David surprisingly sided with his people’s enemies. And yet God delivered him in mercy. Our failures are never final. (1 Samuel 30:1-7)

Speaker(s): Peter Westera
Sermon 13030
Date: 2025-11-16
Time: Sun 6:30 pm

 

P. Pete Westera –

Great song, Miles. Beautiful. The voice is great, too, isn’t it? Just love everything about that kid. Ah, great to
be here. Greetings from Oman. You can be seated. Let’s see. Can we put the map up?
For those of you that are so American that you don’t know where Oman is, it’s in the Arabian
Peninsula. Do I do something to get it up or no? it’s coming. It’s way over there by uh, there it
is. Okay. Here we go.

So, Saudi Arabia. We went on the north side somewhere right there. That’s not, well, anyways,
there’s Oman. Maybe you can see it. For some reason, it’s not. That’s okay. Oh, wait. I got it. I
got it. No, have to do it now. No, it’s not working. That’s okay. Oman, beautiful place. It’s right
there next to Dubai, Emirates, United Arab Emirates and you have Dubai there. Qatar.

I got a, I got a Dubai, I got a Dubai joke for P. Barry. There’s two cities in United Arab Emirates.
One of them is Dubai. The other is Abu Dhabi. Someone’s already laughing. You know what the
difference is between Dubai and Abu Dhabi? In Dubai, they love the Flintstones. No, in Dubai
they don’t love the Flintstones. But in Abu Dhabi, they do! I think I messed that up. Oh my gosh,
I was unprepared. Abu Dhabi. That’s for P. Barry. Wherever he is. Right up his alley. No, sorry.

We had a great time there. It was a beautiful time of fellowship. A very sweet time. Very loving
time. I sense a lot of love. People came from Central Asia, so that was great. Some people came
from Russia, France, Finland, and India was there. Two things for me that stood out was the
Indian men. They were like just hungry and everywhere we went, they just gather. They want to
have a rap. They want to talk. They have questions. They’re so serious about God. So, incredible
fellowship. Half of them I didn’t even know. But by the end, two days later, we’re just having
such great fellowship. They’re just beautiful people. Makes me want to go to India again.

And also I was very impressed with P. Matti. I didn’t actually get to spend any time with him. I
was just watching him from a distance. And you know, he’s, I don’t think he’s slowing down. I
don’t see any slowing down. He’s just, he’s got energy. He’s active. He’s such a great
missionary. And I don’t know if there’s anything greater you can be. It’s one thing to be a
missionary. It’s another thing to be just a great missionary. And I think he is.

He’s so effective. He’s so hardworking. He’s got a plan. Stick to the plan. Stick to the program.
Stick to the timeline. Let’s go. We’re doing this. We’re doing that. And it’s just wonderful to
watch. And a lot of people love him and his team loves him and they’re all running around. And
boy, we love him, don’t we? And we pray for him. And you know God is with him. I think God is
with him. It just, his messages and his life has such an impact and man, love that man.
I preached in Muscat one night and actually before that I was in my hotel room and you know
how it goes. This amazing thing that happens to us so often that I am in awe of. P. Schaller in the 9:00 service spoke about that blind woman. Did you mention it in the 11 also?

The blind woman? Yeah. What a beautiful thought that is. The blind woman who could no longer feel
Braille can feel her Bible. And then in frustration or something she kisses it and realizes she can
feel the Braille with her lips. And wow, that’s just an amazing picture, isn’t it?
And I was like, yeah, that’s me. I love my Bible. I don’t know how that happens. I remember so
many decades not even reading my Bible and just to be in love with your Bible and then to read
it, to read a familiar story that you could almost recite, you know, perfectly in your memory and
then be touched again by a sentence. You know, I love that part. I love the revelation, the
rhema part of our Bible and the applicability to it. It’s like how did this, how did God know that I
needed this now, you know?

There’s a supernatural element to it and I was reading 1 Samuel a couple of times in the last
few weeks. Read chapter 30, a chapter that we know so well. It’s the chapter of Ziglag. And a
sentence caught me there that I never really thought about. And it hit me in my hotel room in
the afternoon right after I woke up from my nap. And I just thought, man, God is so good and
preached on it.

And I just want to mention it to you. But before I do, go with me to chapter 27 so I can kind of
build the story a little bit. Set it up. (Prayer). In the message in Oman, I said, What do we love
about David? many things we love about David. We love the psalms. We know how he thinks.
We read his story. But now we know also how he thinks. So, that’s beautiful.
What an incredible songwriter he was. But also, we love his victories. We love his leadership.
We love the fact that he beat Goliath. What a great story that is. That’s a Hollywood made story
right there. Little shepherd boy beats the giants. It’s great.

But actually the thing that we love about David is his failure. I really think so. I really think it’s
his failure that stands out to us. It’s what connects me to David. It’s what connects you to
David. He is not a Marvel superhero. Thank God. He’s got, he’s so far removed from that.
He is just a man who makes mistakes, big ones. We know about them. We know about
Bathsheba and that blunder, that embarrassing blunder of a mistake. And we know about the
time when he counted against God’s will, counted the people and 70,000 had to die. And we
know about the time when he overreacted and Abigail saved his life. These are, you know,
known to us.

There is another mistake that he makes in chapter 27 that is pretty clear. And this really is
about problems and it’s about being discouraged. And in chapter 27:1, we read that David is
discouraged and he makes, he does not respond well to his discouragement. He doesn’t know
what to do. He’s stuck in his discouragement. Anyone here identify/ I mean, yeah. Yeah.

I don’t even, I didn’t even know that I had to have a plan to get out of discouragement. David is
stuck there. And because of that, he states in vs. 1, I shall now perish one day by the hand of
Saul. He says it like it’s true. Like it’s a fact. It’s going to happen. I’m a dead man.

And we know, of course, it’s not. How did he get to that thought? What happened? How much
discouragement? I mean the guy, the man, you know, there’s a lot of times when he was
discouraged so I’m not, you know, I understand this is real. This is unbelievable. He’s probably
in his anywhere from 8.5 to 11 year problem of Saul. At the minimum, it’s been 8.5 years but
some commentators say it’s more like 11. Maybe even a little bit more. At this point, he’s not
done yet, but at this point. And it’s not going away. It’s just not going away.

And, you know, he’s discouraged and we understand it. And we are all discouraged and we are
not like saying that you shouldn’t be discouraged or we don’t, shouldn’t be ever get
discouraged but what we are saying is be careful with your discouragement.
Discouragement is not just a lack of joy in your life. It’s just not, not just a bad day. A down day.
It is the depleting of your spiritual life. And you know, as I was meditating on that, I said, Yeah,
that’s what it is. That’s what it is.

When you are discouraged, it happens to all of us. That’s no condemnation. But it’s not God’s
heart for us. He is looking for us to get out of it. And David does not. And because he’s
discouraged and because he has wrong thinking, we know that his decision making is bad.
And in vs. 2, we read that he decides that he will just go and escape Israel and go to Achish, the
king of Gath and live with his enemies. Now, right away you’re like wait. Hold on. Aren’t you the
guy that killed 10,000 Philistines? Are you the guy that killed Goliath? Are you okay, David?
As we’re reading, does that make any sense? You know, in vs. 3, he dwelt with Achish. Wow.
The future anointed king of David, living with his enemy. Or living with his own people’s enemy.
It’s not correct. It’s not right. Where is that sentence that we want to read right now? And
David inquired of the Lord. And David sought the Lord. It’s missing. It’s gone.

He’s discouraged. That’s fine. But he’s staying there. He’s fried. He’s done. He can’t get out of it
and he starts to think naturally and he starts to come up with his own solutions. He starts to
come up with a plan.

Now, this sounds just like me. I’m so good at planning. Figuring out a problem and get my way
out of it. And his plan is I’m going to go live with the Philistines. And you know as soon as he
does, as soon as it happens in vs. 4, Saul says to him, Saul finds out about it and doesn’t seek
him anymore.

So, at first, it’s like working. Like all plans that we make. They always work well in the beginning.
I got my thoughts, my ideas, my experience. I know what to do. I’m going to take action. This is
also a story about inaction, the importance of inaction. But here David has decided to take
action into his own hands and move.

And look at him. He says to Achish in vs. 5, give me some little town in the country. Sounds
really good to me actually. Give me a little town in Montana. Remember that message? Move
to Montana. Probably a decade ago. You know, get a John Deere. There you go. A couple of
horses. This sounds like heaven to me. Mountains in the distance. My problems are gone, right?
My problems are gone. I’ve solved my problems. Leave my marriage.

In the beginning, it’s all great. Leave my church. Great. Leave my friends. Whatever. Avoid this
person. Avoid that. Get away. Stop. Escape. You know, that’s what we do. And David does it
here. And then he just moves to Ziglag. Now he has himself that little town, but he is with his
enemies. He lives in enemy territory. And they’re not going to leave him alone. They’re not
going to let him just live there.

And they in chapter 28, Achish is like, You know what? We’re going to battle. I’m taking you
with me. Whoops. I don’t have, I have the sense – there’s two parts to David. #1. There’s that
desire to fix his problem and it’s, he’s motivated by him and he says, Fine. I’ll go to battle
against my own people with the Philistines.

But also part of him must have said, Wait. He must have laid awake at night. This was the man
that would not return the javelin that Saul threw at him. This is the man that, whose heart
smote him when he touched just the skirt, right, of Saul. This is the man that snuck into the
camp in the wilderness of Ziph and stood right over Saul and grabbed a spear and didn’t thrash
it through his body to the ground and said, I will not touch the Lord’s anointed.
But some years have gone by and now he has these thoughts of fixing his problem and he’s also
kind of, you know, compromising. The enemy does not leave him alone. He has sided with them
and now he is stuck with them and he is obeying them and he is following them and he’s in
trouble. He becomes’ Achish’s body guard in chapter 28.

You can read it yourself. And now he is on his way to battle. And it is sad. It’s sad when a man of
God, you know, sides with the enemy against the people of God. But it can happen. In my
discouragement, I make my decisions. I plot my way. I plan my way. I take over. God is no
longer in charge. I take over and I make my decisions.
So, in 29, the battle, you know, is, it’s a setup for the battle. Saul’s final battle, and David does
the unthinkable and lines up behind the Philistines. And this man who loved Saul so much in

chapter 16, you know, is about to make a very big mistake. And had it happened, had he gone
into battle, it would have been disastrous.
I think when David became king, it took him seven more years just to get the rest of the
country, right? The rest of Israel to make him king. He was king of Judea for seven years before
the rest of the king, the rest of the kingdom accepted him.

Had he gone to battle against them, had he killed their sons, had he killed Saul, had he been
involved in any form, it would have been disastrous. It would have been lost. We might not
even know who David is today if he had done this.
But God is merciful. God intervenes. It’s got to be God. God intervenes because who wouldn’t
want David, that warrior, on your side? But the princes of the Philistines say, No, no. We don’t
want to line up with this guy. And they tell Achish, you know, go home. Send him home.

And God by some divine intervention prevents David from making a disastrous mistake. And
the only thing I can think of here is this beautiful verse that Jesus says in Matthew 5, to the
merciful, I will be merciful. To those that give mercy, I will be merciful. And you know David is a
man of mercy and he has lived his life giving mercy to Saul. He lives this way.
And here God intervenes and gives him mercy. I want to be a person that gives mercy because
maybe one day God will help me out, prevent me from myself, my own decisions, from my own
disaster that I call my life.

You know, like I just think this is God’s hand on a man who has grace in his heart and is and God
is covering him and he says, No, you’re not doing that, you idiots. And you know, in the end of
the chapter, it’s good.
Achish says, first like get up and get out of here. Go back. Get out of here. You don’t belong
here. It seems to me that the Philistines knew more who David was at this point than David
knew himself. They knew him. He was not – he doesn’t belong there.

He says, What is, where is, what is this Hebrew in vs. 3. What is this Hebrew doing here? What
is this Christian doing here? You don’t belong here. You don’t belong in this place. I don’t like
the way you are. You’re different. Go to church. Get with your people. Get out of here. First
light. Get your but out of here.
I mean, you know what I mean? Like what are you doing? What are you doing? You know, and
then you know, he goes home and you know the story of chapter 30 and that is such a beautiful
story.

 

And how many times have we heard it? How many times have we read it? Not enough. I want
to take you with me on my next trip, P. Duke! Just sit in the front row everywhere I preach
because it’s working for me.
So, David takes that three-day journey back home in vs. 1. And all this time, for a year and four
months, he’s been making his own plans and avoiding his own problems and trying to figure
them out. And then of course it gets worse because as he gets to Ziglag, the place is burning.
It’s burning. And everyone knows and that the entire army what that means.

And then, and then they find that their women and their kids are gone. I do find it so interesting
that in verse 2, they slew not a single person, which is again God’s mercy, right? That’s not what
they did back then. David went into their territory, killed every single one of them. They cone
back. They don’t kill anybody. It’s God’s grace again. God’s got his hand on David. He doesn’t
even know about it.

And in vs. 4, they wept and they’re heartbroken. And then in vs. 6, again David, now it’s even
worse. He made his own plans. He followed his own routes. He tried to plot and plan and the
result is that he almost went to war against his own people. He’s living with his enemies, living
with idolaters.
And now his village is burnt down. And his people are gone. And just to top it off, his own
people want to stone him. His mighty men that are with him are fed up. It’s not working with
this guy. It’s been 10 years. It’s been, you know, so long. It’s not working. And they want to
stone him. And the rejection. He gets rejected by Saul. He gets rejected by the Philistines even.
And now he’s rejected by his own mighty men. And he is the loneliest man on the planet.

And he is there. By this time he responds differently. He was discouraged before and he didn’t
respond properly in 27. But this time, he’s discouraged and he does something different. He
encourages himself. He’s distressed. The people speak of stoning him.
And then that beautiful word in the King James, “but.” A beautiful little clarity. A beautiful little
direction for you and me. We’re discouraged. It’s not good. My life’s a mess. I got problems. I’m
in pain. But. David encouraged himself. And this means that David is the one doing it at this
point. There’s no note that God is speaking to him yet. God has not spoken to him in at least a
year and four months. He’s doing it. It’s him.

But, you know, God is not coming down and saying, hey, it’s okay. I got you covered. God is not
coming down whispering in his ear and taking all his problems away and taking the pain in his
heart away. God’s not magically solving the issues. God is leaving him there in his pain.

And David is encouraging himself in the Lord. Not in himself. David is not encouraging himself in
himself. Thank God for that. That doesn’t work. He tried that a few chapters ago. It’s not
working. He is encouraging himself in who the Lord is. He is going back to faith mode. He’s
falling back down into his life of trusting God. He’s turning back to Jesus and saying, I’m going to
remember who you are.

And God is not speaking to him. And God has not solved this problem just yet, but he is reciting
words maybe from the Old Testament, from the Torah. He is reciting to himself that he was
anointed king. He is remembering the faithfulness of God. He’s remembering his grace. He is
talking to himself about God. And he’s remembering it and it’s working and he’s fixing his
mindset and he’s not lost in his discouragement.

And I don’t know how long this takes. We don’t know. But I bet it took some time. And David,
you know, he’s like changing. It’s working. He has aligned himself with God again., And, you
know, he starts to think differently again. And he’s remembering again and thankfulness maybe
enters his heart right there at that moment. Thankfulness enters his heart and maybe worship
enters his heart and maybe even peace.
And it’s like, you know, how it works for us. God wants us to remember this book and recite this
book and go to church and hear and remind ourselves and encourage ourselves. And I wonder
what psalm is being written right there in that moment.

You know what he is saying? We could say so many psalms that he wrote at this point. But God,
you are my shield. You are my refuge. You are my high tower. Is that, is that what psalm is
being written at that moment? I don’t know. But it’s beautiful.
And David is not acting. He’s not doing anything. And this was kind of my meditation on it, too.
Like, you know, we live in a world that is so interested in what are you going to do? What are
you going to do? What are you going to do? What decisions are you going to make?
Let’s sit down. Let’s talk. Let’s figure this out. Let’s put our brains together. You know,
whatever. You know. How are you going to respond? But David’s life is not so much about
action. Yes, he did act. He did kill Goliath, but many times it’s really his inaction.

That’s amazing that he didn’t throw the javelin back. His inaction in the cave of Engedi and his
inaction when he snuck into Saul’s camp and his inaction when Absalom came to overtake him
and just to leave Jerusalem. And his inaction, when he failed, you know, just to lay on that
temple floor for seven days was his mode and here, too in Ziglag. No action. No energy wasted.
No decisions being made. Just quietly encouraging himself in the Lord.

And I realize something in my life that I have seen. That the natural man always wants to talk.
And that the natural man always wants to figure it out. And the natural man always wants to
solve.
But spiritual people, spiritual people are slow to speak and quiet and waiting and being still and
pondering what God is doing and pondering what God wants to do. And they’re not so
interested in what they’re thinking or somebody else is thinking. And they’re not so interested
in talking. They just want to encourage themselves in the Lord.

And this is the sentence that I read that just spoke to me in vs. 7. And this just spoke to me for
some reason. I hadn’t taught it before but, you know, here it is for me. It’s been a year and four
months and that ephod is a sacred garment that the priest would wear during their ceremonies.
I think you know.
And David says, get the ephod. And right there in the middle of that smoking, smoldering village
with the sound of men crying, weeping, and the sound of other men screaming at him wanting
to stone him. That very lonely man falls on his knees in the ashes of his own village. And, you
know, makes the moment holy. He makes that pain, that problem, that devastating,
heartbreaking problem, that rejection, that issue, he changes the moment in Ziglag forever as a
holy moment. Get the ephod. Get the priest. This is going to be a holy moment.

And I think for the rest of his life. And whenever anybody else talked about Ziglag and they said
what they said, but for David it would always be that holy moment. The holy time, the holy
presence of God moment when everything changed and everything became okay. And the
presence of God came into the village and no one even knew what was going on except him. On
his knees he’s no doubt before the priest praying and God’s presence is there for sure.
I said to my, I just said God help me do that. Help me change my pain into holiness. Help me
change my rejection into holiness. Help me change my struggles, my discouragement into holy
moments. Help me to turn to you. Help me to call for the ephod in my life. And David did it.
The rest is the result. David is okay now. He’s worshipping God. His heart’s set in place. It’s
okay. He’s calm. I don’t think he’s crying anymore. He’s trusting God 100%. He’s in tune with
God. He’s communing with him. Notice there’s no talk. There’s no talk of guilt or mistakes or
condemnation. He doesn’t – David doesn’t talk about his mistakes.

What are you doing in the Philistines, David? You did this, David. You caused this. All these
problems. It’s because of you. But there’s no talk of that. God says nothing about it to him.
Doesn’t bring it up. If it was me, I would have been at least a little bit sarcastic. Oh, now you’re
calling me. Now you want to know what I want, I want to do. I mean, I wouldn’t have been able
to stop myself. You know, like amen. Praise the Lord.

I mean, like, there’s none of it. There’s instantaneously communion, holiness, the presence of
God. None of it matters. You just wasted a year and a half of your life and your life is a disaster
and you worship me and you turn to me and I’m here and the most amazing thing happens.
God answers.

Of course, he answers immediately. Right away. As if nothing has happened. Yep. I’m here. Go.
Go get them. It’s a beautiful story, isn’t it. It’s an incredible story actually. It’s shocking. And can
I be honest with you? We don’t really live like this. We don’t really seek holiness when we are in
trouble or when there’s hard times or when we’re discouraged. We’re not so good at it.
I’m speaking to myself. I’m not so good at recognizing the presence of God in my life. It’s all
great when things are going good. I’m so good at holiness when everything is going great. I’m at
church. It’s great. It’s, you know, but how about when it’s bad? How about when it’s not going
your way? How about when you’re messed up? Can I call on the ephod? Do I have that right?
Can I do it? Yes, we can.

By God’s grace, we have that right just like David did. And we will have what David has, victory.
And we will get everything back. And we will get the wisdom from the whole thing. And David is
forever changed. And the moment is forever for him and for us and in heaven holy. Amen.
(Prayer)

 

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