God's Kind of Dangerous Man

All right. Good morning. Good morning. As Josh said, we are getting close to the very end of this book.

And for me, the journey has been pretty amazing. I had no idea when we started out, when

Josh goes, well, you know, I've been thinking about 1 Samuel. And I was like, well, are you sure? And he goes, yeah,

I think so. And I was like, okay, well, we'll go with that. Let's go with that. Because it definitely talks about, gives a contrast between two different types of leaders.

And I thought, you know, we'll be ending this thing right around the election. So that would be timely. And we'll learn some stuff about what a true leader looks like.

But what I found, and that's true, that is true. But what I found, and I hope that you have found this as well, is that God has really been challenging me on what a true leader looks like on a family level and on a church level as well.

And that those things are things that we can apply and things that we can be a part of and we can lead in, right?

And so going through this has given me some great insight as a leader of my family and a leader of the church.

And I hope that you're seeing these things as well. This week, once again, kids,

I did the coloring sheet. So this is David crying out to the Lord while all his buddies here are trying to stone him because the city is burning in the background, okay?

So if you enjoyed me doing that a couple of times, I'm really interested in seeing

Pastor Josh create a coloring sheet. So if you're also...any kids want to see

Pastor Josh's coloring sheet? Okay, there's several there. Okay, wow. A second?

Second to that? Okay, good. So I think that that needs to happen. And so maybe Pastor Josh will take up the challenge and do a coloring sheet for you guys.

As we look into this chapter, chapter 30, and I need to turn there myself.

I'm somewhere in judges. As we look at chapter 30 this week, we need to remember that in chapter 28, we saw

Saul descend into darkness. And the author of 1

Samuel purposely moved that story forward so we would see Saul's problem.

His problem was that he rejected God, and now God was rejecting him. And it's an impossible problem.

It's not a problem that he can solve. And we were given a preview of what we thought was

David's problem. And that would be that he was going to be forced to go into battle against Saul and against his countrymen.

But then last week, as Josh gave a great sermon, we saw, hey, that kind of resolved itself.

And the Lords of the Philistines said, hey, let's not bring that guy because he's dangerous.

And this week, we will see actually David has a real problem.

And it's the attack on his home in Ziklag. And it becomes a positive mirror, actually, this story becomes a positive mirror of the events of Saul's decline as Saul is seeking out a medium to assist him.

David goes to the Lord. And again, the story demonstrates that the power of God is available to those who are faithful to Him.

One of the things that I took from last week, and I've actually taken from the last couple weeks that Josh has preached, was him teaching us about the need for dangerous men.

Brady and I were having a conversation last week as we were in front of Planned Parenthood and marching around with our signs.

And Brady goes, man, that sermon really kind of made me think about how I can be more of a dangerous man.

And maybe several of you men have also kind of had that same kind of feelings like, ooh, maybe that's something

I should be stepping into. Maybe that's something that I should be considering more. So my sermon today is called

God's Kind of Dangerous Man. Okay? Now, if you mess up the punctuation, it can turn into God's Kind of Dangerous Man.

But that's not...that's not. It's God's Kind of Dangerous Man, okay? David's story this week shows us what we mean when we call

David a dangerous man. And we need to define it because a dangerous man could be a fool who endangers himself or others.

A dangerous man could be a tyrant ruled by anger, rage, a man who's unpredictable.

A dangerous man could be someone who's untrustworthy, deceitful, and self -centered.

A dangerous man could be a lazy coward who does not act but puts those at risk, the people...or

puts at risk those who are depending upon him. A dangerous man could mean a lot of things.

So I asked a dangerous source this week, what is a dangerous man? I turned to AI and I asked

AI, what is a dangerous man? And here's what I got. First on the list,

Abdul Qadir Khan. He's a Pakistani nuclear scientist who is presently selling nuclear technology to various countries.

Number two on the list, Rupert Murdoch, media mogul. He's got a tremendous influence on global politics and the media.

Number three, one of my favorite, Ishmael Zimbada, also known as El Mayo, okay?

He is head of the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel. And El Mayo kind of sounds like...if

he chose like a nickname, that's...mayo is kind of the weakest of the condiments, right?

Jake and I were just talking about this. He thinks that Spicy Mayo, El Spicy Mayo would have been better.

Or I brought in El Barbecue, which would be that Haitian gang leader. But El Mayo, I'm just...I'm

not sure. If he's listening to this podcast, please don't hurt me. Along with that was a

Ugandan rebel leader, a Russian mobster, and an American former military whistleblower. Now, nobody thinks that Brady's gonna turn into a drug lord, right?

He's too nice. He's not gonna...that's not what we're worried about, right? But it is important that we are clear on what we mean when we say

David was a dangerous man, okay? Because God's kind of dangerous man, and bikers, and perverts, and killers, no offense to bikers, you just have a bad reputation, they're very different, right?

And I think the question then becomes, on how we discern between the two, is dangerous to whom, right?

Who are they dangerous to? We are dangerous. We're God's kind of dangerous men when we are dangerous to those who see

God as dangerous, okay? Because we are fighting God's enemies. David is fighting

God's enemies. And we've already seen how David has emerged as this dangerous man.

He's fighting God's enemies. He's tricking them. He's terrorizing them. He's enriching God's people. So chapter 30 is this reversal of Saul's story.

Chapter 28, we see Saul being this dangerous man because he's putting himself and all of Israel in danger.

Remember, the prophecy that comes from Samuel is that you and your sons are gonna die and all of Israel is gonna be defeated.

So let's open up to 1 Samuel 30. And what we're looking for this morning are tangible qualities in David that we can replicate, okay?

I'm hoping this is actually a message for men, all right? I'm gonna speak to the women at the end, but men,

I want you to be listening to practical things that we can take from this story of David.

And what we're gonna find is not an exhaustive list, but it does give us a good place to start and it does give us a good example.

So let's look at David's problem. Josh has already read this for us, but I'm gonna read it again. Now, when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the

Amalekites had made a raid against the Negev. In Hebrew, the Negev means desert, and against Ziklag.

And when they had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great, they killed no one.

Why? Because they're gonna sell them. This is how they made their living. They're gonna sell them as slaves.

They killed no one but carried them off and went on their way. And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters taken captive.

Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and they wept till they had no more strength.

Notice that, they had no more strength to weep. David's two wives had also been taken captive,

Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David was greatly distressed for the people spoke of stoning him because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and his daughters.

Now can you imagine David and his men as they're traveling home and suddenly on the horizon they see a small plume of smoke and they start asking themselves and they're kind of peering out there, what is that?

Where's that coming from? And as they get closer, that question kind of turns to a question of unbelief.

They start to say, that couldn't be, that couldn't be

Ziklag, could it? That couldn't be our home. And then the panic starts to set in and they start running.

They start running and that question of unbelief turns into their worst nightmare.

Their whole city has been burned. The Ziklag is burned. David's wives are stolen, his children, his neighbors, all gone, all taken captive.

Nothing of value is left. Everything is stolen or burned and everything is gone.

David's men are distraught. They try to mutiny against David.

You did this, this is your fault. So they start picking up stones to kill and bury him in a pile of rubble.

Now David is bereaved. I hope that comes across in the picture that you guys are coloring this morning.

David is crying out. He's at that breaking point that many men face where they go, man, because of circumstances, because of things, you just go,

I'm done. I'm done. I can't go on. He's lost his family.

His home has been plundered. His friends turned against him. His life is about to be lost all in an instant.

When he left Akish, man, everything was great. David was ready to go to war, ready to be a double agent, but apparently

God didn't want that, so He sent him home. And now David's world is devastated. And how does

David not blame God? How does he keep going on as he's grieving?

We often forget as we read stories like this in the Bible, as we think about our own lives, that we are in a battle, which means that there is great cost.

And often we don't count the cost of engaging the world, of fighting God's enemies.

We don't realize how dangerous it is and that they will hit back. Sometimes it takes us by surprise because our enemy is smart.

He doesn't announce his battle plans. And right here we see David is caught there.

He doesn't see it coming. The first thing that I want us to see in this passage, in this story, as we look at what a dangerous,

God's kind of dangerous man is, is one, that dangerous men find their strength in God.

Okay? And this is a huge, as Josh finished that little intro there, and he finished with, but David strengthened himself in the

Lord. I was like, man, that is like, that's a key part of this whole text here. Listen to what

Spurgeon says about David. Spurgeon says, David cast himself away from all earthly trust, and he encourages himself in the

Lord. He didn't sit down in sullen despair, nor did he think, as Saul did, of resorting to wrong means for help.

No, he went, sinner as he was, confessing all his wrongdoing straightaway to his

God, and asking for the priest to come, that he might speak with him in the name of the Most High.

My question though is, how do you strengthen yourself in the Lord? And for men this morning, if you don't know the answer, the how of how you do that, all this sermon, all this text equips you with is some words, some religious words, some religious platitudes to throw out when somebody is hurting.

Man, you just need to strengthen yourself in the Lord, brother. Kids are acting up, man, you just need to strengthen yourself in the

Lord. So, what do we mean? How do we, how did

David strengthen himself in the Lord? Because as men, the world comes to us and says, hey, there are many ways to strengthen yourself.

You just need a little downtime, right? You just need to numb that suffering, you need to numb that pain for a little bit so that you can regenerate, you can get back in there, right?

And it offers you alcohol, take the edge off. It offers a lot of men anger.

You could just brood and you can just get grumbly and just kind of, to let everybody know,

I'm upset, right? Get that me time, get that downtime, find pleasure or pornography or maybe even a hobby.

But these are all lies that are told to men to sap them of their strength and to make you actually weaker, okay?

Listen to what David says in Psalm 86, okay? If you want to turn there, you can turn there and look at Psalm 86.

Verse one, he says, incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me for I am poor and needy.

Preserve my life for I am godly, save your servant who trusts in you. You are my

God, be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you I cry all day long. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you,

O Lord, I lift up my soul. For to you, O Lord, for you,

O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love. Remember that word is chesed in the

Bible. You're abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer.

Listen to my plea for grace. In my day of trouble, I call upon you for you answer me.

Did you hear what he just said in four verses? Help me. Help me.

Help me. Help me. Help me. Hear me. Hear me. Over and over and over again.

What did David do? How did he strengthen himself in the Lord? Well, verse eight tells us, and David inquired of the

Lord. Psalm 86 continues. In verse eight, he declares the might of God, the might of Yahweh.

There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. For you are great and you do wondrous things.

You alone are God. Here's what you do.

This is what David did to strengthen. You remind your heart and your mind that God's strength on your side is greater than the strength that you lack to go on.

That's where strength is found. Remind yourself. Fourteen, he says, O God, insolent men have risen up against me.

A band of ruthless men seek my life. Now, we know that this is David here. We don't know if this is when he is...

Some scholars say he's speaking about Doeg. Some says there's another...

What's the guy's name? Is it Ahinoam? No, no, that's his wife. Oh, I thought

I forgot. Okay, so when David is on the run from his son, right?

One of his counselors goes and speaks, joins the other side.

And so he could be speaking about that counselor there. And his name flees from me right now.

But the point is, is that he says, God, insolent men, and it's plural here.

So this could actually even fit into our passage, have risen up against me. A band of ruthless men seek my life.

They do not set you before them. But you, O Lord, are merciful and gracious.

Again, going back to that has said, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Turn to me, be gracious to me.

Give your strength to your servant. Do you hear that? Give me strength. He's going to God.

And save the son of your maid servant. Show me a sign. Okay, that's going to be important later.

Remember that. A sign of your favor that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you,

O Lord, have helped me and comforted me. God's kind of dangerous man has a strong trust, has a strong dependence on the

Lord. So his instinct in the face of despair, in the face of loss, in the face of defeat is to cry out to his

God. Men, listen to me. Is this where we find ourselves when we are overcome?

Is this where we find ourselves when we're suffering loss? Is this where we find ourselves even when we're just stressed out?

And I know all of you are stressed out. Are we calling upon the Lord? The second thing

I want us to see is that dangerous men are under or they're in submission to God's authority.

They see God as their commander, all right? We'll see this in verse 7. And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, bring me the ephod.

So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. And David inquired of the Lord, shall

I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, God answered

David, pursue for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue. So David set out and the 600 men were who were with him.

And they came to the brook Besor where those who were left behind stayed. But David pursued.

He and 400 men, 200 stayed behind who were too exhausted to cross the brook

Besor. David is a dangerous man, yet he is dangerous under the direction and the rule of God.

Notice that Saul is not, right? David is everything that Saul is not here.

He's not just figuring out things on his own. He's not autonomous, meaning

David is not self -ruled. This is a concept that we've learned as we've studied through 1

Samuel, right? The two words, Hebrew words, Melech and Nagid. Melech being like the king, like top of the pyramid, everybody answers to him.

And God calling his kings over Israel, they are to be Nagids. They are to be princes.

They still govern, but they are underneath the authority of the king. I am the

Melech. For a dangerous man, there is no king of his castle.

He is a prince in his castle serving God. We as men do not aspire to be king of the world or king of the universe because we recognize there is a king of the world.

There is a king of the universe. We're not the alpha. He is, Jesus is king and he is the alpha and omega, right?

So we serve him. And this is demonstrated in David inquiring of the

Lord. David has had his family and all of his possessions stolen from him. His home has been burned.

He has nothing left. It's pretty clear what he should do, right? Go after them.

His wives, I think, would have been furious to know that David delayed to ask

God whether or not he should rescue them. What do you mean you need to ask

God if you should pursue his enemies and save us? You should just know this, right?

Oftentimes, that is a myth. Men don't know. So he asks and notice that he puts it before the

Lord as a real request. He's not just saying the words to check a box so that he can just do what he's already decided that he could do or should do.

God could say no. God could say, no, don't go after them. And I think

David has to trust God just like Abraham trusted God when he took Isaac up the mountain, saying, you know what?

In my obedience and my faith, God is going to provide a sacrifice. If it is not through me going to save my family, to rescue my wives and my children, then

God's going to provide another way to do that. I'm going to be obedient. If he doesn't do that, he rejects

God just like Saul. But God does say go.

And so David goes. Now, if David felt like he was done and now it was going to be easy, if despair had not...

if despair had overtaken him, if he'd said, man, I'm done with this, I see

God saying go as telling David, David, I'm not done. I'm not done. And for a lot of men,

I think when we get to that point, we need to trust in God that he is not done. But David's start to his search doesn't get off to a successful start, does it?

Soon after they begin, a third of his forces, they tap out. And they tell him, hey, we can't go any further.

We're exhausted. And this development could have plunged David back into despair.

But David has confidence in God, not in his own strength of numbers. God's kind of dangerous man is in submission to God's authority with an unyielding trust in the

God who commands him. True strength in the Lord is not easily weakened. Hear me say that.

True strength in the Lord is not easily weakened unless it's fake, unless it's fake religion, unless these are just words that he's speaking into the air, an incantation of words.

But true strength, true strength of faith is formidable. And the weak imitations just tend to crumble around it.

So my question for you men, men, are you following? Are you following God?

Are you being led? Or are you like Saul who's going, you know,

I don't need to ask God. I'm just going to do what I think is right. What would others say about our lives as they look?

Do they look at us and go, man, that guy is led by God. He has some kind of guiding light in his life.

Are we seeking God and obeying his commands? The third thing that we'll see is that dangerous men depend on the providence of God.

Eleven, they found an Egyptian in the open country, and they brought him to David, and they gave him bread, and he ate.

They gave him water to drink, and they gave him a piece of cake, a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins.

And I think all this detail that they're adding here is just to show that this guy was really starving. He was really in a bad place.

And when he had eaten, his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.

And David said to him, to whom do you belong? And where are you from? And he said, I'm a young man from Egypt, a servant to an

Amalekite. And my master left me behind because I fell sick three days ago.

We had made a raid against the Negev of the Charithites and against that which belongs to Judah, and against the

Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire. And David said to him, will you take us down to this band?

And he said, swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this band.

So David is up to this point, has been pursuing his enemy, not knowing who his enemy is, where they are, and he's going out into the vast wilderness searching.

How is he supposed to find and restore everything? God says, you will overtake them, them, and you shall surely rescue.

It's not until they find this Egyptian wandering around in the open country and you go, how random is this?

Right? Is this coincidence? No, this is God's providence in David's life.

This is a mission that David was sent on that he could not do without God. I feel like that as we're looking for a place to meet, to gather as a new church plant.

I'm like, God, how are you going to provide this for us? I know maybe it's kind of out there, but Lord, how will we know?

We're just going to proceed. We're just going to start gathering together. We're going to start getting things together that we need to, knowing that you are going to provide that somehow, someway.

God, I can't do this without you. We still need you. God's kind of dangerous men are dependent upon the

Lord. They look to Him. They seek Him to be a light to their feet, a light to their path. But what our culture tells us, and often we understand about what it means to be a man, is this idea of rugged individualism that says,

I don't need God. And that idea, that concept will actually set a man's course for hell.

A follower of God, so someone who believes in Jesus, this idea will make this lie, will make a man put down his sword.

And it makes men weak because here's the reality. We battle against forces of darkness in heavenly realms.

There are rulers, there are authorities, there are cosmic powers. It's not flesh and blood, and they're not playing around.

They mean to put you down. And as Paul describes this conflict that we're in, in Ephesians 6, he begs the people who he's writing to, to pray for him.

But we don't seem to get that. We don't seem to understand the most basics of principles.

We know them, but we don't ask for prayer. I know that as a pastor, to put together a prayer list, right?

As we gather the prayer cards, I know that every person in here needs God in their life in some way or another.

And man, you need a brother or sister, you need your church praying for you. But the reality is, is that they just trickle in.

How are we supposed to pray? We don't even, we don't do the very things that we would tell others to do in the same circumstance, in the same situation.

Men, are you mindfully seeking God's providence, realizing that you have a great need for God?

Are you trying to be independent? Can people hear it when you pray, this need for God?

Remember back to Psalm 86, help me, help me, help me, help me.

Desperate for God to intervene, desperate for God to help. In your life, listen to Psalm 46,

God is our refuge and strength, our very present help in trouble. God is your refuge.

He is your strength. He is there when you are in trouble. We actually sing this song together, right?

Lord of hosts, you're with us. You're with us in the fire. You're with us in the shelter. You're with us in the storm.

And you will lead us, lead us through the fiercest battle.

Oh, where else can we go? Well, I got this. I'm good.

Where else could we go but to the Lord of hosts? Fourth, fourth thing, dangerous men are finishers and accomplish the mission of God.

This is no quarter November, right? I feel like Josh and I should buy a flamethrower, really, do our own thing.

Wouldn't that just be manly? Wouldn't that just show our enemies we're not playing around? It's also no shave

November. So, Jake, we're rooting for you.

Let's read 16. It says, and when he had taken him down, this

Egyptian, when he had taken David down, behold, they were spread about, they, the Amalekites, were spread abroad over all the land and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil they had taken from the land of the

Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17, and David struck them down from twilight until evening of the next day and not a man of them escaped except for 400 young men, right?

And the last couple of sermons that Josh has preached, he's been appealing to young men, right?

But this is exactly what we don't want to see our young men do. When it's 400 to 400, we don't want to see them run away.

But this is what these Amalekites did. They had a chance. They had a shot. And it says, they mounted camels and they fled.

David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken. David rescued his two wives. Nothing was missing, whether great or small, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken.

David brought it all back. David also captured the flocks and the herds and the people, and the people drove the livestock before him and said, this is

David's spoil. Now, often, men, often, we don't try because we fear that we will fail, okay?

Often, we don't even try to accomplish something because we fear that we might fail.

A good example of this is how hard you guys try to get me to play golf, okay? I'm just like, hey, what's the point, you know?

I'm going to lose a bunch of balls and I'm going to have to lie about my score. So, no,

I think I'll just pass, you know? I won't join you. But here's what dangerous men do.

They do battle, right? When it comes to pulling the trigger, there's no hesitation.

There is no quarter to be left. They don't just talk about being dangerous.

They don't just posture themselves. But dangerous men are training themselves for war.

They want to make themselves hard. They want to be disciplined. And they're very familiar with hardship, with toil and strain.

A true man is not soft and whiny, living a nerfy life in their parents' basement, eating pizza, and playing role -playing games.

Why? They don't need to because their reality is dangerous.

It's a battleground. They're facing challenges and they're fighting every day. If that's what your life is like, why do you need the fantasy?

God's kind of dangerous men don't have a problem with winning, like so many of our conservative politicians do.

They're not looking to negotiate with evil. David's not walking up to the Amalekites saying, hey, guys, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

How can everybody get what they want here? Look, I got two wives. I'll take one. You guys keep the other, right?

It's a win -win. Win -win -lose. No, he strikes them down from twilight.

He starts the battle in the dark. He fights through the night, all day long, until it's dark again.

God, why? Because God told him, pursue, for you shall surely overtake and rescue.

Overtake and rescue. I think for men, another reason why we hesitate is that we don't know where to fight.

We don't have that clarity. And so sometimes, as an excuse, as a man,

I've often given this, well, I didn't know. Nobody told me what to do.

I feel like a hammer and I need a nail to hit, right, or a wall to destroy. And I'm not saying that men are all like hammers, okay?

We're kind of like multi -tools. But there are some times when we do the smashing, when we do the destroying.

And in that case, we need to be sure that that's what we're supposed to do. God gave

David that direction. You might say, well, Bart, I don't have an ephod, right, to hear from God.

Again, here's another reason, right? We're looking for somebody to tell us what to do. And you know, even though we hate that, right,

I don't want you to tell me what to do. We often need that. We need someone to tell us what to do.

And here God tells David what to do. So men, has God given you a godly mission?

Do you know what to do? Do you have a mission that you're leading your wife and your children into?

If so, and many of you in here probably do, can you articulate that mission of God that God has commanded you to fulfill with your life?

You may say, I don't know. I've never thought about that. I've never really put it into words.

Now, where do you think you might discover your godly mission? You all know the answer to this.

It's found in God's Word. And you will find it when you begin to read and begin to understand the mission of God in the world.

You will begin to understand it when you read and understand your own spiritual gifts.

You'll understand it when you read and begin to discern what God has entrusted to you.

You'll begin to understand this as you read and you look around the world where you live, where God has placed you, the specific location, and the time in which

He has placed you. You'll begin to feel your heart move as you go,

God, you've entrusted me with this. What do you want me to do with it? The opposite is also true.

If we don't know the truth of God, we will believe the lie of the enemy every time because the devil's liars are cunning.

They have been taught by the best. Look at Saul. Look at his mission.

Make no mistake. Being so clear on God's directive in your life is the only way that you will not hesitate when it's time to pull the trigger.

When God calls you to something and He expects you to fulfill it, it has to be clear.

So let me give you some steps to accomplish or to figure out what that is. Step one, men, we have to stop consuming the junk that the world is dishing out to us.

It's dumb. It's over -sexualized content. It consumes your time and it gives you nothing in return.

It wastes your masculinity. Okay. Step two, we need to be nourished by the preaching of God's Word and the reading of God's Word.

We also need to allow the Holy Spirit to confirm that truth in us so that we can stand.

We also need the Holy Spirit to call us to repentance. We need to seek and surround ourselves with godly men of character who can model godliness for us.

If you're a young man in here today and you're not surrounded by godly men who are letting you see what it looks like, you're wasting your time.

Stop consuming junk. We need to pursue discipleship. Men, we need to pursue discipleship and the wisdom of men who are on mission.

So look for them and find them. And then step three, go back to step one because you're consuming junk.

God's kind of dangerous men know what their objective is. Then they can be dangerously committed to getting it done, to hitting the target, whatever that is that God has directed them.

A good example of this because you may be thinking, and when I heard this for the first time, I was like, oh, that's just kind of worldly, you know, that's just kind of worldly strategy there, you know, having a mission, you know, having a vision and stuff like that.

You expect your church to have a mission, right? And the more clear that it is and defined, the more you're like, okay,

I want to be a part of this church, right? So why shouldn't a man have a mission? Listen in the

Scriptures. Paul had a mission. Colossians 1 .28, he says, he was sent to the

Gentiles to proclaim Christ, warning everyone with all wisdom that he may present everyone mature in Christ.

He knew what he was for. Even Jesus says, oh, well, let me continue his thought.

He says, for this reason I toil, struggling with all the energy that God powerfully works in me.

Jesus also had a mission. He said, I came to seek and save that which was lost.

If we don't know what our mission is, we're not going to accomplish it. Five, dangerous men do not stand with the wicked and the worthless.

Instead, they lead courageously. Verse 21, then David came to the two hundred men who had been exhausted, too exhausted to follow

David, and who had been left at the brook Besor. And they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him.

And when David came near to the people, he greeted them. Then all the wicked and worthless fellows among him, among the men who had gone with David said, because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except that each man may lead his wife and children and depart.

But David said, you shall not do so, my brothers. With what the Lord has given us, he has preserved us and given into our hand the ban that came against us.

Who would listen to you in this matter? I love that phrase. It's not me. For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage.

Then they shall share alike. And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day.

Nobody told David, you can't legislate morality because he just did, right?

He said, this is wrong. And as your leader, I'm going to put some things in place to help you do the right thing.

Not only is David demonstrating good judgment of character, but we see he's not one who is easily swayed by the majority opinion like Saul was.

Conformity is not dangerous. Conformity is weak. David thinks for himself.

He says, hey, weren't you guys the ones like 15 verses ago who were trying to throw rocks at me?

Yeah. But instead, right, instead of kicking them out, he rebukes them and he corrects them.

Can you just see it? These men who are waiting for David to return, right? And they see

David and the group that's with him is much, much bigger than the group that left, right?

And so, man, they're like overjoyed. They're like, woo, he's coming back. And on David's side, as they're getting closer, these guys are whispering to him, hey, can we have a moment of your time?

Can we have a little discussion here? Can we just step into this back room right here and figure some things out?

Because I think this could be a perfect opportunity for you, David, to consolidate some of your power.

All you have to do is eliminate these weak guys. I know that they've been with you for a long time. They've been supporting you in the desert and stuff like that.

But now here's the opportunity. We can get rid of them. All you have to do is give us their spoil and cut them loose.

And David says, no, no, that's not right.

I don't need you in my back pocket. It's easy for dangerous men to fall into a worldly strategy, a worldly method of using power to destroy and to eliminate in order to gain wealth or to solidify their power.

And we've seen this over and over in our evangelical world. We've even seen it recently, godly men who fall to this temptation.

And it's pride, it's vain ambition that whispers, hey, make alliances, cut people off, cut them down, get rid of them.

But dangerous men make decisions to glorify God and to glorify also his character.

So David says to them, you guys are wrong. He brings rebuke.

He brings correction. Again, men, we hate this, right? We hate when we're told that we're wrong. As a young man,

I hated to be wrong, right? And I defended my wrongness till I look like a fool, all right?

And we will do that. But it's also equally hard to step up and have courage to say you're wrong, right?

And rebuke your brother. I do want you to notice he doesn't kick them out, right?

Instead, he appeals to the truth that they already know. God accomplished this victory.

Number six, dangerous men use their strength to bring God's blessing to the people of God. Their mission is not about themselves.

It's not about you. Twenty -six, when David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elder of Judas, saying, here's a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the

Lord. It was for those in Bethel, Ramoth, Negev, and a bunch of other places that are hard to pronounce, in Hebron, for all the places where David and his men had roamed.

Okay? So David took the spoils. Everybody was saying, this is David's spoils, all these sheep.

And David takes that, and he gives it to all of these towns, to the elders of all these towns.

Now, for men, it is very easy to define ourselves by what we do, and as a proof of that, what we make in our financial profile, portfolio,

I'm sorry. And many men find that the love of money becomes their mission. If you don't have a mission, this is one that you'll have by default.

The love of money becomes their mission, but it's a corruptor of men. Jesus warns about its powerful influence, right?

Even in Proverbs, it says, don't toil to acquire wealth. Be discerning enough to desist, to resist that.

When your eyes light upon it, it's gone. For suddenly, it sprouts wings like an eagle and flies towards the heavens.

Isn't that great? That's what money does. The love of money can twist our hearts to think that God's providence is meant to satisfy us.

Yet money is an evil, and David uses these spoils very shrewdly. He offers the spoils to the tribes of Judah, who in 2

Samuel, if you continue reading on, 2 Samuel, these will be the first towns in Israel who will crown him king in Hebron.

So he's getting on their radar. He's been living undercover in the Philistine lands, in enemy lands, and he's saying two things.

Here's the provision that I've conquered from your enemies, and this is God's doing, and I am here to be his anointed one, to bless his people through obedience and submission to his will.

So David entrusts the spoils that he received and he used them for God's plan.

He has clarity about what it's for. This is what he's been doing the whole time while he's been in the land of the

Philistines, accomplishing God's mission and enriching God's people. Dangerous men are men who build.

They strategize. They're shrewd, right? They're not nursing a father wound that makes them introspective and self -focused.

They have a mission. They're on God's mission. You may say, well,

Bart, what's your mission? Do you have a mission? I can tell you, and I will tell you, but first, let me say that my mission is going to be different from yours in the specifics.

Generally, yes, we're all commanded to glorify God, submit ourselves to him and his sanctification as he makes us more and more into the image and likeness of Christ.

And then specifically, it's based on what God has entrusted you, who he has made you to be, and that's going to be very unique.

And that change, that focus, it may come into sharper and sharper focus as you grow older.

So mine is very different from what it used to be. My mission is, with the help of God, to bring him glory by faithfully planting and building a network of small, local 1689 confessing congregations in Northwest Arkansas with expositional preaching and active shepherding through intentional discipleship.

That's what God has equipped me to do in this place, in this time.

And with the help of God and to glorify him, be a blessing to future generations with the gospel through my faithful leadership of my wife, my adult children, my grandchildren, and my extended family.

Now, what I do with that mission is I seek the Lord. I submit to his leadership and his authority in my life.

I make sure that I'm following it correctly. I beg for his providence. I execute and accomplish his orders.

I lead others in God's righteousness, repenting the whole way and calling them to repentance, and I use his providence to bless others and build his kingdom.

That's everything that I've seen in what David did today. Leaders who don't follow this pattern will be just like Saul.

They'll be fearful when it's time to lead. They'll lean on their own understanding. They'll be lazy about the mission, never accomplishing it.

They'll be driven by their own lust, their power, and their greed, giving in to wicked men.

They will only seek to enrich and protect themselves. So this morning,

I've been speaking mostly to men. I know that you ladies have been listening patiently.

This would be a great sermon for a men's retreat. But I want to speak to the ladies this morning.

Many of these principles that I have just talked about can be applied if you...it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, like strengthening yourself in the

Lord, right? However, you will not have a separate mission from your husband.

I want to be clear about that. So I want to encourage women to have conversations with their husband.

My goal, what I hope that God would accomplish today is that men and women, that families would be united under a mission that God gives them, right?

So it's going to require conversations. And I would encourage women to have that conversation with your husband about the kingdom mission that God has given him.

I would say to you, be prepared that your husband may not have ever been challenged to think in this way, right?

Be prepared that he may be in process and give him time. Let him seek out other men, right?

It's not your job to tell him what his mission should be. Let him ask you or ask him, hey, tell me the details as you kind of get an understanding of what your kingdom mission is so that I can come alongside you as a mission partner, as a mission helper.

1 Peter 3, 5, and 6 says, for this is how holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their own husbands.

As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, and you are her children if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

And I think about that at the very end, that they do good and they don't fear anything that is frightening.

And my hope for the women of CBC and for families at CBC is that their hope in God would be expressed in a unified submission to God, to a

God -given mission, and that we would see it expressed in the women of CBC that they're not afraid of anything, right?

They're not afraid of anything and they're doing what is good. That's telling me I'm done. If you are married and you don't see these qualities in your husband, begin to pray.

Pray, pray for your husband. I hope you are praying for your husband. Encourage your husband to seek out and spend time with older men in the church who will develop and challenge them.

Let your husband know that you need him to lead you spiritually, okay? Say those words to him.

If you are married, you see these qualities already in your husband, encourage your husband to continue to have courage.

Encourage him to spend time training himself for battle in the word and prayer and discipleship and fellowship and in worship.

Encourage him with words of appreciation and gratitude for his self -sacrifice and how he blesses your family.

It is not an easy thing for us to stay on mission.

It's so much easier for us to choose the easy route. And if you're not married today and you're here, man,

I challenge you to look for a dangerous man, but God's kind of dangerous man.

I know every single girl I met when I was looking around for one was always looking for somebody who was much more dangerous than me.

But that's the wrong kind of dangerous, right? You want to find a man who's God's kind of dangerous man.

And then just one more thing for young men. I'm just going to hit this nail again. You need to surround yourself with men who are on mission.

You need to be able to see what that looks like. You need them to model that for you. You need to see how they lead their families.

You need to see how they pray and how they study the Word and are committed to it, right? You need to see how they battle.

I wish my son was here to hear what I'm saying this morning. Hopefully, he will listen to the podcast because I think that that's my desire for him as well.