But when I continued to meditate on this I understood that this is what the Holyspirit wanted us to focus on. NOT ALL IS LOST! Do not rephrase or rearrange the sentence but pause, reflect and let it sink in NOT ALL IS LOST!
Loss is one of the most devastating issues with no rules or plans. It affects us differently, but it pinches, punches, pricks, and hurts. Loss is painful. Loss is sad. There are emotions attached to Loss no matter what. Although no one is immune or exempt from Loss, it is inevitable as long as you are alive and in this journey of faith, you will encounter Loss and deal with it.
At this moment, in the presence of the Lord, I want us to take a moment and acknowledge our losses. You may have lost friendships, business, joy, or even lost a loved one. The list goes on because the Loss is unique to you. For example, some of us during the Covid Pandemic lost Jobs and so much. However, hear the Lord has gathered us in this Conference to tell us and assure us NOT ALL IS LOST!
From our Text 1 Samuel 30:1, David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, 2 and had taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old. They killed none of them but carried them off as they went on their way. 3 When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. 5 David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 6 David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God. 7 Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Bring me the ephod.” Abiathar brought it to him, 8 and David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?” “Pursue them,” he answered. “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.” 9 David and the six hundred men with him came to the Besor Valley, where some stayed behind.
David and His 600 men are going through the pangs and pains of Loss.
They have lost their wives.
They have lost Children.
They have lost Homes.
They have lost their wealth.
They have lost their strength.
They have lost faith in their Leader, David.
REMEMBER, DESPITE ALL THE LOSSES THEY ARE GOING THROUGH, NOT ALL IS LOST!
Many a time, we focus on the losses. So the men looked and did what many of us do when we encounter a loss. They wailed! Grieved the Loss. Then it escalated to the strength is gone, and before long, their trust in David was gone. They were now going into a dark hole of looking for who to blame for the Loss, the pain, the anguish they felt.
I am going to pause there and ask a question? Who do you blame for the losses in your life?
At this Moment, Something unique happened. David decided. NOT ALL IS LOST! I have experienced Loss like them, but I know who I am; they have lost their trust in me, I will not lose that either.
CHECK THIS OUT . on realizing that NOT ALL IS LOST, his recovery process began!
HE RECOVERED HIS STRENGTH.
He got to work with the Lord. Instead of turning to the men and giving them a piece of his mind, He turned to the Lord. He had every right to remind them of where they came from.
1 Samuel 22-1-2 David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. 2All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him.
DAVID TURNED TO GOD. Where have you turned to because of Loss?
NOT ALL IS LOST!
After receiving instructions from the Lord to PURSUE, OVERTAKE and RECOVER, All David and the men set out in obedience to the command. Along the way, 200 men are so weary that they cannot go on. They are left in the valley.
Our father is a GOD of details, and when he says NOT, ALL IS LOST! So you better believe and start answering the question that HE Famously asks WHAT DO YOU HAVE? So he asked Moses, He asked the woman who had a little oil, He is asking you now, I know of the Losses, you will Pursue, Overtake and Recover, but for you to get there I need you to look and tell me What do you have? Because in your Pursuit, I will not use your Loss but what you have. Because NOT ALL IS LOST!
IN this scenario, the Lord used what they had.
Allow me to give you a little background. Among the women kidnapped is Abigael. Her name means the cause of joy. David married her after her previous husband Nabal was Killed by God. But her uniqueness in this sermon is how she turned away the wrath of David in 1 Samuel 25:18Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs b of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs and loaded them on donkeys. 19Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband, Nabal.
Whenever the men would go to war, it was necessary to have provision. And I want to believe since the war they were going to fight did not take place or get extended, they were sent back by king Achish in Chapter 29; the provision of bread, fig cakes water that they had was still intact.
I have brought Abigael in the picture because if she could make it while she negotiated peace with David, she must have made some to send him off to battle now that they are married.
NOT ALL IS LOST!
David and His men had something.
1 Samuel 30: 11 Along the way, they found an Egyptian man in a field and brought him to David. They gave him some bread to eat and water to drink. 12They also gave him part of a fig cake and two clusters of raisins, for he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for three days and nights. Before long, his strength returned.
THEY HAD
BREAD,
WATER
FIG CAKE
CLUSTERS OF RAISINS
The key to pursue, overtake, and recover was connected to what they had. So when they found the Eqyptian, they first gave him the BREAD and WATER. Then they gave him the fig Cake and cluster of raisings, and His strength returned.
NOT ALL IS LOST!
I will ask you, amid pain and all the emotions you are dealing with due to Loss, have you considered what you still have?
Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” Isaiah 38:21
Distributed to all the people, to all the multitude of Israel, both to men and women, a cake of bread, one of dates, and one of raisins to each one. Then all the people left, each to his house. —2 Samuel 6:19 NASB
Moreover, those who were near to them, as far as Issachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali, brought food on donkeys, camels, mules, and on oxen, great quantities of flour cakes, fig cakes and bunches of raisins, wine, oil, oxen, and sheep. There was joy indeed in Israel. —1 Chronicle 12:40 NASB
THEY HAD SOMETHING!
NOT ALL IS LOST!
The Bread - The Word
The Water- The Spirit that Sanctify
The Fig Cake - Symboly of Healing
The cluster of Raisins - Joy Indeed
NOT ALL IS LOST
By sharing what they had, the secret paths and revelation of where the enemy trode was revealed, and they recovered.
NOT ALL IS LOST!
