DAVID—A MAN AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART
07—WHEN FEAR GETS A CHOKEHOLD
TEXT: 1 Samuel 20:1-3
1 Samuel 20:1-3 KJV And David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? what is mine iniquity? and what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life? [2] And he said unto him, God forbid; thou shalt not die: behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will shew it me: and why should my father hide this thing from me? it is not so. [3] And David sware moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes; and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.
I. INTRODUCTION—FEAR
A. General
Thomas Hardy—More life may trickle out of men through thought than through a gaping wound.
Frederick the Great—Letter to a General—For the love of God, pull yourself together and do not look at things so darkly: the first step backward makes a poor impression in the army, the second step is dangerous, and the third becomes fatal.
Screwtape to Wormwood—There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human’s mind against the Enemy (God). (From C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters)
B. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
If you have read Daniel Defoe’s book, Robinson Crusoe, you will remember that it is almost a repeat of the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. Rejecting his father’s pleas, he left home in search of wealth and adventure and just as with the prodigal son, Robinson found himself involved in a life of debauchery, recklessness, and sin. It wasn’t too long into his sorry life before he managed to gain employment on a seagoing vessel.
But it just so happened that one day as the ship was sailing the Caribbean that a horrific storm destroyed the ship and they were treading the high seas. He was washed up on a beach of a deserted island, all alone. It was there that his soul began to respond to the Lord. As Providen would have it, a Bible was found among the wreckage that washed up on the shore. Through the reading of the Bible and his prayers, Robinson was converted.
From that conversion, he became a hard-working Christian who was thankful, devout, and although he was totally alone, he was peaceful and prayerful. All the while, his faith grew strong. But one day, he found a footprint in the sand and he suddenly realized he was not alone on the island. Knowing that there were fierce cannibalistic practices of the native tribes, he grew into a fearful man. He looked over his shoulder with every step. He no longer slept peacefully. He altered his habits and patterns. He visualized himself being captured, boiled, and devoured.
In his journal he was keeping, he wrote these words: Thus my fear banished all my religious hope. All that former confidence in God, which was founded upon such a wonderful experience as I had of His goodness, now vanished, as if He that had fed me by miracle before could not preserve, by His power, the provision which He had made for me by His goodness. . .
-That is what fear does to us—it is diametrically opposed to our faith.
C. Biblical
Genesis 3:8-10 KJV And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. [9] And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? [10] And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
-There are multiple other references in the Bible concerning fear. But for the sake of time, we will just take this one and one more from 2nd Timothy.
2 Timothy 1:7 KJV For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
-From the Genesis account we can see that one of the first negative emotions that man ever had to contend with was fear. In fact, perhaps the first one is shame and the second is fear. However both of these are so intertwined and they are terrible weapons the devil uses on us all the time.
-When Adam was in the garden before he felt hate, jealousy, strife, envy, and anger, he felt shame and fear. One of the most negative things that can show up in your life, almost without invitation is fear.
-Fear can get a chokehold on the soul. Faith pleases God and fear pleases Satan. Whether we are willing to admit it or not, far too often, we allow fear to run wide-open through the hallways of our soul.
-One of the greatest things about the Bible is that it gives us examples of men who have walked this same path before us. It shows us their setbacks but it also gives us the remedies they found for personal victory.
II. DAVID’S SITUATION IN 1 SAMUEL 20
-Leading up to this text, we find Saul beginning his soon to be relentless pursuit of David that would last for years. David runs to Naioth and took refuge with the old trusted prophet, Samuel. You will find that three times Saul sent messengers to accost David and all three times, the Spirit of the Lord prevailed against them and they ended up prophesying.
-In fact, you also see a very scary thing take place. Saul in his deadly passion to get to David comes also after the failure of his men. Suddenly, he is placed in the company of some prophets and despite the condition of his heart, he starts prophesying with them. Only there is one major difference, God humiliates Saul by allowing him to strip off his clothes.
-He is literally looked upon mockingly, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” You can have a bad heart and still speak God’s truth but somewhere the bad heart will surrender to the glaring darkness of the flesh.
-The text we read brings us to one of those places in David’s life that will be the norm for him over the next few years of his life. David, the man who was after God’s own heart, is fleeing from his greatest enemy.
A. Pressing Circumstances
-But despite David being anointed by a prophet and on his way to the top position in the kingdom, we are going to see occasions in his life where he is fainting. There will be moments when he yields to some unworthy apprehensions about his life.
-You find that exact place when he utters those words. . . There is but a step between me and death. . .
-We certainly have to acknowledge the shortness of our lives; in fact the Bible notes it to be so.
James 4:14 KJV Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Psalms 39:5 KJV Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
Job 9:25-26 KJV Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good. [26] They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.
Psalms 102:11 KJV My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.
-Despite that, we have to understand that the pressures of David’s circumstances were getting the best of his mind. But the fact remains that God had ordained him for the throne.
-The problem was that David was letting his fear drive him. That fear drove him away from the man of God. He left Naioth, the habitation of the prophet, and ran to Gibeah.
-In fleeing from Saul, he turned his back on Samuel, the prophet. By turning his back on the man of God, the next time he comes in contact with a man of God, Ahimilech, he starts out by lying to him (1 Samuel 21:1-2).
-When a real saint gets out of touch with God, when he moves toward a backslidden state, his conduct presents a strange riddle. His ways become so inconsistent that there aren’t any good explanations for it. . . except for one found in the Word.
Galatians 5:17 KJV For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
-Fear will always make us flee. Fear will make you flee from the house of God and from men of God. Fear will do its best to isolate you from the Kingdom of God.
-Just a few weeks prior to this, David had killed a giant that was much bigger than Saul. While Goliath was bellowing out his challenges, Saul was hiding in the darkness of his tent, matching the darkness in his heart.
-David fled because of a shift in his soul. When he fought Goliath, he had depended on his faith in God. . . I am coming to you in the name of the Lord of hosts!
-But when it came to Saul, he had put his trust in himself. That can never work! When men fall into the trap of trusting in their gifts and talents, faith dies and fear gets a chokehold on the soul.
B. Heavy Trials, Weak Men
-Despite our best intentions, we often give in to fear more than we do to faith.
-Even the best men can fall when heavy trials come into their lives.
• Abraham denies that Sarah is his wife under duress.
• Moses spoke rashly about the children of Israel.
• Job cursed the day he was born.
-Take heart in knowing that our strength cannot be in ourselves but rather in God. If there is a sense of holy, godly, and consistent patterns in your walk with the Lord, it takes place by the grace of God.
-On the other hand, if we are prone to looking at God’s greatest saints and thinking that the soaring heights they rose to can never be gained by any of us, we need to remember that it was the grace of God working in them to do His will.
-No matter how long you have been in the Kingdom of God, there will be heavy trials that will come in your direction. Trials have a way of preparing us for the future.
-This matter of fear was preparation for something that would take place later on in David’s life. When he faced the horrific situation in Ziklag where his family and the families of his men had been taken by the Amalekites, his fear had prepared him.
-With Saul it was another matter because the source of that fear came from an enemy. At Ziklag, it was his own men who turned on him. But his victory over fear in 1 Samuel 20 had prepared him for 1 Samuel 30.
III. FAITH—THE REMEDY OF FEAR
-Because fear is one of the spirits that the devil uses against us, he is wily in the way he uses it. He will catch us when we are physically weary, emotionally drained, and spiritually empty. No matter who you are. . . you will have to deal with the same fear that David had in his life.
-God never intended for fear to dominate us. Fear is a tormentor that is driven by ignorance, guilt, the unknown, and sin. When fear comes into our lives, it has to be confronted by faith.
-How can we bolster our faith?
Romans 10:15 KJV And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Romans 10:17 KJV So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
-That is why there must be a priority placed on solid biblical preaching. We must hear the Word of the Lord.
-Many of the New Testament passages affirm to us who we are in Jesus Christ.
Colossians 3:1-4 KJV If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. [2] Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. [3] For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. [4] When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
-There is a position that God has ordained for saints of God to live in. These are places of victory. Furthermore it has nothing to do with our so-called sense of self-worth.
-The more a man realizes how high his position is in Jesus Christ, and the great potential that the regenerating work of the Spirit has afforded to him to grow into that place, the worse his self-image is going to be. The reason: Because he discovers he is living far beneath the privileges that God has ordained for him!
-Preaching exposes these things to us so that we can began to make adjustments, Spirit-driven and Word-focused adjustments that will help us to overcome the fear.
-Can you see why the devil desires for you to continue to live in your usual state of low-living? The answer: So he can control you with fear!
1 Peter 4:1-2 KJV Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; [2] That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
-When we can gain the proper view of the work of the Holy Ghost in our lives being to part ways with sin, we can understand that we are not slaves to the flesh, to fear, to sin, to failure but we have been converted so we can do the will of God!
IV. CONCLUSION—STAND YOUR GROUND!
-Perhaps the greatest thing that we can do when we have been faced with fear is to stand our ground! Most all have seen the picture of the young man who is standing in front of the line of tanks in Tiananmen Square.
-That group of young men and women all determined that they would not cave in to the fear that came in their direction. They brought some semblance of reform to the harsh Chinese government because they refused to be ruled by fear!
-We must stand our ground!
Philip Harrelson
June 8, 2013
