Our scripture reading takes us to 1st Samuel chapter 30 verses 16 through 30, second half of 1st Samuel 30. We're coming down the homestretch. I think now I've been saying that for like eight weeks now. And of course next time we'll conclude the book with the reading and preaching respecting the death of Saul. and moving on from there to 2 Samuel. But here, we're closing up on an event and a time in David's life where he's been away from Saul, who's been pursuing him. And now, as it turns out, he's been residing in the city of Ziklag. And the city itself had been attacked and burned down, and all of the people, and all of the animals, and all the other stuff in Ziklag was taken and carried off. But David, in the strength of the Lord, waits upon the Lord and the Lord sends him this fellow who seems to be almost dying in the wilderness, an Egyptian who is a servant of one of the Amalekites who had defeated David's temporary home city. And it's there in the middle of the wilderness that God provides a man who could direct his attention to where the Amalekites can be found and where David can return and deliver his own people and be victorious over the Amalekites. That's where we are in verse 16 of 1 Samuel 30. And when he had taken him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the land as the Amalekites, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. And David struck them down from twilight until evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped except 400 young men who mounted camels and fled. David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives. Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken, David brought back all. David also captured all the flocks and herds and the people drove the livestock before him and said, this is David's spoil. Then David came to the 200 men who had been too exhausted to follow David and who had been left at the Brook Bay store. And they went out to meet David, to meet the people who were, and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near to the people, he greeted them. Then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and children and depart. But David said, you shall not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They all share alike. And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day. When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to his friends, The elders of Judah sang, here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord. It was for those in Bethel, and Ramoth of the Negev, and Jatir, in Aror, in Ziphoth, in Esh-Timoah, in Raqqa, in the cities of the Jeremelites, in the cities of the Kenites, in Hormah, in Boreshan, in Athak, in Hebron, for all the places where David and his men had roamed. Thus far, the word of our Lord, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Let's pray. As we open the pages of sacred scripture, dear Lord, will you also open the eyes of our hearts that we may know the hope to which we've been called in this life and in the life to come through Christ our Lord. Amen. So you see the picture of David who has been running away from Saul, living in the wilderness, even resorting to finding help from the Philistines of all people to get away from Saul. He finally gets the upper hand because the Lord provides for him in the middle of the wilderness, a man who will give him direction against the enemies of God, the Amalekites. And here we will learn, I trust, Here we will learn that God is always with his people in the spirit of his son, that God is always providing for his people, that God is always mindful of them in their times of weakness and sin and vulnerability. David acts very decisively here and he delivers and he recovers people and livestock and all sorts of other junk and stuff, as Leavitt the Beaver used to say, But David remembers that although people are saying that the plunder belongs to David, he remembers that God's kindness and provision and mercy are responsible for these things. Remembering what even the Apostle Paul said to his people, what do you have that you did not receive? What do you have that has not been given to you from God above? So God's kindness and provision and mercy all make for the winnings to David. And David takes all of those winnings and brings them to everyone, great and small alike, both strong and weak. God gave to David a messenger in the wilderness to point the way to the Amalekites. David, for sure, finally caught up to the Amalekites who were still partying from their victory. over David and others of their enemies. And it says in verse 17 that David went on to attack the Amalekites, fighting from dusk until evening of the next day, maybe 72 hours. And we're reminded that God is always watchful of his people. He's always mindful. And unfortunately, too many times, Christians, those who follow Christ and consider themselves disciples of God, look at God as big brother who is watching you. And God is watching you and we should be mindful of his judgment over sin, but we should also be reminded that God is mindful of the poor and needy, the oppressed and the afflicted. He is mindful of all that his people are going through. Psalm 119 verse 71 says, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. Psalm 90 verse 10, verse 15 says, make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us. And so many times, so many times, Do the people of God look upon their affliction and say, it is never ending, will it ever let up, as if God is not watching over them? James says in chapter 5, James chapter 5, verses 10 and 11, as an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. How many times have you heard I hope you haven't, but I heard a preacher on TV say that they are a prophet of God. If anybody ever comes up to you and says, I'm a prophet of God, tell them, I don't think so. In fact, tell them, I don't think you want to be a prophet of God. Let's look in the Bible. Let's go back and see what happened to the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, James says, We consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. David's been through a lot. Job, maybe even much more. And I will say this, I know that if you're like me, you go through that book of Job and you see all that he lost and all that he suffered, and then in the end he gets a family, a new family, he gets more kids, He gets all and more of his wealth back as if, and this is not what's being communicated there in Job, as if they lived happily ever after and nothing bad had ever happened to them. Let me put it this way. It says that Job's family grew and prospered. It says that his wealth prospered and that he lived well in the land. But I would add one statement, that Job would never be the same. with all that he had suffered, with all that he had been afflicted by. Nevertheless, he was able to say to his wife, who told him to curse God and die, he said, shall we accept what is good from the Lord and not that which is evil or bad or troublesome? So David is very decisive in his victory. The language in the chapter says that David killed them. He recovered all. that he rescued, that he brought back all. It says that David captured all the flocks and herds. There wasn't one person, animal, or thing missing that had been restored. That is how good God has been to him. But everyone was looking to David as the one who had been victorious. And for sure, It was David's victory. And you know what? David could have been the kind of person who said to himself, like we might from time to time, well, it's about time things started to take a turn for the better for me. Things have been very rough. It's tempting to be thinking about the hard times, because the pain is real. And some of you may still be stinging from the difficulties that you have had. But David's regard is not just for the men who fought with him, but for the people who did not have the strength to come along. You may remember in the passage before that there were just hundreds of men who just did not have anything left in him. They were all hungry. They were all very tired, exhausted to the point that they could hardly lift themselves again. And David said, very well, those who can fight will go with me. The rest of you can stay with the baggage. Doesn't that sound impressive? Staying with the baggage. But David's regard for the baggage people surpasses the standard rules of the world. The world will say, well, what do they deserve? They just sat around and rested and recuperated and recovered while everybody else did the fighting. But David says, by virtue of their membership in the people of God, they deserve the same mercy that God has shown me. The Apostle Paul says to us, what do you have that you did not receive? Above all, your salvation. The only part that you have in your salvation is the sin that required it. For you friends that live in the bitterness of past experiences, and I speak and preach to myself, you must know this, that if I say a hard word or a challenging word, To you, you can be sure that the pastor probably had to deal with it himself that previous week, being challenged and convicted. But for you, friends, for us that live in the bitterness of how others have mistreated you, remember that God is mindful of your troubles, that Jesus is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, and the Spirit is at hand to guide you through your journey as you negotiate your way out of bitterness and into joy and gratitude for Christ. David, by human standards, was completely entitled to the lion's share. I'm reminded of an occasion of my own son, David. We have three boys, they're not boys anymore, David was a very little guy playing a little street hockey out in front of the house. They were always playing hockey on the ice, on the pavement, in the house. If we confiscated their hockey sticks, they would use Hot Wheel tracks. They just could not help themselves. David recruited another boy in the neighborhood to play against him, who was half his size and half his age, if you can imagine it, these little squirts. playing. As I looked out the front door, I saw that David let the boy score against him. And I thought, that's really good that he did that for him. And then I looked out a second time, believe it or not, and that very second time I looked out again, he let the boy score against him. So I went out to the front door to the stoop and I was about to say to David, I like the way you're playing. And David said, Daddy, I'm winning 31 to 2. True story. David is anything but that kind of person anymore. Everybody gets a share. And everybody shares, including the baggage people, as I call them. They were too weak to go. And as God has had mercy on David, And as God has had mercy on you through the Lord Jesus Christ, David will show mercy to anyone who is in need. Every part, every member of the people of God is as indispensable as the one before. So David distributes gifts to everyone, including the elders of Judah who had been supportive and in prayer. David's regard for his people is such that it surpasses that of the rest of the world. And David even goes to the elders of Judah to thank them for their support, to give them a piece of his plunder. The Apostle Paul in Romans 10 says that these things, God's salvation, God's deliverance from sin, God's provision of mercy in Christ, these things are in your mouth and in your heart. The Lord's promises do not change. Read the Psalms. I hope you do anyway. I hope you don't need that reminder. But read the Psalms and see that God's King, David, suffered. You'll see the Psalms. There's a little caption across the top. It'll say, A Psalm of David. And see how many times David was afflicted or persecuted or attacked or personally suffering or in a drought or in the desert, feeling far from God and yet remembering that God's promises never change and remembering that Jesus suffered much more for you and for your sake, for me and for my sake. We go through a tough time, a drought, prosperity, a drought of health, a drought, worse yet, of spirituality. Our faith runs cold and our prayers are dry and hard-hearted or even non-existent, but God's purposes are irreversible. I was doing a little homework on the person of John Owen, one of the if not the greatest theologian in the English language, just a profoundly gifted man. Very little is known about him personally, but he outlived every single member of his family, his wife and all 11 of his children. Sometimes that's all you need to know, isn't it? And he said this in a sermon. As he spoke a word of comfort to his own people, wives, children, husbands may be dead, our houses may be burned and all consumed. There is only this, the word of God, that abides forever. The promises of God fail not. Psalm 25 verse 14 says that the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him and he makes known to them his covenant. God will not separate himself from his people whom he loves. And we are given in the word and sacrament over and over again the reminder by God's word and power of his covenant love for his people. Holy Communion is to be a frequent reminder that we are the children of God through our faith in Christ and his son who died to give us a place at the table of the wedding feast of the Lamb. You see, we're not just united at the church's table. We are looking forward to that day when we will be sitting at the wedding feast of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who alone is worthy to open the scroll. And for those of you who don't know, we just go right into the Lord's Supper from the word of God, because it proceeds from the word of God. The scriptures say that as they were eating, the Lord took bread and after blessing it, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said, take, this is my body. And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and they all drank of it. And he said to them, this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. You see, Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper to be observed by his church. It's a remembrance of his once for all sacrifice in death for our sins. It's a means of grace. by which God feeds us with the crucified, resurrected, and exalted Christ by his spirit and through our faith. And here he strengthens us in our warfare against sin. His body and blood are signified by the bread and the cup. And God here confirms that he is faithful and true to fulfill his covenant promises and he calls us to a deeper gratitude for salvation. We have fellowship with him and with each other as members of this mystical body. As we come to the Lord's table, we humbly resolve to deny ourselves, to crucify the sin nature within, to resist the devil, and to follow Christ as becomes those who bear his name. is for those who believe and rest upon Him alone for salvation. Everyone else should not take part, but the supper is a means of grace for those who recognize that they need a Savior. Let's pray. We do praise You, our God, for Your mighty power and grace in saving us. Unworthy as we are, and we stand in the righteousness and mediation of Your Son, Will you make effectual these means of grace? Work your spirit in us and use these elements for their intended purpose to feed upon the crucified and risen Savior. Let us be strengthened by His grace to live for you. Amen.