1 Samuel 27:10 KJV And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road to day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites.
I. INTRODUCTION -- THE SMALL THINGS OF LIFE
-It has been said that the greatest things of life are accomplished by the smallest but daily feats of bravery, honor, and commitment that go on day-in and day-out in our lives.
An enemy I had, whose face I stoutly strove to know,
For hard he dogged my steps unseen, wherever I did go.
My plans he balked, my aims he foiled, he blocked my onward way.
When for some lofty goal I toiled, he grimly said to me, “Nay.”
One night I seized him and held him fast, from him the veil did draw,
I looked upon his face at last and lo. . . . myself I saw.
-When we are foolish, we want to conquer the world. When we become wise, we want to conquer ourselves.
-When one has the desire to do the small details of his life, the great events will take care of themselves. Because of what you did when no one was watching, supervising, or demanding that you complete the job, great rewards will come.
Louis L’Amour was asked one time about his writing style. He told them that he would start writing no matter what. The water will not flow until the faucet is turned on. With that thought in mind, nearly 230 million of his books are in print worldwide and every one of his more than 100 books are still in print.
-It really is a matter of doing the small things in life to help us to master the large things. Have you made a road today?
II. THE SURROUNDINGS OF THE TEXT
-1 Samuel 27 opens up with a very dark cry of despair. David is on the low limb of life.
1 Samuel 27:1 KJV And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand.
A. Dangerous and Despairing Times For David
-He is fleeing for his life. Saul has chased him from one end of the country-side to the other. Cush, Doeg, and Abner have filled the ears of Saul with so many lies about David that Saul’s hate and hunger for revenge is stirred to a boiling point. Saul’s consuming jealousy of David after his giant-killing victory has simmered for years.
-David has run from one cave hideout to another cave hideout. It would not have been so complicated if David would have been alone in it all, but he has the welfare of 600 men and their families to worry with also. So now David has to leave his own home land and retreat to the land of some of Israel’s fiercest enemies.
-There will be times in life when our faith will be so weary from the battle and wounded from the fray that we cannot see things from God’s point of view. This is where David is at and yet the days are about to get even darker when Ziklag will be taken from him.
Charles Spurgeon -- You must consider the David had been exposed to a very long trial; not for one week, but for month after month, he had been hunted like a partridge on the mountains. . . . The martyrdom of an hour is sudden glory, but the martyrdom of a life—there needs something more than human to endure this. . . . . (From the sermon: The Danger of Doubting)
-If we aren’t careful there are times in our lives when we can utter those ill-gotten words, “I shall now perish. . .” We instead say things like. . .
• I shall now give up.
• I shall now let down my guard.
• I shall now give up on God’s purpose for my life.
• I shall now leave the church and play in the world.
• I shall now take this failure as the will of God for my life.
• I shall now let this burden finally do me in.
B. A Principle From A Dark King
-We can say things like that when we are looking at the circumstances of life and agreeing with the vagrant voices of defeat in our world. Yet while David was in the land of the Lord’s enemies, a voice of a king, would strike him with a principle of life that one might even trace as working throughout his whole life.
-After living there for 16 months (1 Sam. 27:7), the principle came in the form of a question.
1 Samuel 27:10 KJV And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road to day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites.
-The dark king was saying to him basically “where have you made progress in today’s battles?” There is a road to make every single day against the opponents of life.
-One commentary (Keil and Delitzsch) gives the indication that the phrase could also be translated as “Have you made any inroads today?” Progress against the things that will try to hinder your progress with God and in life will only be conquered because they are fought out daily not weekly or when you feel like it. There must be purposeful plan to resort to for it to happen in your soul.
-If you carefully notice the response of David, you will understand that he had begun to taste of the success that this principle was bringing to his life. He told Achish that on this day he had found a focus in the south. He was fighting south of Judah and south of the Jerahmeelites and Kenites.
-Now that we have gotten the setting for the Scriptures that we read, let’s leap off (and violate the laws of homiletics and hermeneutics) and take off down four roads that we ought to follow this year.
III. FOUR NECESSARY ROADS TO MAKE
-Again, I ask the question, “Have you made a road today?”
A. A Road of Vision -- The Road to Damascus
-The first road has to be made before a man can ever get started in the direction of where God wants him to go. It is found in Acts 9.
Acts 9:1-8 KJV And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, [2] And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. [3] And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: [4] And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? [5] And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. [6] And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. [7] And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. [8] And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
-It is the road of vision. It is the point of conversion. It is a point of beginning of transformation. This blinding light would change the path of Saul of Tarsus forever. It changed his direction and his ambitions.
-Something so very powerful about that light caused him to rise up to the point of spiritual awakening and spiritual discovery within him. It was not just a Sunday thing for Saul. It became something that so marked him that his whole life’s course would be altered forever.
1. Illustrating the power of vision
In the mid-1980’s bank deregulation begin to factor into the financial success of the banking industry around the nation. Carl Reichardt was the CEO at Wells Fargo and determined that the company would emerge from the stress in a stronger position than in a weaker one. He saw that one of the keys to become greater meant taking the bull by the horns. He was convinced that brilliant new strategies of business techniques were not needed. The answer lay in the ability to trim out the wasteful things in the banking company.
Reichardt set a clear tone at the top when he decided that the executives were not going to allow the employees of Wells Fargo to suffer while the executives continued in their lavish sprees. He froze executive salaries for two years despite the fact that the company had been enjoying some of the most profitable years in its history. He closed up the executive dining room and replaced it with a college dorm food-service caterer. He closed the executive elevator, sold the corporate jets, and banned green plants from the executive suite as too expensive to water. He removed the free coffee and eliminated the free Christmas trees for management. He threw reports back at people who would submit them in fancy binders, with the admonishment: “Would you spend your own money this way? What does a binder add to anything?” Reichardt would sit in meetings with fellow executives in a beat-up old chair that had the stuffing hanging out of it. Sometimes he would just sit there and pick at the stuffing while listening to proposals to spend money and a lot of “must-do” projects would go lacking.
Across the street at Bank of America a different scenario was taking place. The Bank of America executives also say the need for cutting back but they did not have the discipline to do it. They preserved their fancy kingdom in its imposing downtown San-Francisco location. Huge conference rooms graced with oriental rugs continued to demand money for maintenance. The elevator for the executives fan from the first floor to the top floor without interruption and no one who was deemed as a lesser human being was allowed entrance into their lavish kingdom. But the real story came when it was discovered that in a 3-year time period they had lost $1.8 billion. Yet even in the darkest days they could not bring themselves to discipline themselves into getting rid of all the perks they felt they were entitled to. In a business meeting where the facts were being laid out, one member suggested they sell the corporate jet but he was ignored.
-Vision does not depend on the surrounding circumstances of life. It looks beyond today and can see into tomorrow. The man who is consumed with today will have his tomorrow to be drained of all hope.
• This is why you need to make good grades now.
• This is why you need to learn to read now.
• This is why you need to learn how to save money now.
• This is why you need to thinking about where you are going to be in 5 years.
• This is why you need to quit waiting for all the breaks (they aren’t coming).
• This is why you need to make a difference in your world now.
-God needs men who have vision in difficult times. It is kind of interesting that when you look in the Scriptures, God rarely resorted to a committee, a legislative body, or even an organization when He determined to move. He found him a man. . .
• Noah -- Build this ark!
• Abraham -- Leave your homeland!
• Joseph -- Dream this dream!
• Moses -- Lead these people out!
• Joshua -- Cross the Jordan and take the Promised Land!
• Samuel -- Anoint this kid named David!
• Nehemiah -- Build this wall!
• Philip -- Go to the desert!
• Peter -- Find Cornelius!
-Get on a road of vision. It could be the very one that doubles Power Supply. It could be the one that brings revival to your high-school or middle-school. It could be the one that presses you into God’s great plan.
-What kind of road have you made today?
B. The Road of Commitment -- The Road to Jerusalem
• The first road is one of vision, going to Damascus.
• The second road is one of commitment, going to Jerusalem.
-The second road is one that pulls us in a little higher direction toward God and toward really shaping those around us. It is the road of commitment.
Mark 10:32-34 KJV And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, [33] Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles: [34] And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.
-I need to tell you that this road is one that will lead you to a death that others might shrink back from. Just as the Lord pressed the way toward Jerusalem and toward a very certain cross, the same will be required of you.
-Can I tell you some things about commitment?
• Commitment will separate you from the ordinary.
• Commitment will cause you to be misunderstood.
• Commitment will determine your closest friends.
• Commitment will also give some a reason to oppose and dislike you.
• Commitment will leave no room for reservations with the world.
• Commitment will remove any secondary interests that try to invade your life.
• Commitment will never allow a divided allegiance to a lesser ideal.
• Commitment will stifle the pain of the goodbyes you say to the less committed.
• Commitment will cause others to laugh at you.
• Commitment will cause others to scoff at your lofty goals.
-In building the road every day, you must learn how to ignore the dream-killers and those who want you to fail!
-But there some other things I know about commitment that I can share with you also:
• Commitment will place you in an exalted place with God.
• Commitment will never experience the reservations of weakness.
• Commitment will cause your gift to make room in front of great men.
• Commitment will open doors that will amaze and shock you.
• Commitment will form a state of excellence in your life.
• Commitment will set you apart from the common company of the average.
• Commitment will become the heartbeat that you listen for most.
• Commitment will create great discipline not just in your life but in your soul.
-Certainly commitment will drive you onward and unceasingly toward a cross but the fact remains that without the cross, there is no resurrection.
1. Illustrating this kind of commitment
There is something that Jim Collins defined in the book Good to Great when he started describing the training regimen of Dave Scott. Scott is a world-class athlete who won the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon six times (which is the mother of all triathlons). When he was training for the race, he would ride his bike 75 miles, swim 20,000 meters, and run 17 miles—on average, every single day! Although he did not have a problem with his weight, he believed that a low-fat, high-carb diet would give him an extra edge.
So, Dave Scott—a man who burned at least 5,000 calories a day in training—would literally rinse his cottage cheese to get the extra fat off. There is not a single thread of evidence that he needed to rinse his cottage cheese to win the Ironman; that’s not the point of the story. The point is that rinsing his cottage cheese was simply one more small step added to all the other small steps to create a consistent program of superdiscipline.
-Commitment is closely tied to discipline and it will set you apart in a very powerful way.
-What kind of road have you made today?
C. The Road of Service -- The Road to Jericho
• The first road is one of vision, going to Damascus.
• The second road is one of commitment, going to Jerusalem.
• The third road is one of service, going to Jericho.
-One of the more renowned parables that Jesus would tell went something like this:
Luke 10:30-35 KJV And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. [31] And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. [32] And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. [33] But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, [34] And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. [35] And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
-Consider this Samaritan on his way to conduct some important business of life and he finds himself being interrupted from doing something important to taking care of an emergency. He was going to lose time taking care of this wounded man but he determined that his own progress was not as important as this injured man’s health.
-Our world is a busy place and the more techno gadgets that are shoved in our direction seem to only compound our busyness with more efforts at the extra-curricular. Busyness often robs us of the real things that could reward us the most.
-Obviously the previous two, a priest and a Levite, thought of helping the man. They probably thought about getting a committee together to fix the problem. They probably lay the burden of guilt at the feet of a society that no longer cared. They probably thought of numerous people who could have taken care of the task but this is the problem sometimes with our thoughts of service. . . they never get accomplished. Action will always be far superior to thought!
1. Illustrating the path of service
The story is told in the late 1800’s about a distinguished member of the British Parliament who traveled to Scotland to give a speech. On his journey the carriage became stuck in the mud on a small country road. A young Scottish boy who lived on the adjoining farm showed up with a team of draft horses and in short order had the distinguished gentlemen on his way.
The man insisted on paying the young boy but he strongly objected to this and would not take the money. He told the man that he was simply trying to be a good neighbor and neighbors help each other when things are difficult.
The Englishman was quite taken in by the young man and his attitude. “Are you sure that I can’t pay you for your time and effort?” The young man replied, “Thank you sir but it was the least that I could do. It was a privilege for me to be able to help such an important man as yourself!” The Englishman continued to be impressed by the service and spirit of this young man and asked him, “Son, what do you want to be when you grow up?” “I would like to be a doctor but I doubt it will happen since my family does not have the money for that kind of education.”
The English politician then told the young man, “Then I will help you to become a physician.” As the years flew by, the politician kept his promise and paid for the young man to attend medical school.
Nearly fifty years passed and another famous English statesman lay dangerously close to death due to pneumonia. Winston Churchill had become ill while he attended a wartime conference and England desperately needed his leadership as Hitler threatened to destroy the nation.
Churchill miraculously recovered because his physician gave him an injection of a new wonder drug called penicillin. Penicillin had recently been discovered by the brilliant medical doctor, Alexander Fleming. It just so happens that Fleming was the young boy who had pulled the stalled carriage from the mud. And the man who promised to return the favor by sending him to medical school was Winston Churchill’s father, Sir Randolph Churchill.
The life of Alexander Fleming was totally changed one day when he decided to get on the road of service. (Adapted from Finishing Strong by Steve Farrar.)
• Service involves action and time.
• Service requires courtesy.
• Service calls on manners.
• Service looks for etiquette.
• Service paves the way for leaders.
• Service has a way of crowning those who get involved.
-What kind of road have you made today?
D. The Road of Fellowship
• The first road is one of vision, going to Damascus.
• The second road is one of commitment, going to Jerusalem.
• The third road is one of service, going to Jericho.
• The fourth road is one of fellowship, going to Emmaeus.
Luke 24:13-15 KJV And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. [14] And they talked together of all these things which had happened. [15] And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
Luke 24:27-33 KJV And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. [28] And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. [29] But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. [30] And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. [31] And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. [32] And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? [33] And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,
-We must fellowship this Christ of Nazareth. When you travel in fellowship with the Lord there is much that can happen in your life. Your soul will literally burn with a hunger for more of the Spirit and for understanding.
-Over the years, there are some things that we have stressed here at this church. Although we may not have done the best job in the world at it or even other things, we have stressed the importance of the altar and of prayer. I wish I could tell you that all of the altar services had been great and all the prayer meetings had been great but that would not be the truth.
-What I can tell you is that practically every week for all these years, there has been an emphasis given to those things and we have greatly benefited from it. Those are two roads that we have tried to build. . .
IV. HAVE YOU MADE A ROAD TODAY?
-It is the daily small things that will pay off in your walk with God and in life.
Philip Harrelson
August 10, 2008
