Growing Strong In God’s Arms
1 Samuel 24:1-22 Psalm 18:29-32 1 Peter 4:12-17
Men, what comes to mind when you think of a strong man? Do you see someone with muscles bulging out? Do you see someone with a lot of money? Do you see someone with the power to attract women? Jesus was no doubt the strongest man to walk the face of the earth. He could move mountains, stop raging seas and knock demons on every occasion, but he had no bulging muscles.
He could very influence the wealthy to spend their money and even leave it behind, but he died with no money in his pockets. He attracted women wherever he went, and he left them just as pure as when he found them but the Bible says there was nothing attractive about Him that we would desire Him.
You have chosen a very challenging theme, because it asserts several things that a man ought to be doing if he is to become the man God calls him to be. First we find the man growing. No man should be the same man he is to day, that he was five years ago. He should be becoming a better husband, a more loving father, a more effective servant of Christ. He needs to be growing.
The second part is a man growing strong. You see it is possible for us to be growing in the wrong direction. We can grow weaker if we do not intentionally make the choice to grow stronger. All athlete has to do to grow weaker, is to do nothing to improve. Ask your neighbor, what are you doing to improve?
The third part is to man growing stronger in God. You see all the other activities that we are a part of will one day come to an end. You can invest in your business, your job or your career, but it will end. You can invest in your family, your children, and your wife, an that’s excellent and noteworthy but they too will end. The only thing and the only relationship will that will not end is with God. So we ought to be growing stronger in God.
The fourth part is in arms. Arms are there for support. Arms are there for encouragement. Arms there for love to share joy and excitement. We as men are all going to need some support. We all are going to need some encouragement. We all are going to need some love.
The greatest place to find these things are going to be in the arms of God. Every wise man realizes that he has been called to dedicate his life to growing strong in God’s arms.
Life is a challenge. It is not easy living life as the men God calls us to be. Sometimes its due to our own desires, which are selfish in and of themselves. But sometimes its because God is at work in us to make us strong by forcing us to rely upon strength which is only found in God’s arms. You see we cannot always get ourselves out of every jam we find ourselves involved in.
There are going to be times in our lives, when God is going to want to do something great in and through us. Even though we may know its going to happen, we have to be careful not to force some things to happen to soon. Sometimes we have to wait for God’s timing to make it happen.
I was given Psalm 18 as the place from which your theme has its roots. That Psalm is written by David. Do you remember who he was? David was the youngest of eight sons of a man named Jesse. His father did not think much of him, and had pretty much written him off. But God saw something special in the heart of David. God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint David to one day be the future king of the nation of Israel.
The only problem was there was already a king over the nation of Israel. But God started preparing David to become a great leader who would trust himself to God’s loving arms and care. In the beginning the lessons were great. David killed the giant Goliath and everyone rejoiced.
He was made the general of King Saul’s army, and God led him from one victory to another. You talk about timing. David was in the right place at the right time, and the enemy was defeated time and time again. The way God was preparing him for his future job was amazing. People would look at him and say, now there’s a young that is growing strong in God’s arms.
But then David had to learn not only how to handle success as God prepared him to become king, he also had to learn how to handle defeat as God continued to prepare him for being king. Do you realize , where ever God is leading in your life, you have to know how to handle success and disappointments?
Nobody wins all of the time in life. You know as I said earlier, arms are there for us to share our excitement as when you run to somebody’s arms with good news to share. But they are also there for comfort, when you’ve heard some bad news. Growing strong in God’s arms is going to involve coming to God with some blows that have hit you pretty hard.
David’s quick rise to the top, made King Saul a little nervous. But when the King heard the women singing, “Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands.” The king became very upset and jealous. He made up his mind that he would have to get rid of David. At first he tried killing him by sending him into battles he did not think David could possibly win. Then he tried killing him, through throwing a spear at him. Then he tried by sending others after him to hunt him down. Finally he tried to kill him by going after him with 3,000 men.
When David heard the good news of one day becoming king, he did not know that part of the lesson would include personal and live training sessions on how to avoid assassination attempts on your life. Many of the lessons we learn in preparing to become the person God wants us to be come in real life situations.
We do not become stronger in the faith, simply by reading a book on “10 ways to become stronger in the faith.” No God would rather provide us with 10 situations in which we will emerge as stronger believers if we remain true to His word. You don’t pray to be a better husband or father. You ask for opportunities to make it happen. And then make the choice, in this situation, I will grow stronger in God.
King Saul put a reward on David’s life and he was determined to hunt David down and kill him. The Ziphites told Saul where David was hiding. Saul came with his troops to kill him. David’s men were hiding in a cave. Unknown to Saul, he went in the cave to get some sleep. David could have killed Saul right then and there and become king, but he didn’t. His men did not understand why David would not use his power to take over.
But in Psalm 18:32 we find David writing, “It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.” Men we will all face situations in which we can obtain what we want, by going after it in our own strength and casting God to the wayside, but remember God is watching. David fully expected God to look at what He done and to reward him accordingly.
He let the King live and told the king after he left the cave, “look just as easily as I cut this piece off of your robe, I could have cut off your head.” Why are you chasing after me. I’m not your enemy.” King Saul was so glad to be alive, he told David, “David you’re a much better man than I am. I know one day you’re going to be king. May the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me. “Saul gave the order for his 3000 men to leave and head for home.
David, the one day king, is still living out in the hills and the desert with anything but an attractive life. He’s living in caves and tents. He cannot build a permanent house because he never knows when Saul might come after him again. He has to do something to come up with a way to pay the men who hang around him as his little army.
Then Samuel, the man who anointed him and told him he would be the next king dies. David is about as far from living in a palace as you can get. As far as David was concerned, “trying to grow strong in God’s arms” was not working out in his best interest.” David was at the place Jesus found himself, when he prayed, not my will, but your will be done.” Some of us will pray that prayer this year.
David’s thinking, “Surely God could come up with a better plan than this for my life.” One of the reasons God has David out there in the wilderness is to learn how to survive when a more powerful enemy is pursuing you to take your life. God has not forgotten David in the dessert. God is preparing David for what is to come.
In about twenty five years after David has become king, somebody is going to be chasing him to kill him in the desert, and what David is learning now is going to help him to survive then. Don’t you waste going through hard times just suffering and complaining. Know that God is equipping you for something that you do not know about.
David decided to forget about Saul and go on with his life. He found this beautiful woman by the name of Abigail and took her as his wife. No sooner than the two of them got together and before they could celebrate with a honeymoon, the Ziphites again went and he told Saul. King Saul, if you still want to get David, we know where he is. So in chapter 24 Saul was all forgiving. But by chapter 26 things had changed.
King Saul’s hatred had the time to be stirred up again, so once again with his special private army of 3,000 choice soldiers he went after David. At first David could not believe that the king was coming after him again. “God we already been through this, what is the problem. Didn’t you see what I did the last time he came after me. God you have got to cut me some slack somewhere.” So David sent some spies to make sure Saul was definitely coming after him.
When they got back, they said, “Oh yes brother, he is definitely coming after you.” David said, “Man I have to go see this thing for myself. There has to be a mistake.” Sometimes there is a mistake, but the mistake is on us. David felt, he had already demonstrated his willingness to not take matters in his own hand to become king. But do you know your victory over an area last week or last month does not mean you are going to easily conquer than area the next time it comes up. Growing strong in God’s arms is not a one shot deal. It is an ongoing process.
Most of us know what its like to have been tempted and came so close to falling, but we said no to it. We thanked God for saving us from it and promised not to get in that situation again. But then Satan came back in a slightly different way at a time when we were not quite as strong, and this time we took his bait and failed God and ourselves, simply because we thought since I won over it before, I’ll win over it again.
Anytime we’re happy just growing in our own strength, we’re setting ourselves for failure. David said in Psalm18, vs 29, “With your help , I can advance against a troop, I can leap over a wall.” If you’re going to charge into a situation, make sure, you’re doing it in God’s strength.
What keeps us from sinning is not our trust in our ability to handle it, but rather the grace of God which always manages a door of escape for us if we would have taken it sooner. Charge the door of escape.
When David saw King Saul’s army that night surrounding the king, I don’t know what he was thinking. I don’t know if he was so tired of being chased that he was going to go in and surrender to the king. I don’t know if he was thinking, this is it we’re going to fight and settle this thing once and for all. I don’t know if he knew what he was going to do. But he asked Ahimelech and Abishai, “who will go down into the camp with me to Saul.”
Abishai, quickly said, “ I’ll go with you.” I think if I had been there I would have been with Ahimelech and agreed to pray for them while they were gone. Two men against 3,000 trained warriors. What could they possibly hope to accomplish? Well they headed into the camp. They had to get all the way to the center of the camp to reach Saul, because the army was surrounding him. To their amazement, most of the soldiers are asleep along the path they have chosen to take. They finally get all the way to the center of the camp.
There is King Saul, lying their snoring up a storm. David looks at him. Here is the person whose dedicated his life to trying to kill David. Here’s the man that has him living out in the desert instead of enjoying life. With this man off the scene he could become the next King of Israel. He could move into the palace.
He could give his wife the kind of life he felt she deserved to have. He could become what God had told him he would become. He could have so many of the things his heart longed to have. Just one stroke of the spear. As he faces this temptation, a voice whispers to him from the lips of Abishai.
“ Can’t you see that today, God has delivered your enemy into your hands. The time is ripe. You don’t have to do anything. Just let me pin him to the ground with my spear. I will not have to strike him twice and there won’t be a sound from him.” Abishai was ready to get rid of King Saul with a moment’s notice, and notice too that He said God was on his side. God has opened this door of opportunity for you.”
Saints, there are plenty of opportunities which are going to come your way, but it’s not God’s will for you to take them. Some come as a test, others as a temptation. You may think, I can’t pass up this opportunity. Let me ask you this, if you take the opportunity will you be growing stronger in God’s arms? Will you be sacrificing your family because of no time or energy to give them?
Will you be selling a little piece of your soul because of some compromise you have to make. If something is of God, God does not require you to sacrifice part of your relationship to Him to get it. Part of our problem is we think of what is convenient rather than what is best. Men, we will too often pledge our allegiance to Christ, but the first chance we get to obtain something we want, we will sacrifice in the name of “I might not get this opportunity again.”
So often when we have a goal, we want to reach it as soon as possible. We often think that pain means we need to change our goal but sometimes a willingness to accept pain demonstrates our commitment to the goal
We look at our lives and deceive ourselves into thinking, I must have all this and have it now. But that’s not usually God’s way. Do you recall in the Lord’s prayer, Jesus said for us to pray, “Lord give us this day, our daily bread.” We would rather God give us today’s bread, tomorrow’s bread, and all the bread we need for the next 30 years right now.” No God has some bread in his timing for us today and some different bread for us tomorrow. Our problem is that we cannot see where the bread for tomorrow is coming from.
David had to have been tempted to just go and take matters into his own hands. Do it in his own strength. After all, there was this opportunity and it probably would not come again. Saints don’t listen to others tell you what a great opportunity you’re about to miss. I’ve seen many a great opportunity lead people right out of their relationship to God.
The pursuit of material wealth, the pursuit of name recognition, and the desire to be loved all can be deadly opportunities for our spiritual lives. God has a timing for all of these things for our lives. If we are faithful to Him, he says He will give us the desires of hearts.
David chose to believe, that if God had anointed him king, then God was able to make him king without him compromising his faith. So what if he would have to wait a little longer in that miserable desert.
But his integrity in his relationship to God would still be there. How much is your integrity in your relationship to God really worth today? Just a little bit. Just a little bit more. A lot more. A whole lot more. Our integrity to our God is demonstrated in the way we deal with the church, with our family and with world. Are we making the sacrifices God requires of us in each of those areas?
David told Abishai, “Look, don’t put your hand on him because God chose him to be king and God will remove him when the time is right. God forbid that I will lay my hand upon him. Just take his spear and his jug of water and let’s go.” They did and they made it out of the camp.
Now the only reason they made it in the camp and out of the camp is that the Lord had brought about this situation as a test for David. For verse 12 tells us, it was the Lord who had caused all of the soldiers to fall into a deep sleep. The only reason David took the spear and jug of water was to try to convince Saul once again, that even though the opportunity had presented itself, he still would not lay his hand against the King.
This was the last time King Saul pursued David, but it was not because of a change on Saul’s part. David went to the land of the Philistines and Saul was afraid to pursue him in Philistine. Not long afterwards King Saul lost his life in the battle with the Philistines. God being faithful and true to His word, He made David King over Israel without David having to murder anyone to obtain the position.
God has anointed each believer here today to be a child of God.
All of us are facing different circumstances and trials. Your trial is not my trial and mine is not yours, but rest assured and know, that trial is there for the opportunity of allowing you to grow strong in God’s Arms.
As Peter wrote in the New Testament, Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 1 Peter 4:12 [NIV] God knows what you’re going through.
God has already seen you coming out victorious on the other side. This is your opportunity for growing strong in God’s arms.
There is a time for God to provide us with what we need, and what He has promised to give us. Satan always tries to make us have it all right now. He tempted Jesus with the offer of giving him all the wealth and name recognition he could possibly want with no suffering and no pain, if he would just bow down to him one time. Jesus told him,
“My mind is made up to worship God and God alone. Get out of here Satan.” Jesus received all that Satan promised him, but He received it in God’s timing along with the suffering he endured. God’s way is always going to be the best way in the end.
So whatever our problems may be today, let’s make up our minds to let the Lord bring about a solution and do it His way. Let’s be committed to keeping our trust in God to change our situation. Jesus is the way to growing strong for He said, I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.
