Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
and to someone in here this morning the lord would say i will do a new thing in your life a brand new work i will take you deeper i will take you further i have plans for you says the lord that you cannot even imagine i have an anointing and a calling on your life i have things for you to do and say people for you to reach but you must you must seek me with all of your heart you know i would say that i want to just reiterate the first part of the interpretation of those tongues is that we americans and we in this church i know are too busy with other things and we let distractions and we let the world and we let work and we let problems and we let we let daily life get in the way of seeking after god and we got to change that this year amen i don't care what the american culture the american culture tries to press us into a mold and you know that's why it says do not be conformed to this world because this world will try to press you into its mold it will try to push you and force you to be like it and it takes everything in us to go no i'm going to step away you almost step away from some things that yeah maybe not be sinful things but i'm going to step away from some things and take some time to be with god to be in god's word to be in prayer to be listening because listen that was very strong first of all the part of the interpretation come you weary how many of you felt weary spiritually emotionally and physically this year i can raise my hand but the lord said he if you come away with him where does our strength come from time with him i mean how many people really take that time to be with god anymore i mean consistently you know we've got to change that because we've got to become a people that get our strength from god spiritual strength first it's what's interesting in proverbs i believe it's proverbs 18 16 or 16 18. for some reason i twist them around in my head but it talks about the spirit of man the spirit you know we are spirit soul and body that's what the bible says the spirit though part of us is what sustains our infirmity or our weakness now what's weak about us our flesh right and our emotions our soul is easily swayed so if you don't have a strong spirit then you're not going to have a strong strong soul or emotions or mind and
you're not gonna have a strong body even so he talks about that it's all connected to your everything is connected to your spiritual strength and our spiritual strength comes from spending time with jesus in prayer in the word in worship in fellowship in church it comes from those things and you need to have it i promise i'll tell you if i miss my time or i get too busy i am not pleasant to be around just ask my wife uh you know i get easily if i if i don't have my time i find myself getting uh easily more easily annoyed more easily anxious more easily disturbed all kinds of things and no one's immune to this and christians listen we are in a season of warfare like you wouldn't believe and it's just going to increase so if you're not getting your spiritual strength you're going to be really weary and you're just not going to be able to handle your just daily life much less if some bad stuff starts happening in the world worse than it already is so again here here you know the bible says don't despise prophesy right that's what it says in first thessalonians 5 don't despise prophet sign what does that mean don't take it lightly if you look up the greek word it means to esteem lightly and so when god gives a word and i felt that strongly this morning as you know we don't always have a tongue and interpretation but but when we do we need to we need to remember what is god saying to us as a church collectively the holy spirit spoke this morning amen so having said that you may be seated again we welcome those listening this is fire and grace church here in opelika alabama auburn alabama and god's given me a word what's amazing is this the message he gave me to preach to you this morning it's about this very subject with the battle um we're going to call this message this morning ziklag ziklag anybody in here know what ziklag is about you know what's in the bible right ziklag well i want you to turn with me we're going to go first we're going to go let's go to uh and again this was all just kind of dropped in me this morning so i haven't decided all where i'm going yet with this oh i guess second samuel go to second samuel 23 first because basically what this is about ziklag is about the life of david
second samuel y'all there yet i can't even get there myself my pages are sticking together this morning and actually i'm sorry that's not where i wanted to go it was first samuel first samuel there is a part there in second samuel we'll get to in a minute but it's first samuel 22 we'll start there just hold your spot there as we get started because i'm going to give you a little bit because see the bible everything in the bible is important to us every story every word and as jesus said mansion that lives by bread alone but by every word that proceeds of god so we need everything and i've covered this many times first corinthians chapter 10 says that the things that happened to them in the old testament are examples to us and are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world have come so we know that every story in the bible and i believe they're all true literal stories i'm not i i you know they're people that believe the old testament stories are just metaphors and myths but i don't believe that at all and of course archaeology keeps proving these stories were real and these people were real but the life of david everybody knows that david really existed there's archaeological discoveries we know that king david existed uh the in the kingdom when he came to the kingdom but there's something about king david's life you know that we need to get a hold of because the bible says he was the man after god's own heart yet we know from the bible that he was by far he was not a perfect man okay um [Music] and you know we all know the story of how david's life or the where where it begins for us right and david was a young young man we know he was probably 15 16 years old somewhere in that range when uh god decides that he was going to anoint another man to be king of israel because saul was disobedient and rebellious and would not obey the lord and so god tells the prophet samuel i'm going to pick another man go take your oil go anoint him and everybody knows a story samuel goes to david's household and goes through all the brothers david who again was probably 15 or 16 years old we don't know for sure but somewhere in that range we know he was just a they said just a a young a boy and samuel pours the anointing oil on david's head
to anoint him king of israel and the bible says that the spirit of god came on david at that moment i mean this is just amazing we know that david said that he spent a lot of time with god privately out in the wilderness when he kept the sheep and when you're a shepherd and you have to take sheep and your shepherd in the desert regions and arid regions you have to take sheep out you know and find grass it's just not lush pastures everywhere you got to take them up into mountains and hills and you spend a lot of time by yourself and we know that david was a musician we know that he played the harp and probably he was probably very gifted and played more than one but we know that he played a musical instrument and was very gifted very anointed on that so we know that this man you know as a young man even sought after god and spent time alone with god and spent time worshiping god and spent time in prayer and we know that god gave him even before he was anointed we know god gave him even supernatural strength because the the man was able to defend his sheep and kill a lion with his bare hands and a bear i mean if if a teenager can kill a lion and a bear um god is with them amen all right and so god's hand was on him and then boom you know david's life he goes and we know the story of when he goes and goliath challenges the armies of israel you know probably the most famous stories in the bible when david takes his sling and says i come to you in the name of the lord and he slays the the giant and and and david's life takes off at this point i mean it's you know god's anointed in king of israel as a boy um he goes and he slays the the the giant that's that's coming against israel he puts the armies of the philistines to flight he's a hero i mean he's a war hero like this um saul decorates him and makes him a general and he then he marries the king's daughter i mean everything's going great for david right isn't that how the christian life starts you know think about if you were ever really born again when you really met jesus when you you know i know for me when i was in sin and i was in alcoholism and drug use and all the stuff that i was doing when i was in sin and i remember when jesus came into my life and the encounter that i had with him and that born-again experience and when he made all things new when he forgave me of my sin when he set me free from all that there was all this joy and peace and it was all new and then i began to get into the word and i began to see you know got baptized in the holy spirit and the gifts of the holy spirit began to work and i started seeing people get saved and boy i mean my first convert was a was a satanist who was you know in line to be
the high priestess of a coven so i mean you want to you want to talk about you know casting out demons and seeing miracles and it started out with a bang and that's what happens with a lot of us you know christian life starts out boom god slays it and i think god lets us have that that powerful encounter when we first get saved and what some people call the honeymoon period that you have with with god that seems like you just wonderful and everything is going great and peaceful and and you know you slay some giants in your life maybe it was alcohol maybe it was drugs maybe it was sexual sin you but you slay some giants in your life and you and you start this journey with god right oh but then you go into the church right you go into the church or for some went into seminary which was probably some for some people the biggest mistake of their lives right but they go into the church world and all of a sudden you got saul getting jealous people getting angry people accusing you of this you know all kind of issues going on there right but this is what we forget about david's life it didn't take long we don't know how long but it wasn't long after he killed goliath after he was defeating the armies of the philistines he continued to go on and fight battles for the lord he marries saul's daughter so he's the son-in-law to the king of israel meaning he's living in the palace he's got everything and all of a sudden though the king who is disobedient to god and that the doors open to an evil spirit to come in to saul and use saul against david he becomes jealous of david and begins to try to kill david and everybody knows that he had to go on the run and david i mean we don't think about this but david was driven not only from his his job but he was driven from his wife he was driven from his home he was driven even from his family he had to be and live in the wilderness and run for his life and what many people don't get is this went on for 10 to 12 years that he had to live in caves and he was hunted by saul and the armies of israel like like a like a fugitive like a murderer like he was he had to constantly live looking over his shoulder do you think that was enjoyable excuse me i don't think it was at all and david um you know during that time in that 10 to 12 years and again this is something that christians don't like to think about is having 10 to 12 year periods of your life where you feel like you're in the wilderness where you feel like you're just battling everything and struggling with everything and enemies are are beating you and you just look like you're not
succeeding and you're not winning and you're not overcoming anything anybody ever felt like that all right you know you sit back and you wonder god when will this ever end and you and then of course for those of us who know excuse me for those of us who know that the call of god is on our lives and the anointing came on us and maybe even we had a prophecy that god was going to do a certain thing in our lives and it and and it seems like the circumstances and everything that begins to happen in our life is completely opposite of what god said what's going to happen and then we wonder well maybe they'll just go on for a year and then it's the next year and it's the same struggle and you think well maybe it'll be the next year maybe it'll be the next year let me think about that i really think it was about 12 years isn't that amazing before god's word in david's life came to pass now but i want to show you something there were a few good things that happened during the time period that david was in the i'm just having all kind of trouble this morning when he first flees here's the good news some of the good things that happen there's always a few people that recognize the anointings on you even though the king hates you the anointing is on you even though the establishment and religion hates you there's an anointing on you look at this is for uh first samuel 22 when david escaped and this is i'm going to tell you this is a parallel to our church as well david therefore has departed this and escaped to the cave of adulum and when his brethren and all his father's house heard of it they went down there to him and everyone that that and everyone that was in distress and everyone that was in debt and everyone that was discontented gathered themselves unto him and he became a captain over them and they were with him about 400 men so david as he flees there are some people that go you know we're going with him but it wasn't a great group of folks now was it says they were distressed they were in debt they were discontented so about 400 men now when you put into what were the armies of israel and that david was probably a general over a general has a is a general usually over a division or two and a division of soldiers can be anywhere 10 to 20 000 soldiers 400 men out of out of that group is not a whole lot of people right but some men said you know what we know saul screwed up we know the anointings left him
we know that david's going to be king we know we know that what saul's doing is not right so a few go with him right but what they didn't realize was they were going to be in the battle with him for a while for a long time 10 years all right how many times now i'm not going to go through the whole story because i want to get to the part about ziklag but we go through all those years and saul chases him and catches up with him and got you know many times david there's several times there that david could have killed saul and stopped the whole thing but david wasn't going to do something wrong he wasn't going to take a shortcut he wasn't going to cut a corner he wasn't going to do something unethical immoral to get what god promised him this is where a lot of people go wrong well i want to you know god's promised me a husband or god's promised me a wife or god's promised me this job but then they do something an unethical or immoral to try to get there and just shipwrecked the whole thing right one thing is is true you don't do anything unethical or immoral to try to help god right doesn't work never will but anyway that's another story now i want you to go over to first daniel chapter 27. david david though he's a man after god's own heart uh though the spirit of god is on him the anointing's on him though he knows that he has a destiny and a calling to be the king of israel to be the leader of god's people he has this anointing and this gift and this calling and this promise and god's even proven it by the killing of goliath and and god god gave him proof excuse me well listen david got tired anybody going through years of trials and tribulation and it looking like nothing is ever going to work i don't care how spiritual you are i don't care how strong you are i don't care how much you love god i don't care how much you've obeyed god i don't care how many miracles you've seen and how many things god's done for you we are all human and after a while it wears on us all right and look i want to show you david finally and we won't read chapter 26 but in chapter 26 saul comes out with 3 000 soldiers against him again because he heard where david was hiding and david you know once again he was human and i imagine can you imagine you got 400 men or 600 men probably by this time and you hear that oh god my the my enemy that hates me
has got 3 000 soldiers and he knows where i am now and he's coming to get me i imagine the human side of him was just do i have to deal with this again why does this keep happening how many times in your walk with god if you're not why is this still happening to me why are things still the same why am i still struggling with this why am i still attacked by this why is this problem still in my family why is this child not saved yet why is this person still speaking against me why you know what i'm saying why why is it still the same why do i the same battle this same trial it just like it keeps going and it keeps going and it keeps going and here saul comes out after him but once again god intervenes and saul it says matter of fact if you read the story you see where it says the lord put a deep sleep on saul and all of saul's warriors and david and his soldier was able to sneak in there and steal saul's spear and his bottle of water to prove they could have killed him but david again he knew god put him saul as king i'm not touching him and that's when david david was teaching his man a lesson it's not your job to touch god's anointed god will deal with it and that's what he said he said one day he'll die one day he'll go in battle i mean david could have killed him become king but not the way god wanted to do it right well how many of us have that patience though i'm telling you i watch people i'm just going to be honest with you and and there are people listening to us and this is you know people thousands of people matter of fact it's been like three thousand people listen to podcasts or three thousand something is crazy uh so when i say things it doesn't always mean it's somebody in here i know i know there are all kinds of people from countries all over the world listening at different times but i want to tell you something i see more single people screw their lives up because they can't i i've seen mistakes of marriages because people cannot wait on god and they want to help god out i i've just i've watched it you just don't know how many i've watched over the years [Music] and you know david could have killed saul and could have got what he wanted quicker right but i know this and david knew this the way i become king the way i feel i get what god's promised me is the way the next guy will deal with me
saying you reap what you sow type thing right y'all with me all right here's what i want to get to so in chapter 27 verse 1 david's tired and listen to what david says even though god delivered him from saul and saul said saul was went no more after him and he was done with it [Music] look what david and david said in his heart this is first samuel 27 1. and david said in his heart i shall now perish one day at the hand of saul there is nothing better for me that i should have speedily escaped into the land of the philistines and saul shall despair of me and seek me to seek me any more in any coast of israel so shall i escape out of his hands and david arose and he passed over with the 600 men that were with him unto akish the son of mayok king of gath now here's what's so amazing david had been at war with the philistines and goliath was goliath of gath from the city of gath so goliath's commander was this king mayok of gath you understand david said in his heart even though god had promised him one day you will be king even though god had intervened over and over and over again david said in his heart he finally got tired and he said you know what i got a plan i'll deal with it myself i'm tired of running from saul i'm tired of being in fear for my life i'm tired of dealing with this problem over and over and over again i know what i'll do i'll go live with the philistines oh boy now anybody in here think that was a good idea how do you go live with your enemy how do you go live with the people filled with demons boy i'm going to tell you what really i'm going to give y'all what happened here this is david's backsliding moment [Music] and hear what i'm saying i'm not talking about backsliding in some obvious sin like adultery or drunkenness or drugs or you know what i'm saying no he backs lid in his heart to say you know what i'm just going i'm just going to live i'm just going to live with the world again i'm just going to do what i want to do and i'm just going to be like the rest of them i'll go live with them oh boy what's the problem is when you lie down with the dogs in it get up with the fleas that's right right
if we read this it says that he lived there for a year and four months look down at verse seven and the time that david dwelt in the country of the philistines was a full year and four months 16 months i never forget there was a you know i guess i shouldn't say this some some people take it wrong but i don't care you know i used to love old jimmy swaggart he was a great preacher he fell in the sin and god dealt with him but there was a day the anointing was on him and he was preaching but i'll never forget he preached a message one time called 16 months out of the will of god about this right here 16 months out of the will of god you know david could have stayed in the wilderness he could have stayed in those caves he could have kept doing what he was doing for 10 years and being in a better place with god but it said in his heart i will one day perish at the hands of psalm now now what does that mean when it when samuel the prophet anoints you with oil and the holy spirit comes on you and the prophet of god who's never missed a prophecy says you are the next king of israel god has spoken to you he's made it clear what you are to do who you are what your anointing is what your calling is that god has plans for you and then you say in your heart when david said in his heart i shall not one day perish at the hands of saul he had completely given up believing god he's just giving up it ain't gonna happen that's the alabama way of saying it it's not gonna happen it's not gonna happen for me it might happen for somebody else but it's not going to happen for me anybody ever said that listen there are people right now that believe jesus is the same yesterday today and we believe jesus is a healer and have seen other people healed and they're still not healed they're like is it ever going to happen for me or they see somebody you know who prayed for a son or a daughter who was lost and on drugs or living shacking up or in sin with somebody and finally that son or daughter gets saved and comes out of it but their daughter son still not like will it ever happen for me i'm telling you there's a lot of people in the church world right now has just said you know what god i just i don't believe you're gonna do it for me i know what you said to me i know what you said prophetically i know what the word says i know what you promised me i know what you said but it's just been too long it's been too hard it's just nothing looks nothing works nothing ever seems to work out and this is where a lot of people blow it
they just say i just i quit this is where a lot of people quit church this is where a lot of people a lot of people remember it says david said in his heart you know that his men didn't even know what he said in his heart he said it privately to himself but this is why a lot of people just say i'm done i'm done with church and and usually it's i'm done with praying i've prayed and prayed and prayed and i don't get the answer so i'm done this is why people quit praying and start watching tv all the time don't talk about christian folks because deep down in their heart they said you know what i've prayed and it hadn't worked it's amazing like david we forget all the times that god did answer and intervene right but what's interesting if we read here this isn't the worst part of it [Music] when david escaped to gath in the philistines he asked of them to give him a place to live and look at verse six and it says in achesh gave him ziklag that day wherefore ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of judah to this day ziklag was a city or a region in the philistines and the king of that region gave it to david so ziklag became david's home in the land of the philistines a lot of people there's a lot of christians living in ziklag you know what ziklag is ziklag is the place where you've gotten so tired frustrated discouraged depressed down it's become your retreat away from god you know a lot of people take a retreat to get closer to god no these we there's secret retreats in people's lives in their hearts where they have walked away they still go to church they still look like a christian they run into christians they'll talk christianese but what in their heart they live in ziklag right there's a problem about ziklag though ziklag is not staying [Music] it's not a place of safety yes see what we're trying to do when we retreat away from god into this place of doubt and unbelief and hurt and pain when things don't work out when we retreat away from god and we think okay i'm gonna i'm gonna build this little fortress of ziklag where i'm gonna protect myself and that's what david was basically saying i'm gonna protect myself from any more of this pain and any more of this trial but it was it was living with the enemy it was living with satan it was living with the demons it was like making peace and saying you know i
give up now i used to defeat the demons i used to defeat these enemies of mine i used to fight them and win but i just can't do it anymore god how many christians have said that in their heart i'm not praying anymore how many christians have stopped putting on their armor every day i'm just tired i'm not putting my armor on anymore i'm not binding demons and resisting them anymore i'm not going to fight spiritual warfare i'm not going to try to witness the people because i just get ridiculed or i just i've quit i'm back away retreat zig lag it's a retreat away from god it's trying to protect yourself from rejection from pain from trials how many of you know that there is nowhere you can run from god and protect yourself from trials and tribulation no here's here listen to me close the lesson that you're about to see in the lesson of this story is real simple the retreat the place you try to retreat away from god and you think you're going to hide yourself from trials and pain and rejection and problems is actually going to be a place that ends up bringing more upon you it'll actually become the place that almost destroys you and ends everything how do i know that well i kept reading right if you live in a zika lag long enough you got to try to get along with ziklag people right y'all know what i'm talking about i mean just in the natural world you start hanging out with people that drink you may not drink but if you start hanging out with people that drink all the time and you're trying to get along with them and trying to be at peace with them and they keep saying how about a beer and you go finally say okay sure whatever you're trying to get along with the zika lag folks right and so david hears that the kings of the philistines and it was five kings of the philistines are getting ready to go to war against israel again and here this is the unfathomable thing listen to me david was about to join them david was got on his horse gathered his men and their weapons and was in the army with the philistines about to go fight his own people oh boy so you can't live with the philistines and not end up an enemy of god's people you can't live in sick lag and not end up hating people and despising people who were once your brothers and sisters in christ you hear what i'm saying
because they'll irritate you they're smiling they got joy they praying and got an answer and you sitting there and zig like i just can't stand them [Music] why they get it i don't get it [Music] you know pollyanna they probably own happy pills get away from me i don't want you joey i want zig lag what you want you want us to pray i don't want to pray i want to be in ziklag i'm going to sit here and watch tv and ziggler all right how do i know this i went through my zig lag y'all it nearly killed me too i mean i quit going to church for a year christians have treated me so bad i was done with them i knew god called me to be a pastor and called me to be a minister but i was done with him i didn't want to preach anymore i didn't want to be with christians anymore i thought i had retreated to a place where i'd be safe i didn't want to go back to sin i didn't want to go to hell i didn't want to lose my relationship with god but i just didn't want to fight that fight anymore and it almost destroyed me so i speak this from personal experience but anyway david's about to go to battle against israel and of course i'm and again i'm giving you all the story y'all can read all this it's all in here because we get into something but the lords of the philistines the other four lords of the philistines see david at the battle and they go oh no no no what is this guy doing here have y'all forgotten that he used to kill us maybe in the middle of the battle he turns against us and sides back with his people we can't trust him so here's what's a beautiful thing if you're a christian you're a part of the people of god you think you're going to get along with the philistines and they're going to accept you no at some point they're going to realize no you know you never were really one of us and you're gonna get rejected by them that's gonna be pretty bad you got rejected by your own people you're rejected by the sinners and the evil people that you're trying to get along with it doesn't work so then david goes back now this is where the story gets interesting because while he was at the battle getting ready to go to the battle he left ziglag and he left his wives and his children and all his men had left their wives and their children and all their livestock in there all everything they had and look what happened
verse chapter we'll just go down to 30 chapter 30 verse 1. here we go this is what happens in ziklag and it came to pass when david and his men were come to ziklag on the third day that the amalekites had invaded the south and ziklag and ziklag and smitten ziklag and burned it with fire and had taken the women captives that were therein they slew not any either great or small but carried them away and went on their way so david and his men came to the city and behold it was burned with fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captive then david and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep and the two wives david's two wives were taking captives of hinduim the jezreelitis and abigail the wife of nabal the carmelite and david was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved every man for his sons and for his daughters i'm going to stop there for a second so david goes out to go to war against his own people the israelites but the philistines go no no you're not going with us so when he goes back home now this is hard for us to fathom let's say me and trey and kevin and paul we all decided we were going to war against first baptist church over here right and we go over there and gather up and things don't work out shouldn't be there in the first place but when we come back i come home and nancy in faith all of you are taken captive somebody's come in and kidnapped every one of you and burned my home down to the ground and burned my city down to the ground that ain't a good day right think about this it says they they wept until they had no more power to weep this is the bad news of ziklag y'all when you retreat to a place away from god where you think you're going to protect yourself and you make peace with the enemies and you trying to get along with everybody god is going to let it be burned to the ground and you're going to lose everything you were trying to protect you hear me you cannot protect anything in your own
strength and with your own understanding you cannot deliver yourself or protect anything or keep anything from happening to you there is no refuge outside of the lord amen amen this is why i love this verse and you can just hold your spot there in chapter 30 but go to hebrews chapter 10 this passage in hebrews it's to believers hebrews 10. you with me we're gonna go down to verse 35. see so many people have drawn back away from god in their heart oh yeah it begins it it evidences itself in your life eventually but many have already done it in their heart and their mind but hebrews 10 verse 35 says this cast not away therefore your confidence which has great recompense of reward for you have need of patience that after you have done the will of god you might receive the promise for yet a little while he that shall come will come and will not tarry now the just shall live by faith but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition or destruction but of them which believe to the saving of the soul who's saying here don't cast away your confidence in god that he will come through for you that what he promised you he will do and then when he says here you have need of patience patience means you endure the trials and keep pressing forward you believe god when he says here the just shall live by faith means i believe god will do what he said he will do what he promised he will do what he's called me to do with my destiny and gifts and calling her to do that god will bring it about some way it won't always be in the time frame we want it won't always be in the way we thought it would be it won't be ever with ease but he says we are not of them that draw back so many so so so many christians have drawn back away from god they've drawn back away from certain truths that are too controversial they've drawn back from prayer they've drawn back from living holy they've drawn back from obedience they've drawn back from
believing they've drawn back from witnessing they've drawn back from you know fighting the devil casting out demons or praying for the sick some some people used to believe you know people used to see you know the christians that used to pray for people and see people healed and then they prayed for somebody that didn't get healed and so they got discouraged and they said well you know i'm afraid to do that i'm gonna draw back but drawing back listen to me drawing back always leads to destruction it's not a safe place ziklag was not a safe place listen here's what's so scary is that david and his men thought ziklag was a safe place they thought it was safe enough to leave their wives and their children and all their goods and everything they had and everything they owned they thought it was safe but listen i don't care when you're in disobedience to god and you've drawn back away from god and your heart's not fully after god and in love with god and the things of god and you're not pressing on and fearless and doing whatever god wants you to do when you're not out there in the fight and you've drove back to ziklag that place is going to crumble on you i mean i could tell you story after story after story of people i've seen they draw back and destruction i've watched it in my own family let's go back to first samuel 30 and we'll finish this the only thing that will get you out of the destruction of ziklag where it looks like you've lost everything when even your own the people that were with you turn against you the only thing that gets you out of ziklag is david know what said david did it said david encouraged himself in the lord y'all see that right there verse six and david was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved every man for his sons and for his daughters but david encouraged himself in the lord god jehovah his god and david said to abithar the priest a himalayak's son i pray thee bring hither the ephod and ebithar brought the ephod to david and david inquired of the lord saying shall i pursue after this troop shall i overtake them and he answered him pursue for thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail you will recover all so david how many people at this point would just
panic there's a lot of people listen to me there's a lot of people at this point that end up putting a gun to their head and putting a bullet through their head or taking a whole bunch of pills to kill themselves or whatever this is the point where you either [Music] you're either completely destroyed and give up or you say well you know what i'm going to seek god again i'm going to get back where i need to be with god again i'm going to seek god i'm gonna ask god some questions what do i do do i do this do i not do this i'm gonna get back in the will of god for my life you hear that what did david do he got the priest to come over sometimes you can't do it by yourself you need some help with some people i remember when god finally dealt with me and said it's time for you to get back to what you're called to do and he put me around some brothers that could help me [Music] and it was important for me to spend time with them and to pray with them and and it helped me get healed on the inside and get back to doing what god called me to do but here's the good news if you return to the lord if you seek the lord you will hear his voice and he will give you guidance out of your situation and david asked shall i pursue after this truth i mean he didn't know if his eyes were alive his children were alive he didn't know anything he just needed to know what do i do right now to get out of this mess is it is there any hope and the lord goes yes there is hope pursue them and you will catch up with them and you will recover everything lord see this is the mercy of god folks listen all of us have failed at some time all of us have drawn back at times all of us have gotten lukewarm and backslidden and compromised and or gotten hurt with god or angry and and frustrated and depressed and discouraged and we pulled away and the lord knows that we're human and he knew david was human and david had just reached the point i can't take anymore of living like with saul chasing me i can't take it anymore but he realized you know what i better learn how to take it because this living with the philistines and and having ziklag didn't work out too good can i just say it's the mercy of god sometimes to let your whole world fall apart if it gets your attention and you say i need to seek god again i need to hear god's voice again like i used to i need to obey him and do what he tells me to do and this was a great victory now let me give you here here's another good part of the story [Music] this is amazing part to me i've always
loved this story you know why because even as bad as it is there was hope and it worked out because david returned to god but while all this was going on listen to me now while ziklag was getting burned by the amalekites while david's wives were getting taken captive and his children taken captive and all of his men when his men were crying their eyeballs out these are hardened soldiers do you imagine how bad it was that hardened soldiers are crying their eyes out they've had all they can take they're talking about stoning david we're done with david too we're through with him he's got us nothing but trouble [Music] right and he says guess what he said guess what not only are we going to recover everything [Music] god was getting ready to kill saul let saul get killed in battle so while they all this was going on with david saul's gathering up his army and he goes to battle and saul is killed david has no knowledge of this here's the good news god knows if your world's crumbling god knows if things are bad bad bad this story tells me one thing sometimes when things get really really really really really really bad even if it's just on the inside of you but you will say i'm going to seek god i'm going to hear god i'm going to do what god wants me to do god is working in the process where you can't even see to fulfill what he's called what he has for you this is this is what blows my mind i mean at the worst moment of david's life what god called him and anointed him to do when he was a teenager is about to be is about to happen sometimes it gets real dark before the dawn sometimes it gets real real real bad before it gets better but it's all about how we respond it was david's response now what do you think would happen to david if he would have just said it cursed god and said i'm done with him his men would have stoned him that would have been the end of the story his wives and children would have been living with the amalekites how we respond means everything and sometimes
sometimes we're in a place where there's only time to respond once it's kind of like i gotta answer this call there may not be another one so david came back yeah i you know i sit back sometimes and i think about what what if there are some things in my own life i look back and what if i had not listened to god [Music] bad bad stuff so the question i have for you this morning where are you in this story every christian's at some point in this story kind of covers the whole journey doesn't it let's pray hallelujah father in heaven i ask you lord for your grace this morning to speak to every heart hearer and every heart listening and every heart will hear these podcasts lord we ask you to speak to every person to show them where they are and what they need to do if they've drawn back if they're in sick lag if they're really beginning to even come against what they used to believe and what they used to love lord i pray in the name of jesus that you will arrest their attention that you'll get their attention that yes you'll burn ziklag to the ground what they think the the the false security they've built around themselves you'll burn that down with conviction that you will wake them up and bring them out of it and that they will seek you that they'll seek after true believers and true true pastors and true friends and they'll seek after help and they'll seek after you and they will get out of ziklag and recover everything they've lost see the miracle and then see the fulfillment of your calling on lives lord i pray this today lord i pray it today for everyone here everyone listening everyone who will hear this that they will come out of ziklag and rededicate their lives to the lordship of jesus christ to being a disciple to being filled with the holy spirit to hearing god's voice to being led by the holy spirit doing whatever it takes to fight the devil and fight the demons and fight the evil people and win these battles in the spirit and be a light for jesus in this dark world and especially as it gets darker father i pray this in jesus name amen and amen this morning um
you know i think i'm just going to leave that with you this morning you know where you are you know what you need to do if if you need to do something amen you know i i you know i don't have a problem with altar calls and i don't have a problem with prayer and if anybody ever needs prayer in here and i don't do an altar call you just say hey pastor i need prayer we'll pray for you before you go does anybody need prayer before we go okay here's what we're going to do though um before we take up the offering let's do this let's stand and let's do that song i love your presence again because listen the answer we're going to do this song i love your presence again before we leave this morning because you don't run from the presence of god you don't run to philistine land you don't run away when things get difficult we got to stop that if that's a pattern in your life too when things start getting too difficult it's time you know you run away from prayer you run away it's time to stop that pat break this pattern some of it's just because we're just immature we're just like little children you know pouty lip and run to our room right but if you've been saved any amount of time it's to get serious right so as we sing this song let's think about these words and if you need to come out of that place let this let this be you're coming out of that place to make jesus lord and love him again and want to be in his presence again because that's where your peace and strength's going to come from amen but god you have your hand upon our lives you have plans for each of us lord and just help us encourage ourselves to press into them to believe you again to step out of the ziklag retreat and step into what you want us to do to recover everything everything we've lost and everything you want to do in our lives well we pray that this morning in jesus mighty name amen amen let me ask you that help somebody in here this morning i hope i did go back and read that you can read that from like first samuel 22 all the way to the end of first samuel i guess it's 31 is the last chapter you just read the whole story um but anyway um i want to share this i guess i mean you can stand it's just
brief um who wants to take up the offering for me this morning you want to take it up for me you'll pass it around if you have an offering fine if not um and could you fill out just grab one of those and fill out a visitor's card and if you uh if you do texting i let people know things with texting so if you want if that's okay just let me know um but the lord this is and some of you may have already seen it but i'm going to share it with you because the lord did give me a word um a prophetic word i was home on new year's eve wasn't feeling well still kind of struggling a little bit but i'm feeling better and i did then but the lord gave me a word to share about 2014 and i you know a lot of people do this stuff and i don't tend to do it matter of fact i couldn't really remember a time except going all the way back to december 31st 2000 when the lord spoke to me at an all-night prayer meeting on that new year's eve and he said this year will be a year of tragedy and of course the year he was talking about was 2001. that word was a two-fold meaning in my life because it became personal to me by november of that year but uh of course on september 11 2001 was the tragedy of of that day and of course the lord confirmed it that was it because two days before that on that sunday morning as i was preaching he told me and i said it in front of the entire congregation i said there'll be a terrorist attack on new york city in washington dc and sure enough two days later it happened so so again this is not something i do frequently you know some people seem to get a word every year for the year but that i mean that's fine if it's of god but i think most of it's just nonsense but anyway but i was praying and uh the lord just spoke the word to me very clearly unprecedented now i've never ever had the lord speak that word to me but when he said that word to me unprecedented and i knelt down to even pray more it was like he downloaded in me it will be on all levels that there will be unprecedented events this year in our military our economy our environment some of it's already happening but that there'll be unprecedented terrorist attacks there'll be unprecedented warfare and the lord said there'll be unprecedented events in christians lives that some of you will see great miracles happen that you've never seen before and then
some of us would even raise the dead in the name of jesus that they were going to be some very unusual and un uh common things happen this year beyond i mean you know people can say well okay you know a terrorist attack can happen well it's not necessarily unprecedented unless it's bigger than 9 11. you know what i'm saying so of course i had some guy attack me pretty vehemently on facebook said i wasn't specific enough i said i think the word unprecedented is pretty specific means it's not quite ever happened like that before right so anyway i just wanted to share that with you again i think it's on both the bad things and the good things and if you want to read it it's on the denotable ministries facebook page but too i just felt like it's going to be a time to see many people come to the lord that the bad things that happen are going to shake a lot of people and wake them up and um anyway i just think this year a lot of things that um a lot of things that we've been talking about and discussing and and the lord's been kind of revealing bits and pieces over the last few years i think a lot of things are going to happen this year uh i think two and oh and i didn't really share this in the word that i wrote on facebook but the lord kind of told me too he said 2013 was a year for a lot of people in the church world that was a holding pattern and you know what a holding pattern is right any of you ever flown and they can't land because there's too many planes still on the runway or there you've got to clear the snow the hunting pattern holding patterns are misery i was in a holding pattern one time in the denver airport i wasn't in the air i was sitting on the runway for three and a half hours and the snow had to be de-iced three times like let me off the plane but i've been in holding patterns where you just fly around the airport for a while until you can land and that's what the lord the lord just kind of said that 2013 was a holding pattern for many things and many of you know i don't know if you know but revelation 7 it talks about that the the four angels are holding back the four winds and really what it's talking about they're holding back many of the the things that are going to happen during the tribulation period when those angels and god gives those angels the instructions to stop holding back there's going to be a flood of events that happen in the world and i think that that this year and next year i think between now 2014 2016 at some point those angels are going to be told to take their hands off
of holding back and when they're told to take off their hands and stop holding it back boy it's going to get a little sporty down here all right