The Wilderness Enlargement- Pastor Roley Thorndike

Welcome to Logan City Christian Church podcast where we bring God's Word to you weekly.

We pray that what you hear will bring clarity to your situation and open doors in your life.

Enjoy the message.

Hallelujah.

It's a different Sunday today, isn't it?

Mission Sunday always is.

And you know, well, it's just different.

And it's different because Rob and Chantelle are not here.

And so I'm here.

He asked me to be here.

Hallelujah.

Just a couple of good old songs we were singing there.

I have decided to follow Jesus.

It's the simple songs that are the best songs, aren't they?

I think so.

I've decided to follow Jesus.

And the day that I was saved was a great day for me.

It was a great day.

Two good songs.

Thank you for singing those songs.

We should sing more familiar songs.

Hallelujah.

Mission Sunday.

And there's a lunch afterwards, so forget the lunch.

And I'll try not to go more than sufficient time.

But I want to share with you this morning a continuation sort of thing on from when I

preached a couple of weeks ago.

And the title of this is today, The Wilderness Enlargement.

Now, last or a couple of weeks ago, we shared about to count it all joy when we are in diverse

temptations, when we're in situations that are hard and heavy and weighing upon us.

And so we talked about how God can only do certain things in our lives when we're in

those situations.

And we need to rejoice that those things are there so that God can do what he wants to

do in our life.

Even though the thing, it's a bit of an anomaly, isn't it, really?

It's a bad thing.

And then he says rejoice.

But then he said rejoice always.

And again, I say rejoice, he says.

And so when the scripture says that, it's not always easy to do, especially when the

pressure is on your life, especially when the situation is adverse and against you and

you're feeling like the whole world is against you and your whole world then is falling apart

and everything is going wrong and you're in the pits.

It's hard then to count that all joy.

But God says that we can do that.

And I want to continue on from that this morning and just share a few thoughts that will encourage

you and give you hope for better days for the future.

Proverbs 24 verse 10, it says, if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is

Proverbs 24:10

small.

You might say now that's not a really good encouraging verse.

Come on, give me something after what you've said before that.

Give me something that's going to encourage me.

That is an encouragement to you.

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

I'll talk about that a little bit more in a minute.

You see, you have to become stronger on the inside in your emotions and in your mind and

in your spirit and build into your life a resilient strength to withstand the trials

and testings and the pressures of life.

You've got to build that into your life.

It just doesn't come automatically.

And if it's there in a good way, you've got to strengthen that in your life.

And if it's not there, you've got to build it in your life even right from the beginning.

There has to be a spiritual toughness in us that says never give up, that says though

the battle is long, I will continue to believe God.

And I tell you what, there's something that, what can I say, it's a spiritual toughness.

We need to be gentle and we need to be all those sorts of things.

But on the alternate side, there needs to be a toughness in us that doesn't quit, that

doesn't give up, that when we pray for 20 years and it hasn't happened, we will not

give up.

You see, we're an instant society and we want everything instant now.

We want it straight away.

God, I'm sick.

I've got this pain here.

This thing, take it from me.

I've got this problem, Lord.

Just take it away from me.

And He's saying, let it sit there for a while.

It'll do you good if you just let me do what I want to do in you.

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

If you don't faint in the day of adversity, your strength is large.

Your strength is good.

Your strength is strong.

And as I said, there needs to be that spiritual toughness in us.

Though the battle is long, it's like a Holy Ghost fighting spirit within you that you

know that God has won the battle for you.

We've just had Anzac this week, Anzac Day.

I trusted at some stage in Anzac Day that you were able to spend some time thinking

about what Anzac Day is, what it means.

Maybe you went to a dawn service.

Maybe you watched it on TV in the parades and all that sort of thing and not just glossed

it over as a day that, well, it's Anzac Day and so we had a picnic.

Well, you might have a picnic, but I hope you spent some time doing that.

For those of us in the meeting here this morning, and I know several ones, I'm not going to

ask you to stand, but I honor you for your commitment and for your service, be it national

service, be it in Vietnam, be it when you were called up and you went there or whether

it was any of the conflicts that we've had and anything to do with Anzac.

I honor you, your commitment, your service, and never let Anzac become a thing that's

just oh well.

I did read a thing the other day where, and I don't know if I've got all the details

correct, but what it was saying was that there were some school teachers in Victoria I think

was that they want to do away with Anzac Day.

There's a thing that's starting to stir about Anzac Day and they want to do away with it,

same as Australia Day, they want to do away with it.

And I thought to myself, well, best of British luck with that.

I don't think that will ever happen.

And I trusted it never will, that we would never allow that to happen.

Am I a warmonger?

No, I am not.

Anyhow, I'll just leave it right there.

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

The word faint there means to sink, to let drop, to be disheartened.

If you become that when adversity is around your life, your strength is small.

That's what the scripture says.

You see discouragement and disheartenment is a powerful thing.

When you're discouraged, everything appears to be worse than it really is.

Have you ever noticed that?

When things are going good, the world is great and you know you can sort of, you feel good

and it's okay.

But when you're not going really good, everything is wrong, like everything.

Nothing is right.

Everything's going wrong.

And could I say, especially with the ladies, you know, everything goes wrong.

When something goes wrong, everything is wrong.

With the men, almost everything is wrong.

But you see, when you're discouraged, everything is worse, it appears worse than it really

is, but we say things like, it's hopeless.

I'm never going to get out of this mess.

Is this problem ever going to pass from me?

The situation will never change.

We'll say these sorts of things.

And that might be how we feel, but friends, our faith has got to rise over our feelings.

And you see, that's just what the enemy wants you to say.

If the devil can get you to say those sorts of things, he knows you won't be able to speak

the words of faith and hope.

While you're concentrating on the negative, you can't see the positive.

While you're speaking negative things that'll pull you down, that's what he wants.

You see, it's not all the devil's work.

It's what we do to ourselves sometimes.

You have to deal with your discouragements.

Failure and distress require no preparation, but success requires much preparation and

the enlargement of your ability to withstand the pressures of life and your service for

God.

We prepare to do that.

You don't have to prepare to fail.

It just happens.

It just happens.

But if you want to be successful, you've got to prepare for success and be enlarged

in your ability to withstand the pressures of life and in your service for God and in

your life generally.

You see, the wilderness, the dry places extends your capacity.

That's what David experienced when he wrote Psalm 4, verse 1.

Psalms 4:1

It just simply says, you have enlarged me in my distress.

You have enlarged me in my distress.

I want to say it again.

David said, the Bible says, you have enlarged me in my distress.

If you're not in distress, how do you get to be enlarged?

Do you pray for distress to come?

No.

It just comes.

Have you ever noticed that?

It just comes.

But when it comes, that's when we pray.

That's when our faith rises up.

That's when our faith has some determination and never quitting ability in it to say, I

believe God, come hell or high water.

The enemy of your soul wants to discourage you and to keep you bound and feeling desperate

and hopeless.

Friends I know what it's like to be hopeless.

I know what it's like to feel that there is no hope.

But if I keep saying, it's hopeless, it's hopeless, it's hopeless, that's all I'm hearing.

That's really what I'm believing because what's in you comes out of you in those times.

If you want to know what's in you, listen to what comes out of you.

And if you're saying it's hopeless, it'll never change.

I'm always going to be like this or whatever it is.

Friends, that's not for words of faith, but that's what you're believing at that time.

We have to put those words aside, even though that's what we feel and start to speak the

words of God.

We start to get scriptures that tell us that there is hope, that there is healing and that

God is going to touch your life and heal your life.

You see, you may as well do it because if you say the negative, that's what you're going

to get, so why not say what God says?

Why say what the devil wants you to say?

You don't love the devil, you don't serve the devil, why say what he says?

I'm preaching to myself this morning.

You see, the enemy wants to discourage you, but God wants to enlarge you as He did for

David.

He wants to enlarge you.

He loves you enough to want you to be better than you are right now.

You might say, but everything's going good, that's good, but friend, around the corner

tomorrow, you know what's going to happen.

Are you perfect yet?

No, you're not, so look out.

Am I saying and I'm believing that you're going to have problems?

No.

That I'm going to have problems?

No.

Not believing that at all.

You see, there's a process of enlargement.

It just doesn't sort of, and then I'm enlarged.

There's a process of enlargement.

There's a process.

I said some time ago, whatever it was, but the process of refining gold, and it's in

the heating of the gold that the gold is purified and the impurities come to the surface and

they're scraped off and it's heated again in that furnace.

You see, there's a process of that.

It just doesn't happen.

And even when you dig up gold out of the ground or you pan it in the creek or whatever it

is and you get that gold, that gold needs to be refined.

You see, it's a process.

It's a journey.

And could I say it's a time of preparation and the process usually involves some wilderness

experience.

And by wilderness experience, I don't mean that you have a problem.

I'm talking about when you're in the wilderness with that problem.

When you can't talk to anybody else.

Nobody else seems to understand and you just feel alone.

That's where God wants you to be at that time.

And we need not run away from those things because friend, let me tell you, God is in

the wilderness.

Why run away?

Oh, but it hurts so much.

And my mind is so mixed up and I feel so sorry for me.

Well, if you feel sorry for yourself, rejoice that there's a wilderness experience to have

because God is there.

When God anointed David to be king, he was a young man.

He was a youth about 16 years old.

And God knew David's heart.

But he also knew David had to mature to become big enough in his character to be king.

So God set out to enlarge David and prepare him for his destiny to rule as the king of

Israel.

Hear me when I say this, this is just good to remember.

It's a long way from shepherd boy to king.

I say it again.

It's a long way from shepherd boy to king.

The journey from being a shepherd boy to being a king.

David was anointed king of Israel when he was about 16, as I said.

But he was 30 when he began his reign.

That's 14 years of training and enlargement.

And he ruled for 40 years after that.

That's why he said in Psalm 4 verse 1, in my distress, God enlarged me.

Psalms 4:1

There was plenty of time.

And he had plenty of wilderness times there and distress times.

You can read that in 2 Samuel 5, 4.

Anyhow, during the first 14 years, the Lord was preparing him for this responsibility.

Even when he was looking after his father's sheep.

He sang to the sheep and he played his harp to soothe them.

And he practiced with his sling and he became skilled and he became confident and his aim

was accurate with his sling.

And we know that he killed a lion and a bear.

And we know that he killed Goliath.

And then he killed thousands of the enemies of Israel.

And he understood commitment and he learned to trust God and not become bitter because

Saul wanted to kill him and his kingship was a long time coming.

You see, it's easy to get bitter, but God wants us to be better.

Don't become bitter when things don't go right.

I know that's hard, but if you pull yourself up at some stage and say, that's not what

I got to do.

That's not what God wants me to do.

And really talk to yourself.

Let the inner man talk to you and tell you what it really believes because that's your

spirit man.

Your spirit man knows, but the natural man is saying, oh, this is hard.

This is terrible.

This is bad.

This doesn't look good.

But if you start to tell yourself on the inside, this is good for me.

I can't see how it's going to be good for me, but God says it's good for me.

Therefore, it's good for me.

If we don't believe any of this, well then just coast along and case a rah, whatever

will be will be.

Nothing will ever change.

See 14 years is a long time.

You think of 14 years ago.

What were you doing 14 years ago?

There's a long time in there.

But God was training him at that time.

Let God work in your life.

Let God work in my life to bring the maturity, no matter how long it may take.

You see delay is not God's denial.

Delay is not God's denial.

Let me say this, if God gave us as Christians everything that we asked him for straight

away, we would be the most spoiled brats that ever would walk the face of the earth.

See that's why God wants to build this resilience in us so that we can withstand these pressures

that come upon us.

For me if I could just share a little testimony here, I know now that God was training me

even when I was a little kid in Sunday school.

Training me, let me just say God had his hand on me and he was leading me.

But in that leading and having his hand on me, there was, we call it training, but he

was directing.

I knew what was right and what was wrong in some things, you don't say those words, you

don't talk to people like that.

That's all Godly training.

So even when I was a little kid, I didn't know it but he was doing that.

My Sunday school days were foundational days for me.

I was so glad that my mum and dad sent me to Sunday school and my brother.

My future mother-in-law taught me in Sunday school.

That's why I was such a good son-in-law.

She was a good mother-in-law.

She was a lovely, lovely person.

And I loved God from that point on.

She taught me the stories of Jesus, the miracles that Jesus did and they were just stories.

As a kid, that's all it is, just a story.

But there was something about this is what God is doing.

And so as I said, I didn't understand it all but looking back, I can see that God had his

hand on my life and same for Claire.

She would say the same thing.

You see, he enlarged us together in difficult and stressful situations.

Before we were married, I was youth leader in our church.

I was a boys' brigade captain.

Then we were church pastors and traveling ministry missions, all that sort of thing.

And the enlarging continues because I'm still learning.

We never come to the end of it.

That's good news, isn't it?

We never come to the end of learning.

So it's never too late to start and if you need to start, start today because today is

a day of new beginnings.

It's a good day to start anew.

So if you're going through some tough times, keep on going.

Don't give up, don't stop, move forward, trust God.

He knows what to do in you better than you know what you need to do.

There's a saying that was said and I think it was captured by...

Who was the preacher that built that crystal cathedral in America?

Robert Shuler, that's the one.

He wrote a book called Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do.

And I thought it's a good little slogan that one.

Tough times don't last, but tough people do.

It's the weak ones that give up.

They don't last much for very long.

So let's talk about Saul.

Saul was anointed king of Israel because the people wanted a king to rule over them like

the other nations rather than being led by the prophets of God.

God never intended for Israel to have a king.

He led them out of the wilderness.

Then he said, build the ark and there my presence will dwell.

And wherever they went, they carried that ark with them.

They carried the presence of God with them.

No one ruled over them, but God was their leader and their lover and he was the one

that delivered them.

But they wanted a king just like the other nations.

They've got a king, why haven't we got a king?

They're on the best deal ever, but they didn't want that best deal.

They wanted to be like everybody else.

My first car was a 1949 Rover, beautiful car, loved it.

My brother had one.

We bought one for spares.

Then I bought another one and if I hadn't have sold that, it'd be worth a lot of money

today.

But a lot of my mates had Holdens, you know, why don't you ditch that British thing and

buy a Holden?

I said, why would I want to buy a Holden?

Why would I ditch the best to have what you got?

You're always working on that thing.

So there was a little bit of this and that going on there.

But in my opinion, I didn't want to ditch what I had because to me it was the best for

going to second best.

That's what Israel did.

They ditched the best and they chose the second best, a human king over them when they had

God Almighty leading them in their wilderness journeys and everything else that they did.

So God gave the people, the Bible says in Samuel there that God gave the Saul to be

king but Saul didn't prepare for the responsibility and in the end, God cast him aside and raised

up David and he ruled for 40 years.

You see, God chooses whom He will for His purposes, not because that person has it all

together but He matures that person and He matures us as we submit to His training in

the wilderness experience.

You could say it's sort of like on the job training.

God puts His hand on someone and tells them to go to China to be a missionary.

Many did that.

Well-known names and unknown names, you know, thousands of them and God did that but it

wasn't because they were perfect.

It wasn't because they had done all the training and now you're ready to go.

It was go and I'll be with you and in the going and Him being with us, we learn.

I never pastored a church before.

The first one, there's always a first one.

So that was a bit of on the job training.

People had come with their problems and I thought, I didn't even know these problems

existed, you know.

I was fairly naive and you had to be sort of, yes, well, let's pray and on the inside

you're saying, God, you better do something here because nothing I can do, which was a

good thing.

Oh, we could tell you some stories.

I'm sure Pastor Rob could tell some stories about that sort of stuff as well.

But you see, Saul looked the part, didn't he?

If you're going to have a king, you might as well have the most handsome and the tallest

and the robust and the, you know, he was from a good family and all that sort of thing but

he was the macho man.

Head and shoulders above everybody else, the Bible says.

But he was a failure.

Actually, it says that when they, in the Bible, it says that when Samuel went to actually

anoint him as king, they couldn't find him anywhere.

He was hiding amongst the stuff, the Bible says.

Quote.

He was hiding.

Did he really want to be king?

Probably not.

Was he a good king?

No.

He was jealous.

He was jealous.

You see, Saul, the Bible says that Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands.

That's what the people were saying.

That was the song that they sang and they danced with celebrating David's triumph and

it made Saul jealous and he wanted to kill David and he tried numerous times to kill

him.

He was jealous of David.

This little ruddy-faced youth, he's going to be king?

I'm the king.

And so he threw a spear at him at one stage.

He put him in the battle out the front somewhere, a bit like David eventually did to Bathsheba's

husband.

Uriah, was it?

And anyhow, but he escaped from that and so God looked after him, protected him because

he was the anointed one of God.

Was David anointed?

He was anointed but he wasn't God's anointed for that job as king over his people.

And the difference was that between David and Saul was the condition of their heart.

David's heart was for God.

Saul's heart was not for God.

I can't find any reference and I would stand to be corrected but I can't find any reference

in the scripture where it said that David worshiped God.

That Saul worshiped God.

That Saul loved God.

That Saul sought God.

But there are many there that says that David did and he wrote those psalms and what beautiful

words came out of his wilderness experiences that give us courage today.

One Samuel 16 verse 7 is actually where we're just going to have a look in the scripture.

We better have some scriptures otherwise you'll think that I'm making it all up.

No you don't.

One Samuel 16, 7, let me read it.

But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or his physical stature.

Now this is when Samuel was told by God to talk to Jesse.

Jesse got all his sons and he lined them all up and God was going to tell him which one

of those sons was going to be the king.

And so he went down the line, not this one, no not that one, not that one, not that one,

all tall, dark, handsome but none of those.

And then he said, are these all your sons?

It's got to be some others because none of these are what God is choosing.

He said, oh there's a young fellow out there looking after the sheep, bring him here.

So they brought him there.

And this is when the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or his physical

stature because I have refused him.

That's all these other brothers.

For the Lord does not see man as God sees, for man looks at the outward appearance but

the Lord looks at the heart.

And so when David came in and stood there before him, the Lord spoke to him and said,

this is the one, anoint him in front of his brothers.

That's why his brothers didn't like him too much.

He was sort of like, seemed to be the, well he was, the anointed one and they were jealous

as well.

So God looks at the heart of man, doesn't he?

And he knows what's in the heart of man.

He knows what's in your heart.

He knows what's in my heart.

He looks at the heart.

And when he looks at your heart and my heart, what does he see?

That's a good question.

What does God see when he looks inside of me and looks at my heart?

I can look good on the outside.

I can be dressed nicely.

I can say all the right things.

I can do all the right things.

I can go to church.

I can be kind to people.

I can do all that.

But what's on the inside here?

What's in the secret places of my life and of your life?

That's what God sees.

Man only sees the outside but God sees the inside.

He sees what we cannot see.

And He knows what we do not know about ourselves.

But I know me more than I know anyone else and better than I know anyone else.

But I really don't know me, if you know what I mean.

Same for you.

But God does.

He looks at the heart.

So when he looks at your heart, what does he see?

Can I challenge you right now?

What does he see?

Does he see a heart open to follow God?

Does he see a pure heart, as the Bible says?

Does he see a heart longing for the things of God?

Or does he see a mixture of godliness and worldliness?

A foot in two camps.

You see these are challenging words, I know.

But friends, if we're challenged now and we say, okay, and even right now, God is putting

His finger on some things in your life.

And I know He did when I was preparing this in my life.

He's putting His finger on it.

You need to deal with those things right now.

Don't just say, oh, well, that was just a flash in the pan at the time.

Well, that was only my thoughts.

No, God is highlighting something for you.

Something that you need to deal with in your life.

This is not words of knowledge or whatever, but it might be an impurity in your life.

It might be that you do something in secret that you don't want anybody else to know,

not even your wife or your husband.

Those sorts of things.

It's a challenge.

But God looks at the heart.

We can't escape that.

You see, with God, you can't have your foot, one foot in with God and one foot in the world.

He said, if you're a friend of God, you're an enemy of the world.

I think it was Confucius.

I'm not sure.

He had a saying, man with a foot in two boats sure to get wet.

You can't have your foot in the two camps, friend.

And if you're standing, if you ever tried it on a boat, a dinghy or whatever, and canoes

or whatever, and they just sort of seem to want to go away and you do the splits and

you end up wet.

You can't do it.

You're better off being in one or the other.

And isn't that what God said in Revelation to the church?

I'd rather you'd be hot or cold because if you look warm, I want to spew you out of my

mouth.

You don't fit if you look warm, but you fit one way or the other.

And it's not a matter of saying being hot or cold really.

It's a matter of be hot.

I'm not saying be cold for God.

I'm saying be hot for God, be on fire for God.

Let the Holy Ghost stir you on the inside for good works.

Be hot for God.

One Samuel 16 verse 13, it says there that Samuel, then he took the horn of oil and he

anointed David in the midst of his brothers and the spirit of the Lord came upon him from

that day forward.

The spirit of the Lord came upon him from that day forward, but not so Saul.

I don't see any reference that Saul ever had the spirit of God upon him.

He was anointed, yes, as king, but the spirit of God wasn't on him.

Saul was not enlarged in the circumstances that he faced and he faced a few, but David

was because his heart was open to God.

So the wilderness journey, I'm going to skim through this, but because I'm very conscious

of the time, but in one Samuel 21 to 23 and around about there, chapters either side of

that, this is where you get the story.

But let me just say this before I say anything else, that there is a Saul system, a system

running parallel to God's way, moving to kill the Davidic people, those who want to follow

God.

There's a Saul system moving to kill the David system.

Saul tried to kill David.

He was jealous of him.

He was the king that was cringing with Goliath out there yelling in the challenge and David

comes along and says, I'll go and kill him.

No, you can't do that.

You're only a kid.

We've been through that story.

You know that story.

Read it again.

It's a wonderful story.

But David did it because you see, God was with him.

He killed the lion and the bear.

He'd prove some things, but there's this Saul system, this opposite system to God that

wants to pull you this way and God's saying, follow me.

It was an interesting thing.

Someone said this to me once a long time ago.

If you're feeling pulled to do something, it's probably not God, even if it's something

in the church.

The devil pulls, God leads.

Now the leading of God can become a very, what can I have to say, a very real and a

heavy thing to do.

Yes, I know, but he's not pulling.

He's leading.

The devil pulls you down.

God lifts you up.

In the wilderness, there are three places that David went.

You know the story, well, you can read it in here in those chapters as I said.

But I'm just going to highlight a couple of things here.

In verse 10 to 15, in 1 Samuel 21, I think it is, 1 Samuel 21, 1 Samuel 21, yes.

Verse 10, Samuel had gone to this place and David was after him.

He comes and he flees to Gath.

He fled from Saul and he went to Akash, the king of Gath.

Now you remember Goliath was Goliath of Gath.

This is Goliath's home territory.

These are the Philistines.

And so he went there.

This is after he killed Goliath.

He went to the, you can read it, from the frying pan sort of into the fire as it were.

This is Goliath's country.

It was about a year after he had slain Goliath and soon they recognized him and they wanted

to kill him.

So he feigned insanity and he escaped.

And the Bible says that he scratched at the doors and he pretended madness and he let

the saliva fall down over his beard and you know, mad out like he was a lunatic.

But he did that and he escaped.

And he was humiliated and debased in front of these ones that he was evicted over.

And he was running for his life.

But that's not what God wanted for him.

But he was learning all the time.

And what he wrote in Psalm 34 about exaltation and not self-pity is something that we really

need to read.

And I'm going to read it to you.

Psalm 34.

These are the words of David.

The heading in my Bible, it just says, the Psalm of David when he pretended madness before

Abimelek and drove him away and he departed.

So this is what happened.

The aftermath of that.

This is what David learned in that.

I will bless the Lord at all times.

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul shall make its boast in the Lord.

The humble shall hear of it and be glad.

O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.

I sought the Lord and he heard me.

And he delivered me from all my fears.

They looked to him who were and were radiant, him meaning God.

And their faces were not ashamed.

This poor man cried out and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.

O taste and see that the Lord is good.

Blessed is the man who trusts in him.

O fear the Lord, you his saints.

There is no want to those who fear him.

The young lions lack and suffer hunger.

But those who seek the Lord shall lack no good thing.

Come you children, listen to me.

I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

Who is the man who desires life, who loves many days that he may see good?

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

Depart from evil and do good.

Seek peace and pursue it.

The eyes of the Lord are on those on the righteous and his ears are open to their cry.

The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the remembrance of them

from the earth.

The righteous cry out and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

Twice he has said that.

The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as has a contrite spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

He guards his bones.

Not one of them is broken.

Evil shall slay the wicked and those who hate the righteous shall be condemned and the Lord

redeems the soul of his servants and none of those who trust in him shall be condemned.

What a wonderful Psalm that is.

If you're feeling a bit depressed and down at any time or facing something that's difficult,

that's a good Psalm to read.

He delivers us out of all our afflictions but he never says it will take two weeks or

two months or two years or even two decades.

He doesn't say, he just says I'll deliver you and if it doesn't happen till Jesus comes,

he will deliver me then.

So I can't lose.

Neither can you.

So he learned forgiveness at that place.

Then he went to the cave of Adalim.

This is in the next chapter.

Where is it now?

I've lost a place but anyhow, he went to the cave of Adalim and in that cave, in chapter

22, and in that cave, and by the way Adalim means justice for the people, and so in that

cave, there were 400 men gathered to him.

400 men who were in debt, 400 men who were distressed, discontented and they were a rag

tag mob but they followed David and David built them into a mighty army and they became

David's mighty men.

There's hope for me yet.

So they gathered there and they were loyal to David and that solish mentality doesn't

understand loyalty.

You see, we want to be loyal in what we do.

We want to be loyal to our spouse.

We want to be loyal to our family.

We want to be loyal to those around us.

We want to be loyal in our church.

We want to be loyal to our pastor.

That means say we have unflinching obedience.

No, I'm not talking about that.

It's loyalty.

It's a different thing.

But he learned about loyalty in there.

These men became loyal to him.

But the solish mentality doesn't understand loyalty.

Oh, she said that so I'm leaving.

He said that so I'm gone out of here.

No loyalty.

The boss did this and he said that and he wants me to do this and that.

Well, I'm out of here.

I'll go and get another job.

Where's the loyalty?

Now I'm not saying you should not get another job or whatever.

It's a whole lot of things there.

Just hear what I'm saying, something about loyalty.

What about loyalty to our country?

There are many today who are not loyal to this country and unashamedly they call themselves

Australian.

Don't get me started, but you know what I mean.

This is our country.

This is where we were born.

Whether you've come from another country and here and this is where you live and you're

a citizen of this country, it's your country and that's the country to be loyal to.

I don't believe you can have two passports.

You can't be loyal to two people, different people.

Somebody look at that.

Just hear what I'm saying.

I think this is why God said you should just have one wife or one husband.

Fancy having 50 wives, men.

Fancy having 50 wives and being loyal to them all.

Fancy just having 50 wives.

Anyhow, getting off the subject here.

But he learned loyalty there.

Then he went to a place called Keela in chapter 23, 3 to 5.

And here it starts to be a bit of a change in David's life.

Verse 1 it says, they told David saying, look the Philistines are fighting against Keela

and they were robbing the threshing floors.

That means they wouldn't have any grain and so they wouldn't have any bread and so they

die.

Anyhow, therefore David inquired of the Lord saying, shall I go and attack these Philistines?

And the Lord said to David, go and attack the Philistines and save Keela.

But David said to him, look we are afraid here in Judah, how much more than if we go

to Keela against the armies of the Philistines?

And David inquired of the Lord once again.

This is the bit we need to hear.

David inquired of the Lord.

This is the first time that I can find in the scripture where David inquired of the

Lord.

He was anointed King, he loved God, he was in the wilderness, he was learning things

and now he's learning to inquire of the Lord.

In the middle of his distress and his continual evading of Saul's attempts to kill him, he

inquired of the Lord as to what he should do about the Philistines attacking this city

and God told him to go down and he won that mighty victory and he saved the city and all

its inhabitants.

This was the first time as I said that he inquired of the Lord that I can find and he

learned victory.

He inquired of the Lord and he had victory.

So he's learned forgiveness, loyalty, victory, then he comes to Ziglag, a place given to

him by Achish, the King of Gath for his loyalty.

This King of Gath gave him this place, this Ziglag for his loyalty but David was convinced

that he was going to die at the hand of Saul and it was taking so long to fulfill the word

of God that he would be King.

He had no one to talk to, no one understood him and chapter 30 in verse 6 says he was

greatly distressed but he strengthened himself in the Lord.

He was greatly distressed but he strengthened himself in the Lord.

You see David was learning to work with God, to walk with God, to hear from God.

God, what do I do here?

Friends, this is what we need to do.

God, what should I do about this situation in my family?

God, what should I do about this situation at work?

God, what should I do about my financial situation?

God, what are you saying for me to do?

Lord, talk to me plain and clear that I can hear.

Should I do this?

It's a yes or a no.

God, is it a yes or a no?

I mean, I talk to God like that.

Talk to him just normal.

He doesn't need all the old English and the these, the ours, the thine's.

He doesn't need it to be in Hebrew.

He doesn't need it to be in Greek.

He needs it to be from your heart in your language.

I don't advocate this and I'm not nervous, I'm careful in saying this.

I don't advocate this.

But there was a guy that I was working with and he was a Christian but he wasn't a mature

Christian and he used to drop a few clangers every day.

I mean, it just sort of came, he hadn't got to the stage where he was, his language was

sanctified, purified a little bit and he dropped these clangers.

He said to me one day, he said, look, I'm having this problem, can you pray with me?

And I said, sure.

So we got in there and prayed.

I said, now you pray.

So he got in there and there was a bit of language that came out in this prayer.

Aussie language, you know, it wasn't filthy language, just Aussie words, you know what

I'm talking about.

And I was thinking to myself, God's never going to hear this.

You know God answered that prayer.

I don't advocate this.

You won't get more attention from God if you swear when you pray.

Hear what I'm saying.

But God knew that guy's heart and he was trying to get better and better but this language

was his big thing that he tripped over all the time.

And when he prayed, it came out as a, you know, I was just, anyhow, I don't think God

was like that.

He said, yes, I can do that.

Maybe he did it just to show me.

I don't advocate that.

I say it again.

But you see, it was taking so long to fulfill this word of God to David that he would be

King and he had no one else to talk to about it.

He was on his own but he strengthened himself in the Lord.

And friend, that's the key for us that we strengthen ourselves in the Lord.

Psalm 61 verse 2 and 3.

Psalms 61:2

Psalm 61, 2 and 3.

Some very, very good scriptures.

They're all good scriptures, I know, but...

Hear my cry, O God.

Attend to my prayer.

From the end of the earth I will cry to You.

When I'm in the pits, when I'm so far down, when I feel I'm so far away from everything

that is going to help me, I cry to You.

When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

We used to sing it as a song.

Lead me to the rock.

Lead me to the rock.

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Talking about Jesus.

He is our rock.

Lead me to the rock.

God, when I can't think straight, God, when the pressure is on, when I don't know what

to do, Lord, lead me to the rock.

He'll lead you.

He'll help you.

Is He going to say, no, you can sweat it out?

No, you've done this, this and this.

I remember you did this, this and this.

So you just sit there and suffer.

No, God's not like that.

He'll lead you to the rock.

He is the rock.

But our heart cries out, Lord, lead me to the rock.

Help me to fight through all this stuff to get there, to get to Him, to rise above so

I can pray, so I can talk to Him.

Because that's what prayer is, just talking with God.

God, here I am again.

I've messed up.

I've made such a mess of this whole thing.

God, help me.

That is a good prayer.

You might not hear it in the cathedral, friend, but I tell you, that is a good prayer.

As I said, Psalm 4 verse 1, you have enlarged me in my distress.

Psalms 4:1

That was David's words.

The new King James actually uses the word relieved.

You've relieved me in my distress.

But I prefer the King James because it says enlarged, because that's what the word means,

that word, rahab, rukhab, I think it is.

It means to grow wide.

All the ladies are saying, I don't want to grow wide.

I don't want to grow wide.

To grow wide.

To be or to grow large.

To be widened.

Widened and roomy.

To make large, to enlarge, that's what the word means.

So I don't like the word relieved in there because relieved means like, oh, you know,

it's all over.

But the enlargement is still taking place and that's a process.

Did this enlargement make David perfect?

No.

But he learned to trust God.

He learned to be loyal.

He learned to love people.

He tasted victory and he learned God's way is the best way no matter how long it takes.

This is what he was learning in those wilderness experiences, in those ones that we've mentioned.

It was later that he committed adultery and murder.

Bathsheba and Uriah, remember?

Saw Bathsheba and he desired her but she was married to Uriah and so Uriah was in the army

and he sent Uriah out to the front line and got him killed.

Then he married his wife.

Not a really good thing to do, a real scheming thing to do to get his woman.

So he wasn't a perfect person.

But he sought the Lord and he did what God told him to do.

Then after that he brought back the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem.

To Samuel chapter 6, you can read about it there.

He erected the tabernacle of David in Jerusalem and he placed the Ark in it and they worshipped

the Lord.

1 Chronicles 16, this is David.

See this is his heart for God.

He conquered all his enemies and he reigned in peace.

To Samuel 7, 1.

He became a great king.

To Samuel 7, 8 to 17.

He desired to build a permanent house for God so that the Ark could be in a permanent

place not in this temporary tabernacle that was David's tabernacle.

But that was for his son Solomon to do because the Bible says that David was not going to

build that house of God because he had blood on his hands.

He was a man of war with blood on his hands.

1 Chronicles 28.

And so Solomon built that.

Solomon never fought a battle.

David had...he'd quelled all the enemies.

He died and his son ruled in his place and he built the tabernacle.

The solid tabernacle.

In closing just let me refer you to Acts chapter 13.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

Acts 13.

The book of Acts.

Verse 13.

Chapter 13.

21.

This talks about in Pracy what's happened in Samuel.

And afterwards they asked for a king.

So God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years.

When he had removed him, he raised up for them David as king.

To whom he also gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after

my own heart, who will do my will.

From this man's seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a savior, Jesus.

So the lineage of Jesus came through David.

Didn't come through Saul.

It came through David.

Saul was king, but it came through David.

In the Bible talks about, refers to Jesus as the son of David.

Thou son of David, as the blind Bartimaeus said, have mercy on me, son of David.

So will this enlargement process, this wilderness experience.

Do they make us those wilderness experience?

Does it make us perfect?

No, it doesn't.

But it will make us better, more mature, stronger.

That's the purpose of those wilderness experiences.

So if you're in a wilderness experience right now in your life, submit it to God and trust

God to bring you through that wilderness experience.

Leaning on your beloved, as it says in Song of Solomon 8 verse 5, who is this coming up

Song of Solomon 8:5

from the wilderness leaning on her beloved?

This is talking about this Unimite woman, you know, leaning on her beloved thing, but

this is referring to Jesus.

You see, the wilderness seasons do come to an end.

They can come, let me qualify that, they can come to an end and they did for David.

They did in the Song of Solomon there.

Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved, coming up, coming

from the wilderness, coming out of the wilderness?

So it may end, but friend, there may be another one around the corner we don't know.

But you see, that's what we need to do.

Learn to lean on Jesus.

Learn to lean on Jesus.

It's an old song, isn't it?

You probably know it.

Learning to lean, learning to lean, I'm learning to lean on Jesus.

Learning to lean on Jesus.

I can't think of the other verse, part of it says, having more power than I've ever

dreamed.

I'm learning to lean on Jesus.

That's what we need to do, friend.

When you really boil it all down to it, lean on Jesus.

He knows.

He's there in the wilderness.

He's there in the other times.

He's there in the good, the bad times.

He's there in the oasis in the desert.

He's there in the desert itself.

He's there in the dry times.

He's there in the praising God times, the hallelujah times.

You see, God is just there.

Can't run away from him.

Can't get away from him.

Don't want to get away from him, but he's there.

Wherever you go, he's there.

Lean on him.

See, the world says, you've got to stand up for yourself.

You've got to do it yourself.

You've got to find something in yourself, of yourself, because the answer is in yourself.

Contrary to what the scripture says, the answer is in Jesus.

Learn to lean on him.

Ah, but that means I'm a weakling if I lean on someone or something or someone like God

or Jesus.

People say, well, then I'm a weakling, but I'll lean on him.

I'll trust him.

He's the burden bearer.

He'll carry things for you.

See, this is God's heart for you and for me to carry our burdens.

He loved us enough to die on Calvary for us, to take our sin, deal with our sin, that on

the mercy seat in heaven, his blood is there and it speaks and it covers our sin, my sin,

your sin, and anyone who believes in him.

And those of you who are here today and watching this morning, if you've never asked God to

forgive you for your sin, you can do that today.

It's a simple prayer.

Lord Jesus, I come to you.

I ask you to forgive me of all my sin.

I receive you as my savior and my Lord, and I turn my back on my all sinful ways and I

give my life to you.

And from here on, Lord, I will trust you with my life.

Thank you, Lord.

I am born again right now in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So you've prayed that prayer today for the first time or you've prayed it sincerely for

the first time.

You really meant that.

That means you're born again.

Same for you watching.

That means that you're born again now.

You're a child of God.

He has linked his spirit and your spirit together.

You are one in Christ Jesus, forgiven of all the wrongdoings that you've ever done.

You have that today because you've asked Jesus to be your savior.

What a wonderful thing.

That song we sang to start off with this morning, it was in our song session there.

What a glad day it was when I was born again.

What a glorious day when I was born again.

And that's a glorious day for you today, friend.

You're giving your life to Jesus.

Is there anyone that has done that here this morning?

Would you like to just raise your hand?

You're giving your life to Jesus today.

You want to be born again today?

God bless you.

For those of you that are watching, if you have done that for the first time, we'd love

to know if you made that decision today.

You could write to us.

The information is there on the screen.

We want to help you and to love you and get you established in the Christian life.

God bless you.

So friend, let's learn to lean on Jesus.

David learned to lean on Jesus.

He inquired of the Lord.

There was no one else for him to lean on.

It's great to have a great pastor.

Don't lean on him.

Lean on Jesus.

Jesus never gets tired.

You know that?

Robin Chantel having a break because they just need a break.

They're human beings.

They're dealing with stuff, running a church and all of us.

Some of us lean heavily on him.

Friend, you've got to learn to lean on Jesus.

Learn to lean on Jesus.

Is he your beloved that you can come up out of the wilderness leaning on him?

That's where you learn to lean on him.

Make him so today.

Start today to lean on him.

He loves you.

God loves you.

Cares about you.

Cares about me.

Cares about us all.

What a wonderful God he is.

What a wonderful God he is.

Hallelujah.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we just want to thank you for watching over us in this past week.

We pray, Lord, for Robin Chantel as they have this holiday and doing what they love doing

and that's doing a great road trip.

Bless them, Father.

Encourage them.

We know they're leaning on you, Lord.

Help them to lean heavier, more heavily upon you.

Trust you.

Pray for all the folk here this morning.

Those that are not, that are part of this church, we ask God you would bless them and

encourage their hearts.

Those that are feeling that desperate wilderness experience, Lord, that they would find you

in that place and lean upon you.

Need every need, we pray.

We thank you for doing that, Lord, in the name of Jesus.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

Thank you for joining us.

We pray God's richest blessing on your life.

If you haven't already, make sure to join us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

You can also find us at LoganCityChristianChurch.com.

See you next week.