What To Do When A Crisis Comes

What To Do When A Crisis Comes

I Samuel 30

How do you tend to respond to a Crisis? tragedy? bad news?

One day not too long ago I was coming out of store and I saw a man getting out of his van who had no legs. He was transitioning to a wheel chair - apparently his legs had been amputated - perhaps while serving in Iraq – and yet he was laughing with his 3 kids who were with him. His attitude was amazing...

What kind of a response do you usually have to a crisis?

The crisis might be:

*the loss of a job *loss of retirement funds *cancer

*a grand-kid gets AIDS *your spouse has been unfaithful

*your girlfriend drops you like a hot rock

*your parents divorce *a good friend turns against you

*a car accident takes a daughter’s life

*someone molests one of your kids

*a terrorist attack kills someone you love

How do we handle the pain-filled-crises of life?

The message of this Book offers great help when life gets tough. In I Samuel 30 we get a snapshot of how David handled one of the toughest times in his life.

If you face no crisis now - PTL!

Then Prep yourself for the future – or Help someone else…

This event took place roughly 1000 years before Jesus was born.

David is not yet King. Though God had promised him through the prophet Samuel that someday he would be King, circumstances were making it look as though that promise might never happen.

• Samuel had died & Saul was King

• Saul was a miserable man because he was out of sync with God controlled by fear & jealousy.

Chapter 17 – David killed Goliath – man was he a Rock Star!

18 – all the accolades made Saul Jealous of David

19 – Saul tries to kill David & the threats go on not for weeks or month but for years…

24 – In one situation, David could have killed Saul while he was sleeping but instead let him live

The following chapters show David on the run – hiding out and in fact some 600 men who were outcasts and outlaws of Saul’s kingdom, had joined him. David organized this group of misfits into a fighting force called “David’s Mighty Men.” It was a rag-tag group but it was all he had...

The stress and pressure of all this was taking its toll. In chapter 27 David finally reached what he thought was the end of his rope. In desperation, he left Israel and defected to the army of his former enemy, the Philistines - unbelievable. He was looking for a place where he could be safe from Saul. Through a strange arrangement with the King of Gath – which is where Goliath came from – David begins to fight alongside the enemies of Israel when they battled other enemies. On one occasion, he was nearly forced to be part of an attack on his own people in a raid on Judah.

That’s when the crisis hit!

David decided to return to Ziklag in Philistia where he had left his family and the families of his men…

That’s where we pick up this story…

Aphek is about 20 miles North of Jerusalem

Ziklag is about 40 miles South of Jerusalem

60 Miles- 3 Day Journey

30:1-3

Now this is a Crisis!

What should we do when a Crisis comes?

We Can Do What Most People Do:

1. React with Despair 30:4

This is probably the most common response to such a crisis that there is. Who hasn’t, at one point or another, “lost it” emotionally in a time of extreme distress?

Some people just freak out. Others are dumbfounded. Some zone-out…they withdraw into their own personal dark cave. They don’t talk – they don’t respond – they are over-whelmed by Despair!

Psalm 88:2-9a

I suppose that our initial response is not the most telling or most important – but it’s how we respond later that is so crucial.

• You see the key is to move beyond Despair

• Beyond the hopeless feelings

• Beyond the “throw-in-the-towel” give-up mentality!

We need to allow the Lord to help us get a grip so we can go on. We know that even Jesus was extremely distressed in Gethsemane- sweating - as it were - great drops of blood! He asked that the Cup of suffering be removed – Crucifixion is one of the most painful ways to die!

Jesus was Distressed!

But He didn’t stay there!

He went on to do God’s Will!

We need to move from Despair to Determination!!

Determination that God’s Will and His Ways will not be defeated just because of some crisis that one of His kids is going through!!