Hope for a Discouraged Heart

SUMMARY

Karl Ihfe continues the "Heart of a King" series by examining David's heart of hope during his most discouraging season. Using 1 Samuel 21-30, Ihfe traces how David lost everything—his job, security, family, mentor, and friends—and found himself hiding in caves as a fugitive. When David's men threatened to stone him after the raid on Ziklag, Scripture tells us "David strengthened himself in the Lord" (1 Samuel 30:6).

Ihfe outlines four spiritual practices David employed to maintain hope: being honest with God through lament (Psalm 142), taking positive action when God directs it, resisting temptation to take moral shortcuts (as when David refused to kill Saul in the cave), and finding ultimate refuge in God alone. Ihfe concludes by connecting David's cave experience to Jesus' own suffering and resurrection, reminding us that "caves are where God resurrects dead stuff," giving us hope in our darkest moments.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Well, if you have your Bible with you, invite you to Turn over to 1 Samuel 21. We'll be there today as we're continuing on in our series about the heart of a king. What does David's heart look like? Why was he known as the man after God's own heart? We've been reflecting and thinking together about different aspects of David's heart.

We've talked about his bold heart and repentant heart. A heart for friendship. Last week, Jeff brought us a great message on a heart for our passionate heart. If you haven't had a chance to hear that, invite you to go online. Take a listen to that.

It was a great, challenging message for us to think about. Are we asking who we are, our identity? Are we finding it in Christ and allowing that to become this passion that drives us in our lives? I want to think together this morning about something that you've heard me talk about before. It's something I like to do.

It's New Year's resolutions. I know it's everybody's favorite topic to talk about halfway through the year. What is our New Year's resolution? Just by show. Well, actually, just turn to your neighbor and answer this question.

How long do you think the average person who keeps a New Year Year's resolution, how long do you think they keep it? Just turn to your neighbor real quick. Tell them how long do you think that New Year's resolution lasts?

All right. Well, looking this week, some research I found the average resolution is kept for 3.74 months, right? Just a shade under four months. Now, I also learned something about how many of you were close to that? Anybody?

No. Yeah, me neither. So I learned something else in the research this week. Did you know there's something called Quitters Day it's the second Friday of January. It's called Quitters Day.

Why? Because a quarter of people have already quit their New Year's resolutions by the second Friday in January. By the time we get to the end of January, it's 43%. At some point during the year, before the year ends, 92% of people quit their resolutions. Now, I think it's kind of interesting.

I think having resolutions is good. I actually think it's one of the ways that God's created us. He's created us to want, to achieve, to do better, to keep growing, to develop. Right? So I think it's a natural thing.

We see this in kids. When kids get to a certain age, they want to start doing stuff on their own. And if you try to do it for them, it does not go well. Right? Why?

Because I want to do it myself. There's something in nature about how God created us, that we want to get better, we want to keep growing. And I think that's a godly thing. I wonder, though, what is it that causes us to stop growing? Another group called Sundry, there's this athletic leisurewear kind of company.

They did a survey of what are the most common reasons that people quit a New Year's resolution. And they came up with these 10, right? Some version of this. You go solo. I don't know if you can read this, so I did another slide to kind of spell it out for you a little clear.

They either go alone, they have too high of expectations, they give up too easily, they don't use enough time, not enough time to keep it up or not enough money to keep it up, or we don't have a plan, or we don't have motivation, or we don't have self belief or the social situation. It's just too hard. When everyone around you on July 4th is getting a scoop of ice cream and you've resolved not to eat ice cream, it's so hard to keep that resolution. Or maybe the classic one forgot. I forgot that was the life change I was planning to make this year.

It's kind of funny, but I think if we dug in deeper behind each and every one of these reasons for giving up on a resolution, I think what we find is discouragement. We lose hope. Things get hard, they get challenging, they get difficult. You and I both know that the test of our character doesn't come and how we respond when things are going well in our lives. The true test of character is how do we respond when things aren't going so well, when things are challenging.

This morning I want us to look at a period of life, maybe David's most discouraging period of life. And we're going to get a chance to look at a verse here in just a minute that I think highlights the spiritual skill that David developed in his life. And I'm so thankful to John Ortberg, who wrote this series a number of years ago, that just impacted me and this lesson, some of the things he taught, I want to share with you. And I hope there's encouraging and challenging to you as they were to me. But if you have your Bible there at 1 Samuel 21, let me kind of catch us up to where we are at this point in David's life.

Everything's going really well. Things are coming up roses he starts as a shepherd, he gets promoted to a musician, and then he becomes this incredible warrior. We read the story of David and Goliath back just a couple of weeks ago. The current King Saul has employed him because of his ability. He defeats Goliath.

People are writing songs about them. We heard one of those lyrics just a moment ago when Shingai was reading. I mean, everything he touches turns to gold. And yet in the span of this next chapter, we're going to see all of that disappear, all of it go away. First, it starts with his job, right?

He went from shepherd to musician, to warrior, to. Now the king wants to kill him and he throws his spear, trying to pin David against the wall. David on the run for his life. So in an instant, everything he thought he had secure is now gone. He loses his job, he loses any type of security that he might have had.

He goes from warrior to fugitive. But not only that, we learn right after that he's about to lose his family, right? He runs home to Michael and David sends men to his home to kill him there. And Michael helps him to escape. But then she's taken back into Saul's care and she's eventually married off to someone else.

So David lost his job, his security, his money, his wealth and his family, right? He was born a shepherd boy. He gets into the family of the king, becomes royal family, and now it's all stripped away. Not only that, we learn that David then flees to Ramah, where Samuel is, who's been a spiritual mentor for David. Samuel has been the one who's been able to help David see how God is at work in his life.

And then Saul finds out that David’s gone there. And so David has to run. But Samuel’s too old to run with him. And so he stays, but David goes. In fact, this will be the last time that David ever sees Samuel.

So now he's lost his mentor and where does he run to? He runs to his best friend, right? Jonathan, who is the son of Saul, who is the rightful heir. And yet he has recognized God's role in David's life. And so he is David's friend.

We're told they love each other. Incredible way, deep friendship. And yet Jonathan can't lift the sword against his own father. So David recognizes I'm not even safe to stay here. I've got to keep running.

And so David escaped from Saul. We're told in chapter 21, verse 10, he escaped from Saul and went to King Achish in Gath. Does anybody remember who is from Gath? I going give you a hint. It's about 9ft tall, built like Dwayne the Rock Johnson.

No, it's not me, it's Goliath. Right? David has to flee to his mortal enemies to try to find some bit of respite. And of course, as he flees there, the officers of Achish, they recognize who David is and they're like, isn't this the guy? Right?

Shin guy read this passage for just a moment ago. They recognize who he is and David is afraid something's going to happen to me. So he is now reduced to feigning insanity in order to survive. And so chapter 22 opens up. We're told David left Gath and he escaped to the cave of a Dulam.

Now think about this for a minute. David was expecting a palace only to wind up in a cave. No explanation and no expectation that this season is gonna end anytime soon. He's on the run for his life. I want to think for a few minutes this morning about what it's like to be in a cave.

To be in a cave. You see, the cave is where you end up when everything you had planned in your life does not come to your fruition. A cave is when things are not going the way that you hoped and expected or even wanted you thought you were headed for great things. The things aren't going to go work out so well. Now again, I imagine in a group this large this morning, some of us are in a cave today.

Some of us, like David, experienced the loss of a friend or maybe a mentor or a spouse or a trusted relationship, someone, some relationship you were counting on and it hasn't worked out the way that you thought. Maybe some others of us are in a cave because of a child we have great hopes and dreams for and yet things are not going well and we're not sure that they ever will. Maybe some of us are in a cave because of a financial situation. We're facing pressure and it seems overwhelming and we're not sure. God, is there a way out of this cave?

Or maybe some of us are facing a health diagnosis or some part is just not working right and you're not sure it ever will again. I had a friend who loves to tell jokes about aging and one of the things he said was 20s, you can play basketball all night and wake up and just get going in the morning. And 30s, you can do that. But you wake up a little bit sore in your 40s, you have a harder time staying up late enough to play basketball at night. He said in your 50s, you wake up and you just hurt and you didn't do anything.

Night before, I woke up this morning, my calf hurt and I'm like, all I did was lay in bed. I didn't do anything. Some of us are facing all kinds of cave situations. If you're not, I promise one day you will. At some point in time, we all log time in the cave, in the Valley of Discouragement.

It's in these moments it's hard not to wonder, God, where are you? God, did you forget about me? How long, O Lord, how long will it be this way? And I love Ortburg, make this great point. He says God does some of his best work in caves.

I wants to hold on to that for a minute. God does some of his best work in caves. Some of his best shaping and forming us into the image of Christ when we are in a cave. You see, sometimes when all the crutches that we use to prop ourselves up on get kicked out from underneath us and we have no one to turn to and nowhere else to go, that we find out all we have is God and we learn that's enough, that having God is all that I need. You see, sometimes the place you meet God best is in a cave, just like David.

You see, David spent a lot of time in a cave like the one in Idullam. We don't have a chronology, we don't know exactly the amount of time, but we guesstimate scholars guesstimate David spent somewhere around 10 years running for his life, 10 years in and out of caves, wondering, God, will the story ever end? David's in a cave here in the Doullan. But what we're about to find out is he's not alone. Soon, we're told, verse one, his brothers and all his relatives joined him there.

Then others began coming, men who were in trouble or in debt or just discontented, until David was the captain of about 400 men. How would you like that to be the description of your small group at church? Are you in debt? Are you discontented? Are you just generally in trouble?

Perfect. Come join my small group. This is David's merry men. This is the group that he has in the cave, his amigos. Now jump down to 1 Samuel, chapter 30.

We find out that David and this little community have formed a refugee camp in Ziklag. And the way that they survive is they go out on raiding parties and they take stuff and they bring it back to campus. So chapter 30, they go out on one of these raids only to come back and Find their own camp has now been raided. It's been burned to the ground. The women, the children, all the possessions have been carried off into captivity.

And as you can imagine, the men are just devastated. This was a new low for them. They had never experienced this bad. Already outlaws and fugitives, now their own little camp, this own little world that they had created and expected this could at least be our safe places. No longer safe.

And so we're told in verse four, chapter 30. So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. And some of us know that type of bitter grief. We just, we're all out of tears. We're just out of strength.

Only for David, it gets worse. Next verse six. David was now in great danger because all his men were very bitter about him losing their sons and daughters. They began to talk of stoning him. David is a fugitive.

He's lost his job, his security, he's lost his family, his wife, he's lost all of his friends. He's lost his mentor. And now he's lost his little ragtag group of miscreants, if you will, his little married men. David's a fugitive. The Philistines don't trust him.

So he has nowhere else to go. All he has left now wants to stone him. What does David do? Well, notice how David responds. But David strengthened himself in the Lord.

David strengthened himself in the Lord. You know, it's a wonderful thing to be encouraged by family and friends. It's an amazing thing to get to gather here every Sunday. Maybe you're challenged or inspired by a song or a communion meditation or a Bible reading or a Bible class or maybe a sermon.

But what about when things aren't going so well, when you're in the cave and you have nowhere else to turn and no one else to turn to? What about then?

I think learning to encourage ourself and the Lord is going to be a key to maintaining our hope. To building a heart of hope is something that. That David was able to do. In fact, Ortberg points us to four different things that David does in his life that I wonder, could we think through these together? And wonder is there may be a way that God's inviting you in the midst of your cave experience to try to learn how to strengthen yourself in him.

The first step, he says, you've got to be honest with God. You've got to be honest with God. We’ve got to tell God the truth. We've got to name our cave, our fears, our anxieties, our Worries, our concerns, the things that we're facing that seem overwhelming and troubling you. In the book of Psalms, we talked about how David wrote many of those.

If you turn over, keep your finger there in OneML 30, but turn over to Psalm 142, we see this psalm that David writes. And maybe at the top of your book or your version of it, it tells you where David is writing the psalm from. A psalm of David. Written where? In a cave.

I don't know if this is this particular experience, but I can't help but wonder. I wonder if this was one of the Psalms that David was writing as he's sitting in that cave, right? And here, what he says, I cry aloud to the Lord. I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him.

I tell him my trouble. David gets real honest with God, pouring out his complaint. You know, it's interesting. Scholars have looked through the book of Psalms and they've put them into categories. There's roughly five, six categories or so.

There's Psalms of ascent. We see Psalms of praise and thanksgiving. There are these royal Psalms that talk about God being enthroned on high. They're these wisdom Psalms. But you know what the most common psalm is in the book of Psalms?

Almost half of the Psalms are laments. They are complaints that God's people pour out back to God. God, how long will you hide your face from me? How long will I be in this cave? How long must I face all that is before me?

God, how long before you deliver me? You see, David gets honest. He gets to the depth of his discouragement and his pain, and he shares it with God. Now this is tough because we recognize it takes courage to do this, doesn't it, Church? I mean, it takes courage to get honest with God.

Most people just put on a happy face and they just try to get it out. But it doesn't heal it, it doesn't change it. We just learn to live with it, just become chronically discouraged. See, we have some of those folks in our lives. Sometimes we're those folks.

But see, if we're not willing to name and be honest to God about what we're going through in the cave, that we don't get to heal. We never really pray honest prayers. We never really ask for honest things. And so it doesn't heal. In fact, it stunts our growth.

Will we have the courage to get honest with God? You see, God's not a God of discouragement. That's not his will for your life. In fact, if you find yourself chronically discouraged over time, you can be sure this is not God's work in your life. Now, that's not to say God doesn't sometimes allow us to go through some painful things, right?

Sometimes he confronts us with our sin, with our own brokenness, and that's tough. Sometimes we get a picture of God's holiness and our unholiness, and it's challenging. But God's desire is not that we would become discouraged people. His will for us is to become encouraged, to grow, to change that word repent, to make a 180 to turn. See, anytime you're struggling with chronic discouragement, you can know that's not the Holy Spirit at work.

So maybe for some of us, we're dealing with life in the cave. The first thing is just to ask us this question. How easily discouraged are you these days? When you see what's going on around you? When you read your favorite news feed, when you turn on your favorite program?

How easily discouraged are you? That may give you an insight of where you're putting your hope. Would we be willing to get honest with God to name what's discouraging? And step number two, when it's appropriate, take a positive step. Notice after Ziklag this destruction, David does this in chapter 20, chapter 30, verse 7.

Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimele, bring me the ephod. Abiathar brought it to him. And David inquired of the Lord, shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them? The Lord answered, pursue them.

You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue. David asks the Lord, what should I do? Is there something I should do? And the Lord says, take action. Go, David.

Don't just sit there. Get off your lament and go. And some of us, we need to hear that word this morning that some of us have been so discouraged, we just keep waiting for a rescue. We don't take the time to stop and try to discern God. Is there a step that I should take here?

Is there something that you want me to do? Is there some change I should make in light of what you're showing to me? Is there some positive step that I can take? So maybe for some of us this morning, it's not just being honest with God, saying, God, would you open my eyes? Is there a step that I need to take?

Because in the process of doing this, number three is you're going to have to resist temptation in the cave. You're going to Be vulnerable to all kinds of temptations, to things that will say, hey, I'll solve it for you. I'll make you feel better'll forget about, I'll help you forget about your problems. And the temptation is going to want to be to take that shortcut, even if it's a spiritual or a moral shortcut. Back in chapter 24, David's on the run still, and he's in a cave again.

And we're told after Saul returned from fighting the Philistines, he was told that David had gone into the wilderness of Engeti. So Saul chose 3,000 elite troops from all Israel and went to search for David and his men near the rocks of the wild goats, at the place where the road passes some sheepfolds. Saul went into a cave to relieve himself. But as it happened, David and his men were hiding further back in that very cave. Now's your opportunity, David's men whispered to him.

Today the Lord is telling you, I will certainly put your enemy into your power to do with as you wish. So David crept forward and he cut off a piece of the hymn of Saul's robe. David's friends rationalized to him, hey, this is your moment, man. You've been waiting for this moment, and here God has delivered him to you. Now is your chance to get out of the cave, David. Excuse me.

Don't shrink back. Don't get afraid. Then David's conscience, we were told in verse five, began bothering him because he'd cut Saul's rope. He said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this to my lord the king. I shouldn't attack the Lord's anointed one, for the Lord himself has chosen him.

So David restrained his men and did not let them kill Saul. Think about that for a minute. That was David's moment. That was his exit from the cave. That was his opportunity.

What are you thinking, David? Well, he's thinking, who am I to go against what the Lord has anointed? Even after everything that Saul has done to David, David still sees something redemptive in him and he restrains himself and he won't give in into the temptation to solve that problem. If you've wondered what might have happened had David given in to that temptation, what would that have taught his men about what it means to be king? What might that have shown them about what it means to be a leader when you're facing hard things?

And it would have taught him a lesson. It would have taught him something David wasn't willing to teach that lesson you see, some of you are in a cave right now and there's a shortcut staring you in the face.

Will you resist? It's going to seem like this is your opportunity. This can alleviate some of my stresses, will help me check out for a little while. This may even solve the problem for me. But.

But will it really? Will you have the courage not to take the shortcut? It's a defining moment for our soul. If you're not facing one now, surely you will sometime soon. Will you resist temptation?

Because the only way to do that is number four. We've got to find our ultimate refuge in God. Back Psalm 142 we read from just a moment ago. David says in verse five, I cried to you, Lord. I say, you are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.

A word refuge occurs 43 different times in the Psalms. It's all over, you see. For instance, sometimes you find yourself in a cave that no human action will change. Nothing, nothing is s going to solve this problem. Everything is going to be stripped away and it's just going to be you and God in the cave.

That's how it was for David. All is God is God. And David says, God, you're my refuge. You're the only one. I find my shelter in you.

You see, this is our hope as God's people that we would become the same kind of folks who find our refuge, our ultimate refuge in God. That's our hope that in these moments that we've learned to strengthen ourself in the Lord. Right? We've learned to get honest and to speak honest prayers before God. We've learned to ask him, is there a step that I can take?

We've learned to resist the temptations that sometimes come before us and to say, God, we're trusting in you. Ultimately, if there's an answer for this or not, I'm going to trust you. How do we do that? Well, because we have a God who knows exactly what it's like to be in a cave. We serve and follow a one who suffered like you, and he suffered for you.

In fact, Jesus lost his position as a teacher and as a rabbi amongst those who trusted him and who spent their life following or spent three years following him. Jesus lost all of his friends at the moment he needed them most. Every one of them betrayed and every one of them ran away. Jesus lost his reputation to this crowd that at one time adored him, but by the end of his life, they hated him, crying out, crucify, crucify, crucify. He had his life threatened by enemies and he went all the way to the cross where there was no getting out of that cave.

He had to die on the cross. See, then the evil one made a mistake. They thought it was over and so they buried him. Where? In a cave.

Ah, but remember, God does some of his best work in caves, right? God resurrects dead people in caves. See, Jesus knows what it's like to be in a cave and to be raised back to life. Because caves are where God resurrects dead stuff. So if you find yourself today in a cave, or maybe tomorrow or next week or next month or next year, you hold on, you keep trusting, you get honest with God and you tell them what's going on and you ask him, God, would you open my eyes, show me, is there next step?

And if not, God help me to resist taking that shortcut. That's not actually going to lead to a resolution. It's only going to lead to more pain. God, I'm finding my ultimate refuge in you. Because you're a God who resurrects dead stuff.

You're a God who can resurrect a dead person just like me and bring me into new life. And may that bring us an incredible heart of hope. Got. I pray that that message would resonate deep in our bones today as we know so many of us are facing cave situations. All the things that we’ve put our hope and our trust in, our getting kicked out from underneath us.

And God is left with just you. And we're asking, is it enough? God, would you remind us that you love us so deeply, you loved us so much that you were willing to come and take our place in a cave? That you were betrayed by all your friends, you lost your power, you lost your friendship on earth. All those things, God, you gave those up willingly for us.

And Lord, you brought him back to life to show us there'a new way, that what happens in the cave, it’s not the end of the story. Yeah. Would you remind us this week, I know some of us are in a cave right now and it just feels so hopeless. We're not sure where the road goes. God, would you encourage us today?

Would you raise up a friend around us who just remind us of your love for us? ###e for those of us who are in a cave, God, would you give us eyes to see and ears to hear? Would you give us courage to get real honest with you, trusting in knowing that you're a God who resurrects dead stuff all the time? Yeah but you remind us that the cave is not the end of the story it wasn't the end of David's story it's not the end of Jesus story it's not the end of our story I got even some of these cave experiences that we face between now and when you return God there may not be a simple easy answer that we could trust that you will make all things new that even out of a cave of death God you bring new life so God this week would you bring some new life into our lives into those little areas those little caves in our world would you help us to see once again the power to experience your presence that you would help us learn how to strengthen ourselves and you as our ultimate refuge God thank you for the story of David as it gives us a window into this and God thank you ultimately for Jesus who showed us the way how would you help us to walk in light of this great hope in you in Jesus we pray and.