Mike Bickle explores David's time in Ziklag, a pivotal moment marked by crisis and compromise, where David sought a supernatural breakthrough from God after a season of failure. He emphasizes the importance of how we respond to our failures and circumstances, highlighting that while David stumbled, he never allowed his faith to fail. Bickle illustrates that God's mercy is greater than our sin and that our view of God shapes our responses in times of distress. Ultimately, David's restoration and anointing as king serve as a testament to God's delight in those who seek Him, even amidst their struggles.

Very dramatic experience in the Lord in the city of Ziklag. And that's a city that you want to be familiar with because one of the most dramatic times in David's life where he had needed a supernatural breakthrough of the favor of God after he had been living in a season of compromise. And we learn much about David's life in the way that he viewed God, the way he responded to the Lord. Again, after a season of compromise in a great place of crisis, needing a supernatural breakthrough, and the Lord met him. And we learn a lot about what God is like. We learn a lot about what God will do if we respond to Him in the way that is set forth in this passage. Now, just to give you the bigger context, that David goes in to the city of Ziklag when he's about 28 years old, until about age 30, technically about a year and a half. He's in this city, and at age 30, this great crisis turns around and he's anointed as king right after that. And it was a tremendous reversal of the situation. But the larger storyline of David's life is that he had had favor with the Lord from about age 18 to about age 23, approximately. We can't lock in the dates exactly. He was a national hero. He had the sudden blessing of God upon him. He kills Goliath. The whole nation is looking at him. He's about 17, 18, 19 years old. He marries the king's daughter, becomes a part of the royal family. He moves into the White House, so to speak. He's in the top of the government of the nation, the top of the leadership of the army, all when he's about 20 years old. I mean, unusual favors going on in his life. And then suddenly, everything changed. And he went into a season of about seven or eight years of tremendous difficulties and trials and situation. Then right after that, he becomes king. And so, very dramatic time throughout his 20s. And we're going to just take a little peek into a little episode, a few episodes of David's life at that time. But in order to understand how important David's response was to the Lord, and we need to respond in that way, we need to understand the difference between stumbling in sin, which is a temporary thing, and our faith failing, which is a long-term mindset. Our faith failing talks about drawing back in a long-term way, and settling into spiritual passivity, and giving up on the promises and the blessings of God in our life, and those kind of things. Now, Jesus was the one that first used the terminology of stumbling, which he talked to the Apostles. He says, every one of you are going to stumble tonight. This is the night before his death. But he said, but I'm praying that your faith won't fail. So he said, you'll stumble. And he went on to say, you'll deny me, but your faith doesn't need to fail. I'll pray for you. In other words, you will trip. You will compromise, but you don't have to settle into a long-term mindset of drawing back. And I've watched many sincere believers over the years, where they're on fire for the Lord for a few years, and they stumble. They have a spiritual crisis of their own failure in their life. And how we respond to the Lord in the crisis of our own failure is a very, very important thing about our spiritual life. Now, King David responded to the Lord in the right way in his crisis, because the good news is, the mercy of God is far more powerful than your own sin. But a lot of times, I've seen believers, their sin is, in their mind, more powerful than the blood of Jesus. And they draw back in shame, and they draw back in disgust and disappointment with their self, and they just kind of settle into drawing back and giving in to just a passive lifestyle. And they don't press into the Lord, because they don't respond to the Lord in their own failure in a right way. Well, in a similar way, but it's very different, is how they handle a pressure and difficulty and circumstances. I've seen believers on fire for the Lord, a time of difficulty where the circumstances are not going well, and they get offended at the Lord, and they just give up and say, well, if that's how you're treating me, I don't believe the promises anymore. I'm going to let go of my life vision. I'm going to draw back. It's not happening the way I thought. And so, whether it's the crisis of our failure, which leads to condemnation, or the crisis of difficult circumstances, which can lead to offense towards the Lord, in both of those situations, David responded right before the Lord. Though he had some temporary negative responses, wrong responses, sinful responses, he had never allowed them to become the long-term mindset. And this is the very thing that Jesus was talking about to Peter. He goes, you will stumble. It will be short-term, Peter. But your faith doesn't have to fail. You don't have to settle into a lifestyle of drawing back from me. I have prayed for you. Now, you will recover, and you will be a trophy of my grace, and a champion of calling people to wholeheartedness to me, to obey me, to believe me, to see my miracle power and my grace operating in your life. Look at paragraph B, if you will. David is a premier example in the Old Testament of a man who did respond to spiritual failure in a right way. I mean, there's more sins recorded about David, specific sins, than I believe any man in the Bible. I mean, David, you know, he's this great hero of faith, but in the eternal Word of God, he's got more of his sins recorded than anybody. But it's not the fact that he failed. I mean, that's one of the reasons I like David, is that he failed. I mean, if he was perfect, I would think, well, you can read David, and I'll get to know him in eternity, but he's not that helpful for me right now. But it's the fact he failed, and the way he responded, and the recovery that happened, that's what makes his life so compelling to so many of us. But not only his spiritual failure, it's the way he responded in setbacks. And zik lag was the high point, and I mean that in the negative sense. The most intense negative circumstances all coming together in a very short period of time. It's the worst week of his life in the early years of David's life, was found in the city of zik lag. But then right after that terrible week, was one of the greatest next couple weeks, where everything was reversed. And it all happened in a very short period of time. And it was related to how David responded to his own shame of failure, and to his own sense of disappointment in the negative circumstances. Well, David's called in 2 Samuel chapter 13, verse 14, God called him the man after God's own heart. I got a little bit on that, and in paragraph C, I'll move on. In Jeremiah 3, the Lord promises that he's going to raise up shepherds according to God's own heart. And this phrase, shepherds according to God's heart, is code for, he's going to raise up men and women that have the heart of David. Because after God's own heart, or according to God's own heart, is what God said only about David in the Bible in a particular way. So God prophesies through Jeremiah, the days are coming, and it's talking about the generation the Lord returns, in context. I'm going to raise up many shepherds across the land, across the earth. And they'll be like David. They'll understand me like David did. They'll respond to me like David did. And I'll break in with power and reversal, and surprising measure of grace, just like I did with David. And that's why I believe that this story is so important to all of us. Now in that, again, five years of favor, about approximately, not specifically age 18 to 23, it seemed like nothing could go wrong. He's a national hero, marries the king's daughter in the royal family, lives in the White House, top leadership in the government as a man in his early 20s. I mean, everything was going right. But the king, his father-in-law became jealous. And most of you know the story. And I mean, he became insanely jealous of David. And he decided to use the army, 3,000 men in the army, to go kill David. I mean, his son-in-law, one of his dear friends in his leadership team, top of the army of Israel in leadership. He determined one day, I'm going to kill him, because if I don't, he's going to take over my spot. And so David has to flee from the capital, which was the city of Gibeah at that time. And he goes on this seven or eight year season where he's a fugitive. Because the king has identified him as a national criminal. He's an outcast. And seven or eight years, these 3,000 men, the army of Israel, the choice soldiers, they're chasing David around in hiding places, from cave to cave, trying to kill him seven or eight years. And that seven or eight years ends up, the last 16 months of it, about a year and a half of it, ends up in the city of Ziklag, where the worst becomes worse. I mean, as bad as it can get. But then the sudden reversal of the Lord takes place associated with the city of Ziklag. Okay, let's look at Roman numeral two. I'm going to mention briefly five of the compromises that David walked in or embraced during this seven or eight year period. Because in the seven or eight years, he had very godly responses, many times. But he had some really bad responses, many times. And so it's not so easy to say, well, David did it all right, or he did it all wrong. He did it really right a number of times, and he did it really wrong a number of times. And that seven or eight year period, he had supernatural breakthroughs of God's power, but he had devastating setbacks of negative circumstances. And again, I would like it to be one or the other, so we could fit it nicely in a little box. But a man or a woman after God's own heart, sometimes all of these happen in the same period of time in a season of your life. And I have no doubt that some of you are in that season now, in one way or another. And understanding how David viewed the Lord in all these different circumstances, again, his own failure as well as the negative, devastating, tragic events. But then knowing how David responded to the Lord is the real point of what I'm wanting to convey in this teaching this morning. Well, let's look at Roman numeral two. We're going to start off that David flees from the capital. Again, he's about 23 years old. It's his, that seven or eight year journey of difficulty is just to begin. Of course, he doesn't know it's going to go seven or eight years. I'm sure he's hoping it'll only last a few weeks, but it ended up dragging on for a few years. He escapes. He flees from his father-in-law, the angry, jealous king. He flees for his life. He goes, in chapter 21, first Samuel 21, verse 1, he came to the city of Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Now, the city of Nob was the main city where the spiritual leadership of the nation had gathered. The high priest was there. A number of the top priests of the nation, they lived in the city of Nob. And so David flees to the city, undoubtedly to get some spiritual advice or some encouragement or hear the word of the Lord or one of those sort of things. So he goes to the city of Nob, and we'll read here, Ahimelech, who's the high priest, and again the top leadership of spiritual leadership of the nation are gathered. He's a little perplexed. He says, David, why are you alone? I mean, you are a, you are part of the royal family. You're part of the government, top leadership of the army. It's a little bit odd that you don't have part of the royal army with you. You're traveling through the dangerous wilderness lands all by yourself. What's happening? And now Ahimelech, the high priest, doesn't know that David's had this sudden turn of events with his father-in-law. As far as the high priest knows, David and his father-in-law are best friends, like they used to be. But David's fleeing in fear, but instead of telling the high priest he's fleeing in fear, he lies to the high priest. I mean, it's a very serious lie, because it ends up when his father-in-law, the angry king, King Saul, finds out about this, that the high priest helped David. Saul was so angry at the high priest, he murders him, and he murders the top, I mean, eighty-five priests in the city, some of the top leadership, spiritual leadership of the nation, because they helped David, but they, because David lied to them. And so David comes, and he says, in verse 2 of 1 Samuel 21, well, he goes, the king, I mean, we're best buddies, you know, I am his son-in-law, and I'm part of the government, the leadership of the government. He ordered me on business. Lie, David, lie. That's going to result in a national tragedy of the top spiritual leadership of the nation being murdered by the king, who thinks that he's, they're in treason against David, the new fugitive, and the criminal in the land. Of course, the people in the land hadn't heard the story yet. It was just the early days of it. So David says, verse 3, hey, can you give me some help? And the high priest says, of course, I mean, you're the national hero, the king's son-in-law, of course I can help you, because I need a little bit of bread, I need some food, because I ran out in haste, and I need some weapons. They go, okay, it's a little odd you don't have food and weapons, being who you are in the government, and so, okay, cool. Verse 9, the priest says, in the city of Naba, he goes, here's the sword of Goliath. There it is over here. You can have the sword of Goliath. He goes, we don't have a lot of weapons, but we do have Goliath's sword. Now, about five years earlier, not exactly, most of us know the story, David, at about 18 years old, he's about 23, 24 right now in the storyline, but about five years earlier, David, the little shepherd boy, went to the battle, he killed Goliath, the champion of the Philistines. I mean, the national champion, the hero of the Philistines, and Goliath was from the city of Gath, one of the primary Philistine cities, and David killed him, and chopped his head off, and then took his sword. Well, they took the sword, and they brought it to the city of Naba, and put it like in the trophy case, because again, that's where the top priests of the nation were, and there it is, that kind of iconic symbol of Israel's victory over the Philistines, the sword of Goliath. So, he goes, that's the only sword we got. Do you want it? And David goes, yeah, I'll take it. So, he takes this big sword, and he flees out of town, and you know, leaves suddenly, and the high priest must have wondered, why are you running so quickly? Oh, no, I'm in a very important business. Really, he was running from his father-in-law, thinking his father-in-law, any time now, might catch up with him in the city. Okay, let's go to paragraph B. Now, the strangest thing that happens here in 1st Samuel 21, verse 10, David, when he leaves the city of Naba, panicked in fear over his father-in-law, and the three thousand men chasing him, he says, you know, I remember my father-in-law Saul, he was afraid of Goliath and the Philistines. So, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go to the city of Goliath, because I know Saul's afraid of the Philistines in that city. I'm going to go there, because he'll be too afraid to chase me to the city of Gath. So, David leaves, crosses the national borderline, and to the nation, immediately to the west, the borderline is shared, he goes into the city of Gath, and he's presenting himself like as a loner, a stranger, all by himself, and he goes running into the land, and he has an occasion to meet the king. And undoubtedly, he's disguising who he is. They don't really know. He's David, the national hero. He's just a man traveling alone. Maybe he said, you know, I'm looking for a cause. I want to be a part of something. I've got experience in the military. Could I join your army? Who knows what the conversation is. Well, there's really one bad thing that happens, is that David, he killed Goliath. Now he has Goliath's sword. You don't take Goliath's sword to Goliath's hometown. So, he's got the sword of Goliath, and they go, hey, a nice sword on your side. Where'd you get that at? And the leaders of King Achish, he's the king of Gath, the Philistine king, they go, hey, look at this in chapter 21, verse 11. The servants of the king, King Achish, said, hey, this is David. That's the guy five years ago that killed our champion. That's the guy anointed to be king of Israel. That's the man that the power of God's resting on against us. And so, Achish goes, are you David? And he goes, verse 21, you know, I'm just looking to join a cause, and hey, I'm good in the army. I could be useful to you. Yeah, and David says in verse 12, I mean, it says about him, he took these words to heart. He became very afraid, because they figured out who he was. Well, having the sword of Goliath wasn't very helpful. But, you know, when you get into a spirit of fear, or when you just get into depression, or anxiety, you can make some really bad decisions, and this is one of them. So, in verse 13, David now wants to present himself entirely opposite of the truth of who he is. Instead of the anointed of the Lord, the one God called to be king of Israel, David, he changed his behavior once they figured out who he was. And, in essence, he's undermining and all but denying the truth about his calling and who he is, and it says that he feigned madness. He started acting like a crazy man, not the anointed of God, not the man under the promises of God. It says he started acting crazy, and he's scratching the walls, and he's, you know, and he salivas down his beard, and King Achish, in verse 14, goes, man, this guy, he's insane. This can't be the anointed of the Lord, and David's really saying, hey, you don't have to be afraid of me. I'm not the, really the anointed. That was the former days. That was five years ago. I'm just a little nobody right now. It's like, David. So, he's really selling himself to the king, the Philistine king, in a very false way to gain his favor, but, you know, Achish looks at him, and it's almost like he said, you know, he's crazy. He's too good to kill. I mean, just let him go, you know. I don't even want to, death is too good for him. Just get rid of him. So, David escapes that situation, and then he flees, and then he goes from the west, the country just west of Israel. Now, he goes across to Israel, real quickly, to the country east of Israel, in Moab. He just, it's not a very far journey, but he goes over to Moab, and he doesn't want to stay in Israel. He wants to stay outside of Israel, because he believes Saul won't chase him outside of the national boundary lines, because Saul's a coward of heart. He won't have conflict with the enemy, because Saul might lose the battle. So, David's theory is, Saul is so afraid of the enemy, that I will trust Saul's fear of the Philistines, and so I'll leave the nation, rather than trust God in the nation. Stay in the nation, and trust God to help me have victory over Saul to protect me. So, verse 3, David went from there, and he went to the land of Moab. Again, the nation immediately east on the borderline of the nation of Israel. But the prophet Gad, he's traveling with him, because by this time, you know, he's some, you know, they're beginning the journey, the seven, eight year journey, and men from Israel are starting to gather David. They're starting, they find out where he's at. It says, the disgruntled man, the men that were in debt, the men that were in distress, that were in crisis in their life, and they begin to gather to David, and the scripture says, David was captain over these discouraged, distressed, in-debt men. And so, he ends up with three, four hundred, then it grows to five or six hundred, and this band of men are starting to travel with him, which makes it more perilous on David, because he's easier to track down. But among these men, there's one that's a prophet. He's the prophet Gad. And the Lord speaks to him, I mean, I'm assuming, and says, hey, go stand at David's side and be a help for him, because he's going to need to hear the word of the Lord in this season of his life. He's going to, and so Gad goes to him. He goes, David, we went to the Philistines, you know, over on the west side. Now we're over at the Moab, the east side. He goes, thus says the Lord. Here in verse five of chapter twenty-two, go to the land of Judah. Stay in Israel, in essence. Don't leave the land in fear. Trust God to save you in the land, to protect you from the angry king. Now, the good news is this, that nobody can stop the will of God in David's life. Angry Saul and three thousand men can't stop David. The Philistines can't stop David. The Moabites can't stop David. All the demons in hell can't stop David from doing the will of God. The only man that can stop David from accomplishing the will of God is David. He's the only one, ultimately, that can prevail long-term, and, and, and cause himself to be, to be out of the will of God, and to lose the promises of God. And the same is true of you and I. I don't care if the leadership overlooked you, or treated you wrong, whether you're in the church, or in a marketplace situation, or you're friends, or whatever the situation. You're overlooked, you're mistreated, missed opportunities, crisis goes bad, betrayal. Now, people can hinder, in a very temporary way, the, the plan unfolding, but they can't hinder it, the will of God in your life, in any long-term way. The only one that can actually stop it is you, by refusing to respond to the Lord in the right way. So, David was supposed to stay in Judah, and let the Lord protect him, and show his power to him, but David is really, he's really challenged by this idea. Well, a little bit of time goes by. Paragraph D, 1st Samuel 20, uh, 27. Now, he's about five years into that seven, eight-year period, five or six years into it. He's got about a year and a half or so to go, and David's still in the land of Judah, which I'll just make it synonymous with Israel at this time. Uh, David said in his heart, I mean, it's been, he's been there for a while, and he's going, you know what, this isn't working. I don't like this stay in the will of God, and try to overcome fear. I'm gonna fix this myself. I mean, any day now, my enemy Saul might kill me if I stay in the land. I gotta go back to the Philistines, because I know Saul's too afraid to chase me over there. And again, so David's really trusting Saul's fear of the Philistines more than David's trusting God's commitment to protect David in the land. So he says here in verse 1, now I shall perish one day. He's in despair. He's in discouragement. I mean, we don't think of David as a man that yields to discouragement, but he does. He does a number of times in his life, but the good news is, it's a stumble. It's a short-term response, but he never lets that lodge into his spiritual life in a long-term way, where, using the words of Jesus, his faith fails. It's this momentary relapses. I mean, sometimes it happens for some months, but in the big picture, it's momentary. But he always recovers. He always connects with God and says, wait a second, this isn't okay with me. It's not okay with the Lord. And he reconnects to the Lord in that full, wholehearted way. I mean, even in the real, I mean, even in the compromises, he loves the Lord. His faith is real, but he's stumbling just because of his weakness. Well, David says in chapter 27, verse 1, I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. He goes, if I stay in the land, it's just a matter of time. He's going to kill me. He's going to catch me. And I imagine the prophet Gad is next to him going, David, the promises of God, the victories of God in the past. I mean, the Lord has done great things. How is suddenly God going to change his personality and just forget all of his promises and let you be killed? He goes, I don't know. It doesn't make any sense, but it sure feels right. And so David said, there's nothing better for me. The best plan I could come up with, in other words, I will as speedily escape. I'll go back to the Philistines. And I can imagine the prophet Gad going, don't, David. The word of the Lord is stay in Judah. Don't do that. David goes, no, the tension is too great. I'm going to die. It's all going to be for nothing. And I just imagine this constant conflict that the prophet is giving to him. And so he goes back to the Philistines and he goes, I know Saul, he'll give up seeking after me. I know he'll give up. If I just, if I just go back to the, to, uh, to the Philistine land, it, it's, it's all going to be work. It's all going to work well. So now David's compromise here is that he is disobeying the direct word of the Lord for him to stay and go to the land and the idea to stay in it. But he escapes. I mean, he leaves the land because of his fear. David, that's a compromise. That's a serious compromise. Being the anointed of the Lord and just casting off the prophetic word in a very direct way like that, specifically tailor made for your situation. You can't do that, David. You have to obey the Lord. And David says, well, I'm caving in right now. And, uh, he already has a couple of lies behind him and a couple of tragedies related to those lies. And, but, uh, now in paragraph E, top of page two, David went back to Achish. You know, in, in the resurrection, in eternity, I'm going to, I got to ask David, what was this deal about Achish? Why did you keep going back to the city of Gath? I mean, and I think David's answer was, that's the one place I remember Saul was afraid of Goliath and his army. He was afraid of the army associated with the city. That's the only thing I can make sense of why he kept going back to Achish. Well, it says in first Samuel chapter 27, that, uh, David and his 600 men, you know, his 400 now grew to 600. They got their wives and children with him. He went back in verse three to Achish. Hey, I'm back again. It's been a few years. Remember me, the guy that, you know, spit on his beard and scratched the wall. Well, I was just faking it. I was trying to trick you, but I'm back. I'm for real this time. You can really trust me. And the craziest thing happens, Achish does. And Achish, uh, he has favor with Achish. David does. And it's like the favor of the Lord is what it looks like. And Achish almost treats him like a son and invites him into this close personal relationship. And, uh, it worked apparently, verse four, that when David went to, uh, Gath, to the Philistine city, the king Saul, the angry Israeli king, he, I mean, the jealous one, he gave up. He goes, you know what? I'm gonna let you go, David. If you're gonna hang out over there, you're no threat to me. And besides that, I'm a little bit nervous to go fight those guys. And so David's plan, uh, it apparently works. Verse seven, he stays there for about, uh, 16 months. Again, he's about 28, 29 years old. It all culminates when he's about 30. Everything turns around. I mean, the great crisis comes to a head. They, David doesn't know a big crisis about to come, but it's about to come. Well, on number, uh, paragraph F, the fifth compromise, in David's personal interaction with Achish, uh, he tells this other big lie to Achish. Because what had David had been doing, and you can read it in the text there, in first Samuel 27, uh, I'll, I'll just explain it to you instead of read it to you, that, uh, David was making these raids on these, uh, these, uh, Gentile, uh, uh, nations, although the nations were so small in our context today, we might call them a tribe. Uh, you know, it wasn't that many people. And there were these three tribes down in the south, uh, part of the land where Ziklag was, this Philistine city that, that, that the king gave to David. He said, David, I'll give you one of my own cities, Ziklag. So the 600 men and their wives and children are all living in that city. But David would occasionally make raids against some of the, the tribes, the Gentile tribes. They were not Philistines, but some of the other nations. And he would get their livestock, and he would get weapons from them. And so, uh, Achish comes and visits one, and says, hey, you know, where do you get all this new livestock? And, and where do you get these new weapons? I mean, that's, that's pretty intense, you know? Uh, uh, how you getting all this? And he goes, oh, well, David lies to him. He says, well, the truth is, I'm so mad at my former nation of Israel, and I know I'm supposed to be the king, but I've written them off. I'm done with Israel. And that king saw my father-in-law. I'm finished with him. And so David lies. He says, as a matter of fact, I've been attacking my own nation, and I'm paying them back. And Achish goes, you're attacking Israel? I mean, you're the mighty David of old? He goes, yep, I'm finished with Israel. It's a total lie. But, uh, Achish the king goes, okay, man, you're gonna, you've burned the bridge. They'll never trust you again. And David says, I know. I'm yours, Achish. I will be devoted to you all the days of my life. Lie, lie, lie. And so David's, uh, up north, uh, with, uh, with the king in an appointment with all of, uh, David's mighty men are with him. And while he's meeting with the king in one of these occasions, the Amalekites, one of the tribes that he'd been attacking, they wanted revenge. So when David and the 600 men were up meeting with the king, you know, some miles away from Ziklag, the, uh, Amalekites, they go, we want revenge. So they attack the city. And when they attack the city of Ziklag, it's a small, a small town, but, uh, they took all the women and children as slaves. They took them captive. You can read it there in 1 Samuel 27. I mean, uh, uh, 1 Samuel, uh, uh, chapter 30 here is that, uh, you can see that, uh, here I am in Roman numeral, uh, I'm in Roman numeral three here, just so you could follow along, uh, down in, uh, uh, 1 Samuel chapter 30, verse 1 to 6. So, uh, that's the passage I'm describing here. So, uh, David and his men had been up, uh, meeting with the king, uh, the, uh, the, uh, Philistine king, uh, King Achish. And, uh, they come back down and the Amalekites have attacked their little town of Ziklag. And, uh, the, as the men are coming up over the city, I mean, they're coming up over the hill, they see this, all this smoke on the horizon. They're going, wow, that, that looks like that smoke is coming from Ziklag, our city. You know, the city the king gave us. That's odd. That's a lot of smoke. That's not just a, you know, a little afternoon barbecue there. I mean, the, this doesn't look good. And as they get closer to the city and they, I could just imagine them coming across the, you know, the mountain crest and going, the whole city's on fire. What happened? I mean, the whole city burned. All of these men, their houses were burned. All of their possessions were burned. Their livestock was stolen. But far worse, their families were taken captive. And I, in those days, when they took your family captive, it was with evil intent. I mean, these pagan nations, when they took the women and children captive, they would be slaves for life. Very many evil things would take place, you could just imagine. I mean, they've lost their family. They've lost their, all their possessions. It's the worst day of David's life. Verse three, 1 Samuel chapter 30, verse three, David and his men came to the city, it was burned with fire. Their wives and their children were taken captive. And again, captivity in that day meant lifetime slavery and a lot of cruel treatment. And you can fill in the blanks there. Well, verse four, David and these six hundred men that were with him, his little, his little band of brothers there, so to speak, they lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep. I mean, they're overwhelmed. But then they think, our houses are burned, our property is, all of our possessions are burned, our livestock is stolen, our families are lost. Then they turn their eye at David. Verse, look at verse six here. David was greatly distressed because of his own problems. But these six hundred men, he was their captain, he's their best friend, I mean, it's the team he's been with for some years now, they decide they're going to stone David. They said, it says later in the verse, they're grieved and they're grieved at him. They go, David, it's because of your lies, it's because of your disobedience, it's because of this, it's because of your decision making, it's because of that. Our families are gone, our city's burned, our possessions are lost, everything is lost, and here's what we're going to do. We're going to stone you. So David's not only lost his family, and his house and possessions burned, his friends are now betraying him. I mean, he's about twenty-nine years old at this time, he's still a young man. I mean, it couldn't be a worse day for his life. Everything is lost. I mean, there is no hope. And so David draws alone. Paragraph B, in verse six, we'll read, David was greatly distressed. I mean, that's a little understatement. I mean, if your house is burned, your family's taken captive, you'll never see them again, all your friends turn on you. It's a tough day. Little, little understatement. But David had this amazing response. He goes, I know what to do. And he strengthened himself in the Lord. I mean, he had nobody supporting him. Probably the prophet Gad was still on his team. Probably that's it. And David gets along with the Lord, and he strengthens himself in God. And what that means is, he simply recalls the truth about God. He simply recalls the promises of God to him. That's how he strengthens himself. It's very easy. But a lot of times, when we stumble in sin, because of shame and condemnation, we don't want to run to the Lord Jesus, and believe that his mercy is greater than our sin. We'd rather just kind of dwell in the sorrow of condemnation, and let the accuser lie to us, and just drown in our sorrows. But David said, no. I'm encouraging myself in God. I know who you are, God. I know how you respond to your people. I know what to do right now. And then he also not just remembered God's personality and God's salvation, but he remembered God's promises to him individually. He says, wait a second, I'm throwing off this unbelief. I'm throwing off this shame. I know what to do right now. Lord, it's you and me. We're connected like we were in the early years. And Lord, I know that you love me. And you know that I love you. You know that this isn't really how I want to live. And David had this confidence God would actually receive him in this cry, and in this giving of himself back to the Lord. Verse 8. Then David said, okay, Lord, I've got some questions to ask you. I mean, he's been repentant for one hour. He goes, I'm ready to get back into full business here. He goes, I've got to ask you, will you help me if I go after my family? Will you help me? And the Lord answers, yes. He goes, I'll help you. And you'll take it, you'll pursue, you'll recover everything. So in verse 18, David takes off. He convinces the 600 man. He goes, come on, stay with me. Give me one more day. And they go, David, we're thinking about killing you in the next hour. He goes, stay with me. The Lord is with me. I know that the Lord has received me. And they go, well, we've heard that before. No, let's go forward. And they go forward, and they catch up with the Amalekites, and their families are there, and they defeat the Amalekites. The Lord blesses David, and they recover all their family members. They recover all of their possessions. Everything that is lost is fully recovered in that day. Well, not only that, in the very same period of time, the same couple of days, up north, King Saul was in a battle up north with the Philistine army. And King Saul gets killed in battle. So David's number one adversary in Israel, the king, he dies. David gets his family back. He gets his possessions back. And the adversary that's been against him is now no longer a part of the situation. And immediately after that, David is anointed king. I mean, it couldn't have been a more dramatic reversal. I mean, one day, everything is lost. The next day, everything is recovered. Now, the reason this is in the word of God, the Lord is saying, there is nothing impossible, nothing impossible for those that will believe me. That instead of yielding to the condemnation and shame and despair, take hold of the blood of Jesus, the confidence, my sins are forgiven, I'm fully accepted. I am in the beloved. All that Jesus did for me has been accredited to my account. I have full acceptance in the Father's presence. We do that. Then in the crisis, we say, Father, you can turn everything around. And not that he will do it very often in one day. Sometimes it is one day. Usually it's a series of, it's a little bit of time and a series of events where everything gets turned around. Everything in the will of God, that is what I'm referring to, that God returned everything in the will of God back to David. But David strengthened himself. He responded in the right way. Everything, I mean, everything is reversed. The great reversal. Now, how you respond to the Lord in the hour of your failure, whether it's a compromise, or the hour of your disaster, whether it's circumstances, and you know, you lose everything, the city's burned, the family's lost, how you respond to God is a direct result of how you view God. And David's view of God was the key to David's response to God in that hour. Well, we're going to look in paragraph C, just for the next two or three minutes, at David's view of God. Paragraph C, Psalm 18, it tells us in Psalm 18 that this was written on the day when God delivered David from Saul. Well, Saul died up in the north part of the land. David has victory over the Malachites and recovers all. In the south part, it happens the same day. I mean, so, it's the Ziklag season that David writes this psalm. And in this psalm, he says in verse 19, the Lord has brought me into a broad place. Well, that's an understatement, meaning I'm now king. I mean, he becomes king immediately after that. My enemies are taken out of the way. My family's restored. My friendships that have betrayed me are restored. All my possessions are restored. And David summarized it, God brought me to a broad place. That's quite a reversal to happen in a short period of time. But the most amazing thing is the reason God restored him. The reason, he said this, the reason God delivered me and restored all these things, because God delights in me. This is one of the primary revelations of David's heart. I mean, a revelation of God that David had in his heart. David, you've been in 16 months of compromise, not to mention some big lies in the few years before that as well. And you're in this mess, and you're saying that in this mess, God delivered you because he's only repenting that day, that God did it because he delights in you. And he goes, yep. I mean, when I first read this verse and connected it, it was the day of the Ziklag victory after 16 months of compromise. I thought, David, how dare you have that kind of boldness? You mean the Lord had you on probation, and now he's going to check in with you? No, no, I'm not on probation. He delights in me. He wanted me to fully give myself, but he liked me the whole time in that process, and he never gave up on me. Yes, I drew back, but God didn't draw back. I can imagine David's friends, the 600 men, going, David, you're saying God delighted in you? Are you for real? I mean, with the way you've been living and the lies you've been telling, he goes, yeah, he did. He didn't give up on me. He didn't draw back on me, though I drew back on him for a short season in this compromise. Then in verse 35, it goes on, David makes the second, I mean, another very key point. He goes, it was God's gentleness that makes me great. David's saying this the day he's repenting, I mean, or within that week. He isn't like taking 10 years to get reestablished and walking in faithfulness. I mean, this is immediately after this 16 month of compromise. He goes, God's dealt with me in gentleness because God's way with His people is in gentleness. I'll just take one more minute. In paragraph D, Psalm 56. This was another Psalm written at the same time. It's written in the time when David is struggling in his compromise with Achish. The reason David's struggling, he's not supposed to be with Achish. He's supposed to stay in the land and obey the word of the Lord. He defies the word of the Lord and deliberately leaves the land of Israel out of his fear because he doesn't think Saul will chase him and David's living in it with Achish over in the Philistine land. But while David's there, look what he writes. We get just a sneak preview into what David's feeling in that 16 month period. He says, verse 8 of Psalm 56, Lord, you number my wonderings. You know I'm not in the will of God right now. You have it clear that I'm wondering right now. I know that you know and you know that I know. And it is, I'm wondering. I'm not doing good right now. But look what David wrote. You put my tears in your bottle. My tears of sadness for my compromise. You didn't write me off and say, oh, grow up and do what I tell you. You, every tear, it's like the Lord's bottle. He scooped down there and David's tears, they're tears of compromise. God captures them and it's like, I'm just making this word picture up. It's like he sent that angel and put it under and David's tears dropped in that bottle because David's tears were precious to God. Well, not only were they precious and captured in the bottle, figuratively speaking, David said, are not they written in your book? They're not only precious, God, David says, I know you remember. You remember the cry I had in compromise. You didn't write me off as a hopeless hypocrite. You actually wrote it in your book. David's warring against his compromise. David loves me. He goes, you remembered it. You put them in your book. And he said in verse nine, when I cried out to you, oh God, deliver me from these, not just the negative circumstances, deliver me from even where I'm at spiritually right now. Then my enemies will turn back. Saul, you'll finally take care of Saul one day and you'll help me get the full breakthrough. And here's what David said, when I cry out to you, then I know my enemies will turn back on me. Both the compromise of my heart as well as the circumstance enemies of Saul's army. This I know because God is for me. I mean David's in sick, I mean David's in sick lag, crying out, I know you're for me God. I know you're for me. I know my tears are in your bottle. I know you've written them in my book. I know the guys around me think that I'm missing it and I am. The prophet Gad won't quit bringing it up to me to rise up and go back to Israel, but I know you're for me. I know you're for me. I mean what an amazing confidence that David had because David knew that a season of stumbling didn't have to become a lifelong pattern of spiritual passivity, of drawing back and giving up and giving in and letting go of your passion and your life vision. And the Lord's story of David, I mean the Lord's breakthrough in David's life is a, it's like a trophy of grace of God shown to the whole body of Christ through history. This is how far the grace of God will go. This is how I feel when you're crying over your sin and over the pain of difficult circumstances. I've not written you off. I delight in you. I'm gentle towards you. I'm there when you're weeping and yes I am for you even when it looks like I'm not. And David said this I know. The Lord is for me. Amen and amen. Let's stand. Well some of you are in zig lag right now in your spiritual life.