Dakota Community Church
February 24, 2008
Desperate Days
We all have days when we can’t seem to get anything done. We run into the grocery store to grab a few quick items, and every open till is lined up four people deep, or head out to that appointment with just enough time to make it on time, only to sit in a line-up three miles long because of a broken down Mercedes. It’s frustrating! We feel powerless, and nobody likes to feel helplessly trapped.
What about when we are feeling powerless and helplessly trapped by more than a mere traffic jam or some poor incompetent trainee check-out girl?
What about when we are feeling helplessly trapped by life itself.
Have you ever reached a place like this in your life? Maybe some of you are in one now.
You have a game plan, you’ve set great goals, you feel like you heard from God on how and where your life is going to go and suddenly; “bang” you run head on into a dead end.
Everything comes crashing down around you and it feels like God is playing a cruel joke on you.
Have you ever found yourself having one of those days; and they just keep coming one after another like a bad dream that you can’t wake up from?
That is the topic of this morning’s message – Desperate Days!
I don’t know if this will help you to know or not, but, you are not the first child of God to experience this phenomenon!
David had been anointed King of Israel by Samuel a number of years earlier, he had proven himself on the battle field slaying Goliath and he faithfully served his father-in-law King Saul until the time would arrive for his ascension to the throne. But things were not going as planned!
1 Samuel 21:1-9
David went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he met him, and asked, "Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?"
David answered Ahimelech the priest, "The king charged me with a certain matter and said to me, ’No one is to know anything about your mission and your instructions.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find."
But the priest answered David, "I don’t have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here—provided the men have kept themselves from women."
David replied, "Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men’s things are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!" So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the LORD and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.
Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the LORD; he was Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s head shepherd.
David asked Ahimelech, "Don’t you have a spear or a sword here? I haven’t brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king’s business was urgent."
The priest replied, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one."
David said, "There is none like it; give it to me."
So what about these desperate days? How do we get into these places in life?
Sometimes we get into a desperate days state because of a stubborn heart, or an immovable mindset.
Mark 3:4-6
Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent.
He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
Jonah 4:1-4
But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."
But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?"
Sometimes we get into these things by not listening.
Luke 3:2
During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.
Caiaphas was the high priest, but the word of the Lord came to John.
What happens at times like this and is there any hope for coming out of it?
There is hope for the child of God at all times!
Here is what happens and where it needs to go.
1. We are in crisis.
The first impulse when we hit a crisis and our view of who we are and how we fit into Gods plan is called into question is to push those thoughts down and to keep plugging away. The result of that is usually that things will go from bad to worse.
Crisis hits when God is not supporting our plans!
God is not supporting our view but we refuse see it. Soon though it becomes too much to ignore.
That’s when old issues start to bubble to the surface. Insecurities, doubts about ourselves and our calling.
1 Samuel 17:28
When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle."
Psalm 13:1-3
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death
Eventually we hit the wall, rock bottom as it were, which is a different place for different people but is essentially that place where we are willing to re-examine all of our positions. That place where we reach the end of our rope and say, “Okay Lord, I can’t do it anymore, help or I die.”
2. We experience bitter realization.
This is a crucial point in our desperate days.
The wheels have come off and we know it, it isn’t going to go the way we wanted it to. Now will we quit, or will we go deeper? Will we use this as an excuse or as a catalyst?
The entire time Jesus was ministering on earth He kept telling his followers that His Kingdom was not of this world, that He was going to die and go and prepare a place for them, but, they did not hear it. That was not the Messiah they had been waiting for. All along the disciples were waiting for Him to overthrow the Roman government and re-establish the throne of David.
When things went the way God had planned the followers were in crisis. They were forced to re-examine all of their beliefs and there was much bitter realization going on.
Luke 24:19-21
"What things?" he asked.
"About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.
We want things to go the way our culture has programmed us to believe is best, but God is not bound by our cultural expectations and He rarely includes those considerations in His vastly superior plan!
That my friend is a bitter realization for most of us!
The good news is that the story doesn’t end here.
3. We find new revelation.
Luke 24:25-32
He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them.
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"
The end of desperate days means; a new revelation of God, a new revelation of self, and finally a new course of action!
David does become King, Jonah does fulfill his calling, Jesus does establish the Kingdom, and you will make it too, just don’t give up!
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
