Uh God Uses the consequences of David's sin to get his attention. And here you're going to see David whose heart is broken in two. And it is only in brokenness that God will begin to do His sort of restoration work. King David was a man after God's own heart. but poor choices led to life falling to pieces around him.
Welcome to Leading the Way, with pastor and author of more than 50 books. Dr. Michael Youssef. Today, Dr. Youssef reminds you of a time in David's life when David faced up to his sin.
moving from brokenness into restoration. Join me in listening to this powerful leading-the-way message straight from God's Word. The story is told. of a world famous violinist who hired the services. of renowned violin makers of that day.
He asked him to build him the most magnificent violin that he's ever built.
So in its appointed day, And the appropriate time for the violinist to come and pick up his violin, he came to receive his delivery, which he authorized. Taking the violin into his hands, the violinist skilfully drew the bow across. The strings. But then all of a sudden Great disappointment swept Across his face There was a major problem with the violin. The quality of the tone did not satisfy his artistic ear.
And to the surprise of the violin maker, The violinist raised the violin above his head and he smashed it right. on the table and it broke into pieces. Then he paid the violin maker The agreed upon amount And then he laughed. A few months later, The same violinist came by to the violin maker's shop. And he was looking around, admiring the different violins, and then he noticed there was a violin there sitting on the table by itself.
He took that violin again into his hand and he again began to play on it and All of a sudden, The violinists become excited. He became thrilled with that magnificent tone. That he is hearing. Beauty was ravishing in the sound of that violin. when he inquired of the violin maker.
The violin maker told him To the utter surprise and astonishment of the violinist. that this was the very violin that he had smashed to pieces. Six months earlier. The violin maker had painstakingly gathered. that broken violin and he gathered all the pieces together and He put the shattered instrument Once more together and skilfully assembled it and he remade it into a piece of beauty and brilliance in tone.
So much so. that it had met the approval of the most exacting and demanding artist's ear. And as I read this, and I thought about what I'm going to preach in a series of sermons. I reflected about how many times our sin and our pride and our self-sufficiency bring us to brokenness. How many times our perfectionism and the spirit of perfectionism brings us to brokenness?
How many times our stubborn ways and our stiff necks had brought us to brokenness in our life. Just like that violin. We get broken too. And brokenness can go either way. And I've seen it both ways.
It can either make you better or can make you bitter. It either makes you more stubborn or leads you to genuine repentance. It either humbles us or blinds us further. The shattered pieces of our lives can only be remade better. At the master's hand.
The shattered pieces of the violin of our effectiveness can only be reassembled and made better. At the skilful hand How far? Maker and remaker. In the last message, we left David and Ziklag. And I mentioned In my last message that Ziklag is a type.
of a place of compromise, the place of idolatry, the place Of disobedience. It's a place of. In inquiring of the Lord, if I can make such a word, it is a place where do-it-yourself Christians thrive, it is a place. Where self-will and self-improvising thrives. It is the place where the scheming and the conniving and the manipulating.
We'll find a home. That was zik lag. And that where David was as we left him in the last message. And at Zig Lag David hit rock bottom. He began to steal, cheat.
Lie, kill. and compromise. David was about to be a traitor. To God. and to God's people.
First Samuel 29. He was going to go with the Philistine to fight against his own people. But God so graciously snatched David from the bottomless pit. God so graciously provided a way of escape. For David from that terrible hour of temptation.
God so graciously ordered the steps of David God so graciously delivered David from the snare of the phallah. Do you know how many times the Lord delivers you from the snare of the phalla every single day and you may not be even aware of it? And here Possibly David wrote the following words of Psalm 18, 4, 5 during this time of his life. The cords of death entangled me. The torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
The cords of the grave coiled around me. The snares of death. confronted me. While God delivered David from this dark hour of betrayal, that dark hour of treason, while God delivered him yet. Most often When God is trying to get our attention, He allows the consequences of our own sin, of our own stubbornness, of our own self-will to work its purposes out in order that God may graciously wake us up from our stupor.
And I believe with all my heart, had David Come from that great delivery. That God has snatched him out of and got into Ziklag, and he found Ziklag to be intact. He probably would have said to himself, boy, that was so close. are nearly Got into trouble there. and with just a slight remorse who'd have gone to sleep.
But he comes to Ziklag and he finds it on fire, is burnt to the ground. God uses the consequences of David's sin to wake him up. To make him realize what he's doing, he's about to join the enemies of God. And listen to the syrup and the language that he's saying to King Akish. I wish I had more time that I can expound on that.
Oh, I'm a faithful servant. Let me go and fight the Israelites. Can you imagine the man of God? Can you imagine? Please listen to me carefully.
Parents who do everything for their children All the time. deprives them of a sense of responsibility. Parents who forgive their children without remorse and without repentance on the part of the children. will prevent them from learning the consequences of their actions. Churches that refuses to exercise spiritual discipline will end up with an image of grace that is thoroughly unbiblical, and their churches will be nothing but a club for carnal Christians.
Christians who refuse to acknowledge their sin and their shortcomings and repent of them and turn to the Lord. will never understand the deeper walk with God. And look what happened. And where we are today. As a church, we need to be like David, broke into our hearts before God and weep not only for our own sin, but the sin of our nation.
Look at what happened to David. The man who's after God's own heart. When he compromised And he stopped relying on God. Look what happened to him. And realize the love and the grace of God that is working in you.
God did not spare angels, God did not spare His saints. Do you see God here anywhere ever stopped loving David, even when he was in the midst of Ziklag? No! Does God ever stop loving you when you get into your own zig lag? No.
Because God's love is constant, God's love is unchanging, God's love is persistent and consistent, God's love is enduring, God's love is not dependent upon your failure. Amen. Belongs here. In fact, it is out of love. That God disciplines us.
It is out of love that He instructs us. It is out of love that He chastises us. Please hear me right. You cannot get into sexual promiscuity and think that there are no consequences. You cannot become unequally yoked with an unbeliever and think that you will not pay a price.
Do not think. Think that you can get too chummy with your unbelieving friends without them impacting you. Do not think that you can lower your ethical standards and assume. that it will ni make no difference. Choices have consequences.
You know what? I wish we can write that on every wall of every classroom across the land. God delivered David from this dilemma. of fighting With the Philistines against his own people, but Ziklag. is going up in smoke.
is burning. His wives. And the wives of his men, and the children, the babies, the old. The young. all have been taken into captivity.
Hear me right. God uses the consequences of David's sin to get his attention. And here you're going to see David whose heart is broken in two. And it is only in brokenness that God will begin to do His sort of restoration work. Only in brokenness can the pieces of God's instrument be restored into the newness of life.
God uses brokenness God restores brokenness. He wants to put it back together again, far better. Then it was Before. But you know The world does not understand this concept of brokenness and humility before God. And I don't anticipate, we don't expect the world to understand that.
Only through spiritual eyes are we able to see it. Because to the world's view, to the world's understanding, brokenness and humility before God. It's synonymous with being a doormat. It's utter misunderstanding, but but they're not listening. They won't listen.
There is a world of difference. Between brokenness before God Humility at the hand of the Master. and being a doormat to the godless. Back to David. I wander off, but I always get back to my text.
1 Samuel chapter 30. Verses one and two. Look at it carefully. After David gets supernaturally delivered, God uses these pagan Philistines. Rulers to Get rid of him.
And he should have been laughing in his sleeves, thanking God all the way. After God rescues him, after God delivers him from this disaster. He comes back to Ziglak with his men. where they left their families. And you find that the Amalekites have taken the women captive and the children.
and it burnt down the city. What does David who wore the spirit of discouragement last message, you remember? What was David who said to himself, how would he react when he comes home and he hears all this? He would have taken his top green beret boys, and he goes down and rescues them. He will do that, but that's not the broken David.
I want you to watch here. This is very important. Instead, David is about to be broken before God. Don't despise brokenness. God's champion knows when he hits bottom.
And he turns to the living God. God's champions recognize their inadequacies and call upon the living God. And in verse 4 of chapter 30 of 1st Samuel, David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. Have you ever been there? I sure have.
And I want to tell you that these were no crocodile tears. These were the tears of repentance. These were the tears of regret. These were the tears of brokenness before God. At the gateway of The famous Parthenon and ancient Athens, uh some of you may know this.
There stood a dedicated altar. to tears. No sacrifice ever Consumed there. No offering was ever made there. It is simply a place where.
The distressed individuals came and they wept, out of their woes. I know that's venting up this pent-up emotions May have given some psychological relief, and you see it all the time in our world. But it always failed to touch their basic need of repentance and assurance of forgiveness, as we have in Christ Jesus. Only in Christ Jesus, when you come in repentance and turning to Him and in your brokenness, that He takes those brokenness. and reassembles them together.
Not only forgives you but restores you. David not only wept, look at verse 6. You see him there, so greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all of the people were bitter in soul. each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
You ask uh Will, how do you know? That David's tears were truly tears of repentance that very last part of verse 6 of chapter 30.
Okay. David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. Not like last we saw in the last message by speaking to himself. Not by saying to himself, No, But in the Lord his God. God's purpose in our brokenness is not to crush us.
God's purpose in our brokenness is not to sink us into despair. God's purpose is to restore us. He wants to restore us to better use, to better effectiveness, to better service, to better ministry. And David may have been out of the will of God, but listen carefully. He was never out of God's love.
David may have been out of God's leadership, but he was never out of God's protection. David may have been out of God's law, but he never out of God's reach. David may have been in his own zik lag. But he was never out of God's sight. And I want to say this.
principle here and let it be a lesson to all of us. Who might be prone to be tempted to compromise and to wheel and deal and go it alone and do it ourselves? that God's eye will always be watching you. That God's hand will always be stretched To you. Until you come to him in brokenness.
But until you come to him in brokenness, you will be in pain. you will be in distress. God doesn't forsake you, you have forsaken Him. And there finally in this passage, look at the fruit. of David's repentance.
Out of the brokenness came repentance and restoration. How do you know that someone really truly repented? Only through the fruit of their repentance. Only when they stop doing what they have been doing and return to doing what they ought to be doing. And in David's case, he stopped.
deciding for himself and he turned to God. In David's case, he stopped speaking to himself and he started listening to God. He stopped saying in his own heart and he began to pray instead. He stopped being the master and he became the servant once more. Once more.
If you look at verse seven and verse eight, David said to Abitha the priest, Bring me the Ephraid. David. is back on track. And David, verse 8, inquired of the Lord. No wonder later on he said, that a broken and contrite heart God will not despise.
And later on, his own son Solomon testified in Proverbs 28, 13, He that covers his sin shall not prosper, but whosoever confesses and forsakes his sin shall have mercy. And later even still. The Apostle John said that if we confess our sins, Not rationalize it. Not cover it up. But if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just.
He'll forgive us our sins. Tell you the story, and I'm going to conclude. Charles Spurgeon O my great heroes, tell us a story. of a certain duke who went aboard a galley ship. and as he passed the crew of prisoners But they're all rowing.
And about He asked several of these men what their offences were. And almost every man claimed that he was innocent. They laid the blame on somebody else. They accuse the judge for yielding to bribery. They accuse people accusing them falsely.
But there was a young man. A young fellow who spoke up. And he said, sir, I deserve to be here. I stole some money. No one is at fault but myself.
I am guilty. Upon hearing this, the duke seized the young man by his shoulders and he said, You scoundrel! What are you doing here with all these honest men? Get out of the way. company at once.
He was then set at liberty. while the rest were left to tug At the oars. Why? Because this prisoner's freedom was the admission and the confession. If the Spirit of God has been speaking to you, The Spirit of God has been tugging on your heart and pointing some things to you.
It is never too late. to admit to God your sins. It is never too late. to confess. of your running ahead of the Lord.
It is never too late to repent. of self-will. and stubbornness It is never too late to acknowledge your impatience with God. It is never too late to forsake Your controlling spirit. It is never too late to yield your desire to his desire.
It is never too late to yield You will to his will. It is never too late. It is not too late. to yield your mind to His light. You heard the words.
But without the Spirit of God my words mean nothing. Thus the Spirit of God has Taken them and interpreted them and used them. deep down in your heart and brought you to conviction. Confess to the Lord. Tell him.
Take your brokenness to Him. Trust me. He will make you better. Hey, just a quick thank you for listening today, and thank you for your support of Dr. Michael Youssef.
And the worldwide ministries of leading the way with your prayers and with your generosity. It's always so encouraging to see how God supplies the needs of leading the way. And he's done that for more than 35 years, using the voice of Dr. Youssef to bring the message of grace to the world, transcending political upheavals, economic turmoil. Pandemics and more.
And through your support, we have watched God grow leading the way from a local radio outreach in Atlanta, now heard and seen across six continents in 28 languages. passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth to the lost. Thank you. Leading the way is mobilizing for the next great awakening in North America. Join Dr.
Youssef in this bold five-year mission to passionately proclaim uncompromising truth in three strategic areas here at home, the Middle East, and remote villages. It's the Open Door Campaign. Thanks to generous ministry partners like you, we are seeing a dramatic increase in gospel impact in North America. We've stumbled and we've gone a different way, but we can always come back and God is there and He's willing to bless our communities, bless our neighborhoods. And even greater opportunities on the horizon through new Awake America rallies in key cities, a new mobile app experience, timely biblically based resources, and biblical teaching on every available platform.
I had lost my first love for so many years.
Now, I've rededicated my life to Jesus after listening to your messages. I want to thank you for your ministry counselor who called me back within 24 hours. He answered my questions about Jesus. The door is open, and only God in heaven knows when it will be closed. Will you commit to joining me to boldly walk through these open doors together?
Learn more at ltw.org. Partner with Dr. Youssef today while the door of opportunity is still open for the gospel to be taken around the world. Here's the number to call to learn more about Leading the Way and Dr. Youssef.
Call 866-626-4356. or go online to ltw.org. That's ltw. And of course you can always write to us as well. We love getting your mail.
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Well, that's about it for today. Hey, don't forget to join Dr. Michael Youssef right here next time for more practical truth from the life of King David on leading the way. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yousaf.
