On the Run

On the Run

All right. Good morning. Good morning, guys. Um, we’re gonna be in first. Samuel 21. I really encourage you to flip their or bring your booklet or something. We’re going to try to read a lot. We’re gonna get through 20 chapter 23 today, So I’m excited if you don’t know who I am. My name Zane and my wife and I helped lead the College ministry here, So I’m gonna pray for our time together. Um, if you would pray for me with me, um, it should be good. I’m really, really excited. But just before we get started, I just want to pray and ask God to give us discernment, wisdom, years and hearts to know who he is through his scripture. So let me pray. And my father just thank you for today. Thank you. That we are here. Thank you. That I am here and I have come as I am. And you have? I’m decided, uh, to allow somebody like me to to, uh, to give a message today. God, I’m thankful. I’m astounded by you. I’m in of who you are. Um, and just give me grace. Give us, um, Grace as we look at your word as we attempt to know you more. God, I love you And just help us and be with us Here. Be present with us right now. God is in your name, Uh, that I pray and give all of the glory. Amen. So, um, I’m going to attempt to read every verse. Okay, I just up up front up. Warning. I know a lot of us aren’t readers we don’t like reading. Um, I actually do. I love reading. You can ask my wife. Reading is one of my favorite forms of entertainment. And so I think this story is phenomenal. I’m just gonna spoil her. I I love this, and I’m going to read all of it a little bit, selfishly, because I want to. And so, um, I know that because we’re not readers. Uh, we are movie watchers, YouTube, video hours, uh, series people, and so I really want to. Full disclosure. Everything that happens here is 100% true. It’s uh huh Actually happened. This is actually David’s life. But for our purposes of, like, really trying to get something out of this and see it like, let’s view it as a movie like Let’s get our imagination hats on and let’s, like, read this thing as if it was like some sort of visual movie or play whatever will get you to, like, fall along and see what’s happening. I think this story is so cinematic. I don’t understand why nobody has made a movie about it or a video game TV show. David’s life is crazy, guys. His life is insane and it’s 100% real. And so as we read this, um, just like, just enjoy it. But also it’s so true. And so we’re going to talk about the seriousness of it. But like, this story’s insane. Okay, um, so before we start off our protagonist, right, David, um, we remember he’s been anointed as the next king of Israel. The king of Israel, right as a kid. And then he goes, and he slays this giant Goliath. He literally chops off his head, right? It’s this amazing feat. He trusted God through it all, Um, and and and now all of a sudden, the last episode was a crazy to his crazy turn. Saul went nuts. He started throwing spears at David trying to kill him. He went Absolutely lost it. All right. Saul is is crazy. And David is now on the run. He’s fleeing for his life. We literally just left off. He and his best friend, Jonathan, made this crazy like, um, secret code with bows and arrows. And, uh, they sent a signal to each other. And Jonathan was like, Dude, say, David, David, run like, save yourself. It’s going, you know, everything is hitting the fan. It’s bad. Okay, so get out of here, save yourself. And so David’s running and he’s fleeing for his life. And we’re all watching. And we’re like, What’s going to happen? He’s supposed to be king. All this is supposed to be great. What’s about to happen to David? He’s fleeing for his life. David doesn’t even know if he’s gonna wake up in the morning every single day. I mean, this story is we’re on the edge of our seats, right? So we’re gonna read. We’re starting at 21. This is where we’re picking up, and here we go. If you want to fall along in verse one, he says, Then David came to knob to him elect the priest and he came to meet David Trembling and said to him, Why are you alone? And no one with you? David said to him, Elect the priest. The king has charged me with a matter and said to me Let no one know anything of the matter about which I said you and with which I have charged you. I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. Now then, what you have on hand, Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here. Pause just for a second. Is that true at all? No, absolutely not. Straight up, complete lie. Okay. Not true at all. What he just said. He just said, Hey, the king gave me the secret mission. And it’s crazy, right? Like so Give me your bread, Right? It’s not true. Just as a note, we’ll come back to it. Remember that picking up in verse four and the priest answered, David, I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread. If the young men have kept themselves from women and David answered the priest truly, women have been kept from us as always. When I go on expeditions. The vessels of the young men are wholly even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy? So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the presence, which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced by hot red on the day it is taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day. Detained before the Lord. His name was doe it. Remember dough, egg? Alright, this guy sneaking in. And he’s a servant of Saul, his name. Who’s dough? Egg? The edema Night, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen continuing in verse eight. Then David said to him a lick. Then have you not hear a spear or a sword at hand, for? I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me because the king’s business required haste. And the priest said, the sword of Goliath, the philistine whom you struck down in the valley of the law. Behold, it is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the food. If you will take it and then take it for there is none but that here and David said, There is nothing like that. Give it to me. This is crazy. This is like the superhero, right? Gets his symbol back. His weapon, right? This is David slays Goliath. And now all of a sudden he’s running for his life. He’s fleeing. He doesn’t know if he’s still gonna be king. He doesn’t know if God is going to keep his promises and he comes to this priest, he says. A bunch of lies and then the sword shows up. It’s like, you know, it’s It’s great moment, right? It’s this amazing. So you can just picture in your mind this scene going on like it’s a cool story, but it’s also there are some deeply, deeply serious things happening in here, and and I want us to, you know, have fun with the story and read it. But there are some seriously big things going on with David and with the story and and the first is that simply David is literally and metaphorically he is on the run, right? And I’m gonna use this phrase a lot. So I want us to be together. On what? On the run. I’m talking about. David is on the run, meaning that he is. His whole world is chaotic right now. He’s confused. He has no clue where God is leading him in life, what his future looks like, what is going to happen to him and he’s scared. He’s really scared and he’s really confused. He has no idea what’s happening and he’s on the run and so on the run for us. I I want to refer to it as a time of immense difficulty and testing that we have to go through. We all go through it. We all are on the run. Sometimes our life. It’s not that we choose to be. It’s not that David has chosen to go on the run. He has to. It’s forced into him. Sometimes life just hits us right. We didn’t choose things to happen. It just happens and all of a sudden we’re on the run and it’s difficult and it’s chaotic and everything is coming down around us and we have no clue what to do. Absolutely no clue how to handle things or what should happen. And we see here that David doesn’t even think about involving God, take a look back on those verses. God is not mentioned at all except to refer to, um, the bread. David is struggling and he decides to rely on his own wits and his own resources to get through this time in his life. And I think the if you’re taking notes here is the first point when we’re on the run. We are so prone to selfishness. We are so prone to selfishness. Look at what happens with David. He says. You know what? Nobody’s got my back anymore, So I’m gonna have to get my own back. Let me make this elaborate lie to this priest to to cover myself. And it’s kind of a crazy line, like if you legitimately if you read it back. This is This is like how I picture them saying it. The priest is like, Hey, why are you alone? You’re this, like, really well renowned, regarded person. Why are you coming here like in the middle of night? Completely by yourself? And David’s like, uh, well, you see, the king, like put me on this mission was supposed to meet these guys at such and such place. There’s no detail, no anything. It’s such a lie, and the priest is like, Okay, he’s like, Well, give me some bread. Oh, and also the mission was in such haste that I actually don’t have anything with me. I don’t have a weapon. I don’t have a sword. I don’t have any provisions like this is how important this mission was. A priest is just like, all right, dude, here’s I mean, it’s such a lie and and and he’s being so selfish. He’s not thinking about how God can play into this. He doesn’t give a lick about the priest, and he has no concern of to what this line might do to this priest life. And and he’s just selfish. And it’s easy to look at David and say, Man, what is he doing? But I think I think if we really take a moment and look at our lives, we do the same thing when we’re in difficulty. When when life seems chaotic, when we’re stressed out and anxious when we don’t know what the future looks like when we’re on the run, we get so selfish because we only think about what’s happening to us. We only think about my pain my struggle, what’s happening in my circle and nobody knows. You know, we get so selfish and we just we we don’t include anybody else, including God. And I think we just need to remember that when we’re on the run and as David is on, this run is prone to selfishness. The second thing it happens when we’re on the run is we forget about our priorities. David completely forgets that God is his priority. I mean, flashback to the battle of Goliath. David walks up in there. He’s like, No problem, guys, God’s got my back. I can rely on him. And now look what’s happening. Not a single moment. Does he think about asking the Lord or enquiring the Lord for anything? He’s completely forgotten his priorities. He’s completely forgotten that he should be acting as as an anointed king that God has called him to something. And I really wonder if if if David is in this position where he’s starting to doubt that God is actually gonna come through for him, and he’s actually doubting that that God is going to make him king. This happened in a weird like, secluded farm somewhere. He’s like Is this even real like? Is this actually going to happen? Can I actually trust in this God like, you know, he’s forgetting his priorities. And we do the same thing when we’re bogged down when we’re on the run. One of the first things to go as our priorities. It’s so much harder to read our Bible to pray, to come to church, to go to a community group to get support. If your priority is your family, you just you emotionally check out and you’re like, Man, I can’t I’m not going to call my parents. I’m not going to have this hard conversation with my spouse. I’m not going to deal with this. You just you forget the priorities that you’ve set up in your life, and David is doing the same thing. He doesn’t want to. He doesn’t mean to. It just happens. And for us, isn’t that how it is? It’s like before, you know. I mean, we’re going good everything. And then a month later, it’s like what in the world just happened all of a sudden? I haven’t even, like, talk to God in a month. I haven’t prayed. I haven’t been like it just boom just like that. We’re on the run and slinging us around. So, gosh, give me a break. Let me rest for just one second, right? I mean, it’s hard. The other thing that’s that’s that we do when we’re on the run is we don’t recognize God. We don’t recognize what he’s doing in our life. Notice the end here. Do we think that it’s a coincidence that this sword that was Goliath shows up and has given to David right here at this point, his life? Absolutely not. It’s not a coincidence. David is not entering God into his equation, but God is in his grace, and his love is so passionately still trying to reach out to David. This sword is not just, you know, a weapon. It’s a symbol of what God has done in David’s life. This is God reaching out to David and saying, Hey, you can trust me, David, Look what happened the last time when you were afraid and you were trembling and you didn’t know what would happen. You relied on me and defeated a giant. This is who I am, David. I keep my promises. I’m faithful to you. God is trying to say this to him when he when he comes to the to the sword. But David just is like, I mean, maybe he recognizes that it’s a cool sword, but he doesn’t seem to really be like, Wow, God, you’re so faithful. Thank you for doing this to me. And when were wrapped up in the chaos of our world when we’re on the run, isn’t it so true that it’s It’s just it’s almost impossible to recognize what God is doing. It’s so hard for us to see how God is moving, what he’s saying, what he wants from us. It’s just it’s so difficult. And David is the same. Same way. He cannot recognize what God is doing for him and giving him the sword and giving him a reminder. David, I’m right here, man. I love you. I will keep my promises to you. Let’s continue 10 and 15. What is David going to do? Verse 10. If you want to follow along. It says. And David Rose and fled that day from Saul and went to a Kish, the king of Gas and the servants of a kiss said to him is not this David the king of the land. Did they not sing to one another of him in dances Saw has struck down thousands and David his 10 thousands. David took these words to heart and was much afraid of a kiss. The king of gas. So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands. And he made marks on the doors of the gate, and he lets spittle run down his beard. Then a Kish said to his servants, Behold. You see, the man is mad. Why then, have you brought him to me? Do I lack, madman that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? Uh, well, possibly just a second. This is crazy. This is nuts, right? David? The anointed king of Israel who did all these things when he was, You know, kid, he is literally drooling in his beard. He’s acting insane. He seems like a homeless dude. He doesn’t have a home. He’s probably dirty. This is crazy. This is like, what is David doing what is happening here? And if you notice the place that he goes is God. It’s the Philistines who, when David slayed Goliath, Goliath of God, he was fighting the Philistines David has in his head. He’s so afraid because he knows I’m like the biggest rival to these people ever. I literally chopped the head off a guy right in front of their whole army, and now I’m walking into town with the sword that I did that with right, Like he’s like, This is this is not good for me. And so what does he do? Does he go to God? Does not. Absolutely not. He’s like I can figure this out. I’ll just act like an idiot, you know what I mean? I’ll just go insane for a second. I’ll save my own. But once again, right again, he’s thinking selfishly, he’s forgotten his priorities, and he doesn’t know what God is doing in his life. And now he’s acting like an insane person, and and the and the I think what it comes down to is when we’re on the run, we start to feel so isolated by people that we just I mean, we don’t even know what to do sometimes, right? This is what happens? We feel our pain. We feel the chaos of the world. And we think nobody else knows what I’m going through. Nobody else could relate to this. And and there’s no way I could reach out to anybody or do anything. And we feel so isolated that What does it do to us if a lot of times our response is to change our behavior and pretend in front of people and maybe we don’t act insane like David does. But we do act right. We walk into this building. Hey, Zane. How are you? Yeah, I’m good. I’m good. You know, I’m really doing great. Everything’s amazing today. We plaster on a smile And are we not when we feel so isolated and when we’re on the run and everything is chaotic, I mean, we tend to change our behavior and pretend in front of people just like David does. And where does it get David? It actually leads him to further shame and humiliation. I mean, look at look at this. Would you not feel so humiliated if you had to do this just to, like, get to the next day just to maybe get a piece of bread. I mean, this is rough. This is like got to be top 10. Worst moments for David Wright, this is rough. And when we feel this way, so many times we say I can’t reach out to people because it would be so embarrassing. So let me just pretend and act. And I think what it does more times than not is actually leads to further shame and humiliation for us. It actually makes us feel worse. So this is I mean, David is feeling it right, and it’s not necessarily his choice. I mean, all this is just happening. He’s on the run, so let’s continue. Maybe, I mean, we’ll see what happens. Chapter 22 Here we go, Verse one, since David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Agile um, And when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him and everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was bitter and soul gathered to him and he became commander over them. And there were with him about 400 men, and David went from there to miss pot in Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, Please let my father and my mother stay with you until I know what God will do for me. And he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. Then the Prophet of God said to David, do not remain in the stronghold. Depart and go into the land of Judah. So David departed and went into the forest of harassed. I feel like this is so true when we’re at, like our emotional lows when we’re at our worst. Sometimes doesn’t it feel like it just We just have added pressure because now all of a sudden there’s responsibility that comes and there’s other people that actually, like, rely on you and you’re like, Oh my gosh, how am I supposed to help this person when I’ve got all my stuff to deal with, notice what it says here It says everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was bitter gathered to David. 400 people go to Dave and they’re like, Hey, man, things are rough. What should we do. And David like What do you mean? Things are rough. Look at my life. I spent the last couple of weeks as an insane person drooling in my beard. Why are you looking at me? You know, but what does he do? He says, You know what? Uh, this is This is my role. This is where God’s got me. I’ve got I’ve got to step up. I’ve got to respond and I still have to command them. And so many of us. We have this perception. I do too. I mean, I struggle with this a lot, right? We have this idea that we have to get everything right in our lives before we could ever be useful to God, like we have to figure everything out and be perfected. And then God’s going to let us help somebody else who is in distress. It’s just not true. Top 10 low moments of David. And he’s still commanding and supposed to lead people, right? I mean, God still wants to use him. God still wants to be with him. God is still reaching out to him and wants him to be faithful. And it’s hard for David David doesn’t want to leave because he knows he’s not in a position to. But what’s he gonna do? I mean, how is he going to respond? All these people are looking to him and And whether you think that you have people looking to you or not, I mean, you do people, we all watch each other, right? Especially if you’re a parent or you have a family, you have a spouse. I mean, you look to each other and your Children are looking to you. And sometimes when you’re in your worst, you just don’t want to deal with it because you’re like, How am I supposed to be any sort of positive influence on somebody’s life? And so this is like David’s life has gone crazy. And then pressure it’s added to it. I mean, this is rough. This has got to be rough. And so we left that were left at a cliffhanger here, right end of episode cuts, you know, scroll credit. And you’re like, Oh, my gosh, what’s gonna happen to David and then we jump to like next episode starts with Saul. You know, the next episode comes on like I just want to know what happened to David, and then Saul comes in. You’re like, Dang it. What? Anyway? So, uh, we’ll continue. Chapter 22 Verse six. I think some time has passed here. Some of the scholars think some time has passed, but picking up in in verse six, Um, he says now saw her that David was discovered and the men who were with him, um, saw was sitting at Gebbia under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him. Guys saw has gone full. Darth Vader. I mean, this is all standing on the rock, you know, like theme music is blaring all his soldiers. They’re probably costume change, you know, some dark wardrobe. I mean, he’s full evil villain, right? This is full sol, like coming after David. It’s great. I love it. I enjoyed it. And Saul said to his servants, This is where seven and Saul said to his servants, who stood about him here. Now, people of Benjamin Well, the son of Jesse, That’s David. Well, the son of Jesse, give everyone of you fields and vineyards. Will he make you all commanders of thousands of commanders of hundreds at all of you have conspired against me. No one disclosed to me When my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse, none of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie and wait, as at this day, then answered. Do it, remember, Do it. Here comes There’s our boy who stood by the servants of saw. I saw the son of Jesse coming to knob to him elect the son of a bathtub and he required of the Lord for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword and Goliath and Philistines like Dang it. Come on, character. We all hate right? And then Chapter 11, we continued in the King sent to summon a human like the priest. So he goes to those priests back in in the first chapter that we read and the son of a hot tub and all his father’s house. The priests who were at knob and all of them came to the king. And Saul said here now, son of a hot tub. And he answered Here I am, my lord, and Saul said to him, Why have you conspired against me? You and the son of Jesse, and that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him so that he has risen against me To lie and wait, as at this day, then ahem like answered the king And who among all your servants, is so faithful as David, who is the king’s son in law and the captain over your bodyguard and honored in your house? Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No, but not the king. And put anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, For your servant has known nothing of at all of this much or litter Little. And the king said, You sell surely die a Heimlich, you and all your father’s house. And the king said the guard who stood about him turn killed the priests of the Lord because their hand also is with David. And they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me. But the servants of the king would not put their hand and strike the priests of the Lord. Then the king said to dough, egg Oh, my gosh! Doig u turn and kill the priest and doe. It turned and struck down the priest and he killed on that day. 85 persons who wore the linen Ifad and Nob, the city of the priest he put to the sword both men and women. Children and infant, ox, donkey and sheep. He put two sword. Hm. But one of the sons of a human, like the son of a hot tub named Abba thar escaped and fled after David David. Now both are told David that saw had killed the priests of the Lord. And David said the Sabbath are I knew on that day when does the enemy was there? That he would surely tell so long I have occasioned the death of all these persons of your father’s house. Stay with me. Do not be afraid. For he who seeks my life seeks your life with me. You shall be in safekeeping so it comes back. It comes back to smack David in the face, right? Completely lied to these priests. And the priests have no idea what happens. Saul Rolls up with his patrol. And they’re like, Dude, what is going on? Like we like. I mean, you send David on this mission, right? And like, we just did what we do like, I don’t know. And so I was like, That’s it. They’re lying to me. Kill them all. And everybody’s like, No, I don’t want to kill. And then dogs like, I’ll do it for you, sir, And slaves, everybody. Just I mean, we hate doing right. He’s the worst character. Come on, man, this is terrible. This is crazy And look And and so I know what you’re thinking. I know you’re like, Okay, obviously is in. We’ve been talking about being on the run, and the moral of today is Let’s not be on the run because all this bad stuff happens. I would say Absolutely not. No, no, no, no. We don’t get to decide when and if we are on the run. It’s not about being being a follower of Jesus. It’s not about trying to avoid running. It’s not about trying to avoid difficulty. It’s not about trying to avoid suffering. We don’t get to choose when we run, but we can choose how we run. It’s not about not running. It’s not about not having chaos in your life. That just happens. It’s about how we respond to it. It’s about how we deal with it. How are we going to run? How do we run? Well, and if you notice here when Abba Thar escapes and he goes to David, he says, Dude, all the priests are gone, Man, I just watched like a whole village and a bunch of priests get slaughtered. Children, infants, they just killed everybody. Saw is gone nuts. David doesn’t hate saw. The first thing he does is, he says, it was my fault. It’s kind of weird English, so you may have missed it. But he says, I have occasioned the death of all the persons I have occasioned that he’s saying I did. This is my fault. I lied to them. I forgot my priorities. I was selfish. I didn’t take God into the equation. It’s my fault that all those people are dead. He takes ownership of it, and so the first way if we’re going to try to run well running well, means that we have to repent. There’s some numerous psalms that are attributed to being at this time. And I don’t have time to go through all the songs. Um, but Psalms 30 for Psalms 56. There’s a lot of them that are attributed to this moment in David’s life, and he talks about how he feels terrible. He repents, he’s afraid. And so the first way that we have to run well is we have to readily repent. We are going, We’re gonna fail. Life is gonna hit and we’re going. We’re going to mess up. We’re gonna stumble a little bit. We don’t want to, but it’s inevitable that you’re going to forget some priorities. You’re going to ignore God. We have to readily repent of it. We have to take ownership and say, You know what? That’s on me. Like I’m not like I’m struggling right now. We have to repent. So continuing in 23 we’re getting there. He’s repenting. He’s feeling bad. How is David gonna respond? It’s kind of a moment of like Is he going to be another saw? Is he gonna go nuts or like, is this gonna be a different kind of story here? Is David gonna respond differently? Verse 23 Verse one, he says. Now they told David, Behold the Philistines again. Here come the Philistines are fighting against Kyla and are robbing the threshing floor. Here it is. It’s his chance. He’s trying to repent. He’s feeling bad. He’s feeling some ownership. So then they come to him and they say, Hey, David, it’s all going down again. Things are happening bad. What do you want to do? And we’re all at the edge of our seats, like house. David gonna respond this time. What’s going to happen and read it in Verse two, he says. Therefore, David inquired of the Lord. Finally. Therefore, David inquired of Lord, shall I go and attack these Philistines? The Lord said to David, Go and attack the Philistines and save Kyla. But David’s men said to him, Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more than if we go to Kyle against the armies of Philistines. So David inquired that already comes back, and then all his men now are like, No, no, Dude, what are you talking about? We gotta get out of here. We gotta escape. So now everybody else around him is feeling afraid and once again it’s like, How are you gonna respond, David? Like, what are you gonna do? And Verse four. Then David inquired of the Lord again, and the Lord answered him. Arise. Go down to Kyla, for I will give the Philistines into your hand. And David and his men went to Kyla and Font with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Kyla. If we want to run well, we have to run with God. We have to run with God. There’s such a temptation. There is such a threat when chaos, chaos hits when things get difficult, it’s such a threat to run away from God. Every part of our life is in hurry. Every part is falling around. We don’t know what’s happening. We don’t know if God is going to keep his promises. Everything’s rough. And we’re so prone to saying, you know what? I’m going to put my faith on the back burner and I’m going to run away from God as well. And we can’t do it. We cannot do it. We have to run with him. And to him. David finally inquires of the Lord, and he does it multiple times. He’s like, I need God now. I need him. He repents. He takes ownership, and now he’s running with God, and it’s not like his life drastically took a turn, right? It’s not like things immediately just got better. And all of a sudden everything’s great in his life, not at all. But he’s starting to run well, right? He’s responding in a way that is, He’s trying to go to God and not away from him. And we have to try and remember this. Let’s keep going. In Verse six, when Avatar, the son of a hemolytic, had fled to David to Kyla, he had come down with an IFAD in his hand. That was now, it was told, Saul that David had come to Kyla, and Saul said, God has given me into my hand, given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars and saw summoned all the people to war to go down to Kyla to besiege David and his men. David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him, and he said the Aba thar the priests bring the food here. Then David said, Oh, Lord, the God of Israel, your servant, has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Kyla to destroy the city. On my account will the men of Kyla surrender me into his hand. Will Saul come down as your servant has heard, O Lord, the God of Israel, Please tell your servant and the Lord said he will come down. Then David said with the men of Kyla, surrender me and my men into the head of song and the Lord said they will surrender you. Then David and his men, who about 600 arose and departed from Kyle and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Kyla, he gave up the expedition, and David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness and in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziff. And Saul saw him every day. But God did not give him into his hand. This is, I mean, his context doesn’t get any better. Like, outwardly, nothing’s changed. So all is still on the I mean, David is still on the run from Saul. He’s still like has to worry about if he’s going to live. But inwardly, you have to know that David feels 180 degrees differently. He’s seeking the Lord at every single turn. He starts to go to Lord for everything, big or small. He’s like, I need God. I need God. I need God. I need God over and over and over again and we see that things are still tough for David. But God is protecting him. God is keeping him away from Sol. I mean, maybe his life gets like an inch for better. I don’t know. I’m not promising. Things are gonna get like, you know, rainbows and butterflies. I’m just saying while we run because inevitably we will. We have to run well and we have to run with God. Verse 15 continuing. David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziff at Whorish, and Jonathan saw Sun rose and went to David and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, Do not fear for the hand of Saul. My father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel and I shall be next to you. So all my father also knows this and the two of them made a covenant before the Lord David remained at whorish and Jonathan went home. The final way that we run if we want to run well, is we run with friends. We have to run with others in our life. If you remember, Jonathan is his best friend. He’s the one that, you know, let him escape. Gave him the message, helped him out. We have to have people in our life that knows what’s going on. We have to We have to have people. Don’t have that. Knows why we’re crying. Why were yelling? Why we’re frustrated. We have to have intimacy with people who love us, who comfort us, who care for us. This is huge for David. You have to know he’s been so lonely, so isolated, struggling through life on the run. And all of a sudden Jonathan, his best friend in the world like makes, goes out of his way to come to him and say, Man, it’s okay. It’s okay, dude. Mhm and strengthens him in the Lord and notice what he says. He says, You shall be king over Israel. That has to give you a hint that David’s doubting it, right? David’s like, Man, I don’t know if God is ever going to do this for me. And Jonathan is like, What are you talking about? Come on, we know our God is faithful. We know he’s good. Let’s go, man and pulls him up out of it. Guys, we have to have people like this in our life. It’s so crucial. It’s so crucial to us running well. This is why this is the biggest reason why I love this church. Mhm, it’s it’s not. It’s because the heartbeat of this church is actually not this moment right now. I really truly believe the heartbeat of this church is when we meet in community groups, when you meet in discipleship groups with people, when you play games with other people and have fun. We had a men’s night last Friday. I think that’s the heartbeat of this church. It’s because together we can run well. We can’t do it when we’re isolated. We can’t do it when we don’t have friends, and the hardest part about this is when we’re good. When we feel like we’re not running. We don’t want to develop these relationships. You know that’s true. We say, man, it’s just how difficult it takes time. I gotta be patient, like I can’t I have a friend tomorrow, You know, like it’s hard, right. It’s hard to make friendships when you’re an adult. That’s the hardest thing about being an adult. For me, it’s like we’re all my friends at man, like what happened? Getting lazy. It’s hard and we don’t do it when we’re good. And then when we’re having a rough time, were like, Where is everybody? Yeah, I mean, we’ve got to do this. We’ve got to continue trying to be intimate with people. I make real friends because we’re not. We don’t get to decide when we run, but when we do run, this is going to be vital to us running well as people in our life that love us, that comfort us, that care about us and that continue to show us the truth, the gospel, and lead us closer to Jesus. Closer to God, that pushes us and says, And how about you pray a little bit? How about you read your Bible How about you come to Bible study, come to church? Let’s do this thing together. I know what you’re feeling like, you know, it’s hard. I get it. We have to run with friends. Let’s see. Let’s see if it makes everything better externally, well read. Just the just the last bit. We’re almost done here. 19. Then the zip fights went up to saw Give you saying is not David hiding among us in the strongholds of Karesh on the hill of Attila, which is south of gentleman. Now come down, O king, according to all your heart’s desire to come down and our part shall be to surrender him to the king’s hand. And Saul said, May you be blessed by the world. You have had compassion on me. Go make it more sure no. And see the place where his foot is and who has seen him there for his told me that he is very cunning. See therefore, and take note of all the lurking places where he hides and come back to me with sure information. Then I will go with you. And if he’s in the land, I will search him out Among all the thousands of Judah and they rose and went as if ahead of song. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of May on on the Araba to the south of Jasmine, and Saul and his men went to seek him and David was told. So he went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Maon. And then and when saw, heard that he pursued after David in the wilderness of Man. So I went on one side of a mountain and David and his men were on the other side of the mountain, and David was hurrying to get away from Sol. The song and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them. A messenger came to Saul saying, Hurry and come for the Philistines have made a raid against the land. So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore, that place was called The Rock of Escape. David went out from there and lived in the strongholds of in GT. It’s externally. It’s not much better for us all. Still homeless, he’s still in exile. He still fears for his life. He still doesn’t have any rest. He’s still running. But, man, what a 180 degrees in Chapter three chapter, Chapter 23 to Chapter 21 right? I mean, there’s he’s isolated, He’s alone. He’s thinking selfishly, he’s forgetting his priorities. He can’t recognize God. He doesn’t know what’s happening and now in 23 is still on the run. But he’s got people with him that care about him that are comforting him. He’s inquiring of the Lord. I’m literally, it seems, every decision, and he’s repenting of his mistakes. And he’s saying, I can’t do this alone And guys, in our in our lives, we don’t again. I can’t reiterate this anymore. We don’t get to decide when we were on the run. We don’t get to choose if things are difficult. Um, we don’t get to say when we suffer, but we can choose how we go through that suffering. We don’t get to choose when we will be running, but we can choose how we will run and if we run by ourselves, I think we really get stuck. We get stuck in in selfishness and then forgetting our priorities. We get stuck in our sin. We get stuck forgetting who God is and what he’s doing in our lives, and it leads to isolation. And then I think that really leads to us feeling a lot of shame in our life, a lot of humiliation. But if we run with God, if we run readily repenting from our sins, if we run with friends who will encourage us and lift us up and love us, push us toward the Lord, then no matter what happens exterior early in our lives, we know that we have run well. We have run well and we have given glory to our father, who is in heaven. We’ve given glory to God, and that’s what it’s about. This whole series, as we prepare for our communion thought today this whole series has been called searching, um, searching for a leader, and it makes just total sense that eyes were running. We would want somebody in front of us who has ran the race perfectly with no faults ever. We need a leader to see where the path is to see where we’re supposed to go to pace us. If you’re a cross country runner, we need a leader We need an example. And what better example than somebody who’s ran perfectly for their whole life? Guys are leader can only be Jesus Christ is the only person that we can look to as a leader. Because he ran perfectly and he gives us the perfect example of what to follow. And our goal is to know him to become more like him and to run with him. Let’s pray. And my father just thank you for today. Thank you for a time where we can worship you. Um, just give us a heart for you. Give us the ability to see. Um, it’s not about avoiding difficulty. It’s not about avoiding running. It’s just about running. Well, it’s about running with you. I’m so thankful for you. Um and, uh, I love you. God, I pray this in your name. Emma.