Alright, let's open our Bibles up again to the book of 1 Samuel chapter 30. 1 Samuel chapter 30. We are coming to a portion of the book of 1 Samuel where we must slow down. There are times in the Old Testament where you can cover a chapter, perhaps even chapters in one message. But here we are in a chapter where we must move slowly. Last Sunday night we looked at the entirety of chapter 29. But as we've come to chapter 30, we have a number of different lessons before us. So this morning, we're going to deal with verses 1 through 6. We're going to talk about the sufferings of sin. And we'll have lunch and come back after lunch and look at picking up the pieces in verses 7 through 10. So we're going to deal with 1 through 6 and look at the sufferings of sin. So let's read these six verses. Let's back up and build a little background to what's happening before we address the text. Begin reading with me in verse 1. It says, And 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, and had taken the women captives. and 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, and behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelite, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And 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, for his daughters. But David encouraged himself and the LORD his God." I want to talk to you about the sufferings of sin. The sufferings of sin. There are going to be times in our lives where we suffer. Sometimes, even of no fault of our own, we just suffer. But there are countless other times when the trouble that we're in is a direct result of the sins that we are committing. Would you turn with me back and look at verse 5 of chapter 22? David was instructed of God to live in the land of Judah. Israelites were instructed to live in the land that their tribe was given. This was God's promise and blessing to Israelites, to the children of Israel. David had left and tried to live among the Philistines. Then he went and lived among Moab, and found peace at Moab, and was living in a stronghold there with his parents. But God sent him a word, a messenger. In verse 5 it says, And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold." That's this strong city that he's living in, Moab. "...Depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed and came into the forest of Harith." warning and instruction to David is that he is to live in Judah. And as long as David lived in Judah, yes, he had trials, yes, he had troubles, yes, he was tempted, but God always rescued David and David has really suffered no ill effects of living in Judah even though Saul tries to seek his life continually. So where does the problem come in? Problem begins in chapter 27. Would you look with me at 1 Samuel 27 verse 1? I know Baptists don't remember what was preached last week, and we covered this a couple of months ago, so we're going to go back and read a couple of verses. Look at verse 1. Saul had tried to seek David's life again. David spared Saul. It says, And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines, and Saul shall despair of me to seek me any more in the coast of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand." Notice what David proposed to do. I'm going to the land of the Philistines so that Saul does not kill me. David has had some close calls with Saul. But God has saved David every single time. David is tired of Saul's pursuit of him. So he said, I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines. Does that sound like something David prayed about? No. Does that sound like something God told David? No. God has already said, live in Judah. That was a pre-existing command to any person born of the tribe of Judah. They were to live among their land unless God drove them out. David was not driven out. He was instructed to stay there and the Lord would provide for him. But here David commits the sin of leaving his homeland and going and living in a pagan land. That's a sin. That's a direct disobeying of God's command. Look with me in chapter 27 at verse 9. It says, "'And David and his men went up,' no, I'm sorry, verse 9, "'and David smote the land and left neither man nor woman alive, "'and took away the sheep and the oxen and the asses and the camels "'and the apparel and returned and came to Achish.'" Now what's David doing wrong here? He's going and raiding these cities and these small tribes and killing all the people and taking all of their goods. Now, these are the enemies of Israel, and if you lived in Israel, this is what should be done. You should pursue your enemies and drive them out of the land. But what's David doing wrong? He's taking the donkeys, the cattle, the goats, the camels, and giving them to Achish, the enemy of Israel. David is funding the king that's fixing to be in battle with Israel in the next chapter. David is going and doing this and not only is he funding the enemy. Do you realize that that's a crime today for you to fund the enemy? If you live in this country and you're sending money to ISIS, the terrorist group, you can be charged with that. That's a crime. David's crime is not only that he's supporting the enemy, he's supporting the enemy of God. And he's living with the enemy of God. And here's what else he's doing. He's lying to Achish about where these people that he killed were from. He's lying to Achish where these camels came from. He doesn't want Achish to know. So David is living a life of a lie. He's funding the enemy. He's living outside of the will and the territory of God. And guess where that lands him? Chapter 28, verse 2. Let's look at what Achish says. Achish said in verse 1, we're going to fight Israel and you're going to go with me. You see, when you live a lie and you live in sin, you're going to find yourself having to continue your life of sin. So what does David say in verse 2? David said to Achish, surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do. He said, okay, I'll go to battle and you know how I can fight, you know how I can kill, you know what my men are trained to do, you know our reputation. David is giving Achish the assurance that he will go and fight the Israelites. Folks, that's a sin. If David meant it, that's a sin. If David was lying, that's a sin. David is living in sin. Now, here's the problem that we have. Sin has its sufferings. If you get tangled up in sin, you are going to suffer. You say, well, if I don't sin, will I not suffer? No. You will suffer for living a righteous life. But Peter says, count it all joy, brethren, when trials and temptations come upon you. When you are suffering for doing right, that is a service to God. When you are suffering for doing wrong, that is correction from God. Sin brings more trials. Sin brings self-inflicted harm on you. Let's think about this for a moment. Sin brings judgment from God. Sin brings trial. Sin is serious. Now, why do I say this? Because you are a people from a group of people who tend to think that sin is not serious. You, sitting in the pew, belong to a larger group of people who do not take sin seriously. You say, what group of people do we belong to? Are you not all Baptist? Most of you? Huh? Look at me. This is a yes. This is a no. This is how we'll proceed from now on out. You nod your head up and down, that's yes. You don't have to say amen. You don't have to agree with me. But let's make sure that we're both still awake and we're both still on the same page. You all are Baptists or aspire to be or at least loosely resemble a Baptist, right? Now, the brand of Baptist that we are is not a free will Baptist. We don't believe that you get saved and get lost and get saved and get lost and you live your life on some kind of spiritual Richter scale where you could be up here, you could be down here. You believe in this doctrine and this is what you've been told. Once saved, always saved. You repeated that with me. Once saved, always. You know what that's devolved into by the 21st century? If you're saved, it don't matter what you do, you're always saved. That is not the first century teaching of the apostles. The first century teaching of the apostles is that your actions reflected whether something happened in your life. In other words, you could look at their fruits and know them, as Jesus said. Christians acted like Christians. Sinners acted like sinners. Pagans acted like pagans. We live in a day where if someone said they're saved, then who are we to judge? Right? Is it only me that experiences this conversation on a regular basis? Is it only me that reads the obituary and sees someone who's lived a life of hardened sin, and when they die, they were a lifelong member of the shady tree Baptist church? Huh? Is that just me? Am I the only guy that notices that in the paper? Then what's our problem? Our problem as Baptists is this, that we don't believe sin is serious. And if we thought it was serious, we would deal with it as if it were serious. If we thought sin brought suffering, we'd warn people about it. You ever think about going into an old building and tearing the sheetrock off and shaking up the asbestos insulation in your face? Huh? You ever think about doing that? Why not? Why not? Why wouldn't you do that? Why wouldn't you open a jar of cyanide and sniff it a little bit and just see what it smelt like? Why wouldn't you do that? It's dangerous. Oh, but sin's not dangerous. I'm not going to talk about sin. I'm not going to address sin. I'm not going to point out sin. I don't want anybody to know they're sinning. Sin is the most dangerous thing in the world. The wages of sin is death. John said there is a sin that is unto death. Christian, you as a child of God, if you persist in sin, God will kill you. Sin has its suffering. Oh, I'm once saved, always saved. That's true. If you truly are saved, you are always saved. And if you're truly a child of God and you think you can treat your God however you want, you'll find out that your God bears a switch just like my father bore one. My dad didn't have a switch. He had a belt. He didn't always have a tree, but he always had a belt. And he used it, and rightfully so, for my correction. And if you claim to be a child of God, and you think your Heavenly Father doesn't take your disobedience seriously, you don't know your Heavenly Father. You don't. Sin has sufferings. David is a man after God's own art. David has been anointed to be the king of Israel. David has been promised to be this king, this great king, the king that God wants for Israel, not the king that Israel wants. That was Saul. God said, now I'm going to give them my king, and that's going to be David. You may think, well, I've been anointed, I've been blessed, God's put my name down, my name's written in heaven, that's great. But there comes a great responsibility. And if you do not take sin seriously, you are going to suffer because of sin. In these six verses, we have an accurate picture. of the sufferings of sin. Not just an accurate account of what really happened to David because of the sins he was committing, but God uses the wording and the actions to give us a picture that's timeless. First thing I want us to look at is the burn of sin. I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, Feel the Burn. It was for Bernie Sanders, the guy running for president. Sin will cause you to feel the burn. Look at what's happening in verses 1 through 3. I want you to notice what the text says about the burn of sin. 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. Now we don't have any instance that any other town was burned with fire, but Ziklag was burned with fire. Not only was it captured, not only was it taken, but they decided to burn Ziklag to the ground. Verse 2, And they had taken the women captives that were therein, and 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, and behold, it was burned with fire. And their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captive. You know, I was thinking about buying a gun safe the other day. I thought, man, I need a gun safe. And I started looking at the gun safe. I got a gun safe now. It's not a great one, but it works. And I said, you know what I need? I need one that you can't pry into. I mean, I need one that things can't be stolen from. I want one that's solid. Right. I started looking into it. You know where the price goes up? It doesn't go up in the ones that can't be broken into. The price goes up with the ones that can't be burned. Fire protection is where the money is. You see, if someone broke into my house and stole a bunch of my guns and my valuable stuff, you know what I would begin to do? I would begin to go around hoping to find my guns in a pawn shop in Pondock. I'd be hoping to find my valuables posted on eBay for sale. I'd be hoping to recover some of the things that were stolen. But you know what would happen if my house was burned? There would be no recovery. Everything would be gone. You broke into my house and you stole a book of pictures from me back in my early days. I'd get online and pull them all up. I'd get on the cloud where all of my documents are stored and get them back. When things are burned, it means that they're gone away. Sin is destructive. I want to be very clear about this. Sin can bring damage that will not be repaired. Ziklag will never look the same again. Down the road from me, there's a house that caught on fire. Didn't burn it to the ground. Just burn out a couple rooms and one in. Nobody lives in the house anymore. You know why? The whole house smells like smoke. You can't get it out. The whole house didn't burn, just this portion of it burnt. The roof's still intact. All these things are intact. But when a fire goes through the land, it changes the landscape. You say, brother Harold, I thought sins could be forgiven. They can be forgiven, but the damage always remains. Let me demonstrate this to you. Moses sinned against God. He was told to speak to the rock and get water. Moses was mad at the people, he hit the rock. That was a sin, he disobeyed God. God gave them water anyways, but you know what he told Moses? You will not enter the promised land because of your sin. Now here's Moses, he's been their leader since day one. He's the one that approached Pharaoh. He's the one that led them across the Red Sea. He has been the leader and He goes up on the mountain and instead of entering the Promised Land, He looks at it from the distance and never sets His foot on it. Why? Sin has suffering. You'll find this reoccurring theme throughout Scripture. Look at Israel prior to this. Twelve spies were sent into Israel to see what the land looked like and we came back and got the majority report. Ten spies said, we can't go in there. We look like grasshoppers and the land's full of giants. Two of them said, we'd be well able, let us go at once and take the land that God has given us. They took a vote and they said, we can't go. And you know what God said? Because you didn't believe me, for 40 years you're going to wander in the desert. And everyone that's over the age of 20 will not enter the promised land save two people. You realize there were two people over 60 years old when they entered the promised land? Do you know who those two people were? Those that said, we can go now, Caleb and Joshua. Everyone else died. Why? Sin has suffering. I'll give you one more example, David and Bathsheba. David committed adultery, had an affair with Bathsheba. She was pregnant. So in order to cover up the pregnancy, he called in Uriah, the Hittite, her husband. He tried to get Uriah to go home and lay with his wife so that he could say, hey, that baby's yours, Uriah, congratulations. And Uriah was too good of a man to go home. So Uriah stayed at the palace. So David had Uriah killed. You say, did God ever forgive David? Sure He did. But do you know that sin has consequences? The baby that David and Bathsheba conceived died. And God passed a judgment on David, and here's what he told him. Because thou hast done this thing. The sword will never depart from your home. You go and read the latter half of 2 Samuel. You watch how David has one son that kills another son that kills another son. You watch David have a son rise up and attempt to kill him. You watch David's sons being slain by the army. You watch the turmoil in David's family. And that turmoil lasted after he died. And why did it come upon him? Sin. Sin. Fires alter landscapes and sins will alter your life. Even if you are a Christian, sin brings suffering. There is a burn of sin in 1 through 3. There is bondage of sin in 2 and 3. Look at verse 2 with me again. "...and had taken the women captives that were therein, and 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, and behold, it was burned with fire, And their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives. Do you realize how strange this is? These people, every single one of them was taken in as a slave. He didn't only transport so many slaves. till somebody breaks away. Do you realize the danger of taking slaves? David knew the danger of taking slaves. He killed everyone he attacked. He didn't leave anybody, great or small, to tell the story. If one person gets away and goes back and tells David, hey, it's the Amalekites that's got your wives and sons. Everybody's going after the Amalekites. They took these women and children hostage. Why? I'll give you one solid answer, and it's really the only answer you need, because God's painting a picture here. They could have come back and found their wives dead and their children dead. That's what most people found. Instead, they came back and found their wives and their children had been taken hostage. This is demonstrating to us the bondage of sin. Sin takes and sin keeps. Sin will like to get a hold of you and maintain its grip on you. Before the salvation of our lives, you and I were in bondage to sin. We were unable to break the bonds of sin. We were unable to do anything because of sin. This is what it says in Ephesians chapter 2. And you who were dead in trespasses and sins hath he quickened. that He made alive. You were dead in sin, you were in bondage to sin, and it wasn't until the grace of God came by that broke the bonds of sin. Sin has a bondage. You say, well, yes, that's right, preacher. I'm no longer in bondage to sin. I'm saved. I've been set free. I'm here to tell you the Christian can fall right back in to bondage with sin. Not to the point that it keeps his soul out of heaven, but to the point that it brings suffering and judgment from God during this life. You can find yourself in sin. Many Christians find themselves in sin. They find themselves with addiction. They find themselves with unhealthy fascinations. They find themselves hooked on things they cannot get away from. They find the desires of sin to be stronger than the desires to serve God. So here's what we tend to do. Here's what Christians tend to do. We compartmentalize our sin. My life is grade A in all of these areas, and it's only this one area over here, sin, that I have a problem with. And the Lord knows about that, and it's okay. No, sin is a bondage. It's a chain. They don't want your part-time use. It wants your full-time attention. Sin appeals to your flesh. I don't mean your skin. I mean the old man that you used to be. You ever hear people talk about the good old days? Christians don't have good old days. The good old days weren't good. You weren't doing good things back then. If you're a Christian and you had spiritual good old days, I have a question for you. What did you do that got you out of the spiritual good old days? Sin has bondage. It clings on to you. It latches on to you with a chain, and it wants to hang on to you, and it wants to keep your attention, and it wants you to give it more attention. And Christian, just because God saved you and delivered you from the final punishment of sin, does not mean you're immune to not picking up the bondage of sin regularly in certain areas of your life. Notice not only the burn of sin and the bondage of sin, notice the brokenness of sin. I want to tell you something as a pastor. I am saddened. by the brokenness of sin. You know why? I don't typically hear from anybody until they're experiencing the brokenness. How are you? Oh, I'm fine, Preacher. How are you? I'm good. This may go on for a year, two years, and then all of a sudden, the brokenness of sin shows up. And then it's, Brother Harold, I need to talk to you. What's the matter? The brokenness of sin shows up. Look with me at verses 4 and 5. David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept. until they had no more power to weep and David's two wives were taken captive. the Jezreelitis, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal, the Carmelite. When we look at the brokenness of sin, you need to understand that sin does not come to you with a warning label on it. It doesn't say hazardous if taken. It doesn't say this product may bring a harmful side effect. Sin comes to you and says, it's good eating. It'll quench your thirst. This is everything you've wanted. It comes to you with the advertisement of a late night TV infomercial. It'll cure any problem you have. And you know what? Sin varies from person to person. Some of the things you might fall for are of no interest to me. How in the world could anybody do what they did? We do everything you do, we'd said the same thing about you. But when the pleasure of sin goes away, because sin wants to be permanent, it wants to bond you in, it wants to drag on, it wants you to get comfortable with it, but God's children can't stay comfortable with sin. David was comfortable in Ziklag for 16 months. At the end of 16 months, God sent suffering. And that suffering led to brokenness. So here's what happens when sin runs its course. It leaves you broken. It leaves you weeping and unable to weep anymore. Well, how does sin break us? Sin breaks homes every day. Sin breaks homes every day. It breaks up good Christian homes every day. Marriages are broken by sin every day. And I'm not just talking about infidelity in the marriage. Selfishness breaks marriages every day. Self-centeredness breaks marriages every day. Lies, deceit, lust, covetousness, all of those things break marriages every day. And the suffering of sin brings brokenness. It breaks homes. It breaks relationships between children and their parents. It breaks relationships between husbands and wives. Sin breaks individual lives down. People who were once strong, solid, biblical people fell victim to sin and never regained the life they had before. I've seen sin ruin a lot of ministries. are preachers. You say, brother, how didn't God forgive them? Oh, yeah, he forgave them. But they're no longer preachers. Oh, yeah, he can forgive you. He can pardon your transgression. But listen to me. Sin has damages. Those damages may not be repaired. We tend to take sin so flippantly that we don't see the brokenness. We say, no, I'm OK. And nothing's going to bother me. But if you're a preacher, And you get caught committing some sins, certain sins, different sins. But if you get caught in sin and you get caught up and you're in bondage to sin, that sin could be the end of you ever being a preacher again, and rightfully so. If you're a Sunday school teacher, that sin could destroy your witness. You can be a school teacher and get caught committing some sins, never be a school teacher. Why? Sin has damage. Lawyer commits certain sins in legal practice, you get disbarred, you're no longer a lawyer. Doctor commits certain transgressions, no longer a doctor. Still a human being, still alive, still be a Christian, still have a relationship with God. But listen to me, you will never be able to go back to that. Why? When sin burns through and puts people in bondage, it leaves them broken and they're never the same again. And oftentimes, sadly, it takes this brokenness before anybody wakes up. to the danger of sin. People don't want to talk about sin. People don't want to address their sin. People don't want to deal with their sin. Why? Because it's not bothering anybody. I'm okay with it. I'm alright with it. I'm doing fine. But what happens when sin breaks you? All of a sudden, you realize the seriousness of your sin. All of a sudden, you recognize the condition of your life. You realize what's at stake. And it's that brokenness that wakes you up. And oftentimes, when you reach this point of suffering for sin, all that can be done is weep. David and his men wept until they could weep no more because their lives were broken by sin. Brings us to our fourth thought, the burden of sin. You see, when I talk to people about sin, here's the response I typically get. You're telling them, preacher, I know who you're talking to right now. You cut your eyes across the church and you look He's lining them out. Nudge your spouse. He's going to straighten them out today, honey. Sir, ma'am, I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you. You see, sin, not only does it burn and bondage and break us down, but there's a burden of sin. Would you look with me at verse 6? And David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him. For the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself and the Lord his God." I want you to contemplate something for me very quickly. Just think on this. 99.9% of sins. involve other people. Think about that. When you commit a sin against God, 99.9% of the time, it has an effect on other people other than your relationship between you and God. Every sin that is committed by a married man, most of them have an effect to some degree or another on the other spouse. That's a burden. We don't think about that burden. We think our sin's just between me and God, and since God's not striking me dead or hitting me with a plague, God must be okay with my sin. But there is a burden to your sin you're not aware of, and it affects those that are closest to you. See, when you live in sin, it affects your marriage. When you live in sin, it affects your children. Children, when you live in sin, it affects your parents. When you're an employee and you're an employee living in sin, it affects your company. When you're a boss and you live in sin, it affects your employees. When you're a neighbor and you're comfortable in your sin, it affects your neighborhood. Yes, they all know, Bridger. It don't bother anybody else. It's just between me and God. It's between you and God to get it straightened out. But your sin affects you and I can give you a long list of the problems I've caused in my marriage because of my sin. I've gotten angry at God. I've told God I was tired of trying to serve Him. I'm tired of being around Baptists. I'm going to quit going to church. I'm going to stay home. I'm going to have fun on Sundays like everybody else. I'm going to live my own life. I know more than the preacher does. I'm tired of hearing the same old lessons. I'm tired of the same old canned speech. I'm going to go have fun on Sunday. That hurt my children. That hurt my wife. That hurt my parents. That hurt my boss at work. You know why? When I lived that kind of a sinful life, it affected every area of my life. If you think you can live in sin and not affect anybody else, you're lying to yourself and the rest of us that are having to deal with you. What happened when the burden of sin came home? What happened when the full weight of what David was doing showed up at his doorstep? Six hundred men came to their senses as well. You know why? They were entangled in the same sin that David was entangled with. All of a sudden, it wasn't just David's two wives and their children that was taken away. It was David's 600 soldiers, their wives, their children that were taken away. David was greatly distressed. Why? Because the full burden of the sin came home. It wasn't just David's sin, it was 600 families that sinned. I want to tell you something. When a leader sins, it's a much greater burden that's shared than when the average person sins. Let me give you an example of that. Bill Clinton committed a sin. Do you ever hear about it? Why? If the manager of an average-sized company had done that, it wouldn't have been national news. It wouldn't have been discussed. Why? When you are in a position of leadership, Your sins are magnified to the people." When David led these 600 men and their wives and kids out of Israel, he led them into his sin. And when these people realized that God was passing some judgment on them because of their actions, what did they do? They said, We ought to stone David. We ought to kill him. David is the reason. Remember when David was told to live in Judah, his only problem was Saul. When David left God's plan and made his own plans and sinned against God, David all of a sudden had 600 enemies. 600 enemies and not 600 on the other side of the country, 600 in the same tent. I want you to think about that. That's the burden of sin. Oh no, preacher, these sins are no big deal. We're just staying over here until Saul gets out of office. When Saul goes away, we'll go back and be good Christians later. No, my friend, God don't work on your time frame. I'm just trying to get out of trouble. I'm just trying to find an easy place to stay. I just want a safe place for my family. No, my friend. God doesn't operate according to your plans. Sin has its suffering. I want you to look at the last part of verse 6 with me again. But David encouraged himself, and the Lord his God. Now this is important. You've been asleep to this part. You woke up when I raised my voice. You need to wake up now because this is something you're going to need to hear. David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. There are a lot of people trying to encourage themselves in the Lord today. They're trying to. They're quoting scripture. They're claiming faith. Oftentimes it's nothing more than faith and faith. And they'll say as much. I'm just going to have faith and faith. That's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. I'm just going to believe and believe him. That sounds like a fairy tale to me. What does it mean here when it says he encouraged himself in the Lord? David was encouraged in the Lord because he sought the Lord. Can I tell you something about God? God does not encourage those with whom he is trying to seek repentance. You want me to put it into terms the average man can understand? Your child has done something wrong and you've disciplined them. And until they recognize that they're in trouble, you're not going to give them nice stuff, are you? Your child has done something wrong, you've grounded them, you've taken their electronics away. The horrors. They're not going to walk in there and go, hey, I'd like to get a new iPhone. Okay, honey. No, the new iPhone does not occur until we recognize what needs to be corrected in their life. That's the way it worked at my house. Is it similar in yours? You don't encourage people with whom you're trying to correct. When would you encourage them? When they come to you and go, hey, you're right. I was wrong. I'm sorry. What is that called? There's the theological term for that. It starts with an R. What is it? Repentance. David could not encourage himself in the Lord until he repented. You pay attention, because there's people today with zero repentance, quoting Bible verses as if that's going to fix everything. I had a discussion this week with one of them. The guy could not understand why he was having financial trouble. And I said, what do you mean you don't understand? He said, listen, this is a guy I had a casual conversation with. He says, listen, I got this verse here that says, my God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches and glory. And I'm like, okay. Yeah? You know, you're standing upright, you walked in here without a walker, you've got a clear mind. He goes, no, I've got all these debt problems, I've got all these credit card bills, I've got all this stuff. Why isn't God paying all these things? I said, before you quote to me the book of Philippians, how about we read the entire book of Philippians? And take note, first of all, this book was written in prison. How about we read the other passages in Philippians where Paul says, I have learned both to abound and to be obeyed. How to have much and do without. How about we read some more passages in Philippians and not just the encouraging ones. Folks, listen to me. When David encouraged himself in the Lord, he didn't write a Bible verse on the bathroom mirror and lipstick. He didn't make a screensaver, a particular Bible verse. When David encouraged himself in the Lord, he repented of his sins. Why? David was broken. And being broken awoke David out of his spiritual slumber where he slept, unaware that he was sinning against a holy God, where he slept without concern for the things of God. David lay in spiritual sleep and God woke him up. What was the cost of waking David up? Let's recount it quickly at the end. What did it take to wake David up? His home had to be burnt to the ground. What did it take to Wake up, David, his wives and children had to be taken into captivity as prisoners. I'm going to tell you what, I don't think I could sleep knowing my wife and children were being kept by Malachites. What did it take to wake David up? All of his possessions were burned to the ground. What did it take to wake David up? He's still not awake yet. 600 of his best friends had to threaten and kill him. When did David encourage himself in the Lord? When his house was gone, his wife was gone, his kids were gone, all of his stuff was gone, and his friends were gone. Now, at that point, the promises of God become real. You know why? You don't have any other way to fix your problem. You see, if you've got another option, if you've got another avenue, well, me and my friends will get together, we'll patch this place up, we'll rebuild, we'll fix it up. We're fixers, we want to do it ourselves. But sin against God and His children brings suffering, not so that you fix it up, but so that you go to God to get it fixed up. And God got David to a place in his life where all he had was God. And when you get to a place in your life where all you have is God, you won't sit there and blame God, but you will find encouragement in God. Repent. You find comfort in those promises. of God's patience and God's mercy, God's forgiveness, God's long-suffering, God's ability to restore and correct. Those promises only apply to those who are broken. So let's wrap this lesson up. Sufferings of sin. Do you have any sin? You do, whether you want to admit it or not. And I'm not looking for you to nod your head or say amen. You have sin. You may not even know about it. You got sin. You've got a problem with it. The question that really I should have asked is not, do you have sin? My question should be, does your sin bother you? Because if it don't bother you, you're okay with it. If your sin doesn't bother you, then you think God's okay with it. Let me be clear with you. Until your sin bothers you, you are like David living in Ziklag for 16 months. You're okay with killing the Amalekites. You're okay with lying to Achish. You're okay with going to battle with Israel. Why? God's not convicted you of it yet. The question that we have to ask now if your sin does not bother you is this. What exactly would God have to do to wake you up to your sinful condition? If you think that you can sin and God's okay with it, you've lied to yourself about who God is, because God's not okay with sin. So answer the question. Does your sin bother you? Are you working on it? Are you fighting it? Are you repenting and seeking strength from God to Resist sin! Or are you okay with your sins and you think God's okay with your sins and you think that your sins are just between you and God? Everybody has these secret sins. A lot of times when those secret sins come out, they shock everyone else. Can you believe that? I had no idea. Can you believe what they did? Can you believe this went on? And people are shocked by these secret sins. But God doesn't know of a secret sin. Because every sin that's ever committed is public before God. Secret sins only apply to you and I. And you think they don't affect you? And you think they don't affect anyone else? And it's just between you and God and He's okay with it? I'm here to tell you, if you pollute your mind, it will change your outlook on life. There's a lot of studies that indicate that pornography is one of the greatest sins in our country. That may or may not be so. I'm not much on statistics. But if you pollute your mind with that stuff, it's going to change the way you view other women. If you pollute your mind with that stuff, it's going to change your relationship with your spouse. Women, if you pollute your mind with the drama and the junk that's on television, it's going to change the way you view your marriage. You say, well, there's nothing sinful about that. Yeah, when you watch a TV show that's filled with homosexuals and adultery, it's going to dull your mind down to the severity of that sin. But we think, oh, God's okay with it. It's the 21st century. Everybody watches this. I'm sure everybody else in the land of the Philistines was alright with things when God showed up and passed judgment on Ziklag. Sin is serious and sin brings suffering. And I pray today that you've awoken out of your sinful slumber to your spiritual condition. You know, sometimes hearing about something happening somewhere else causes us to wake up and take notice. Sometimes we hear about it enough, and instead of saying, oh, that would never happen here, or oh, that would never happen to me, sometimes we hear about it enough, we say, you know what, I ought to take action. So that don't happen. Ought to take action so that don't happen here. The suffering of sin is real and it brings serious problems to your life. And if sin is affecting your life, it's affecting the lives of those that are close to you. Before you can get encouragement from God and get the promises from God, you must first repent and deal seriously with your sin. God doesn't offer encouragement to those that do not repent and turn to Him. So when I asked you earlier if you had sinned, most of you kind of went, yeah, I've got some. The question now becomes, what are you going to do about it? Oh, my sin's not as bad as yours, preacher. You've probably got real bad sins. I'm pretty good. Looking around the room, preacher, I'm probably in the top 10% of non-sinners in the room. That's your attitude. You are blind to your real condition. And you are spiritually asleep, as David in Ziklag. It's my prayer that you don't have to be broken. Burdened, bondage and burned. It's my prayer that you would hear the preaching that's been presented today and say, that's me. That's where I'm headed. There's coming a day when the sufferings of my actions are going to show up and God's not going to let me keep going on. God's eventually going to show up and correct me. And I don't want to wait till that day. I want to go to God now in repentance. confess my faults before him and ask God to forgive me now so that I can leave as David. Encourage the Lord. I want to be honest with you. I've had to do some of that this week. I pray that you do some of