The Dysfunctional Family - Part 4 (Date: 05/09/2021)

Dysfunction, Family, and the Need to Stop Treating Bible Narratives as Stories

1 Samuel chapter 27 is where we're going to be today, and this is a continuation in our series over the dysfunctional family. Now, who in this room came from, exists in, and has a dysfunctional family today?

Okay, the rest of you people are lying. Okay, you are. You have dysfunction. The Shipley's put the fun in dysfunction. We are dysfunctional just like everyone else. We really are, and the reason why is because we married women for wives.

Anyways, oh, good point. Stop it. Guys, we've been talking about how we, as God's people, need to quit listening to Bible stories. How many Bible stories do you know? None. This ain't Aesop's fable. It ain't Shakespeare's sonnet.

It's the living word of the living God. Quit making characters and quit making stories of God's word. They are real people, and we need to quit preaching it as some sort of antagonist, protagonist little story.

It isn't a moral understanding. It is the reality of the grace of God hitting a sinful and totally depraved people. We talked about Jacob. We talked about his mom, Rebekah, who was a controlling, I mean aggressive, control freak.

And we talked about Jacob's father, Isaac, who was just a passive whatever. And we talked about their two sons, Jacob and Esau. How Esau hunted, not because they needed food. They were the wealthiest people around at that time.

He hunted to stay away from his dysfunctional family. We talked about how Jacob, who was heralded so many times as the good guy and Esau as the bad guy. In reality, it was Esau who was humble. It was Esau who sought forgiveness.

It was Esau who gave forgiveness. And Jacob continued to manipulate and lie. We talked about the consequences of Rebekah's control and manipulation. And how even though she tried to make God's plan come quicker, she actually, through that manipulation, lost her children and never saw them again.

It's amazing how God's people, it's amazing how we, as God's people, look and we see the wrongs and the ills everywhere in the world. But as long as we have a plausible facade, if we have just the thinnest veneer of Christianity that covers us so that the public says, oh, they're good people, that's as far as we're able to dive into the trust that we need to have in Jesus Christ.

And then we wonder, and with the height of arrogance ask, why do our children rebel? We sit and we wonder, oh, I brought them up in church. When Scripture says nowhere to bring them up in church, it says to bring them up in the Word of God.

It's like this here today. Somehow, what Christian did today is the example, it should be the common norm. 200 years ago, the most uneducated, non-high school attending Christian could explain to you the deepest doctrines of God's Word because the family, the community, and yes, sometimes in certain parts of history, the nation revolved around the Word of God.

But to cover up our own failures, to make the conviction of God less, we keep watering down the Word of God. And as long as you've asked Jesus into your heart, and you walk down the aisle and get baptized and show up to church every once in a while, you're a good person.

And the sickening part about it is you're going to get married, you're going to have children, and you're going to repeat the same process. And then you're going to think that a Republican president is going to fix it.

How arrogant to realize and to dismiss God's Word where it says, if my people who were called by my name repent, not the Democrats, not the liberals, God's people. You want God to bless America? Take the personal responsibility rather than the personal indictment to realize that it is in our hands and it is our choice whether God blesses us again.

David, Saul, and the Sovereignty of God in Choosing the King

So let's pull this back a second. Let me talk to you from the time of Jacob and Esau 800 years later to a guy named David. Israel at this time has conquered the Holy Land, the Promised Land. They've conquered it.

And they're doing pretty well, but the people of Israel want a king. Hey, it's good to be the king, right? They want a king. They need a king. They desire a king. And so they say to God, God, give us a king like everybody else.

Now God had already had this in mind. He was going to have a king named David because he had promised that Jesus Christ the Messiah would come through the bloodline of the tribe of Judah. But the people said, oh no, give us a king.

And they said, here's the qualification. That guy over there is taller than everybody else, so let's make him king. That was it. Didn't talk about his spiritual life. Didn't talk about his governing life.

But, you know, if he is a brave person, like a transgender, they can become the Republican governor of California, right? Some of you actually keep up politics on what I'm talking about. So they made Saul king.

Well, Saul did a really bad job as king. At first he did okay. You know, how when you walk down the aisle and give your heart to Jesus, that first 72 hours, man, you know, you're looking for the little devotion book and got your little precious moments Bible, your pencil, and you got the FCA sticker, you know, and the little cup that says God loves the world on it.

And you're going to get in there and do your devotions because that's somewhere in the scripture. I know, it's probably first Hezekiah that says it. Don't actually serve or anything. Just do your devotions.

Tithe your money. Say amen somewhere in church and you're good to go. So Saul's doing that. But then he starts slowly slipping away. Well, it didn't really matter whether Saul slipped or didn't slip. God had already had a plan.

Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin. God said Jesus would come from the tribe of Judah. And so God told Samuel, the priest, he said, hey, I want you to go down and find this kid named David. He is young, redheaded, and ugly.

And he's the youngest of all his brothers. That's who you're going to make king. Now, why did God make David king? Was David better than everybody else? No. Guys, understand this. God is sovereign. If He chooses you, you're going to be exactly what He wants you to be no matter what.

You don't have to pick the best guy in the world. Now, I know you people went out and found the best-looking, smartest, bestestest pastor in the whole world. And you hired him. But he wasn't available, so y 'all got me, right?

It don't matter who you are. God chose the least. You know why? Not because David was good, because that's what would give God the greatest glory. You see? It's okay to brag on God. He's going to get it anyways.

So they made David king. Oh, and David was so in love with God. He was so in love with God that the book of Psalms is filled with songs, praise songs and worship songs from David. He writes them and he just sits out in the field and he's in love with God.

And he has praise and worship time by himself. He is fired up for Jesus. And Saul is like a yutz. So the Philistines, have you ever heard of the Gaza Strip? Those are modern-day Philistines, okay? So the Philistines start attacking Israel.

And Saul's trying to stand up to him and be a good king, but he's a coward. And so this gig strong guy named Goliath, he comes up with a Philistine army. And you know, hold on, the story, as you'll hear preachers say, or the historical account, where David walks out there with a rock and a piece of leather and a club and says, what's up, man, bring it.

In Hebrew, that's what it translates to. It's like, man, I ain't capping, I'm fitting to jack you up. So he kills Goliath, right? Saul, now this is going to seem weird to us mature Christians in here, but Saul became jealous over the conviction that God gave him for not being the leader and the Christian that he should be when someone else succeeded.

That's kind of weird, isn't it? Mm-hmm. And so this is what Saul did. He started going, hey, see that kid over there? Everybody's praising him because he won the victory I should have won. Make sure, you know, he falls out a window or something.

Know what I'm saying? Make sure he has an accident, stabs himself in the back with an ice pick 42 times. This guy can't be around. Well, it started out like that, but David was always under the protection of God.

And so David was like, can't touch this. And he would sidestep him, right? He would just go back and forth and he couldn't catch him. And then Saul just says, forget all the subtle stuff. And Saul takes an army out to try to find David and his friends to kill him to death.

But David's always one step ahead. David could have killed Saul so many times, but David said this, God has made him king. God has said, I will be king. And God don't need my hand to make his will come true.

So I'm going to sit and wait until we get to chapter 27. Now here's where a lot of preachers don't preach. But here's what's so important for us to hear. You see, total depravity is this. We all have to have exhaust fans in our bathroom.

We all have to have the grace of God. And even if you are a weak, broken Christian today, I'm here to tell you there is hope and grace to be found in the cross of Jesus Christ. If you are a backslidden, godless, heathen today, you can be saved today, not by the preaching of a man, but by the power of the grace of Almighty God.

David Says to Himself Instead of Seeking God

Let's read chapter 27. For years, Saul's been trying to kill David. Now look at 27, verse 1, and read it very carefully. 1 Samuel, chapter 27, verse 1. It says this, David said to himself, One of these days I'm going to be swept away by Saul.

There is nothing better for me than to escape immediately to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will stop searching for me everywhere in Israel, and I will escape him. You know when you're about to start backsliding?

When you do the first few words of chapter 27. David said to himself, Everywhere else before then, every time David got in a problem, the first thing he did is get on his knees and start praying God. Every time that he was under duress, he would pen a song or a hymn or a praise to Almighty God.

But now we see this juxtaposition where David no longer is seeking God's face, David is talking to himself. You ever been that way? Huh? That the smartest person you can talk to is the guy in the mirror?

Trust me, I struggle with this every day when I go to the men's groups. Guys, that was a... Come on, y 'all. That was really good. I went over to Tim's house the other day, and it was like a bunch of, you know, tards over there.

They were all stupid except me. All right. So pause. So David's sitting there, and he's going, Hey, I need to consort with myself. Guys, you are your... Listen to me. It's not churches. It's not pastors.

It's not your Sunday school teachers. It's not religion. You are your own worst enemy. Wait a minute. It's not Satan. Quit blaming Satan for everything. Some of you dorks in here are still smoking rock and drinking whiskey because that demon of alcoholism is all over you.

You are not important enough for a sentient, non-omnipresent thing like Satan to divert all his attention to you to tempt you with alcohol. You're just a drunk. Get over it. You are your own worst problem.

And until you come to understand that and quit blaming your mommy or your daddy or your dog ran away or your mom and dad got divorced or any of that other garbage, until you humble yourself and repent against God and God only, have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, you're never going to find the repentance powerful enough to break the addiction.

Trust me. Okay? Second thing. Watch this. Look what David said. There's nothing else for me to do but to run away. Ah! You know how many people have come through this church in the last 16 years? Thousands.

Thousands. Why are there only 200 people here? Why? I'll tell you why. It's because of this. If you join this church, you're going to be held accountable. Now, here's what happens. Somebody will sit there and go, Dude, put down the PlayStation, stop smoking pot, and get a job and take care of your family.

Oh, well, Christians shouldn't say that. The benevolence committee, the deacons, will look at you and go, No, we're not giving you another month's rent. No, go get a job, loser. Oh, that's just not how Christians should act.

And you'll do this. There's nothing else for me to do but leave the church. Let me explain something to you about what the church is. Hey, can you hold it down over there? Big mouth Shipley. Guys, you know what it is?

If you are a Christian, you can't leave the church because the church isn't a stupid building located on a stupid geographical corner. The church are all the people of God who have been saved by the power of God since Adam until now.

That is the church. Ain't no black church or white church. Ain't no Baptist church. It's only the church. So if you can leave the church, that means you can leave your salvation behind. So don't say I want to leave the church.

Quit feeling sorry for yourself. Quit coming up with excuses for your own failure. Look at this third thing he'd sit there and say. He said, There is nothing better for me to do than to escape immediately.

How many of you people put off tomorrow what you could do today? Here's what I hear a lot of young people say. Well, I'm going to enjoy this time of my life and party and then later on I'm going to come to Jesus.

You're an idiot. Because you will come to Jesus one day if God wills it. But the scar tissue that's going to be on your heart and on your body, you're going to pass that on to your kids. You self-centered selfish pig.

Why don't come to Jesus now repent now so you don't pass on the dysfunction from your family on to the next generation. In other words, newsflash, think of someone else other than yourself. So here's David.

A man after God's own heart. Now let's keep reading. Maybe I'm reading too much into this. Maybe David's really that super Christian guy and never did anything wrong except for that Bathsheba incident.

So let's keep reading. So chapter 27 verse 5. Watch this. He sits there and he goes to the Philistine nation. He goes over there and in verse 5 look what he tells the king of the Philistines. He said, If I have found favor in your sight, why does the child of God need the affirmation of the world to be a Christian?

Why do you think at any level the world's acceptance of you is a necessary thing for you to feel secure? Why do you gotta dress the way you dress? Some of you little girls in here put on a pair of pants other than it looks like that you used a paint roller to put them on.

Them little yoga breeches, oh my gosh. If you wear them things, wear a shirt long enough so I don't see that you have moles on your backside. Is that too much for you? In other words, I'm sorry, maybe I wasn't clear.

Stop dressing like a whore. Please, stop dressing like a whore. Have a little self-respect. Because ladies, 16 year old boys around here, I'm having a hard enough time keeping them focused on other things.

You walk by and they're like, look like a deer in rut, man. It's like, girl. And they go running off. Brother Jeremiah's like, Jesus. Okay? Why do you do that? This is why you do it. Don't tell me about pants being comfortable.

Okay? Wear the yoga pants. Wear a shirt long enough to cover your butt. They're still comfortable. The shirt doesn't make them uncomfortable anymore. Okay? You know why you do that? You got to be accepted.

Come on. You got to be accepted. Some of y 'all date because you're so insecure and you're so codependent you don't trust God enough to be single and rely on him for your mate. You think he needs your help.

And then what's going to happen? You're going to marry someone you shouldn't have been married and you're going to be struggling. But remember, these aren't godless heathens. These aren't prostitutes on Jackson Avenue.

These aren't the black gang members. I'm talking about Christians. Like David. So David sits there and says, world, let me find favor. So this is what David says to him. He says, listen. King, I could be a really good asset to you.

Give me a small township to call my own, a place to live, and I will serve you world. In other words, give me the money. Give me the power. Give me the fame. Give me the recognition. And I'll forget church.

I'll forget Jesus. I'll forget his promises. And I will serve you. And the Philistine king says, okay. The dude who killed Goliath on my side? Check. And he gives him this little town called Zilchek. By the way, if any of you internet atheists want to, you can punch in your little phone right now, look up Zilchek, and you can see the ruins that Scripture is talking about that still exist today.

But maybe it all is a big conspiracy to control you. I don't know. But anyways, watch this. So he sits there and he says, I want to find favor with the world. Now, this was in a momentary lapse. He wasn't on the computer one night and looked up www big and had a slip up.

David, this man of God, lived like this for 16 months. Over a year. Here's what's even cooler. You know how many Psalms of praises he wrote during those 16 months? Zero. None. None. David once wrote a hymn because he saw a deer running through the woods and he wrote a Psalm because he saw a deer.

Now he's had major life changes and he's written nothing, but he's still super Christian. Nope. He's just like one of us in need of God's grace. So David's sitting there. Now, wait a minute. It gets better.

Are you ready? Am I losing y 'all? Okay. I don't know if it's the weather or I'm speaking in Greek or something because y 'all are all sitting there looking at me like you smoked one last night. Are y 'all with me?

Okay. All right. Here we go. All right. Chapter 27 verses 8 through 12. Let's see what David does when he gets his new home. Are you ready? Now this is an Israelite living in the world, getting the acceptance of the world, and this is what he does.

He sets up camp at Zilke. He's got 600 Navy SEALs with him. He's got 600 guys. Listen. These 600 men have been fighting with David for years. These dudes are studs. And David sits there and says this.

Guys, here's what we need to do. We need to have a prayer service and a revival service and we all need to get right with God. Now this is what David said. Guys, sharpen your swords because tonight we're going to sneak over into Israel and see that little town over there?

We're going to kill every man, woman, and child over there and steal them blind. The guy who killed Goliath, the guy who praises God, he said, I'm going to go kill everyone in that city. That night David and his men sneak across the border into Israel, into his own people, and he kills everybody.

You know why? Because they were home. He killed them all. And this is what he did. The Bible says he raided for 16 months. He raided. You know what that word in Hebrew, the definition is? To strip the dead of their belongings.

This man of God attacked his own people and killed them so that he could get wealthy. Now you know why he wanted this money? Now watch this. He didn't want this money to make himself rich. He wanted this money to create a war chest to build an army to go attack Saul so that he could obey God and become king.

Does that make sense? It's amazing to me. I've actually saw a pastor one time saying, while meeting this hooker at a bar to talk to her about Jesus. Not a good idea, brother. Not a good idea. Not a good idea.

Well, she needs Jesus. Send a woman. Send a woman. No. Go on, send a woman. I got alpha chicks in here, man. You need help with that? I'll send a whitten chick over there. She'll be right with Jesus quick, fast, in a hurry.

Okay? Dudes, don't be stupid. So David sits there. He's attacking everybody. He's killing everybody. And look at that last part there of chapter 27. You can see why he did this. Now, at this time, the Philistines and the Israelites weren't at war.

So when David was getting all this money, the Philistine king walked up and said, man, who are you getting all this from? And David said, oh, the guys down south. Now watch this. He was lying to the Philistine king.

He was lying to himself. He was lying to the Israelites. But if you go and read the last part of chapter 27, you know why he was killing everybody and their mama? Because he didn't want to get found out.

He said he told his men, kill everything alive, except the things of worth like donkeys, horses, cattle, because I don't want to get caught. Kill them all. Right to life didn't exist in David's eyes. He was killing pregnant women.

He was killing children. He was killing everybody. Chapter 28, pretty straightforward. Chapter 28 is this. The Philistines had finally said, we're strong enough now. Let's go attack Israel. And so the Philistine king gathered all the Philistine generals together and said, let's go attack Israel.

And David said, I'm in. Put me in, coach. I'm ready to play. We're at a point now where David actually volunteered for the enemy to attack his own family. And he said, let's go. The king said, all right.

They all start marching. The Philistine generals start going, is this smart? We got the Israeli commander of their special forces riding with us? I don't think this is a good idea, guys, because when we attack Israel, David's going to turn against us.

So they go to the king and said, man, we can't have this. We can't have it. And so the king said, David, you've got to go. So David and his 600 men head home. Now, that was a long introduction. Now we're about to have the sermon.

Just kidding. Relax, okay? But this last point is the finishing up part. David turns around, and he goes back to Zilkeg. He didn't go back to Jerusalem. He goes back to Zilkeg. Now, he should have rode on ahead and helped Israel defend against the Philistine, but he didn't do that because he is so self-focused.

He gets back to Zilkeg, and as they're coming up over the hill, he looks out, and smoke's coming up from the village. Ruh-roh, Raggy. He and his men get closer, and they have found out that the people they've been attacking, while he's been gone, they attacked them back.

And they killed a bunch of stuff, except these heathen people did not kill the women and children. They were more merciful. The heathens were more merciful than David. They just kidnapped them instead of killing them.

And so his 600 men go, David, what are you doing? And if you read here in chapter 30, if you read here, it says this. David and his men arrived in Zilkeg on the third day. The Ammonites had raided the Negev and attacked and burned down Ziklag.

They had also kidnapped the women and everyone in it from the youngest to the oldest. David was killing the women and the babies. The heathens showed mercy. They had killed no one but carried them off.

When David and his men arrived in the town, they found it burned down. The wives, son, and daughters had been kidnapped, and David and his troops wept loudly until they had no strength left to weep. David's two wives, problem, had also been kidnapped, verse 6.

David was in a difficult position. Now watch this. Because the troops talked about stoning him, for they were all very bitter over the loss of their sons and daughters. Now just hold right there. So now David is lost.

God said you're going to be king of this nation. David disobeyed. He thinks he's lost that. He's lost his kingdom. He's lost his village. He's lost his family. Now the 600 men who have been loyal to him want to kill him because they're angry that their families and their stuff have been burned.

He has nothing and no one left. Read the rest of the verse. But David found strength in the Lord his God. For the first time in a couple of years, David now turns back towards the Lord. And he turns back towards the Lord because he has nowhere else to turn.

Some of you people in here, you know you need to repent. You know you need to do right. But until you hit rock bottom, you ain't going to do it. Now here's the problem, especially for you men. Listen to me.

The problem with that strategy is this. Other people in your life get to suffer along while you wait to do what God's called you to do. Your wife and your children and the other people in your life have to suffer for your arrogance and your indignation.

Today is the day of salvation. Right here, right now is the day for you to repent and turn back. And it's not a feeling. Quit relying on a feeling. Make a public statement today, I'm repenting of the sin God has convicted me.

I know I have failed you, my wife. I know I have failed you, my children. Some of you, I know I have failed you, my grandchildren. But mark this day, this is the day I'm turning back towards God. And David prays and he says, Lord, what should I do?

Should I go and pursue them or just stay here? Now David is asking for every little detail again, God, what should I do? And God said, son, mount up, go find them, and get your people home. Now I'm going to stop here.

We'll pick it up next week or the week after. I'm going to stop here, but I want you to just drive this point home to you real quick. Understand this. If you look forward to Acts chapter 13, which is 3 ,000 years later, it says this.

David was a man after God's own heart. Now watch. It said it way back here. David was a man after God's own heart. David's spiritual life looked like this right here. Right? It looked like a single engine plane trying to carry me across the sky.

You know? That's what it looked like. Right? But at the end of the day, the Word of God says David was a man after God's own heart.