Sharing Faith VS Sharing Fear
This week we continue in 1 Samuel as Pastor Gene explores sharing faith vs sharing fear.
Video can’t be displayed
This video is not available.
Sermon Transcript
Auto-generated by YouTube
good morning welcome if you're new here among us my name is gene and i serve here at c3 church as your lead pastor i have a question for you when you were younger did you keep a diary that's probably an old school term maybe i'm dating myself a journal do they call it journaling now is that what they do when i was a kid i didn't because i was a boy and boys don't do diaries at least we didn't back then but maybe you had a diary maybe it had a little locket thing on it that's what my sister's diary had on it pretty easy work around though not very good doesn't really work i'll submit to you today that a diary can be a dangerous thing you see i heard a story of a teenage girl who kept a diary her life was rough she did a lot of venting in her diary she had a little brother we used to torture her our younger siblings do that sometimes but she had a rough life her parents both worked the moms sometimes second and third shift the dad was either working or sleeping so it seemed and so she felt more like a mom than a big sister one of the torture tactics that her brother would use he'd hang the fact that she'd wear makeup to school over her head so he'd say things like if you don't let me stay up past my bedtime i'll tell mom about the makeup she wasn't supposed to do that but she did she would steal mom's makeup and then go to school she would know about it because she's working so he would hang this whole thing over her head and then she would vent about it in her diary or journal say bad things about her kid brother one day when she was looking through her diary she noticed a crumb she brushed it off continued journaling the next day another crumb oatmeal raisin tasty well you see her brother wasn't squeaky clean ether he would make a habit of taking cookies from the cookie jar you see dad liked special oatmeal raisin cookies and mom didn't want the kids eating them all day so she kept it on the top of the refrigerator also easy work around for that push a chair right up next to the refrigerator and the boy would climb up high enough to get the cookies well if you know anything about stealing from your parents not condoning this but just saying done it the key to stealing from your parents is to skim a little off the top a little boy grabbed handfuls of cookies so the mom was very suspicious always asking him are you eating all the cookies and of course he would lie and say no she had no hard evidence so nothing really happened but the big sister put two and two together now okay she thought so one night she completely complied with his request to stay up past his bedtime fine so late that he passed out on the couch so she went to her mom's room and got some lipstick and smeared a bunch on his forehead he didn't notice she woke him up just enough to get him to pass out in his bed the next morning 13 continues dad's sleeping in mom's at work so the big sister has to make breakfast and do all the momish type of things get the kid ready for nothing eating cookies she went into the room put mom's makeup on goes to school the little boy pushes the chair against the refrigerator climbs up grabs too many cookies proceeds to his sister's room opens up the diary or journal oh a new entry dear diary i've been putting more and more of mom's makeup on lately got her in writing now let's keep reading you see ever since i ate one of dad's sacred cookies i've been getting a horrible rash so i've had to put more and more makeup on to cover it up the little boy drops the cookie in the diary and runs to a mirror and sure enough there's a rash on his face so he starts freaking out starts trying to cover i will work for my sister i'm going to cover it up but of course he looks like a clown because he has no makeup experience so it's really really bad then here's the door closed the keys hit the end table uh-oh mom's home runs down the stairs and of course the mom notices it immediately have you been wearing my that's where all my makeup is gone you've been wearing my makeup during the day no mom i ate dad's sacred cookies so now if we stop the message right here what have we learned how to steal from mom and dad and get away with it and how to manipulate your younger sibling into confessing not only his truth but yours we'll keep going right indeed a diary is a dangerous thing today we're going to continue in the rest of the story last week we looked at the relationship between david and jonathan jonathan is king saul's son they make a vow they're very close despite what saul is doing to david then they part ways now we arrive this week in 1st samuel chapter 21 starting at verse 1. david went to the town of nob to see ahimalek the priest ahimalak trembled when he saw him he said why are you alone he asked why is no one with you the king has sent me on a private matter david said he told me not to tell anyone why i am here i told my men where to meet me later now what is there to eat give me five loaves of bread or anything else you have we don't have any regular bread the priest replied but there's the holy bread which you can have if your young men have not slept with any women recently don't worry david replied i never allow my men to be with women when we are on a campaign and since they stay clean even on ordinary trips how much more on this one since there was no other food available the priest gave him the holy bread the bread of the presence that was placed before the lord in the tabernacle it had just been replaced that day with fresh bread so there is sacred food so here david is clearly lying he's being pursued by saul so has not sent him on any mission at all see there are consequences for this lie he's elaborating on the story a lot so he continues he asks him do you have a sword himalaq says ah yes there's the one that you use to kill goliath with goliath sword ah i'll take it there's nothing like it he says so he grabs the sword he has provisions now he's going to go on his way but keep in mind doug the edomite is watching the whole time keep him in mind so now david he flees to the philistines in an ironic kind of reversal to king achish of gas his officers don't like it they know about david isn't this the guy they sing songs about saul killed his thousands and david killed his tens of thousands this guy could be trouble they're thinking he could attack us he's really the enemy still from the inside out david hears about it and he's worried so what does he do more deceit he pretends to be crazy spitting down his beard and stuff and scratching on doors acting like a madman so king achish isn't really worried about him anymore get rid of this guy we have enough crazy people here so david flees first samuel 22 1. so david left gath and escaped to the cave of adullum soon his brothers and all his other relatives joined him there then others began coming men who were in trouble or in debt or were just discontented until david was the captain of about 400 men so he's got this band of outlaws with him but he's worried about his mom and dad he leaves them in mitzvah of moab to keep them safe then the prophet gad warns david leave the stronghold go to heareth meanwhile cut see saul's complaining near the tamarisk tree in gibeah to the men of benjamin has david offered you something to go against me he's claiming that they're conspiring against him so finally doug the edomite speaks up he tells on david ah i saw him like give david provisions the brett the sword saul's mad about it he calls for a himalayak did you do this why are you conspiring on me and i'm like whoa he's the captain of your guard what are you talking about are you allied with him so everyone's kind of a little confused david hasn't wronged you in any way and i never wronged you in any way as the basic point of what he's saying but saul says no conspiracy he orders them all killed i'm gonna die today well his soldiers don't do it they probably sense that it's pretty wrong he didn't do anything wrong but doug you do it ah doe egg digital kills 85 priests their families everybody even the kids and their livestock in a tragic event so indeed david's lie had a serious price only abiathar escapes we'll talk about him a little later jesus mentions him at one point if you know the gospel of mark so abiathar escapes to david and he's the high priest there and so david acknowledges his wrongdoing in the situation and takes him in i'll protect you now doesn't really make up for it but the least he can do if we turn the page we see again those pesky philistines they're raiding the town of keila so david does something interesting he consults with the lord not once but twice should i rescue qiala so we see a contrast between saul and david here so he does it he rescues qiala defeats the philistines but now saul hears about it ah i've got him trapped in a walled town now i'm going to get him david gets wind of it he has a biathar with him with the ephod that's how the priest would make decisions they put this garment on um filming cast lots sometimes so they asked the priest well the people of qiala betray me to saul yes the lord says yes again redundant but wants to be sure yes so he escapes with 600 men remember that was kind of a key number in the story 600 men to the wilderness of zif first samuel 23 15 says one day day near horush david received the news that saul was on the way to ziff to search for him and kill him jonathan went to find david and encouraged him to stay strong in his faith in god don't be afraid jonathan reassured him my father will never find you you are going to be the king of israel and i will be next to you as my father saul is well aware so the two of them renewed their solemn pact before the lord then jonathan returned home while david stated horish so remember last week this is just a renewal of this pact but the men of zif tell on david saul being a great narcissist says finally someone's concerned about me pursues him so david moves deeper and deeper into the wilderness while saul keeps pursuing so this kind of contrasting behavior until saul now has to deal with the philistines himself but then it says first samuel 24 1 after saul returned from fighting the philistines he was told that david had gone to the wilderness of engetti so saul chose 3 000 elite troops from all israel and went to search for david and his men near the rocks of the wild goats at the place where the road passes some sheepfold saul went into a cave to relieve himself but as it happened david and his men were hiding farther back in that very cave now is your opportunity david's men whispered to him today the lord is telling you i will certainly put your enemy into your power to do with as you wish so david first kind of complies but then he decides i'm going to cut off the hem of saul's robe then david's conscience starts to bother him i shouldn't have done that to the lord's anointed one he thinks so he waits for saul to leave the cave follows saul out of the cave and announces himself the basic gist is hey look i've got your robe you were at my mercy but i didn't kill the lord's anointed one he's saying even if i could have then he says these are some key verses let the lord judge between us he is my advocate and he will rescue me from your power remember that important song is that you are a better man than me you have repaid this evil with good first samuel 24 20. saul says and now i realize that you are surely going to be king and that the kingdom of israel will flourish under your rule now swear to me by the lord that when that happens you will not kill my family and destroy my line of descendants so david promised this to saul with an oath then saul went home but david and his men went back to the stronghold now if we turn the page we see first samuel 25 1. now samuel died and all israel gathered for his funeral they buried him at his house in rama then david moved down to the wilderness of man there was a wealthy man from man who owned property near the town of carmel he had three thousand sheep and one thousand goats and it was sheep sharing time this man's name was nabal and his wife was abigail she was a sensible and beautiful woman but nabal a descendant of caleb was crude and mean in all his dealings so remember carmel that's the place where saul set up the monument to himself kind of interesting it's also interesting that they tell us that he's a descendant of caleb that is nabal one of the two people who didn't protest when they scouted out the promised land they got to enter it unlike all the other people their age joshua and caleb now nabal indeed was kind of mean david sends ten servants they come in peace they just want provisions we protected you basically we didn't do anything wrong to you come on share some stuff with us nabel no he belittles david he calls him a servant who is run away from his master literally belittling him and you guys are a bunch of outlaws so they go back they give david this report and david gets his sword and says get your swords we're going to kill this guy meanwhile a servant tells abigail a little smarter this is going to be bad so she saves the day she gets a whole bunch of provisions together and approaches david when she does she bows down low to david and acknowledges it yes he's a foolish man as his name suggests in hebrew sounds like folly or foolish david's response bless you for keeping me from murder i was going to kill him if you didn't intervene so she goes back home nabel he's partying he's getting drunk so she doesn't tell him she waits until he's hung over the next morning to break the news and he has a heart attack when he hears it he's paralyzed for 10 days and then dies later david finds out about it he's like well would you marry me abigail nice guy right give the husband a heart attack and take his wife it's a great way to get a beautiful woman it tells us here david's wives are ahinum abigail and michael remember michael but it tells us that she is staying with saul and marries him or her off to this guy named pelty we're not going to talk about it today but you can remember that for later something kind of interesting will happen with them so even though michael's married to david saul marries her to another man if we turn the page again the ziphites turn on david they tell on him so saul continues his pursuit three thousand men but now they're camping out and david and his friend abishii spy on them and so they're encamped in like a circular formation with saul abner his general in the middle there's a spear by his head and a water jug and again his men are like oh here's your chance you can get saul no i'm not going to kill the lord's anointed ones so another proof like the hem of the robe let's just go down there and steal the spear and the water jug okay so the lord puts them in a deep sleep so they can get away with this he gets a safe distance away and again another exchange like that but this time he singles out abner first the general calls him out abner you're such a wonderful general you didn't protect your king sarcastic at first i could have killed him and so you should be killed for this now we have another exchange between david and saul david's making the point what are you guys doing i'm like a dead dog or a flea why do you keep coming after me like this where am i what did i do so first samuel 26 21 saul confessed i have sinned come back home my son and i will no longer try to harm you for you valued my life today i've been a fool and very very wrong here's your spiro king david replied let one of your young men come over and get it the lord gives his own reward for doing good and for being loyal and i refuse to kill you even when the lord placed you in my power for you are the lord's anointed one now may the lord value my life even as i have valued yours today may he god rescue me from all my troubles and saul said to david blessings on you my son david you will do many heroic deeds and you will surely succeed and david went away and saul returned home may the lord rescue me from you key point trust in the lord and he continues to honor the king even when the king is wrong now david he thinks saul's going to keep coming there's a pattern so he has no reason to believe that saul is going to keep his promise so now with the 600 men he goes back to achish of get interesting can i stay with you this time akish lets him stay why well the enemy of my enemy is my friend david is going out on these raiding parties he's not being entirely honest about who he's attacking so when he's asked by akush where have you been he's not so honest with him he tells a half-truth he's deceiving him and so akish is thinking this is great he's attacking all my enemies wonderful he'll have to stay here forever so again david is deceiving now most people are quick to point out that in these accounts it seems as if there are two souls right somebody called him at a bible study i think a paranoid schizophrenic it's what he seems like he's constantly like two different people and indeed he has an evil spirit in him it tells us that okay but here doesn't it also seem like there are two davids if we're being honest we're usually really quick to jump to the account about him and bathsheba that's what we do right david's sinned he was a murderer and an adulterer becca if we look at the rest of the story he's doing a lot of sinning leading up to that if we're being honest did you know david a fairly troubled person being persecuted david kept a diary of sorts i told you in the past that david wrote about halfish of the psalms he's a musician remember a psalmist and so he gives us a lot of the psalms by the inspiration of course of the holy spirit the psalms are interesting because if you read them in full and you look carefully and you're reading the rest of the story you can pair the psalms of david many of them with these accounts and we find one such pairing in psalm 56 if we read the part of it that most people don't read they're little intros sometimes it says this for the choir director a psalm of david regarding the time the philistines seized him in gas to be sung to the tune dove on distant oaks i don't know that tune i don't think anybody does but i have the words right here so i'll read it to you and not sing it oh god have mercy on me for people are hounding me my foes attack me all day long i'm constantly hounded by those who slander me and many are boldly attacking me but when i am afraid i will put my trust in you i praise god for what he has promised i trust in god so why should i be afraid what can mere mortals do to me they're always twisting what i say they spend their days plotting to harm me they come together to spy on me watching my every step eager to kill me don't let them get away with their wickedness in your anger oh god bring them down but when i am afraid i will trust in you lord you will win the battles so david published a diary of sorts i guess he didn't mind people seeing it and we too publish our diaries of sorts sometimes online you see it seems like nowadays people don't mind letting other people in their diaries or at least selective parts of our diaries what we want people to read you see back in the day i don't know about you but usually what we had to say about someone else was confined to our diaries we kept it there i don't know about you but it was usually just for the purpose of vending my parents gave me some pretty good advice think twice before you put anything in writing you ever hear that i've heard people say don't put anything in writing why well if you're guilty of something people are going to use that against you but haven't you ever said something or written something down in your diary and then said i'm really glad i didn't send that email that letter i'm really glad i didn't say that nowadays i think people have forgotten about this rule it doesn't seem like people mind seeing bad things about other people that everybody else can read but here's the difference between david's diary and ours for all his faults and yes he was dishonest perhaps out of fear i don't know he acknowledges it david isn't as dishonest and dishonoring as we are in his diary or the things he publishes as some of us are today david think about it for all his faults just stop here the obvious he honored the king even when the king was wrong quite respectful actually considering he was dishonest at times again perhaps out of fear but in his diary that he published it's interesting to note he's very honest about his fears isn't he most of us are not you see we may do something wrong like david did but we're often not as honest about it and we certainly don't always acknowledge our part in the situation do we like david did he confesses you see are we sharing faith like david in the holy spirit are we filled with that if we are then of course we would know judge a tree by its fruit what kind of fruit the fruit of the spirit love joy patience peace kindness goodness self-control we'd see more of that if we were sharing like david did in the spirit sharing faith with others however that's not often what i see christians sharing i see many christians sharing just the opposite sharing anxiety igniting fear without leading people to faith david right i'm afraid but but the lord's got it that's where we'll end knowing our diary will be read are we using the opportunity to make jesus known that's the main thing or are we spreading fear are we leading people to comfort and peace that only the lord can give he is our strength david speaking by the holy spirit you see he's guided to praise the lord and spread this hope this peace this strength that comes from the lord he's praising him he doesn't stop at fear he gets you to where we're supposed to be he's honest about his struggle he does his fair share of complaining if you read the psalms but he always gets you to the lord and i think that's the fundamental difference today so we see kind of like a psalm 56 formula if you will you see david is honest i'm afraid he acknowledges it turns it around but he doesn't stop at fear he gets you to the lord so what does that look like today what if we did that i'm afraid you see that post out there a lot i'm afraid you see you learn something in pastor school in other places you learn that anger is just a symptom of fear that's why you're angry you're afraid and if we're being honest we're all afraid of something and that's why we get angry i'm angry because i'm afraid guys hey guys this really scares me i'm afraid i need to vent it out a little bit here what if we were honest no just the anger part but then but then wait i know i just want to confess that but there's the lord and man i really trust that he's got it he's going to sort all this out we're fine guys so if you're afraid like me just come on let's let's pray let's give it to the lord we want to pray for the best possible outcome that's what we want right whether it's illness whether something's going wrong whether it's some kind of governmental thing going on we want to pray whether it's healing or whether it's some external thing coming in do you know what the word god says we should do bless those who persecute you bless and do not curse read romans 12 give you some homework bless them do not curse do not ever doesn't say but you don't agree with them politically you can do it no it's not there bless those who persecute you bless them matthew 5 44 check my work romans 12 again and again and again and again and again this is what it says pray for kings so that we can have a peaceful life scream and yell at them and slander them so we can have a peaceful life says it nowhere in the word of god pray for them bless them so that we can live in peace maybe the holy spirit is just a little bit better than we are at changing people's minds you think bless them pray for them we need to give it to the lord and look at the bigger picture consider this first peter 2 saying the same thing honor the emperor or the king some versions say probably maybe nero at that time who just happened to be burning christians alive kind of rough huh is that happening to us no not here in our cozy country not at all but he says even though this is happening these fiery trials as he calls them it's a little later but we're in chapter two now honor them just honor them and he goes through all these different people groups same thing slaves even if your master is being cruel to you first peter just keep reading go through check my work work for them honor them like you'd honor the lord that's what jesus says right treat people like they're me even the least of them interesting bless and honor them this is really interesting if we keep reading to the stuff that a lot of people don't read you'll see first peter 2 21 for god called you to do good even if it means suffering just as christ suffered for you he is your example and you must follow in his steps if you want but if you don't want to it's okay no does not say that verse 22 he never sinned nor deceived anyone he did not retaliate when he was insulted what he did not retaliate when he was insulted and now in case you're tempted to say well i'm not jesus it was different you're missing the context go back he is your example and you must follow his steps and if we're being honest we got a lot easier than jesus here don't we yeah just a little bit so he did not retaliate when he was insulted nor threaten revenge when he suffered he left his case in the hands of god who always judges fairly okay we are to be like jesus we are not to retaliate when insulted but leave the case in the hands of god we're called to be peacemakers sharing this message of faith hope and love the crux of it is no matter what is going on in this crazy world we live it's always been crazy we have hope jesus is going to come back and sort it all out are you believing that with me this morning do you believe that when i reflect on that and i really believe that i'm like whatever jesus will sort it all out i find peace in that and i want to share that peace with you if you don't have peace rest in the lord it's okay like the martyrs who are beheaded in revelation all right they wake up here's your white robes calm down i got it and he does i've read it all the way to the end he's got it do you believe that it brings me great comfort and i want to share it with you let me show you how this works practically so contrary to popular belief i work a few more hours than just now right on sunday just a couple and so during the week i minister to people who have fears they're afraid it's the crux of it all they're just afraid and some have reason to be so you got to acknowledge that right too many people fear is faith in the enemy that's not true the word of god says sometimes it's really wise thing to be kind of afraid yeah fear of the lord beginning of wisdom so you acknowledge that a woman came up to me approached me or contacted me i should say she had a cancer diagnosis late stage cancer it's a tough one i hear too much so another one okay here's what we're gonna do this stinks it's no good it's okay that you're afraid this first thing you're not in sin it's okay i get it here's what we're gonna do we're gonna pray for the best immediate outcome possible that's it we're gonna pray for that we're gonna pray for healing we're gonna believe that that's possible we want you to be healed let's be calm about this but it might surprise you to learn that that's not the goal it's immediate it's what's right here in front of us but that's just a passing thing it's not the goal that's the goal right we're just like dust so you got to remind people of that a little bit but here's the important thing and here's what we do about other situations when we publish it in our diary and here's what you do not do if you're ministering to someone in this situation you don't freak out about it right oh no what are we going to do with these doctors and freak the person out entirely we're not going to be short-sighted here no calm down let's pray together let's hope but look we have the lord we can trust that's where we're going then maybe let's go to revelation a little bit and look at what jesus is going to do there are beheaded people in there so what does he tell us go to the word on it ultimately the healing is in our eternal life in christ jesus that's it we're not going to worry about the immediate i want to share some scripture with you as i close this morning and i want you to think about something ii corinthians corinthians a couple of different issues are going on there they're dragging their feet on a collection that's supposed to go to the church in jerusalem the other one is false teachers yes paul and timothy are dealing with false teachers i get it and so they're spreading a lot of false things and so what they have to do is bolster their ministry they have to explain all the trials that they're going through and that these false teachers they're not the real deal because they're not willing to go through all the hard stuff that's the backdrop they even say ii corinthians 7 we have fears within they're acknowledging they're afraid it's bad but check this out second corinthians 4 8 we are pressed on every side by troubles but we are not crushed we are perplexed but not driven to despair we are hunted down but never abandoned by god we get knocked down but we are not destroyed though through suffering our bodies continue to share in the death of jesus so that the life of jesus may also be seen in our bodies yes we live under constant danger of death because we serve jesus so that the life of jesus will be evident in our dying bodies so we live in the face of death but this has resulted in eternal life for you but we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said i believe in god so i spoke that's interesting it's psalm 116 starting at verse 10. if you keep reading the rest of psalm 116 it says i am deeply troubled lord in my anxiety i cried out to you these people are all liars so that's in the mind of someone who knows the word of god as they hear this from the apostle we know that god who raised the lord jesus will also raise us with jesus and present us to himself together with you all of this is for your benefit and as god's grace reaches more and more people there will be great thanksgiving and god will receive more and more glory that is why we never give up though our bodies are dying our spirits are being renewed every day for our present troubles are small and won't last very long yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever so we don't that is we do not look at the troubles we can see now rather we fix our gaze on the things that cannot be seen for the things we see now will soon be gone but the things we cannot see will last forever that's the goal are we living in fear of the things that will soon be gone or are we living in faith in the things that will last forever we're commanded to be peacemakers and if you came here today looking for peace if you have fears if you have anxieties if you have anger the peace is here the peace is in jesus christ so i get it yup there's a lot to be angry about isn't there a lot of crazy stuff in the world but hear this jesus has overcome the world and in him and only in him we find a peace that surpasses all understanding let me pray for you lord i thank you for this church for these people being willing even on a holiday weekend to come in and celebrate your resurrection to give all the glory to you to praise you lord to put you above all else and so that is what i pray that as we go out we are vessels of peace hope and love to everyone we see with our main intention and goal fill us with your holy spirit so that we can do this in this difficult world to spread the knowledge of the good news to share you with others i ask this thing in jesus name amen you