Let me have you turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 27. If I could have you guys in the sound booth pull that map up, I just thought it might be good to look at it once as we go here. Thanks for being flexible with that. Working through the complications and nuances of our trials is what we're talking about this morning. We've come to 1 Samuel 27, where David has been on the run for some time now. Pastor John has read that, so let's ask the Lord to help us as we consider this text together. Our Father God, as we gather now in our hearts and minds to hear your word together, we are thankful for the reality of the songs that we just sang. that Your mercy is greater than our sins. And we thank You, along with David, blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. We thank You, Lord, for the blessings of the cross and for the realities of those truths worked out in our lives and all who trust in Christ and call Him Lord. Help us now as we continue to think, Lord, about the difficulties of our trials and of our extended trials, and how it is we ought to conduct ourselves and think properly in times where we're not even sure exactly what to do. Help us, we pray, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so there's not as much geography, you could say, but just a little bit of movement today. So we have followed David running really all through this area. You remember he had made his way down to En Gedi in the cave, down to the south. in the narrative concerning Nabal and Nabal's servants and flocks. And so, David is essentially trying to stay away from Saul. Remember, Saul was based out of Gibeah. David is from Bethlehem. But basically, David has been running for his life now for some time. And so, the biggest geographical factor today is that David decides to try to get a little bit farther away from Saul in order to see if maybe Saul will quit chasing him. And also, not only geography is in distance, but also in whose land it is. So David moves away. Now, we have a couple of gaffes here on the map with question marks. We're not always sure, as we've been saying, exactly where some of these things are. But essentially, what you can see is that David moved away from the land inhabited by his people, and he moved into the land of the Philistines to the southwest. And so David is setting up camp somewhere in this territory here near the city of Gath and King Achish. All right, thanks guys. And that's largely what's happening on the map here this week. Well, David's days of being chased by Saul are actually coming to an end, at least as far as it's been for quite some time. So we're no longer considering David to be a man on the run, as he has been. Now he's more of a man in exile, really, waiting for the day when God will exalt him to reign on the throne of Israel. Now, one of the things that I want us to think about this morning, and it's largely the kind of situation we see in the text here in 1 Samuel 27, we've been talking about how we are to live by faith through difficulties and through extended trials. And sometimes, maybe you've noticed how when we go through, or maybe someone that's dear to us goes through an extended trial, the questions surrounding that thing can change. Maybe we start when we hear of the trial, or we start going through the trial asking things like, why is God allowing this to happen? Now, that question can come back, but we often ask that when a difficulty comes along. And maybe, as we talked about last week, we consider, how could God choose to deliver me from this if he chose to do it? But then if the trial persists, Some of the questions turn into things like, how am I supposed to live like this for the long haul? How am I supposed to live like this every single day? Have you ever noticed there's a bit of a cycle to crises? You know, somebody goes through something really difficult, maybe someone in their family unexpectedly passes away in an accident, and there's kind of an initial adrenaline as all of God's people come around, and the person tries to process what has just happened, and there's shock and there's grief. But then eventually that person has to live every day the rest of their lives and kind of some of that spiritual adrenaline kind of, you know, comes down. And we're not there living with that person every single day. They have to live that. They have to live those realities out. And this happens with all kinds of trials. Think about a friend who has been in a car accident, had a spinal injury, and you're praying for them along with the rest of the church. And in the early hours, there are a lot of questions like, why is God allowing this to happen? And Lord, save his life. But then after that initial life-threatening crisis is over, but your friend is still paralyzed, you have to continue on walking with the Lord. How could God choose to deliver my friend from this paralysis, from this situation? Well, the Lord could heal miraculously if He chose to do so. The Lord could use doctors. The Lord could use surgery. The Lord could use supplements. The Lord could use the discovery of a new procedure or therapy. The Lord could bring healing to this person suffering from paralysis because of this accident. And after a little bit of time passes, our theology motivates us to consider even things like we've talked about some recently, and I know our small group talked some about how do we consider the different ways that God could deliver, and a couple things we added to it is we've gotta think that our own physical death or Christ's return are forms of deliverance for the believer, that some of us may wait until then for certain kinds of deliverance. But our theology would motivate us to consider the fact that if my friend is lying in a hospital paralyzed, they may find their ultimate deliverance when Jesus comes back or when they pass into his presence. And that would be a form of deliverance from this groaning and travailing creation. But what do we pray? We pray that our friend would be spared, that our friend would be healed. And then some more time passes. and my friend is doing better, and his life is no longer in danger, but he's still paralyzed. And you begin to gather around him in a different way. How's he supposed to live like that for the long haul without the use of his lower extremities? And we know that God can heal, but he has deemed it best for now not to, for purposes maybe known only to him. How do we process things like this? That's where it seems like David is in our passage today. I mean, he knows God has the ability to deliver, and David has been promised the throne. But it seems like in this moment, he may be living as an outcast for a while. And remember, he has two wives, and he has 600 men, many who also have families. How are they supposed to live during this extended trial? You know, the adrenaline of the early days of Saul winging his spear at David, I mean, that's long gone. There's no novelty, there's no adrenaline like that. Even that initial faith that was required to get through those crises, those are long in the rear view mirror. Now it's just day after day of waiting, trying to survive and figure out what God is trying to do in our lives, or if He decides to change things. Now, as we look at 1 Samuel 27, here's basically my outline looking at the text. It's number one, where to go, and number two, what to do. Where to go and what to do. The first seven verses, it's kind of the question, where to go? What are we gonna do here? And as the chapter opens, you see this first thought that David has on his mind here as described in the text, And maybe, as we read it, our thought immediately turns to the idea that maybe David is doubting God's ability again. You know, I mean, David said in his heart, now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There's nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines. And Saul will despair of me to seek me anymore in any part of Israel, so I shall escape out of his hand. So at first glance, it kind of looks like maybe David is doubting God's ability to save. But I actually wonder if verse one is more of an expression of human responsibility alongside God's sovereignty. I mean, David knows God has already promised him the throne, and it seems like everyone else knew that too. So is David really saying, I'm not sure if God can deliver me or I'm not sure what God's design or intent is for me? I mean, think about that question for a moment. God's ability to deliver. Think about the ways God had already delivered David so far in his life. And I don't just mean deliver as in like help them pass a test. I mean, literally saved his life. And as you think about all of the ways God had preserved him, would David really have any reason to doubt God's ability to deliver him? I mean, think with me briefly over some of the things that we've seen. How many different ways had God delivered David to this point? He used David's own physical strength and ability with weapons to deliver him from a lion and a bear, chapter 17. He used stones and a slingshot to deliver David from Goliath, chapter 17 as well. And whether it was David's agility or Saul's aim with the spear or whatever God used there, David escaped multiple attempts on his life from Saul's spear, chapter 18 and others. If you remember in our study, God literally used Jonathan's persuasive wisdom in chapter 19 to keep David alive. Literally, Jonathan talked his dad down, and it was said that Saul decided he wasn't going to kill David after Jonathan talked to him. We also have that account of David's wife Michal, Saul's daughter, helping David escape through a window and making a dummy for the bed to trick Saul's men. He escaped with his life then. Remember where David even saw God send the spirit upon Saul so that Saul ended up prophesying instead of killing David, chapter 19? Jonathan's friendship saved David's life, and Jonathan's willingness to help David, remember with the arrow incident out in the field, literally saved David's life. Pretending madness before King Achish. may have preserved him from Achish killing him instead of Saul. And by the way, it's ironic. This is the same guy he has now come back to again. But back in chapter 21, when David went there, he felt threatened for his life. When it began to dawn on him, he was walking into Gath carrying Goliath's sword without as much of a force as he had in chapter 27. In chapter 23, David is saved by an ephod and a priest with a close call in that city of Caela. Again in chapter 23, God used the invading Philistines who brought Saul away from the wilderness of Maon where he almost had David and his men surrounded. God used the Philistines to save David's life. In chapter 24, it was David's stealth in the cave of En-Gedi and his ability to cut off the corner of Saul's robe that actually turned Saul around and stopped pursuing David. I think there's a sense in which David used Abigail to deliver David in a different sort of way, maybe not saving his life, but saving his testimony and some of his future reign from disaster. Again, God used David's stealth and, remember, a deep sleep to deliver David from Saul and his 3,000 men in the wilderness of Ziph, chapter 26, which is right before this chapter. And remember, that's the incident where David said to Abishai that if Jehovah wanted to, he could strike Saul himself, He could cause Saul to die a natural death, or he could have Saul die in battle. But David would not stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed. So, for me, at this point in 1 Samuel, the question doesn't really seem to be in David's mind, can God save? I mean, come on, look at that list. How many different things God did use to save David's life? Or even to ask, how could God possibly save? I mean, David had more variety in answering that question than maybe anyone else in the Word of God. But I wonder if the question David is really struggling with here is, how do I live while I'm waiting for the throne that has been promised? Now, we're not always promised things like this, but for David, he had been promised the throne, and so the question was, okay, it's not God's time for me to ascend to the throne yet, so how do I live while I'm waiting for God to fulfill His promises to me? And so I wonder if this is not as much about doubting God, but perhaps the human responsibility factor of saying, where David is essentially saying, well, if I keep living like this and I stay in close proximity to Saul, it's going to give him a much better opportunity to kill me. And I'm getting very tired of living like this and of running for my life. So if I go to the Philistines, he'll get tired of chasing me and he'll leave me alone. And I can get on with this next season of my life. So there might be a measure of human responsibility in his actions here, but I also wonder if, in a certain sense, David was just tired of living that way. You ever feel that way when you're going through an extended trial? Do you ever just feel like, I know God could save, and I know in the past God has delivered. I don't know exactly what He's doing right now, but He's letting this trial continue, and I'm getting really tired of living under this trial. I'm getting tired of waiting, for waiting to see what God has in this. It's getting really, really difficult. So here David has been running for his life for a long time now, in some ways just trying to survive. And remember, for a while now, having to figure out a way to feed 600 men and their families, as well as his own family. So, I really don't know the numbers here, but it would not be unusual. If you figured a lot of his 600 men had wives and some of them had kids, it would not be unusual for him to easily have one or 2,000 people that he was responsible for, keeping them fed, keeping them trained, trying to live in some way. Well, as we saw on the map, when David stayed closer to the places where David had grown up and previously served in his territory, back toward Bethlehem, back toward Judah, if David were to try and live in that area, Saul was hunting him down. And even when he tried to live farther south in the wilderness, protecting the flocks of men like Nabal in order to survive, well, we all know how that turned out, don't we? It seems that when David was helping to protect Nabal's men, that we mentioned when we saw that not too long ago, that that was probably some sort of an attempt for David to exist, for he and his men to have sustenance and to live. And yet they found themselves despised by the very one who could do them good, Nabal, and in a sense, helpless to really establish themselves somewhere. So after all of this running, after that failed attempt to live south, He decides he's going to move to Gath with his two wives, the narrative says, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's widow, with his 600 men and their families. And you can certainly see why David thought this might be a good idea. Whether you agree with it or not, you can certainly see why he would be inclined to do something like this. Now as I mentioned a few moments ago, David actually comes back now to Achish, king of Gath. This is the one where, when David came before with probably Goliath's sword, without this kind of a force, and quite a while ago in the narrative, All of a sudden, David realizes his life is in danger, and he feigns madness in order to escape. But now that so much time has happened, and word had gotten around that Saul had gone after David consistently for some time, and David has a more formidable force, it seems that at this point, Achish is actually willing to receive a defector who could come alongside of him against Israel, because clearly at this point, Saul had been against David. And so things had changed. David's reputation for fighting would in some ways have been a welcome asset for a king like Achish. And the assumption, I'm sure, and you can see it in the text, both today's and even the beginning of chapter 28, you can see that the assumption is that David would fight with Achish against Israel now. And that was the reason Achish received David into his territory. Well, we're told that this move had the desired effect and Saul quit chasing him. And we're given a few more details of the move. David suggested that his community not live in Gath with Achish, and that seemed to be a mutually acceptable arrangement. Akish, on one hand, would be glad not to have to deal with David's community within his or so close to his. I mean, it's not like these Israelites and the Philistines were bosom buddies, so having a little bit of distance could have been helpful. And David would be able to fly under the radar better if he were not right there under Akish's nose. So David and his community settled in Ziklag out in the country a bit, sounds nice to me. And the author of 1 Samuel mentions that Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. And so the place where David settled with his people had become a place of the kings of Judah. And then the scribe records that David and his people lived in Ziklag for 16 months, a year and four months. So, that's a little something of where to go. The second half of the chapter is what to do. Well, we're told in the text that David went on raids against the Geshurites, the Gerzites, and the Amalekites. Now we don't know as much about all of them. We know more about the Amalekites, less about the Gerzites for sure. But these kinds of peoples were known for attacking the vulnerable and treating people cruelly for their own profit, for their own riches, for their own sustenance. And if you remember back in chapter 15, we dealt with the issue of God commanding Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites. And if you want to dig into that a little bit more, we have that message available online. I took an entire message to cover the first three verses of chapter 15, why did God command the utter annihilation of the Amalekites. So if you want to do a deeper dive on that, that's available online. But we asked the question, why did God command Israel to utterly destroy Amalek? And it was helpful for us to look back at the history a little bit. Essentially, the Amalekites were living like terrorists who made their living by attacking others and stealing their wealth and their people. and were told that they attacked Israel coming out of Egypt for no good reason when the Israelites were vulnerable in trying to make their way to the promised land. So God specifically brought judgment to the Amalekites because of that action. And the history shows us that they continually attacked Israel from the days of Joshua, right, through the judges, often oppressing them. And so even in this time, the time of the kings, we have the Amalekites still a thorn in Israel's flesh, often attacking the vulnerable. And the idea is that Israel just really could not be at peace with the Amalekites around. Their idolatrous culture was a threat to Israel's worship of Jehovah. And as we saw when we studied it in chapter 15, they essentially had the same murderous spirit in Saul's day that they had in Moses' day. So you could make the case that David was protecting Israel. as well as the Philistines, and that he was strengthening the foundation of his future reign in Israel. He may have accomplished that in some ways. When David attacked a place, he left no person alive who could bring back news to King Achish. And then he would take all of the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the apparel, the scriptures say, for the support of his community. And when David came back from these kinds of raids, Achish would ask him what he'd been up to, and David would lie and say to him that he had been attacking the Israelites and their allies. And Achish believed him, because there were no witnesses. This worked for a while. And Achish thought it was great that such a man as David would defect from Israel and come and join him. And he thought, he has made his people Israel utterly abhor him. Therefore, he will be my servant forever. Now, I've presented this in such a way as, you know, a little bit straightforward, but this chapter is actually anything but that. In this chapter, we do not have a clear explanation or a moral assessment of David's decisions. We're not really told what God is doing. We don't see David consulting with God. We don't have God's assessment of the situation. And so, there are some clues that this was not necessarily all good. Now, let me just say for a moment, when you come to 1 Samuel 27, and we see a passage where there's really not a lot of God in the passage, we need to be careful, just because a narrative is given to us, that doesn't necessarily mean it was good or it was bad. And unless we have a clear understanding or a moral assessment in the passage, we need to tread carefully. You have commentators that are kind of all over on this. Some people thinking it was wise and good to move to Gath, and that David was justified in those raids, and then others who thought it was extremely unwise, even sinful, and extremely harsh and unnecessary, as well as the fact that David lied to Achish. And then you kind of see a spectrum of things in between. And I'm not, I'll tell you right now, I'm not going to settle all this for us this morning. But it does humble us. I mean, I wonder if you have ever had the experience of looking at someone else's situation when they're going through a trial, and you just think to yourself, oh, she needs to trust God more. But I want to submit to you how easy it is to view someone else's trouble as overly simplistic. when my trouble is filled with nuance and complication, but somebody else's trouble looks so black and white from a distance. I think part of the call of this text is a call to humility. Life can be very difficult, and we don't always know all that's going on. It's easy to look at David's situation and just think he needed to trust God more. But life had become very difficult for him. Now, having said that, I'm inclined to believe that David's actions in this chapter actually display a heart struggling to live by God's wisdom. David may have known that God was able to deliver him, but he was struggling to submit to the timing of it all. How do I live my life? until the day God decides to act and significantly change my circumstances. How do I live this way? And so I'm not coming at David here as someone where I would think I just have it all together and would have known exactly what to do. I think there are elements of wisdom in here, you know, wisdom issues, and you could say some issues of maybe what we would call Christian liberty, but you just have to be struck somewhat by the fact that you just don't see God much in this passage or David inquiring of the Lord. So I think there are a couple of big questions here, and it kind of fits the outline. You know, where to go, what to do. So concerning the where to go, the question that arises, I think, is should David have moved to Gath and then to Ziklag? And as I said, scholars are divided on that issue, but I can't help but appreciate the perspective I want to share with you from Richard D. Phillips on this. And while it might be difficult to make an absolute case that this was clear sin, you certainly see a pattern here when it comes to God's promises to his people, and particularly the promises of the promised land. But remember, even as I share this with you, remember, we still would have to contend with the question, what is David gonna do? What's he gonna do until the Lord brings him to the throne? Where is he going to live? How is he gonna support those one to 2,000 people? And remember, it wasn't just Saul. Do you remember, if you've been around at all during this study, you've seen multiple times that David's own kinsmen have given him up to King Saul. So we need to move carefully and humbly, but I do think that Richard Phillips makes a good point as far as this move to Gath. Here's what he says. There were places where David could not go without breaking faith, and one of these was Philistia. One searches the Bible in vain for an example of Israelites seeking salvation outside the land of promise, appealing to the care of the ungodly that did not entangle them in sin and the curses of unbelief. When Abraham sought refuge in Egypt, he quickly fell into sin and danger. Lot destroyed his family by taking them to Sodom, as did the husband of Naomi when he took his family to Moab in time of famine. The sons of Jacob were blessed with food from the royal granaries of Egypt established by their brother Joseph, but their sojourn in Egypt soon devolved into slavery. Given these biblical examples, we cannot expect blessing to result from David's flight out of Israel and into Philistia. Now that's one perspective. It carries weight with me. But you still would have to ask, if David's not safe near his hometown or near Gibeah, and if he's not safe in the wilderness by the sea or safe in the wilderness to the south, I mean, where does he go? What would it have meant to trust the Lord to stay in the land? These are difficult questions. We can certainly understand why David felt the need to go somewhere. The second half of this chapter I have entitled what to do, where to go and what to do. Should David have raided and obliterated the peoples that he did? Some would say that David used his time well in Ziklag, that these nations or these peoples were under the ban of God's judgment, like we talked about earlier with the Amalekites. And Phillips presents one perspective where he makes the point that David's tactics were common in ancient warfare, and he was fulfilling, some would say, the holy war mandate that Saul had been punished for failing to carry out. But others see David as unnecessarily harsh here. Not really trusting God or acting for God's glory, but rather pragmatically living deceptively in order to gain Achish's trust. So the question would become, and I told you I'm not gonna settle all this for us today, the question would be, was this a lawful act of war? Or was it a sinful act of dependence upon God? And it's a challenge to answer some of these questions. We don't know everything about David's circumstances. But I am personally inclined to think that David was not in a great place spiritually as he was making these decisions. And I say that cautiously knowing what's in my own heart. But it just doesn't seem like he's in the best place. So what should guide us when the answers are not clear? And it looks like we might be here for a while, you know, under this current set of circumstances, enduring this dark providence, this difficult circumstance from the hands of God. Well, there are some principles that will guide us in times like this, and this passage certainly brings to mind, you know, how is it that we would live in a situation like this? What would we use to make decisions, especially when the way just isn't abundantly clear? I want to leave you with four things this morning. Number one, we need to be careful to regularly instruct our own hearts in the Lord. And I say, instruct our own hearts. I mean, I'm talking, encourage yourself in the Lord. Preach the Gospel to yourself. Tell your heart what to believe. Tell your heart what to think. In other words, allow the truths of Scripture to be the thing that fill our hearts and guide our decisions. I do think it's significant that there's no record here of David calling out to God, or as far as I'm aware, writing psalms. or inquiring of priests or prophets. I wonder if you flip back to chapter 26 and verse 19, you remember this from last week. When David is calling out to Saul after that second deliverance, that time when God brought a deep sleep on Saul and his men out in the field, and David went, got his spear and his jug of water, As they were having this exchange, David says in verse 19, Now therefore, please, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the Lord has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering. But if it is the children of men, may they be cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day from sharing in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go serve other gods. Now remember when we looked at that last week, it was the idea that David felt like Saul's actions were essentially forcing him out from the inheritance God had given Israel. David was not allowed to worship with his people, he wasn't allowed to live with his people, and in essence, the men who were advising Saul were in essence removing the inheritance from David, is what it came down to. And I wonder if some of that thinking was firmly in David's heart and mind. It had to have been. He's saying it to Saul. Clearly, if you feel like God was removing you from your inheritance, or providentially speaking, using guys like Saul and his advisors to remove David from the inheritance that should have been his, that would be, to an Israelite, that's everything. being removed from the land, being removed from God's people, not being able to worship them or be accepted by them or live with them. Essentially, David is saying, if it's just your advisors, Saul, who are convincing you of this, you have to understand, in essence, you are cursing me from the land and removing God's inheritance from me. Stop listening to the men who are lying to you and telling you I want to kill you. Because I could have done it twice now, and I will not raise my hand against the Lord's anointed. And I wonder how much of that had settled into David's thinking that Saul and his men are stealing God's inheritance from me. We have to be careful about our themes. And I guess by themes, I'm thinking the things that we regularly think that just kind of start coming up in our thought patterns quite a bit. Now, everybody has their themes. Some of us, I think as you grow older, sometimes you get more themes. If you've known me for any length of time, you've probably heard my little dissertation on Ohio winters. You've heard me talk about them. We don't really have winter here. I grew up in northern Ontario. What we have here we call not winter. Some of you have probably heard that before. It's one of my life themes. I wonder if this had become one of David's thought patterns. One of his themes. That he had been driven out from sharing in the inheritance of the Lord. Because when you get to 27 and verse 1, He says in his heart, and some people actually translate that, David said, to his heart, now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines. Doesn't that sound an awful lot like my fellow Israelites have stolen God's inheritance from me and removed me from the land? So we have to ask, what was formulating his thoughts at this point? You know, it's possible for us to still keep decent theology. Oh, I know God can deliver. I know God is good. But as the trial progresses and we're still under the burden of that trial, what actually causes us to think what we think and do what we do? Was David carefully keeping God's promises in the front of his mind? And it's so easy for us, you know, we talk all the time, don't we? Bible reading and prayer, Bible reading and prayer. How many times have we said something like that? How many times have you heard that in your Christian walk? But the reason we keep coming back to it is because we have to ask the question, what actually is affecting the way we think and the things that we do? What philosophies are we allowing to yell the loudest in our hearts? I was thinking, for instance, about some of the Lyme groups, Lyme disease groups on Facebook, and some of the things that you hear there are like, we don't deserve to be treated the way that we're treated as Lyme patients. Well, there's maybe an element of truth to that. There's no hope. I've spent all my money. I don't know what else to do. There may be some truth to that. Some people even get to the point where they say suicide may be the only way out. I don't see any other option. And if all you're doing when you're processing your trials is listening to the world without Christ, without heaven, without hope, without truth, you're going to end up in a difficult place pretty quickly if your advisors are not coming from the Lord. Whether it's faithful preachers of God, whether it's the very Word of God, whether it's faithful parents counseling you in the things of God. If our counselors are not faithful to the Scriptures, and we start listening to some of the music of the world or adapting the philosophies we see in the movies that we watch, and I'm not going off saying you can never listen to any music or movies that aren't purely Christian, but I am saying they affect us more than we think they do. Their teachings affect us more than we think they do. Whereas we need to be thinking things like this in our trials. I have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. I have been washed clean of my sin and clothed in His righteousness. And if my God does not heal me, He has a reason that is good for me that I just might not know yet. And I know that He loves me in the midst of all of this. So by His grace, I need to take the next step, doing the next right thing that He leads me to, using His wisdom and certainly His revealed truth. And you know, brothers and sisters, the cross of Jesus Christ really does settle so many things. It was what Paul preached, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and it should be the object of our frequent meditations because it really does help us with so many things when we consider what Jesus endured on our behalf because of our sin. It can set an example for us in our willingness to follow God, you know, to deny myself and take up the cross and follow Him in whatever may come. So number one, be careful to regularly instruct your own heart in the Lord. Number two, consider the hearts of those around you. Think about the influence you have on the people that you live around. Who is looking to you for direction? Who is looking at your example? Who is listening to your teaching or philosophy? Whether you actually consider it to be such, when we speak things and say things, people see what's going on in our hearts. You have influence. How are your words and your actions influencing people's faith in God and their trust in His Word? Are you encouraging yourself and them to an active trust in the Lord, or are you allowing secular philosophies to seep in that turn our hearts away from God? Like, we don't deserve this trial, and our hearts grow bitter. Also thinking about those who are around you, there can be a temptation to unbelief, both in you and in them. One of the things I think we need to ask, this is, I think, an important question. If you're a dad or a mom or you have the opportunity to lead people, I think David could have asked this question. I don't know if he did or not, but what actually causes the souls of God's people to thrive? If David had taken the time, and again, I'm not looking at this really black and white. David had a really difficult set of circumstances that he was facing. But if he had asked the question, taken the time to ask this question, what causes the souls of God's people to thrive? In his context, the answer typically is not go to the Gentiles and be near them. and take refuge with them, as we saw a few moments ago, that's not how it usually went. And it's important for us to ask that question in our own families. We're going through difficult things together perhaps as a family. What causes the souls of God's people to thrive in settings like this? Where do their souls thrive? I think one obvious application is no matter what you are going through, brothers and sisters, don't stop coming into the house of God and worshiping with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Don't stop. Even if you don't feel like it, even if you are wounded by some of the people in that congregation, even if you have struggles related to worshiping God with your brothers and sisters in Christ, don't stop going, because God is the one who has ordained worship like this for our good, and He is worthy of our worship. So where do our souls thrive? Well, in the New Covenant context, it's assembling with the saints. doing what sorts of things, praying together, singing together, confessing our sins together, encouraging one another, singing to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, listening to the preaching of the Word together, provoking one another to love and good works, that's where our souls thrive. So consider the hearts of those around you, the influence you have on them, and the temptations that we all have to unbelief. And again, consider the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even as our Savior was obedient to death on a cross, he was faithful along the way to instruct his disciples and pray for them. And you know, sometimes when we're in the middle of the struggle, it can get really easy to become self-centered. Navel gazers. Don't really see what else is going on around me because I'm so hurt by what I'm going through. But the example that Jesus gives to us is that even as he is living a life of obedience that's going to result in his death on the cross, he's faithfully instructing his disciples and praying for them and loving them to the end. Consider the hearts of those around you. Number three, think about how your actions are establishing your testimony before men. Do my statements and my actions give evidence of a joyful trust in God? If I told someone that I am a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict me? Think about how our actions are establishing our testimony before others. This is the testimony that I would want, I would pray that we would all want. It's verse three from my Jesus, I love Thee. I'll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death, and praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath. And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow, if ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, tis now. that God's grace will faithfully keep us to the end, that He will hold me fast and keep me loving Him even if that very trial brings me to the grave. And number four, evaluate how your actions are bringing glory to God. Can I think this way? Or can I do this thing with the exaltation of God's holy name fully in view? I wonder if David asked that. You know, as he's moving to Gath and then Ziklag and heading out on these raids, is he really thinking to himself, am I bringing the greatest glory to Jehovah? Along with these other things I've mentioned, what is my testimony like before men and am I considering the hearts of those around me? Evaluate how your actions are bringing glory to God. You know, it's easy for us to read about a martyr or hear someone's testimony and think that God has miraculously done something in their lives that he hasn't done in mine. But you have to understand in so many of these cases, God is simply giving grace for the moment as regular believers struggle to live faithfully one step at a time. How can I glorify God in this moment? And I mentioned the concept of selfishness a moment ago. Notice that out of these four exhortations this morning, that only the first one is about me. The first one says to consider my own heart, right? The first one says to think about how I'm instructing myself and my heart in the Lord, but these other exhortations, consider the hearts of those around you, focuses on family members and dorm mates and God's people. And the third one, think about how your actions are establishing your testimony before men, that one is about the lost as well as God's people. And the fourth one, evaluate how your actions are bringing glory to God, that's clearly about God. So one exhortation kind of wrapping these together is in the midst of our trials, by God's grace we need to cultivate the discipline of considering others. Because by its very nature, difficult trials can turn us inward, contribute to our selfishness, and cause us to be consumed by our own desires, our own needs, and our own struggles. And sometimes what God calls us to is to kind of lift up our heads, even in the midst of our struggle, look to Him and look to see how we can encourage and minister in the midst of our own storm. And it makes me think, aren't we glad that Jesus thought of us, that Jesus loved us, that Jesus gave himself for us? Verse two of my Jesus, I love thee says, I love thee because thou has first loved me and purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree. I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow. If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, tis now. Let's pray together. Our Father God, just like we don't fully understand all that David was going through, Lord, we would have to say that about each other as well, that we don't fully understand. Maybe some of us have no foggy notion of what's going on in a brother or sister's home or heart. So we pray, Lord, that together you would help us as your people here at Arbor Church. to learn to walk, to live by faith, even during times of intense extended trials that just seem to have no end. Teach us, Lord, to fix our gaze on Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Teach us, Lord, to meditate on our justification and our salvation. Teach us, Lord, to fix our gaze on our Lord Jesus Christ, not only atoning for our sins, but also showing us how to live. Lord, help us. I know that I've got brothers and sisters in the congregation this morning who are going through deep waters. And I pray, Lord, that you would stir up their hearts to praise to your great name. And as we consider these exhortations together and we think about how complicated and nuanced our own problems can sometimes be, just like David's, that, Lord, You would encourage our hearts to continue to look to You as our Savior and our Deliverer and the One who does all things well, who loved us and gave Himself for us. Lord, teach us to live by faith, not only in the crisis, but even after the crisis has passed and we're left with the aftermath. Lord, teach us to live by faith all of our days. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.