In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith encourages believers to take ventures in faith and make themselves available for God's work. He emphasizes the power of one person who is totally committed to God and the potential impact they can have. Pastor Chuck also mentions a special resource called "For Men Only" that addresses daily problems faced by Christian men. He then discusses how David gathered a group of distressed, indebted, and discontent men who ultimately became his mighty men. Pastor Chuck relates this to the gathering of men by the Lord today who are distressed with the conditions of the world.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life and make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today The broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us On a verse by verse venture through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll be following David's flight from Saul As we pick up in 1 Samuel, chapter 22, verse 1 And now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith In chapter 21, David had fled to the Philistine king of Achish Who was king over the city of Gath One of the five major Philistine cities David perhaps thought That he would not be recognized or known But some of the people came to the king and said Isn't this the David of whom the women sing He has killed his tens of thousands? And so David, realizing that he had been recognized Feigned madness He began to scream incoherently Began to act like he was trying to climb up the walls Began to just spit and let it run down his beard So that the king says, what have I to do with a madman? Get him out of here And figured that David was insane And so David escaped from Gath And from the presence of king Achish So David therefore departed from there That is, from Gath and from king Achish, chapter 22 And he escaped to the cave Abdullam And when his brethren and all of his father's house heard it They went down there to him Abdullam is in the valley of Elah Upwards from the area where David killed the giant It is between Gath and Bethlehem And so he's not far from Bethlehem His father, his family, come there to the cave Abdullam To meet David At this point, Saul is irrational And his anger, totally unprovoked against David Could at any time spread beyond David to his family And so David's family gather with him Now also at this time, Bethlehem was occupied by the Philistines So Saul was beginning to lose it all around The Philistines were moving into areas of the kingdom You remember shortly after this that one of David's cousins Broke through the ranks of the Philistines Into the city of Bethlehem to get David a drink of water Because he expressed his desire Oh, if I can only have a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem And so some of his cousins, brave kind of guys Broke through the ranks of the Philistines to get David a drink of water Out of the well there in Bethlehem And of course David, you remember, poured it out on the ground He said, hey, can't drink this water, it was too costly It cost some Philistines their lives And you guys put your lives in jeopardy So he gave it to the Lord This is too great for me to drink, Lord, you have it And so probably to escape from the Philistines And also because their lives were threatened by Saul His family, his father's house, his mom and dad His brothers, his uncles, cousins Came to him there in the cave of Abdullah And everyone that was in distress Everyone that was in debt And everyone that was discontented Gathered themselves unto him And he became a captain over them And there were with him about 400 men So there began to gather around David A group of men That ultimately would become David's mighty men Men that would ultimately share the kingdom with David Interesting These men were first of all distressed They were in debt And they were discontent The Lord today is gathering men around him Men who for the most part are distressed With the conditions of the world in which they live And I'll tell you as I look around I'm distressed at what I see Newspapers distress me TV news broadcasts distress me News magazines distress me We are living in distressful times Or in extremely stressful times that cause distress Those that were in debt Recognizing my debt to the Lord Oh how much I owe him I owe him my life One time David wrote If it were not for the Lord Let all of Israel now say If it were not for the Lord We would have been totally swallowed up by our enemies If it were not for the Lord Surely I would be totally lost Hopeless if I existed at all I owe everything to him Those that were in debt And those that were discontent And I am not content With the world in its present state I can't look around and be contented I long for God's kingdom to come I long for a world in which righteousness reigns I long for a world Where men will live together in peace and in love Without the threats of a nuclear holocaust I long that my children and my grandchildren Can grow up in a world that Is not threatened with war and destruction I know that that world cannot exist until Jesus comes and reigns And therefore I long for the coming of the Lord I long for the kingdom of God to be established Such was the case with these men Saul was a tyrant Saul had become a madman Moods of deep melancholy Vicious temper He was getting dangerous His tyranny was such as He was beginning to destroy the innocent And so those that were really upset With the way the kingdom was going They gathered to David And they began to form this Core group That would one day reign with David when he took over the kingdom Even as Jesus has gathered together his core group Who one day will reign with him over the kingdom When he sits upon the throne of David And rules the world David went from Abdullah, the cave there, to Mizpah of Moab Now, this is across then The area of the great African, Syro-African rift The Dead Sea area To Moab on the other side And he said to the king of Moab Let my father and my mother, I pray thee Come forth and be with you Till I know what God will do for me David's future was uncertain He did not want to expose his mother and father Who were probably at this point quite elderly He did not want to expose them to the hazards That he knew he was going to be facing As he was going to be living a very rugged life There in the wilderness Running from Saul Seeking to hide and to escape from Saul And so he came to the king of Moab Now, the fact that his great grandmother, Ruth Was a Moabite Probably helped in the relationship And he came to the king and asked him to please Take care of his mom and dad Let them live there in peace and safety of Moab Away from Saul Until David found out just what God's will was for him What God was going to do And he brought them before the king of Moab And they dwelt with him all of the while That David was in the hold Or in the area of the wilderness fleeing from Saul And the prophet Gad said unto David Don't abide in the hold Depart And get into the land of Judah Then David departed and came into the forest of Herod And this is the area That was just east of Hebron And a wilderness area where David Camped with his men And when Saul heard that David was discovered And the men that were with him Now Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah Having his spear in his hand And all of his servants were standing around him When Saul said unto his servants that stood about him Hear now ye Benjamites Will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards And make all of you captains of thousands And captains of hundreds All of you have conspired against me There is none that shows me that my son Has made a league with the son of Jesse Evidently Saul found out the bond that existed And he knew of the bond that existed between Jonathan And David He accused Jonathan Of this love for David and he tried to kill His own son Jonathan When Jonathan spoke up for David Now he is accusing all of these men around him He's there with his men They're standing around him And in his madness he begins to Accuse all of them of a conspiracy against him Now He had no doubt begun to show favoritism To the Benjamites for he himself was of the tribe of Benjamin And so David being from the tribe of Judah He is saying look if the Throne goes from Benjamin to Judah You Benjamites aren't going to be able to have all of the perks And the things I've been doing for you They won't give you the vineyards They won't make you the captains And so he was definitely Showing favoritism towards his own tribe The tribe of Benjamin Which of course would alienate The other tribes from him And so he accuses them all of conspiracy You haven't told me that even my own son Is in league with David And there is none of you that is sorry for me Or shows to me That my son has stirred up my servant against me To lie in wait as at this day So he is accusing Jonathan actually Of stirring up David to kill him And you don't feel sorry for me And he is just putting on this sad scene Then Doeg the Edomite Who was over the herdsmen The servants of Saul Said I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob To Ahimelech the son of Ahithah And he inquired of the Lord for him And gave him vituals And gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine Then the king sent to Ahimelech the priest The son of Ahithah And all of his father's house The priests that were there in Nob And they came all of them to the king And Saul said Hear now thou son of Ahithah And he answered Here I am my lord And Ahithah was of course the son of Eli the priest And so the line of Eli is about to be cut off Saul said unto him Why have you conspired against me With the son of Jesse And you have given him bread and a sword And have inquired of God for him That he should rise against me To lie in wait as at this day Now Saul was paranoid He thought that David was out to kill him Someone said well You know David is going to get you man And he really felt that David was out to kill him And he became very paranoid about this And you remember that When David was fleeing from Saul He came to Ahimelech And asked for the bread The show bread He took it for himself and his men He said do you have a sword here He said the only sword I have is Goliath's That's a great one I'll take that And he took the sword of Goliath Well this guy Doeg was there He saw David Now Doeg is telling Saul What Ahimelech had done for David Nob was only about 3 miles from Ramah So he sent over to bring Ahimelech Come on over here you know And he is now accusing Ahimelech Of being in a conspiracy with David To get his life Ahimelech said to him Verse 14 Who is so faithful among all of your servants as David Who is your own son-in-law And who goes at your bidding And is honorable in your house You don't have Saul a more faithful servant than David You don't have a more honorable man David is obedient he is loyal Ahimelech is standing up for David He said did I then begin to inquire of God for him Be it far from me Don't let the king impute unto me things that are false Nor to the house of my father For I didn't know anything about this Any less or any more I mean I don't know anything about I don't know what you're talking about man I'm not in any conspiracy And David surely is one of the most faithful Honorable men in your whole house And the king said in his Madness and in his rage You will surely die Ahimelech you And all of your father's house And the king said to the footmen That is his bodyguards That were standing with him Now the bodyguards They were called footmen because whenever the king would go in his chariot These guys would run alongside the chariot So they were really marathon men I mean they're in tremendous shape So he turned to these footmen And he ordered them To kill the priest of the Lord Because he said their hand is with David And because they knew when he fled And they didn't show it to me But these men were afraid to put their hand Against the priest of God So the king said to Doeg Turn thou and fall on the priest And Doeg the Edomite turned And fell upon the priest And killed that day 85 persons That wore the linen ephod And the linen ephod of course was the sign of the priesthood And Nob the city of the priest He smote with the edge of the sword Both men, women, children Nursing children, the oxen, the asses The sheep with the edges He went and just wiped out the city of Nob The priestly city All of the families, all of the wives, the children, the babies He killed them all with their animals Vicious, heartless, insane Such the condition of Saul at this point The sons of Ahimelech The son of Ahithah Named Abiathar He only escaped And he fled after David And Abiathar showed David That Saul had slain the Lord's priest And David said unto Abiathar I knew it that day When Doeg the Edomite was there That he would surely tell Saul And now I have occasioned the death Of all of the persons of your father's house Stay with me, don't be afraid For the one that is seeking your life Seeking my life is seeking your life But with me you will be safe So one of the boys escaped, Abiathar Came to David Reported what Saul had done And David's sensitive conscience He took the blame for it He said I knew it that day When I saw Doeg there That he would surely tell Saul And now I'm responsible for the death So hey, stick with me You'll be safe Because the guy that's looking to kill me Is looking to kill you So stay with us and we'll hang together We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study of 1 Samuel in our next lesson as we find David smiting the Philistines and we do hope you'll make plans to join us but right now I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one you can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives and they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD and phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again, our toll-free number is 1-800-272-9673 And for your added convenience you can order online anytime when you go to www.thewordfortoday.org And while you're there be sure to browse through the additional resources that include Bible studies commentaries, CDs, DVDs and so much more Once again, that's The Word for Today online at www.thewordfortoday.org And for those of you who still prefer to write you can use our mailing address which is The Word for Today 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Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters of this station with your correspondence And now, on behalf of The Word for Today we'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry with your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time as Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse-by-verse study through the book of 1 Samuel That's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today And now once again here's Pastor Chuck Smith I'd like to encourage you to take some ventures in faith this week It may be God wants to work and all He needs is you Just making yourself available The world has yet to see what God can do through just one man who is totally committed to God May we commit ourselves to the work of God May we venture out in faith trusting the Lord to do His work through our lives May God bless you and be with you and strengthen you in every good work In Jesus' name We'd like to make available to each of you a very special resource which addresses the daily problems that we as men face in our Christian walk Hosted by Pastor Chuck Smith this series includes additional guest speakers such as John Corson Mike McIntosh Don McClure and Damian Kyle All share the fact that God understands our problems and has provided the answers for us in His Word Some of the topics included are how to love Christ openly how to prevent the quenching of the Holy Spirit and how the Lord gives victory over the lusts of the flesh So if you'd like to enhance your Christian walk and personal devotional life then I would suggest ordering this extraordinary series entitled For Men Only It can make a difference not only in your life but in the lives of those that you affect on a daily basis Once again you'll be asking for For Men Only For those of you wishing to call our toll free number is 1-800-272-9673 Once again that's 1-800-272-WORD This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California