When Things Don’t Go Right

[podcast]http://www.revkwon.com/podcast/not_right.mp3[/podcast] A lot of us wish that our lives as Christians were a constant stream of never-ending blessing – like God is some sort of celestial Oprah, giving away all His favorite things. We get the parking spot. We get the tax refund. We get green lights and clear skies. But if that’s our view of God, then how are we supposed to deal with everything that doesn’t turn out just right? Has there ever been a time in your life when things didn’t just turn out right? I want to share with you one of those moments…. David was anointed to be the next King of Israel. He had just killed Goliath. He worked for the current king of Israel. But all signs in his life, David was on track to be the next king and we knew that because the Bible says so. But not only was David working under the current king of Israel, people were starting to sing songs about him. He had an army that would just go out and conquer everything and everyone. He was living the high life. Then Saul got jealous and tried to murder him. Let’s pick up our Bibles and go to 1^st Samuel 21, we’re going to pick up the passage in verse 10. ^{1 Sam 21:10} And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. ¹¹ And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands,     and David his ten thousands’?” ¹² And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. ¹³ So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. ¹⁴ Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? ¹⁵ Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?” There’s a reason I’m going to this passage. I don’t know if you noticed it. But’ it’s okay. If you didn’t notice it, then I’ll tell you why this is so important whether you realize it or not. In chapter 17, David kills Goliath, who is from Gath!!! Then in chapter 21, right before he goes to Gath, David takes Goliath’s sword from the temple. This is important because Israel was at war with Gath. David killed their hero. (It would have been like the Red Skull killing Captain America and then coming to America to hide). Now, David is fleeing his own country to hide in the country of his enemy! The enemy he defeated. I don’t know about you, but this is not the way he should be going. It doesn’t make sense. How can the king elect become an exile? Moreover, if God promised David the kingship of Israel, wouldn’t finding refuge in the land of your enemy be counterintuitive to what God is trying to accomplish? Doesn’t life sometimes seem that way? This story that we just read, it has a Psalm connected to it—Psalm 34. Look at the inscription of the Psalm: Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away. ¹⁹ The righteous person may have many troubles,     but the Lord delivers him from them all; ²⁰ he protects all his bones,     not one of them will be broken. You see what David says about this situation? He didn’t depend on the situation changing. He didn’t expect the king of his enemies to help him. He did what he did, which was act crazy believing that what he did, he did so that God could act in that moment and deliver him. When things don’t go right, rely on God more. The reason the king didn’t execute David right there and then was because back then, as it is now, you don’t execute crazy people… unless you crazy yourself. Back then, most kings were, you had to be in order to be king. You lock them up nowadays, but back then, you threw them outside of the city gates and called it a day, then you would hope the wild animals killed the crazy people. David’s life went from being awesome to being a beggar in the country of his enemy. I want to pick up David’s story a few chapters from here because. ^{1 San 24:1}After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” ² So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats. ³ He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. ⁴ The men said, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. ⁵ Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. ⁶ He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” ⁷ With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way. When things don’t go right, stop listening to the crowd. What if David had listened to the crowd? The band of riffraffs around him? Would he be trusting God to keep His promises? Of course not. Some of us spend so much time listening to the riffraff around us that we forget what’s important when things don’t go right. Then because things are not right, we make more and more mistakes and make the course we’re headed on less and less right. I call it—wrong-er. ⁸ Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. ⁹ He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? ¹⁰ This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’ ¹¹ See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. See that there is nothing in my hand to indicate that I am guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life. ¹² May the Lord judge between you and me. And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. ¹³ As the old saying goes, ‘From evildoers come evil deeds,’ so my hand will not touch you. When things don’t go right, do what’s right. It doesn’t matter that the situation you’re in was caused by some people don’t wrong. I have seen lots of istuations and been in plenty more where my life wasn’t right because other people caused this unrighteousness in my life. However, that doesn’t excuse you or me, God’s people, from doing wrong when our lives our wrong. When things don’t go right, we need to be more right and do right. It’s obvious when we talk about it now. But really, determining what is right when things aren’t right isn’t easy. In your small groups today, I want you to discuss before things don’t go right in your life, how you can do what’s right when things aren’t right. ¹⁴ “Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Who are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea? ¹⁵ May the Lord be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand.” ¹⁶ When David finished saying this, Saul asked, “Is that your voice, David my son?” And he wept aloud.¹⁷ “You are more righteous than I,” he said. “You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly.¹⁸ You have just now told me about the good you did to me; the Lord delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me. ¹⁹ When a man finds his enemy, does he let him get away unharmed? May the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me today. ²⁰ I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands. ²¹ Now swear to me by the Lord that you will not kill off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father’s family.” ²² So David gave his oath to Saul. Then Saul returned home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. You determine your future when you trust God with your life when things don’t go right. I know life is difficult and hardly ever goes right. But now is the time to trust God, when things aren’t right. If things went right we wouldn’t need Jesus to make them right. But we got Jesus because when we trust in God when things aren’t right, there is salvation available despite it. Let’s pray.