Well, for the last three to four weeks, we have been in the midst of a study of the life of David And I have entitled this series of messages and undivided heart So we will resume that study this morning if you take your Bible and turn with me to first Samuel chapter 21 We'll pick up a couple of chapters after we left them off last week first Samuel chapter 21 If you don't have a Bible there are some Bibles located underneath some chairs turned to page 284 284 and you'll find the passage that we're going to look at together today First Samuel 21 10 through 22 5 That is the passage that I would like us to study today Sermon entitled the way up is down Listen carefully. I'll read beginning at first Samuel 21 Verse 10 that day David fled from Saul and went to ackish king of gath But the servants of ackish said to him isn't this David the king of the land isn't he the one they sing about in their dances Saul has slain his thousands and David his tins of thousands David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of ackish king of gath So he pretended to be insane in their presence and While he was in their hands, he acted like a madman Making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard Ackish said to his servants look at the man. He is insane Why bring him to me? Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me must this man come into my house David left gath and escaped to the cave of a dollum When his brothers and his father's household heard about it they went down to him there all Those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him and he became their leader About 400 men were with him From there David went to Mizpah in Moab and said to the king of Moab Would you let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me? So he left them with the king of Moab and they stayed with him as long as David was in the stronghold But the prophet gath said to David do not stay in the stronghold go into the land of Judah So David left and went to the forest of hereth The word of the Lord Do you know that there are some famous failures throughout history? Let me tell you about some of them His music teacher said about him as a composer. He is hopeless Who was it? Beethoven His fiancee died He failed in business twice. He had a nervous breakdown and was defeated in eight elections, and he guesses Abraham Lincoln He failed as a former a soldier and a real estate agent At 38 years of age he went to work for his father as a handyman You know and better as you license this grant a Teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything He should go into a field where he might succeed by quote virtue of his pleasant personality Thomas Edison He was rejected from West Point in the Naval Academy because of poor eyesight The Haberdashary that he owned in downtown Kansas City went bankrupt Harry S. Truman He his first screen test report read can't act slightly balled Can dance a little
Fred Astaire She was dismissed from drama school with a note that read Wasting her time She's too shy to put her best foot forward Lucille ball He was fired from a newspaper because he quote lacked imagination and Had no original ideas
Crazy This is amazing. They were turned down by Deca records Who said we don't like their sound guitar music is on the way out
Boy the day miss out didn't they He dropped out of college His first business venture was called Trapho data He was supposed through that to analyze traffic flow It flopped Bill Gates He was cut from the high school basketball team for his lack of skill He went home Locked himself in his room and cried Michael Jordan She was demoted from her job as an on air evening news anchor on WJZ TV in Baltimore And told she wasn't fit for television Oprah Winfrey One more his first novel was rejected by 16 agents and 12 publishing house It's pretty successful now isn't he John Christian I could go on, but I think you get the point. It's a pattern It's a pattern first Pain Then game first scars Then success It certainly was true of David right We've been looking at David's life in recent weeks as I said and here in first Samuel 21 and 22 We see that he who would one day us send To be king of Israel and commander in chief of the world's mightiest war machine First had to descend Into the valley of pain and heartache why because the way up Is down That's why The way up is down want to ask you if What's God doing in your life today?
You know, there are a lot of folks in heart church, UPC that are suffering It seems that God has brought trial in a big way to a lot of our congregation And you know you'll probably never be a king Or a president or a celebrity or a basketball star But is it possible That through what you are going through today God is preparing you for impact and influence tomorrow Is that possible? Absolutely it is Is it possible that as the apostle Peter puts it in first Peter 510 After you have suffered a little while God will himself restore you and make you strong firm and steadfast Is that a possibility? Absolutely it is Because the way up Is down So what I want to do today is try to show you three things three ways that David went down before he went up Let me tell you what they are and then we'll look at them one by one three ways that David in this passage Went down before he went up first he lost his reputation Secondly, he spent days in isolation And third and finally he learned some hard lessons in compassion So that's our plan. Let's dive into the first point there The first way that David went down before he went up is that he lost His reputation As our text opens first Samuel chapter 21 verse 10 David is on the run from King Saul now you saw this last week when Seth talked to you about friendship And the relationship between David and Jonathan Do you remember a couple of weeks ago we looked at chapter 17 David had killed Goliath So he's enormously famous and very successful And because of that success all of the people of Israel were enamored at David They were in love with this man and as we saw a week after the battle with Goliath in chapter 18 Saul was incredibly envious of David because of his success He even tried to kill David several times Well here in 2110 it says first verse that I read That day David fled from Saul and went to Akish king of gath Now what you see already is that the giant killer had become a fugitive The king elect Had to become an exile he had done nothing wrong, but he had to leave Israel and escape to gath Now gath is where Goliath was from do you remember that He was known as Goliath of gath it was a city in the Philistine territory So why did David go to gath what what was thinking what was going on in his mental process when he left Israel And went into in to Philistine territory to the city where Goliath was from well There are a lot of theories out there Maybe David thought that he could become a mercenary soldier for the Philistines I don't know or maybe he naively thought that he would be able to To be anonymous in gath and just sort of fade into obscurity and and not be recognized there Well, whatever the case David's reputation had preceded him as you see in this text The servants of Akish had already heard that Popular song about David it was not it was number one on the hit parade in gath You know david had killed his tens of thousands while Saul Just killed his thousands everybody knew that about David His reputation had preceded him So now what we read there in verse 12 David was very much afraid of Akish king of gath So what did he do? Why was what did he do because of his fear he pretends to be insane He acts like Okay, think of this. He acts like the mentally ill man That you've seen walking down the street nearby here talking to the sky Or he begins acting like a drunkard the phrase there insane could even be in Applied to somebody who is just Uproariously drunk. So he acts that way he starts Making marks. I guess with his fingernails or some such thing Maybe in our day it would be graffiti on the city gate And he let's saliva start running down his beard akish and verses 14 and 15 says this guy's a nut Why are you bringing him to me? I've got He says I've I got plenty of mad men around here. I don't need one more and so with that David is able to get away He's able to escape from the listings now on one hand I guess you could say that david is really being clever here and his ploy works It gets david out of trouble. He gets to get away But don't go so fast Because david is a real human being this experience must have affected him very very deeply He had to be embarrassed Wouldn't you be if you come into a city and your reputation is that of this Great person and everybody is singing about you Celebrating what a wonderful person you are and then you Totally destroy that image by your behavior Wouldn't you be totally embarrassed I would be You know instead of now being a living legend David is the man who would be the brunt of jokes in gas The man who had been celebrated in song, you know by all these people would now be the object of scorn You know what it's like to be laughed at go back to seventh grade in your mind Go back to sixth grade third grade do you remember Do you remember being laughed at do you remember being made fun of I should do Have you ever made a really stupid mistake at work and everybody knows about it It's just out there. Well look at what you did have you ever been found out Has your sin ever been publicly exposed If you ever had to confess something to people your family your friends people at church at work and so on your life group knows You know something you've you've been guilty of if so you know that reputation is a big thing Reputations such a big thing it can even become an idol right We invest don't we a considerable amount of time and effort and money and energy Making sure that we look good in front of people that we're seen, you know as competent and successful and gifted and capable We can love our own reputation more than we love God Our reputation can be the thing that we trust in on a daily real rubber hits the road level Rather than trusting in God and when that persona falls apart You know when you're found out When you're embarrassed and you turn beat red When that persona falls apart often your life falls apart So what's God doing here in David's life With this loss of reputation. He's doing him a favor really He's doing David a favor. He's allowing David to lose just a little bit of his pride So God will occupy the throne of his heart instead of David occupying that throne We've been talking in this series about an undivided heart. This is what I'm talking about See God will not share your heart With anything or anybody else not even yourself He must be first place. He must be on the throne He doesn't want half of the throne With your reputation being on the other half So you know what God often does in your life some of you know this all too well He humbles you He breaks you He allows you to fail He maybe even as in David's life makes you lose your reputation before others and become a laughing stock before others If it means that God gets your heart See the way up is down All right, that's the first thing that David does he goes down before he goes up He loses his reputation secondly the second thing I see in this passage is that he spent days In isolation we don't know how many But I suspect it was quite a number more than he would have chosen Had he had his own way David spent days in isolation look with me now at chapter 22 verse 1 says that David left gath and escaped to the cave of a dollum Now the good news is a dollum is back in Judah So he's back in Israelite territory, right? It's 10 miles northeast of gath So he's out of the land of listings. He's back home where he should be But for some days he's living in isolation in this cave This cave of a dollum What's it like to live in a cave You've visited a cave I suspect but what's it like to live in one Well, we have a couple of clues actually I don't know if you were listening as Jonathan red from Psalm 142 But if you will hold your place here in first Samuel and turn to the middle of your Bible Psalm 142 because It appears that this psalm may have been written Out of the context of the cave of a dollum Now we don't know that for sure the titles to psalms are not necessarily inspired There's not always the certainty that you can rely on the titles to these psalms But notice the title of Psalm 142 it says that it is a masculine of David when he was in the cave It's a prayer so is it possible That David after he had spent some time in the cave of a dollum Put pinned a paper as it were and wrote Psalm 142 I think it's entirely possible. I want to read it to you and you put yourself in the shoes of David Maybe in his sandals, okay? Put yourself in the sandals of David and see if you can imagine what it must have been like for him to live For a while in a cave. He says I cry aloud to the Lord Psalm 142 one I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him before him. I tell my trouble When my spirit grows faint within me it is you who know my way I love that verse in the path where I walk men have hidden a snare for me look to my right and see no one is concerned for me I have no refuge no one cares for my life Have you ever felt this way? Can you already begin to say I know what that's like I cry to you verse five. Oh Lord. I say you are my refuge my portion in the land of the living Listen to my cry for I am in desperate need Rescue me from those who pursue me for they are too strong for me set me free from my prison that I may praise your name Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me Do you hear some of the themes there loneliness boredom fear desperation David feels trapped He feels trapped in fact in verse seven he talks about being in a prison Feeling like he's in in a prison some of you have voiced feeling this way Maybe you're new in Orlando or new at UPC you feel like that's your prison You've had a baby or you have several preschoolers running around your feet every day and they keep you isolated from friends and activities Your relatives live far away you can't depend on your mom your dad your grandparents Maybe you have health problems that keep you limited in terms of your activity and your lifestyle Or you're stuck in a job you don't like or in a relationship you don't like or you don't have a job And you wish you had a relationship. What's your prison God may be doing for you what he was doing for David Inviting you into solitude That's very easy for me to stay stand up here and say that right But God invites us into solitude at times in our lives He draws us into seclusion why why doesn't he deliver you from your cave or your prison more quickly That's what the question is that we ask sometimes of God I wish I could give you a nice pad answer and I can't I don't know why God sometimes ordains caves of a dullum for his people But I do know this it's not because God doesn't love you In fact, it may be God's way of getting you alone with him for a change just because he loves you so much That's why I said he invites you into isolation God wants to show you his love One-on-one The way up is down David loses his reputation. He spends days in isolation thirdly Go back to first Samuel 22 again The third thing that we see in this passage is that David learned some hard lessons in compassion Hard lessons in compassion. You saw in our text that I read that God brought some people into David's life Let's look at these two different groups of people that God brought to David in the cave of a dullum first. It was his own family You notice that right there in verse one of chapter 22 It says David left gath escaped to the cave of a dullum when his brothers and his father's household heard about it They went down to him there now think about this for a moment when you're going through a hard time Who are the last people that you sometimes want to see? Your relatives I mean, can we be honest sometimes sometimes the last folks you want to have around you when you're suffering? Are your relatives? Do you remember in David's case how his family had treated him earlier? Go back in your mind to chapter 16 when Samuel had come to Jesse's home looking for the next king of Israel They didn't even invite David to the party remember that and then in chapter 18 when David kills Goliath You know he goes out there um he goes out there to see his brothers and they tell him what are you doing here? You don't belong here get back to your sheep I mean, this is David's family But I want to point out to you what David does with his family look at chapter 22 verse 3 It says in verse 3 that David went to Miss pot and Moab and said to the king of Moab would you let my father and mother come stay with you Until I learn what God will do for me So he left them with the king of Moab and they stayed with him as long as David was in a stronghold You know what I see happen here is that is that David at considerable risk and inconvenience make sure that he cares for his mom and dad I suspect by now they are fairly old and frail and worrisome But this is lesson one in compassion for David I need to take care my relatives. I need a love my parents Even in the midst of uncertainty and trial and heartache on my part I need to care for them and that's what he does That's lesson number one the second group of people that God brings to David in the cave of adolum is mentioned in verse 2 Of chapter 22 look at that verse. It says all those who were in distress or in debt or Discontented gathered around him and he became their leader About 400 men were with him. Oh boy. Look at this the three deeds The distressed the dadded the indebtors and the uh and the uh discontented Instead of a dream team which is really what David needs right now. He gets the bad news bears Look at that look at the people God brings his way This was a group of people that you might compare to 10th century BC version of hell's angels I mean they were social outcasts. They were deviance. They were undesirables. The word discontented in verse 2 Is literally translated as bitter in soul bitter in soul. It's a Hebrew phrase often used by Job To describe his anguish and his grief and his sense of abandonment Those are the people that God brought to David in the cave of adolum yet they were the very ones that David had to learn to lead Better yet they were the ones that David had to learn to love and to serve And love and serve them he did Because they became his fighting men They became his helpers in the many things that he has to face in the future the point The way up is down Let's review David became the laughing stock of the Philistines He lived for some time alone in a cave and he had to love some pretty unlovable people So how does that apply to you and to me Well, let me summarize and look take a look at this screen up here three things I want to just leave with you today The first thing is that God sometimes has to break us of our idol of reputation so that we will trust only in him Right the idol of reputation secondly God often puts us in places where it's just us and him one on one And finally God brings difficult people into our lives so that we'll learn firsthand what grace is all about You know these things are painful This stuff hurts So what are we supposed to do about it? Samuel Rutherford was a Scottish Presbyterian who lived back in the 1600s Let me leave with you a quotation from him He once said praise God for the hammer the file and the furnace praise God for the hammer the file And the furnace what he's saying is to rejoice in suffering Why can we rejoice because God is at work He's at work in our suffering preparing us building us shaping us into somebody that he can use for his glory someone who is like Christ himself I've mentioned before right that in the life of David we see the life of Christ in preview shape We see hints of Christ every time we look at David the Jesus who ascended to his throne in heaven first descended to where we are If there's anyone who knew pain is Jesus if there's anybody who had scars. It's Jesus For Jesus Christ the way up was down Just like it is for us Think about that. He lost his reputation He was despised and rejected by people He spent days in isolation being tempted in every single way just like we are yet without sin And his life was one of nothing but compassion Even from the cross he cared for his mother He mixed and mingled with prostitutes and lepers the poor the sick all who were in distress all who are in debt And all who were discontented and bitter in soul and he still says today come to me all who are weary and burdened And I will give you rest Jesus was a compassionate Savior So if you're trusting in Jesus today Pain is a messenger of hope Pain can be an indication in your life that God is at work He's preparing you just like he was preparing David He's making you more like Christ. He's scraping off those rough places He's smoothing out the dents and the blemishes making you a blessing to others. So Praise God for the hammer Praise him for the file And praise him for the furnace because the way up is down Let's pray Father we come to you as suffering people And there are people today in our midst that are Really in under the hammer in the file in the furnace Father I pray that they will see in David a little glimpse of Christ That they will see in David a figure Who died on the cross for them Who still says come and I'll give you rest rest for your journey Help us a lord in the midst of our pain To remember that there is a way up And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen