly distressed. For the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, and every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself. in the Lord. What an interesting time this is to see the handy work of God as David in distress is encouraged. Keep in mind just a little bit of the history of David up until this time, he had been sought by the hand of Saul, the king of Israel. There was to be and would be a very devastating battle between the Philistines and Israel, and ultimately Saul and his sons would be slain in that battle. But up until then, with the, I suppose we'd have to say the exception of Jonathan, that Saul wanted his life and would have taken his life except the Lord had protected him. During this time, David had fled down to the land of the Philistines. And he went to a king in the land of the Philistines, Achish king of Gath, and he had won the favor of this Philistine king, and he was given a particular place to dwell, or a city. called Ziklag. When it came time for the Philistines to go into this battle, David showed up with his men. The other kings of the Philistines and kings and kingdoms were a little bit different, at least among the Philistines than they would have been in other places. And there was a group of kings or leaders of the Philistines, and all of them but Achish were opposed to David. They said, why did you bring this fellow here? He said, don't you know that he'll turn in the battle? and will fight against us. And besides that, he's got a reputation for taking the life of the Philistines. And David did have. He had proven himself in battle. But the Philistines gathered to attack Israel. The lords of the Philistines then refused to let David and his men go to the battle, so they were sent home. And Achish said to David, you need to just go home and the rest of the kings of the Philistines don't want you here and it's going to cause problems. He left and upon returning to Ziklag, he found that there had been Amalekites that had brought battle against Ziklag and had taken captive all of the folks that were left behind, which would have been, in this particular case, women and children. sons and daughters to the Israelites that had come down to be with David. David's two wives had been taken in this particular siege and the burning of Ziklag. And David's men in grief spoke of stoning him to death. That's not a pleasant thought, to say the least. And especially from those that he had befriended. I just want to mention a few of this crowd that came down to David. There were those that were in debt. to the point that they could not pay their debt. Doesn't that sound like us today? Were it not for the grace of God, oh, a debt we could not pay. They were discontent. Some of them in distress. So there was quite a crowd that came down to David and David had been a friend to all these folks and now they're talking about stoning him to death. Talk about a change in a moment of time. I'm sure that as they made their way back to Ziklag away from Achish, the Philistine, that they were, as any group of men would have, they were enjoying themselves, but all of a sudden now this same crowd is speaking about taking his life. The men, of course, were in grief. over the loss of the sons and the daughters and their wives. The Bible said that David encouraged himself in the Lord. The Lord, David's encouragement. Nowhere else to turn. Nowhere else to look but to the Lord. I would have to say that even though the Lord is great in all of His benefits, sometimes it's rather hard just to rest the entire case in the hands of the Lord. I'm sure that you, like I have, in the midst of some difficulty, you'd say, I'm just going to leave this with the Lord, and you haven't any more than laid down the trouble, then you pick it up again. And there's just nowhere else to go but to the Lord. So I want to deal with this thought for a moment as we see a crowd that should have appreciated David, that now want to stone him. I've got just a brief outline that we'll follow for a moment and give you some points, I think, of encouragement. But how can one encourage himself in the Lord? What is there to do that would be the right thing to do under the circumstances? Well, I believe that first of all, to be encouraged in the Lord, one must be in the Lord. Now that sounds rather rudimentary. It seems like we ought to know that, but the unsaved don't know this. So we'd encourage folks to turn to the Lord, but to be in the Lord. Now this is not an act of the flesh. This is not something that you can just kind of stir up, and it shows up in your life. It's something that comes, I think, with the new birth and that particular precious fellowship of knowing God through Jesus Christ the Lord. If I could put salvation in the simplest expression, I'd have to go over and basically share with you the same thing that Paul and Silas shared with the Philippian jailer. Remember that man was distressed. You may have often wondered, why would he start to take his own life? I might need to remind you that the Romans had a discipline about them in places of authority, and in particular in their army, but in a lot of the different places of responsibility that, and as an aside, I'd say it probably worked well. If you were responsible for a prisoner and you let that prisoner escape, you forfeited your own life. That would make you more careful than normal, to say the least. You probably wouldn't be sleeping on guard duty nearly as much. A lot of other things could be said about this, but in this particular case, this Philippian jailer awakened at an earthquake and all the prison doors were open. I'm sure that he assumed, as I would assume, With the prison doors open, the prisoners are gone. And I think they would have been had it not been for the Lord. But Paul cried out and said, Do thyself no harm. We're all here. All of the prisoners had stayed in the prison. Brother John Yaws, our death row chaplain and prison evangelist, is going to be up in this area tonight. Whether he'll get here in time to share any of the ministry and the service, we don't know yet. Mrs. Yaws has an uncle that passed away in They need to stop by on the way up down at Nixon for a viewing and the family time. So whether he'll get into the service tonight, I don't know. If he does, we'll try to at least get him to give some report about the work of the Lord that he's doing. And I do not envy his job. If I remember the letter correctly, the last one that I received, he had accompanied a number of prisoners to their death, their execution. And that, even though that person might be absolutely guilty beyond any shadow of a doubt, it still wouldn't be a pleasant job. But he does his job and does it well. And we appreciate him. But I do know this, that it would be most unlikely if there was an earthquake and those prison doors were open that everybody would be there. Wouldn't likely find a prison full of people But Paul said, do yourself no harm, we're all here. The man asked for a light and came in. The Bible said he sprang in and he knelt before Paul in silence. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And the answer is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. and thou shalt be saved and thy house. Unless you have read that and have thought that because you've been saved that everybody in your house is saved, that's not what it's talking about. It's talking about their salvation for every soul that will believe. And those outside that haven't heard yet, if you'll go tell your family, they'll believe, they'll be saved. So I present to you that if we're going to encourage ourselves in the Lord, we need to know the Lord. It's not an act of the flesh. John said it's not the will of man, but it's of God. marvelous moving of God's Holy Spirit among men. The second thing I want us to see under that particular thought, are we going to encourage ourselves in the Lord? First of all, you do have to know the Lord. The second thing you need to do is Seek the Lord's face. Seek the Lord's face. Involved in that thought of seeking the Lord's face, we ought to be aware of and remember God's faithfulness in the past. I'm going to mention three things because of the limitation of time. But as a young man, there was a bear that came into David's life. Keep in mind that David was not thought of as King David as a young fellow. He was just more the shepherd boy. in the family. So there was a bear that came to take one of the lambs and he pursued after that bear and took that sheep out of that bear's mouth. Well then there came a lion. Same story, the lion came into the camp, took from the flock a sheep, and all of this was in preparation to meet a man named Goliath. When you begin to read the story of David and Goliath, look at some of the details. rather closely. And David said to that man, there's a bear that came in and took a lamb. There was a lion that took a lamb. I pursued after them and I took them both out of their mouths. And he said, you're going to be just like one of those creatures to me. Because the Lord's on my side. I believe this morning we need to remember what the Lord has done and how faithful He has been. And it will encourage you. Don't you remember somewhere in your lost estate that God in His infinite love and mercy dealt in your life? Brought you to himself. And even claimed you as his own. Said, you're mine. You're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. God did give David the victory. So we need to remember his faithfulness in the past. And then we need to remember as we think in terms of how we're going to encourage ourselves in the Lord or be encouraged in the Lord. I believe we need to remember God's unchangeableness. So many of us are as changeable as the wind. We have good intentions, but we're much like Paul said, how to perform that which is good, we have not. And as changeable as we are, yet God is unchangeable. He's always the same. He cannot change. I'm the Lord thy God, I change not. And he will not change. Thank God today. That as God is to us today, so shall he be in eternity. As God looks at judgment now in the person of his son, so shall he look at The judgment in eternity with the same thought and the same look, it will not change. Then I believe we need to inquire as to God's will. Most of us would not have even thought to pray about whether or not I ought to pursue after this army that's come by. David called for Abathar, the priest, and really a son of Ahimelech, the priest. He said, bring me the ephod. Brought it. And certainly in his mind, he was going before the Lord. And he said, do I pursue or do I not pursue? What's your will for my life? We're gonna be encouraged in the Lord, we're gonna have to find God's will for our lives. You may not realize it, but you'll never be happy. in a place away from the will of God. God said pursue, David pursued. As we think in terms of being encouraged in the Lord and some things related to it, be obedient to the Lord. Go when He says go and stay when He says to stay. That puts it in a simple fashion so that I can grasp that. Just do what He says to do. If He says go, then go. If He says stay, then stay. And then finally, the Lord is the only source of encouragement. All the other avenues of encouragement would have stoned David. All of these folks that he befriended, that should have appreciated him for a place to flee to, would have stoned him at this time. But as the Lord accepted the seeker in that day, so he still accepts the one who will see his face today. Just a conclusion, a simple conclusion, one statement. Be encouraged in the Lord. Be encouraged in the Lord. Let's stand together. Musicians, as we stand, make your way to the front and prepare the invitation number, and I'll pray with the rest. Father, it's our privilege to know you, first of all, and to walk with you. And to be assured by you, we realize that our circumstances really are no different. Might be in a different approach, but it all comes to the same conclusion. There's just no encouragement anywhere but in the Lord. So I pray that you'll help in hearts and lives because there very well could be not only one but a number of people in this place today that need your encouragement, need your strength, need your guidance, your will for their lives. For I pray in the name that is above every name, our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.