Are You Living in Ziklag?

And Ziklag is a difficult place. It’s a place of sorrow. It’s a place where the people are at their wits end and they don’t know what to do and they’re turning on each other. And it’s it’s a place that’s forever remembered as as a bitter time. And we’ll look at this tonight. Let’s look in verse one. First Samuel chapter 30 and verse one. The Bible says, and it came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire And had taken the women captives that were therein, they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went on their way.

So David and his men came to the city and behold, it was burned with fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinuim, the Jezreelitis, Abigail, wife of Nabal, the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters.

But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. Let’s pray. Lord, I pray that you’d help me tonight. Lord, you have put this on my heart and it will mean nothing if your Holy Ghost doesn’t do the ministering and the explaining and the comforting and the convicting and Lord guiding us into all truth tonight. And we pray, Lord, that you would do your work. And God, I pray that you bless and help those that are struggling and those that are going through difficulty and those, Lord, that don’t know what to do with all of that. Lord, I pray that you would unite this church. And I don’t know. I could not possibly know the issues, the problems, the struggles, Lord, through years of life and ministry.

And God, pray that you’d help someone tonight. Help us all in some way shape or form, Lord, that we may learn some lessons from what you put down in your word in Jesus name, amen. Again, I mentioned that this place is a place of great distress. A place of great sorrow. I can only imagine as David had taken his people that were with him and if you know the story, Saul had been chasing David and weeks turned into months and years and it was a difficult thing. I don’t know if you’ve ever had something like that. If you’ve ever had someone that’s threatened to kill you.

Our family knows a little bit about that and it’s not a fun place to be. It’s difficult and to deal with those things for days and months and we know the biblical account of what David went through and how close he came to death so many times and how he helped people like the Canaanites and delivered the cities at Keelah. And how that he asked God and God said, they’re gonna deliver you to Saul.

And David got out of the city and it just seemed like he was in one just a hot mess after another. But David makes, I believe, a wrong decision as he goes to Ziklag. Ziklag is in the place of the enemy and he just finally gets tired of running from Saul. And if you follow the story, he goes to Ashish, the king and he’s there and he begins to try to make a way that he can be joined to the Philistines and of course things don’t go so well and David gets a little nervous and the next thing you know, he’s letting spittle come down on his beard and they think he’s a madman and all of that. And David’s going through all of these different things but through all of it, he ends up planting his group of people, his followers, those that are under his leadership in a place called Ziklag.

And now it seems like it’s peace. It seems like they’re out of danger. It seems like okay, this is a good thing. But it’s never a good thing when we make a wrong decision and lead people towards those that are against God rather than going in the right direction. We’re trying to make some application tonight. And that’s what the Old Testament is for. It’s not just a history book. It’s something that we ought to read and say Lord, what does that mean to me?

And Lord, what does Ziklag mean to me? So David’s people are there and all of a sudden the war breaks out and the kings of the Philistines are joined and they’re heading out to go fight against Saul. And by this time, David had proven himself at least to Ashish and they say, okay, you’re gonna fight. Ashish says, you’re gonna fight by my side. Come with me. And David’s got hundreds of men with him and they they follow him to the battle. Of course, when the lords of the Philistines see David, the one that slayed Goliath and and all of that and remembering what happened at Michmash where when Jonathan went up to that place and all of a sudden people switched sides. The Bible says that they started fighting on the side of the the Hebrews, know. And you have those people that one moment they’re this way and the next moment they’re that way and And they said, get this Hebrew out of here. There’s no way he’s going with us to battle.

And I can imagine David’s men were conflicted. Maybe conflicted to go to Ziklag in the first place. I can imagine when David suggested that they were gonna fight their own people, there were some that were conflicted about that. And I’m sure there were some that thought, this is a good thing. We’re gonna go fight against Saul, our enemy. And they were ready to fight against Saul. All that being said, the lords of the Philistines will not allow that to happen.

And they return to this place called Ziklag. And the Bible lays out that as they’re coming around, I would imagine this hilly country, if you’ve ever been over in Israel or The Middle East, it’s a rough place. A place of hills and rocks. And I can imagine that all of a sudden they were seeing the smoke before they could even really see the city. And if you’ve ever been in a situation where you’re driving down the road and all of a sudden you see a blaze of fire or you see black smoke, something that doesn’t belong, you start looking at that and say, what is that? What is going on? And first there’s interest and you’re wondering what’s happening. But as you get closer to your house and you realize, that’s my house, it means a little something different.

And as David and his men are nearing this place called Ziklag, they’re realizing this is their city. And as they enter into the city, and you can imagine that I’m sure whatever camels or horses or if they’re on foot, now they’re they’re going faster and faster to that city. They’re thinking, what do you think of first? My family, my my children, my wife. And they get there and they’re not there.

After all of this exertion, and I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a situation where you’ve had to run or you’ve had to exert yourself to get there where you are totally exhausted. And they get there and it’s as bad as they could imagine. Their their their families are not there. There’s no bodies but they have no idea what’s happened. They don’t know. Many many times kings would take them off to their land and and kill them in front of everyone. Put their eyes out.

And David and and his men are weeping and they have, the Bible says, not even any more power to weep. Ziklag is a place of emotional upheaval. It’s a place where it’s a place of sorrow where I don’t know if you’ve ever got to that place where you cry and you cry and there’s no more tears to cry. And this is what they’re going through. David and his men, they’re suffering.

They weep until they have no more power to weep but they’re cried out and their tears run dry. Job knew a little bit about that. In the scripture, we see others that have gone through difficulty. If you’re going through difficulty, you’re not the only one. There’s many bible characters. There’s many today going through difficulty. There’s many throughout all ages and there’ll be many in the future that go through difficulty because that is what’s part of the sin sick world in which we live in. Sin brings suffering.

And many will go through suffering. All of us in our life will go through some suffering. But ziklag has something to teach us. Ziklag helps us get through this. A lot of times in churches, part of the schism in the body is people that are hurt, people that are wounded, people that haven’t healed properly, people that are maybe stuck in the past or struggling with something. Ziklag has something to teach you.

And if the balm of Gilead, if God’s gonna place the balm of Gilead in your life, you’re gonna have to learn from the lessons of Ziklag. And the question tonight is, are you living in Ziklag? I think as we read the scriptures and we see the stories, maybe the Holy Ghost would work on your heart tonight. Maybe you don’t even know you’re living in Ziklag. My wife and I, I remember, oh, some ten years ago and maybe that’s not the exact timeline. You ladies seem to remember time better than we do in details. But I know we were going through a Ziklag and my wife says, What is the problem? I couldn’t even tell you. I didn’t even know.

And God had to show me some things that okay, there’s some things that need to be changed in your life. And you may go through a ziklag and you don’t even understand that you’re in ziklag. Other times you’re rounding the bend. You’re seeing the flames and the fire and you’re seeing the black smoke and you’re wondering, what is this all about? And the question remains, are you living in Ziklag, a place of emotional upheaval?

Job said, my friends scorn me but mine eyes poureth out tears unto God. It seems like Job, everyone around him, if you know the story of Job, he lost everything he had, his living, his job, his children. I mean and even his friends, they scorned him. They mocked him. They didn’t believe him. He tried to tell him, listen, I haven’t sinned against God as far as I know. But his friends said, listen, you must have done something awful bad because you’re going through a difficult time and God never gets it wrong. And if you’re going through a difficult time, it must be God judging you.

We’ve adopted that in our culture. That if someone’s going through a difficult time, it must be the judgment of God. The Bible says different. Now it’s good to examine your heart and say, Lord is there a wicked way in me? Is there something that you’re trying to get my attention? Lord are you judging my sin? Are you correcting me? It’s okay to ask God that. But the Bible bears out that’s that’s not always the case that someone has sinned against God.

A lot of the suffering, it doesn’t matter if someone’s blind, if someone’s maimed or something. It’s it’s for the glory of God. And the Bible bears it out and I know I’m talking to a people that know what I’m talking about. I’m just reminding you of some things that you know.

It’s important that we have a biblical mentality. A lot of times we start going in a direction and I could take the Bible and show you how God blessed people even when they were not doing the right thing. I could take the Bible. We don’t have time tonight to do it. But I promise you, God is good and even though people sometimes are doing the wrong thing, just simply think of the Hebrews.

How many times God blessed them and they didn’t deserve it. God blesses you and you don’t deserve it. Don’t think that everything’s okay with God just because things are going good. And just because things are going bad, don’t think God is against you. Don’t think, Oh, what did I do? God is against me. In the Bible, there’s a woman called Naomi. Naomi, she made a lot of bad decisions with her husband. And we don’t know if it was her, if it was her husband. We have no idea but they ended up in Moab.

And the Bible bears out that Naomi becomes bitter. She lost her children there. She lost her husband there. Her boys die. And she says, God’s hand is against me. And nothing could be further from the truth. God was watching out for Naomi. Matter of fact, God had blessed Naomi not because she deserved it, not because she didn’t deserve God’s judgment, but because God is good. And listen, God is blessing people all the time. It’s just because God is good and God gives Naomi this great daughter-in-law and God gives her an heir and on and on and on. So listen, if you’re in a ziklag tonight, don’t look at it and say it’s because of my sin.

Listen, I don’t think David made a wise decision going to Ziklag but listen, God is still good. God was still looking out for David. God was getting ready to make David king and God was doing all these things and he does all things well. But David is going through a time of emotional upheaval and he’s suffering and he’s crying out just as Job and others in the Bible.

I’m sure the enemies of David were mocking him. I mean, can you imagine all the people that are looking at David and you know how it goes when when someone’s against you and things are going bad, they go, I told you so. I told you that’s the way it was gonna You know, if he’s finally getting his and they’re wrong about all of that. David really was a man after God’s own heart. Not a perfect man. Didn’t always make the right decisions.

And yet God still loved him. But I believe that they mocked David and I’m sure when they heard that Ziklag were burned with fire and they lost everything, that that came to their ears. You know, some of the greatest men, we were talking about Michigan and places like that, the Upper Peninsula, someone we were talking about that and just the beauty of the the trees and the fall time in Michigan.

But you know, one of the greatest missionaries ever to go out there in the early days to the American Indians was Isaac McCoy. Isaac McCoy was a great Baptist missionary. And he he served in Indiana and Illinois. I mean in these Indian territories when it was so dangerous and he led his family into places, cottages, little cabins in the woods where there was no heat and they suffered greatly. We’re talking eighteen twenties.

I mean a 100 miles from any settlement. I can’t imagine what that kind of missionary work would have been like in those days. But when you wanna talk about suffering and the cost, Isaac McCoy bared the cost. Just having nothing and not much to eat and sleeping in unfinished cabins. Isaac McCoy had a total of 14 children. You think one or two is a lot. 14 children but only four survived to adulthood.

Suffering. That’s a lot of suffering. His 13 year old died of typhus while he was preaching in Kentucky. I mean he’s trying to serve the Lord. He’s trying to minister. He’s traveling. He’s a circuit riding preacher. He’s helping not only the Native Americans. He’s preaching all over and trying to serve God. And what happens? He’s not even by his bedside when his son dies. Suffering, suffering. A ziklag in his life.

And we’ve got people in our church that have had such great suffering, Great suffering. Suffering of cancer, suffering of loss of their children. Boy, difficulty. And yet God is able and God’s in control of all of it. But ziklag is meant to teach us about suffering. But not just teach us about suffering, how to overcome it. How overcome. How to be able to go through difficulty and go through a ziklag and to be an overcomer.

But Ziklag is a place of great trouble. It represents a place of enduring loss and great trouble. Not only was David in deep sorrow, but his men turned on him. They turned on him. They were ready to stone him, the Bible says. I mean these are the men that he had harbored in the cave. These are the men that were the distressed and those that were abandoned.

And he became a captain over them. And he served them and because of David they had something to eat and because of David they were in safeguard. But now they claim we’re gonna kill him. They spake of stoning him. It’s a time of great trouble. It’s a time of great loss. They lost everything. They came to Ziklag. Anything that they held dear, anything that was dear to them, the dearest people in their life, their wives, their children.

Not only there was their earthly possessions just burned to ash but their loved ones were gone. Job lost all of his wealth in one day. I mean I think God put that in the Bible so that we could look at that and say, I’ve never had it like Job had it. And Job didn’t curse God. Job didn’t charge God falsely. So that tells me it can be done. You can go through a Ziklag and be suffering and be weeping and be crying and have no more power to weep.

But you don’t have to curse God and die. You don’t have to judge God falsely. David’s men lost every possession, everything in one day. How did this happen? I mean, how did David find himself weeping in Ziklag? How did he get to such a place as Ziklag? Well, we’ve touched on some things. David fled from the hand of Saul. Well, preacher, I know that. I know that. I know my bible. I know that he he fled from the hand of Saul.

But listen, sometimes what is necessary, though the problem that we have is real, we make some decisions that are unnecessary. Yes, it was true. David was fleeing from Saul. But God had protected him. A lot of times in our life, we come up against difficulty and we have a real problem but we go to excess solving the problem. David makes a decision that takes him outside of the camp.

Takes him outside of Israel. Takes him over to the enemy. Zik likes enemy territory. He ends up in enemy territory. If they stay there, who knows? Their kids will be heathen in a generation. They’re now talking about serving the Philistine. These are the enemy kings and fighting even against the people of God. How do you get there? Well because you have a real problem but you make some decisions that are excessive.

We we tend to be over correctors. Have you ever been in the vehicle with someone when they’re over steering? Does that bother you? It bothers me. Woah, woah, woah. It’ll make you sick. But you know we do that. We bounce from one ditch to the other, from one to the other. We were talking about the history of the Baptist even in the last forty, fifty years. You know, some people say, listen, I’m gonna serve God and charge up my credit cards and leave my debts for the Antichrist, you know, and and they’re in one ditch.

That’s a ditch. We’re still here. That didn’t work out so well. And then they overcorrect and then it’s all about I’m gonna make all this money and I don’t wanna, you know, I I wanna make sure I can take care of everything. And then they they’re not givers. In one ditch over on the other side it’s like well I’m the boss. I’m in charge. And then you got on the other side where people are against authority.

We tend to overcorrect. We tend to There’s a real problem but we make a decision that’s perhaps unnecessary. And David finds himself in Ziklag because of the decisions that he make. He had a real problem but his decisions were a little unnecessary. David went to the enemy. And let me tell you, it made logical sense. A lot of the decisions, the poor decisions we make, where you’re gonna get in trouble, how you’re gonna end up in Ziklag if you’re not there already is because of poor decisions we make.

Real problem. Preacher, I’ve got a real problem. I agree with you. That’s a real problem. But you know we end up in ziklag because of poor decisions and logical decisions. I’ve got a financial problem. I’ve gotta take this job. I’ve gotta go over here. I’ve gotta leave the church. A lot of the decisions we make to the world, it seems logical. But be careful lest you end up in Ziklag.

Some are in Ziklag. Some have been there. Some are trying to overcome it. Some are fixing to head to Ziklag if they overcorrect, if they don’t get from God the answers to their questions. David went so far to march to the enemy drum. I mean, can you see them heading out to battle in rank? And here the lords of the Philistines are going out. The same ones that Samson fought against.

The same ones that David fought against. And now he’s be He’s following to the enemy drumbeat. And that can happen in the house of God where at once we fought against that enemy. But because we found relative safeguard with them, now we’re fighting on this side of the enemy. You say, oh that couldn’t happen in God’s house. It can happen in God’s house. You go through some difficulty, oh it’s hard to be at church. You don’t know what those people are like and all of this. You’ve got a real problem.

But don’t go fight for the enemy. Don’t end up in Ziklag. So David is now marching to the enemy drum and oh, what for the mercy of God. God spares David from fighting against his own people. I mean, what if he met Abner in the field? The one that he fought alongside. What if he had met Saul in the field? You know David had an oath, the armor bearer’s oath.

And David was convicted more than once when he cut the skirt off of Saul and he said, I I cannot touch the Lord’s anointed. He had he had an oath to protect his leader. He was his armor bearer. It was a special thing to you know, a covenant relationship. And now he’s getting ready to fight against the oath. God would not have blessed that. And God in his mercy as he does with us spared him from it.

But what if he had met Jonathan in the field? Do you know Jonathan was on that battlefield? The one that was so close to him. Do you see how David’s getting ready to make a tragic mistake and God spared him from that? Listen, God may be getting ready to just God may be working things in your life a little bit and you may not understand the opposition that you’re going through and God’s sparing you from a ziklag situation.

A situation where you’re getting ready to make the biggest mistake of your life. Course all this is going on and the Amalekites are invading the land and they’re burning ziklag. You say, how did David get to fighting with the enemy or almost fighting with the enemy? Well, he got tired of he got tired of running from Saul. He got tired of fighting. You know, a lot of times in our churches, we get tired of fighting. You know, the pastor gets wore out, he can get tired of fighting too.

Oh well, the pastor’s, you know, he’s rolled up on his convictions. He’s backed up on his convictions. Well, some pastors are tired of fighting. That’s not an excuse. I’m not saying that’s an excuse. I’m just saying in the house of God, sometimes families, mothers, fathers, people of God, we get tired of fighting. It’s not an excuse but I’m just explaining how you get to Ziklag. How do you wake up one morning and you’re just living in enemy territory?

That’s what David was doing. David, I believe, got tired of those pressing prayers. Do you know what I’m talking about? When you’re when you’re in adversity and you have pressing prayers, pressing prayer requests, David is in one hot spot after another, in the wood, in the cave. He’s gotta live every day to survive running from Saul. His food, he needs his food. He needs to take care of his men. He’s worried about his family. His family has come with him.

Every day it’s like, when will Saul find me? I guarantee you there was pressing prayers. But you know that was good for David and it’s good for us. But you know what we want? We want a life of peace. Come on. I want peace. You say pastor, what do you want as a husband? What do you want as a father? What do you want as a pastor? Just peace.

Give me peace. Give me easy good times where I don’t have to have those pressing prayers and stay at the church all night and say, oh God, you’ve got to help me. But you know, that’s good for us. And if God leads us there, let’s not overcorrect and end up in a place where the enemy is. Let’s learn from David at Ziklag.

Lord, will the men of Keelah deliver me? And God says they will. I can only imagine he got tired of all that. So David comes up with an earthly solution. I’m going to the enemy. I’m going to the Philistines. Maybe they’ll give me a better offer. And you know what David says? I just want to be safe. I just want my family not to have to endure this any longer.

Can you see how David ended up at Ziklag? But what happened with David’s family? The city’s burned with fire. It’s not working out according to the way David planned. They’re carried off. Everything that they thought was safe wasn’t safe. You’re only safe in God’s hands, in the will of God. David is now with the enemy and he ends up at Ziklag where it’s burned with fire. What happened to Dave? What happened to the man that this this teenager even that proclaimed God had delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear and God will deliver me from this Philistine. And he overcomes the Philistine.

What happened to that courageous young man? He got wore out. He got tired of fighting. And you know what? He accepted an earthly solution, a logical solution. I’m gonna fix this problem. That’s how you end up at Ziklag. Listen church, be careful. Lest in your lifetime here in the short little bit of life that we get, you end up at Ziklag of your own making. Lord, help me.

Lord, help me not to end up with the Philistines. David is now leading his men against Israel. And you say, well, was against Saul. It was against Israel. He’s going against God’s God’s people and God’s not gonna bless it. But God taught David a powerful lesson there at Ziklag.

And I so love in the scripture where David is praying and God gets David so isolated. I mean, seems like all of the men around him When we read about David who is greatly I mean, the the men are greatly distressed and the and they speak of stoning him. And the Bible says that David encouraged himself in the Lord. David is so isolated. And you can be in a multitude of people. You can be at church.

You can be the pastor. You could be the piano player. You can be in a large congregation and be completely isolated and feel all alone. And David is so isolated. Where is his friends? Where are the mighty men? Where is his family? And they’re talking about killing him. And David is crying out to God. And many years later, David would write and he’d look back on his life and he would say this in second Samuel twenty two seven. In my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried to my God and he did hear my voice out of his temple and my cry did enter into his ears.

Can I just tell you if you’re in Ziklag tonight, God hears you? He knows where you’re at. And even if you’re in enemy territory, he can find you there. Even if you’re in church and you’re a guilty distance away from God, he can find you there. Even if you’re in the cave like Elijah in a place of emotional upheaval, he can find you there. God will meet you where you’re at and he hears your prayers.

And there’s some things that if you’re in Ziklag, I want you to remember tonight because I believe they’re a real help. First thing is that it’s not as bad as it appears. I can only imagine when those men came to that city and they seen everything burnt with fire. I mean, what are you thinking? I mean, what I’d be thinking is my kids are gone. My kids are dead. My wife is dead.

You know, we we tend to assume the worst. And I mean, they had good reason, good historical reason for thinking those things. They had no idea. The Bible says that they’re gonna recover all. I mean, when we read the you say, I know the end of the story. Don’t you know, preacher? They’re gonna go and do this and the men are gonna be wore out and some of them are gonna stay by the stuff and others are gonna go on and they’re gonna pursue and listen, relax. God’s gonna give it all back. They don’t know that.

And when you’re going through your ziklag, you don’t know that. So listen, if you’re in ziklag, can I tell you, it’s not as bad as it first appears? You may be what you think is at the end of your rope. You may be on that last thread and say this is it for me. I don’t think I can handle it in God’s house anymore, in the work of God. I don’t think I can do it. I don’t think I can hang in this family, this marriage. You name it, You wonder why there’s schisms in the body because we’re going through ziklags.

But I want you to remember it’s not as bad as it seems. David’s wife, David’s kids, they’re alive. Can you imagine that word coming to them? Now that word doesn’t come to them that way but if it could, don’t you think that would give them a little more strength? You think it could give you a little more strength tonight? You say, preacher, you don’t know my situation. I don’t have to. It’s never as bad as you think because you have God on your side and God knows what you don’t know.

I’m not saying that he’s gonna raise the dead and he’s gonna solve every health problem. I’m not saying that. I’m just saying it’s not as bad as the devil, the flesh, and our enemies will make it seem. It’s never that bad. It’s never as bad as it first appears. There’s hope. The enemy wants to eradicate hope in us as the people of God. But there’s hope. There’s hope and I love the song. We sing it at our church. My hope is Jesus. Amen. That simple song. It’s a wonderful song and it lifts us because listen, I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t know if I can bear another day and I don’t know Listen, the future will scare you. I don’t know if I can handle it. Listen, God gives grace for today. He gives grace and he gives hope.

David’s family was recoverable. People think, oh, my son who’s a prodigal, my daughter, my situation, my marriage. You know, it’s not recoverable. You just don’t know. If there’s breath, if there’s if there’s life, there’s hope. And I’m telling you, even after we’re dead and gone, our prayers, God grows those seeds from our prayers. And I’ve seen, I’ve lived long enough to see it. People that prayed and said, you need to come to church. And after they’re dead, someone comes to church.

Someone gets saved. A prodigal returns. There’s hope because we have Jesus. So if you’re in Ziklag, remember it’s not as bad as it first appears and there’s hope. And then I wanna encourage you, look in chapter 30 in verse eight. The Bible says, and David inquired at the Lord saying, shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? David now is inquiring to the God of heaven. He’s making his request known.

Something that he did so often but there are times where David failed to do that and he made grave mistakes. But now he’s inquiring at at the Lord and he’s saying, shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, pursue for thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail recover all. What a word to get from God. I mean, what a word to encourage him on. And even when those that didn’t get that word, his men, that can’t make it any further, David pursues on and God gives them supernatural strength.

We need those eagle’s wings. We need that supernatural strength to go another year, to go another, I mean, mile in God’s in God’s work in this life. God’s able to do that. So inquire inquire of God. If you’re in Ziklag, remember it’s not as bad as it first appears. And remember to inquire to the God of heaven. And then look in verse nine. So David went, he and the 600 men that were with him.

And they came to the Brook Bisor where those that were left behind stayed. But David pursued, he and four men for 200 abode behind which were so faint that they could not go over the brook be sore.

The next thing that we can take from this little story, this account that really happened is David pursues. In other words, David confronts the enemy. David confronts the problem. David doesn’t just sit down in ziklag and do nothing. And listen, I wanna encourage you to meet the enemy, to go on the offense. The Bible says that that when it talks about the church, that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. We have a power that hell knows nothing of. We’ve got the God of heaven at our back.

We can’t go without him but we can go with him and confront the problem. So many times we just sit back and I’m not talking about being mean spirited and and going in the flesh. We’re to go in the spirit of God which is a spirit of meekness and love and charity. But if we will go and meet the enemy, God will do the work. He’ll work through us.

So many times we just sit back and we just feel helpless. I can’t do anything. Would you pray and say as you’re inquiring at the hand of God, what is it God that you would have me do? Now God may say wait. That’s the wait till there’s the stirring in the mulberry trees. You know that account with David? God doesn’t always say launch out right this second.

God had Gideon waiting there at the water’s edge and okay, listen, we’re gonna do the little the little sip test. He’s thinning out the crowd. Sometimes God says just wait, just hold on a minute. But listen, God’s gonna at some point say pursue and go forward because he always does. The path of God is forward. And when God gives the victory, listen, you’ll be glad that you’re pursued.

God told David that you will recover all and they pursued and they had victory. And there’s still victory in Jesus today. Amen. This is not just something from the Old Testament that oh, David could have the victory but we can’t have victory. You can have victory even if everything’s burned with fire and you look around and your whole house is in ashes proverbially speaking that everything around you, you’ve got nothing left.

Listen. Wait till the next chapter. Wait till a few more verses and see what God does in David’s life. Amen. I can’t tell you it’s gonna be exactly David’s story. You’ll have your own story. But God is faithful. There’s victory in Jesus. Amen. And if you’re at Ziklag, remember all the glory belongs to God. Listen, David, he he launches out. He goes after this this crowd, these these people that burned his city with fire.

And I’m telling you, if you ever tried to go out in that wilderness and find anybody and anything, good luck. I mean you you know, you can think of an old Western when they’re tracking and they’re trying to find the enemy and they’re going across the desert. Good luck with any of that but God leaves an Egyptian there by chance And the Egyptian’s willing to speak and he’s willing to talk with them. And if you’ll if you’ll spare me and not turn me over, I’ll tell you where to go.

And don’t you know that’s all God? God did all of that for David and God leads them right into this battle. And the battle ensues for the next twenty hours. The Bible says from the twilight till the evening of the next day. How in the world did they have power for that? How could they make this great trek from leaving the lords of the Philistines to making that run-in?

I mean galloping horses and camels and men running and they’re so exhausted and then they pursue the enemy and do all of that and people are faint in the wilderness and then they fight for another twenty hours. Only God. That’s those eagle’s wings that the Bible talks about. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Only God can do that. But if you’re in Ziklag, you remember that God can give you strength above your strength.

He gives you grace for the day. You say, well what about tomorrow? He’ll give you grace for today and stick by him. And then I love the part where the Bible says they recovered all. They recover all. And then David, he not only recovers his family and they recover all of these goods that they had and they spoil these men, they get above what they used to have.

They’re richer than when they started out. And the Bible says that they that they give to the men that abide by the stuff and David makes a law about that and a covenant about that. And then he goes to Judah and he gives to all of those that were harboring him and protecting him and his friends. And he’s able to dole out to all of them and be a blessing to all of them.

All the places where David himself and his men were won’t to haunt, the Bible says. Can you imagine that? You say, Preacher, why are you telling all this? Because there’s schisms in the body? Because the church is not united as it should be? There’s difficulty and we need to be refreshed and we need to get some sin out of our life and we need to get some of the sorrow that we’re dealing with under control and we need to get out of the depression and the difficulties and we don’t know which way to go. And until we start looking to God and having some hope, we’re not getting there.

And Ziklag teaches us that we can overcome. We started that story where Ziklag was burned with fire. And just within, I mean, a few hours, a day’s time. You know what a difference a day makes? One day. You say, Oh, one day could be take me from the top like Job and then I’m laying flat. But listen, Ziklag shows us that in one day everything changed. They were ready to kill David.

I’m sure there was people ready to blow their brains out. You say they didn’t have guns back in those days. You understand what I’m saying? You know, make an application tonight. You can be in a place that’s so raw, a zik like so bad that you’re sitting there saying, I’m gonna end it all. And listen, one day makes a difference. It’s not as bad as you first think it is, as bad as it appears.

Sometimes things are not all lost as we claim they are. Listen, we’ve gotta give those things to God. Would you just trust in the Lord Jesus Christ tonight and lay your burdens at his altar tonight? Some of you need to come to an old fashioned altar and just pray and say, God, you know my situation. I’m just looking for direction. Others need encouragement. Others need strength for another day. Others are holding on to old wounds and old things and some are getting ready to make decisions that will lead you away from God’s people into enemy territory. Would you stand with me tonight?