Sunday, July 8^th, Evident Grace Fellowship looked at 1 Samuel 21:

1 Samuel 21:1 Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4 And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen. 8 Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” 9 And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”

10 And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” 12 And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”

From those verses, we discussed the tension between our identity and the realities of our life in light of this Big Idea:

Big Idea:  Our heroes are just like us.  We all need a Savior.

From that Big Idea, we looked at these 3 points:

We struggle to trust God.

We trust our own strength

We trust our own wisdom

 

We struggle to trust God.

1 Samuel 21:1 Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4 And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

David is on the run from King Saul.  He is tired, lonely, homeless, and hungry.  When David arrives to Nob, the priest asks him why he is there.  David flat out lies.  He says he is on a mission from Saul and then asks for something to eat.  The priest would then allow him and feel compelled to give him whatever food was there, even if David wasn’t allowed to have it.  In David’s trials, he struggles to trust God and lies.

Why do we lie when we struggle?  We lie because we fear that the truth won’t get us what we want.  We think out lie is better than God’s truth.  We think lying will enable us to control the situation.  David doing just that.  He is hungry and on the run.  He needs food.  He lies to get it.

We trust our own strength

7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen.

8 Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” 9 And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”

There is nothing wrong with David gaining the sword of Goliath.  It is his after all.  The problem is he uses the lie of being on the king’s business to gain it.  David is on the run.  He is lying about what he is doing, and he is trusting his own strength.

We trust our own wisdom

10 And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”

12 And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”

King Achish is hesitant to have David in his kingdom.  He knows David is the anointed king of Israel and he knows that Davis is a mighty warrior.  For all he knows, David might try to overthrow him.  David is aware of this, so David begins to act like a madman to avoid any conflict.  King Achish doesn’t want him around.  He says he has enough madmen already.

David again is trusting his own wisdom in his time on the run.

What is wisdom?  Well, knowledge is knowing facts, wisdom is properly applying them.  How then do we gain wisdom?  James tells us.

James 1: 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

God gladly gives wisdom to those who ask and believe that He will give it.  God doesn’t despise us for needing wisdom.  He just calls us to believe that He will grant it to us.

2 Peter 1: 2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,  and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ

2 Peter helps us understand this wisdom that we need. As we grow in our knowledge of Jesus, His divine power gives us everything we need to live.  What we need comes from his great promises.  Once we have them, those great promises enable us to add things like self-control and steadfastness to our lives.  All of these things come from our knowing our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Big Idea:  Our heroes are just like us.  We all need a Savior.

Truth:  God uses Godly people who struggle just like we do, but their struggles, along with our own, should create an affection for our Savior, Jesus.

Application:  Live knowing that your struggle to trust God is intended to make you thankful for the love of Jesus, not fearful that you will lose it.

Action:  Pray for and support your church leaders as they struggle along with you to trust Jesus.