What Do You Have Left When There is Nothing Left?

1 Samuel 30:1-31 Philippians 3:7-14

Do any of you remember as a kid wanting to buy some cookies or some ice

cream but not having any money to do it? I can remember we would look

in every nook and cranny of the sofa to find us a coin or two. We'd

look in the closet on the floor, and we'd check every old pocketbook we

could find. We rejoiced just as much in putting together ten cents as

someone who had won the lottery. We found out there was often more left

than we had first thought.



There are going to be times in our lives when we are going to want

things, and we are going to come up short. Sometimes it is okay to come

up short. Our plans for life don't always go the way we planned them to

go.



We didn't set our lives planning to get a felony conviction. We didn't

plan to become a teen mother. We didn't plan to lose our job. We didn't

plan to fail in school. We didn't plan to get cut from the team. We

didn't plan to have the person we love die. We didn't plan for our

spouse to leave us. We didn't plan for the divorce. We didn't plan for

the crisis and the crime that happened to us. We didn't plan to be

betrayed.



We didn't plan to lose our health. We didn't plan to have to take care

of our kids now that they are adults. We didn't plan to lose our

business or our jobs. We didn't plan on our family turning out the way

that it did. We didn't plan to look the way we now do. We didn't plan

that addictions would hit us or someone we love. There are just a lot

of bad things that happen to us and around us that we did not plan.



Somebody told us that if we just come to Jesus and give our lives to

God, everything will be fine and the problems will be gone. Some even

told us that God wants us all to be continuously healthy and wealthy,

and if you have enough faith, you can name it and claim it and have it.

Unfortunately some of us believed that and have discovered that it's

not true. Some have lost faith in God over this.



When Jesus called us to come and follow him, Jesus never said, His goal

was to make us rich and to give us everything we wanted as a sign of

His appreciation for us joining His team. What Jesus promised us was an

opportunity to know God the Father as Jesus knew Him.



Jesus told us up front that following Him was not going to be an easy

task. As a matter of fact He told us our peace is going to have to be

found in Him, because in this world we will experience trials,

troubles, and tribulations. Nobody gets an exemption. If you live long

enough, you will suffer either because of the sins of others or because

of your own sin.



We make plans in our attempt to create a safe space for us. There's

nothing wrong with planning for the future as long as you know that

plan is subject to change with or without your approval. If I save

enough money, I will have a safe space for retirement. If I get that

job with that income, I'll have a safe space for me and my family's

level of comfort. If I marry that person I will have a safe space from

loneliness.



If I have kids, I'll have a safe space for someone to help look after

me when I'm old. If I make that team, I'll have a safe space of

acceptance at school. If I can get in with that group, I'll have a safe

space of friends. We're all looking for some kind of safe space to live

our lives.



Come journey with me to the time of David. He was a young man who had

faithfully served the king. The king was so impressed with David's

ability and anointing, that he placed David over his entire army. But

the king became jealous of David, because the people boasted of what

David had done in battle as compared to the king.



They said, "King Saul has slain his thousands, but David his tens of

thousands." The king determined to kill David, and he pursued him

ruthlessly throughout the country. David knew the only way he would

find safety for him and his family was to leave the country and go into

the land of the Philistines. The king had branded him as a terrorist.

He knew the king would not cross the borders into enemy territory. So

David struck up a deal with one of the Philistine rulers, and the ruler

gave David the city of Ziklag. David had finally found him a safe space

in which to live. No doubt some people referred to him as David of

Ziklag.



The problem with safe spaces is that we can put our identity in them

and if we lose them, then we think we have lost everything. Where you

live is nowhere near as important as the fact that you are alive. As a

Christian, we are to hold lightly to everything that we claim to be our

own. Everything that we have, we will either lose or leave it behind,

except for our relationship to God. You have to know that first and

foremost, you have been called to be a child of God. That is your

identity and that you cannot lose.



Your money, your possessions, your friends, your career, your children,

your position, your spouse, your family, and everything else you think

is yours can be lost or taken away. Sometimes that which you hold

closest to your heart, you will lose, and it will hurt. It will hurt

badly. But you are still a child of God with access to God's hope,

God's strength and God's power.



Why do you think God wants you to be in the kingdom of God? It's

because God wants to be in a relationship with you, and God wants you

to want to be in a relationship with Him.



Sometimes it is not enough to just have somebody with you. You want the

person "to want" to be with you. Otherwise you will say, "if you really

don't want to be here you can leave." We come to God, to get to know

God. God wants to show Himself through all the circumstance of our

lives, and not just in the five minute prayer time that we call

devotions.



God wants to reveal Himself to us right where we are everyday of the

week. That means even when we are in a crisis. Even when we're having

an attitude problem. Even when what we love is taken away.



Even when we don't get what we really wanted to get. God is going to be

there with us and God wants us to know He is with us.



The issue is not so much what I'm going through right now, but rather

are we open to being aware of the presence of God with us in it. If we

are, we are going to want to be pleasing to God even in this

circumstance. We know that our lives are not simply about us, but about

what God is doing in and through us.



Our problem comes in wanting God to remodel our lives, but God is

saying no. God is going to rebuild our lives, and that may mean going

all the way back down to the foundation and making sure it is laid

properly. That means demolishing a whole lot of stuff. Are you open to

being rebuilt today with what you have left?



David and his men had been called by the Philistine leader who had

given him the city of Ziklag, to join in the battle against King Saul

and David's own people. David responded of course he would go to fight,

but he had to have been praying, "Lord what on earth am I going to do

in the battle? I can't fight against my own people."



The other Philistine leaders didn't want David and his men to go to war

with them, because they felt David and his men might jump ship, and

help King Saul in order to get back in on his good side. They told

David to go back to Ziklag.



No doubt David and his men were thrilled to have avoided this conflict.

I can see them offering praise and worship to God for this huge answer

to prayer. They can't wait to get back to their wives and families in

order to celebrate. It was a three day journey back to Ziklag.



All was normal until they got close enough to the city to sense

something was not right. There were no scouts from the city to welcome

them in. No sound of animals baaing and mooing. There was a smell of

burned wood in the atmosphere. The closer they got, the more blackened

structures they ran into. When they finally reached the city, probably

in a run and a panic by now, there is not a sound of voice or a living

person anywhere in site.



Ziklag, the safe haven of their identity had been attacked and burned.

It seems that the Amelikites knew that the nations of Israel &

Philistine would be fighting, and the men would be off in battle. It

was the perfect time for them to attack the outer cities and carry off

their wealth and to make the people their slaves.



Everyone's family members were gone, as well as all their possessions.

What started out as regular day has become a day of disaster. All the

men weep and cry out in pain over the loss of seemingly everything.

When we lose that which is dear to us, we want to put the blame on

somebody or something? We want to make somebody pay for this?



Some of the men decided to blame David. "If you had not of made us go

be with the Philistines, we would have been here to protect our

families and this would not have happened to us."



So often in our pain, we think, "if only I had of been there I could

have stopped this." Have you ever said that? We may say, "God why

didn't you warn me, so that I could have done such and such." I can

remember losing my mother in whom I was very close to. I had a hard

time with that. My family had a hard time prying me away from her

coffin when it was time for us to bury her. I wanted to blame someone

for this but I couldn't.



Our bad experiences are going to leave us very bitter if we do not seek

to be aware of the presence of God in our situation. I could never love

my mother nearly as much as God did, and yet God did not intervene to

heal her at that time from my perspective. I say from my perspective,

because I don't know what God did in those final moments for my mother

and what their conversation was like as she was passing from this life

to the next.



Some of David's men became so despondent that they wanted to organize a

stoning party to put David to death. They couldn't see that David was

hurting just like they were hurting, because his family was also gone.

It's sad when our desire for revenge or to get even in our crisis,

blinds us from seeing the pain and the hurt our own actions may be

causing to others.



The Scriptures says, "David was greatly distressed because of this talk

of stoning him, but David found strength in the Lord his God. The

difference is that David chose to become aware of the presence of God.

At this point he did not have anything more materially than the rest of

the men. He had lost his status as the great leader, because they

questioned his leadership and wanted him dead. They claimed to have

nothing left.



Often times we think we cannot do the will of God because we have

nothing left. Moses was trying to get out of doing God's will for his

life, and God asked him, "what do you have in your hand." Moses said,

"are you talking about this staff, this stick that I picked up to climb

up here."



God was basically asking Moses "what do you have left." Moses saw a

stick. That same stick was going to cause plagues to come on Egypt and

bring it to its knees. That same stick was going to split open the Red

Sea.



So often coming out of a crisis we underestimate what we still have

left. You may have to start all over again. You may have to lose your

home. You may have to let go of something or someone. But if you still

have the presence of God, you are no poorer than you were before.



David cried out to the Lord for his situation and he found some

strength in the Lord. Next he found some other people who knew the Lord

and sought advice from them in discovering God's will. How often do we

go to the wrong people for advice when we find ourselves in a crisis?

Don't go to people who will tell you what you want to hear, go to

people who will tell you what God wants you to hear.



David got a plan together and he presented to Abiathar to see if it was

within God's will. Abiathar told him yes it is God's will, and yes you

will succeed. David took 600 men to go and find the people who had

destroyed Ziklag. But the plan did not go as expected. After a while

200 men said, they just could not go any further. They were too

exhausted to continue the journey.



I want us to see that even when we are the plan God has given approval

to, there are still going to be some setbacks and moments of

discouragement. But we continue to journey. You didn't get in debt all

at once, you won't get out in a week or two. You didn't let your

marriage deteriorate all at once, you won't get it back altogether in a

week or two. Stay with the plan God has given you, and let the Lord

provide you the next step. Expect God to show up.



Once the 400 continued on, God led them to a man dying in the field.

They gave him some water and food, and the man was able to tell them

everything they needed to know about regaining their families and their

possessions. David and his men came upon a much larger army. God

allowed them to arrive at the same time this larger army was partying

and getting drunk, completely unprepared for battle. God gave them a

victory and they recovered all of their family members and more

possessions than they had ever had before.



Having experienced God's grace and generosity, made David a more

gracious and generous person. Being aware of God's presence, makes us

more like God. When the army started home, the issue of the 200 men who

did not make it into battle came up. Some said, "the only thing we

should do for them is to let them take their wives and children and

that's it."



But David said, "No. They stayed back and guarded our bags. They shall

get the same reward from the spoils of war as all the rest of us. David

also sent plunder back to some of the other elders in his home country

and won their support for the day when he was to become king. David was

willing to forget the things in the past, and look forward to a day

that was coming.



That crisis, that disappointment, that loss that you suffered does not

mean that God dropped the ball on you. What you may need to see is that

God has been there all along, but you did not welcome his presence

because it did not fit your plan? God wants to work something in you

through this knock down of a blow you have been given.



Being knocked down is not the same as being knocked out? Having a plan

fail, is not the same as being a failure in life. Losing a lot does not

mean, there's nothing left. God loves you just as much on this side of

your trial as God did on the other side. Jesus prays to the Father on

our behalf everyday. The Holy Spirit is the comforter who will lead and

guide is into truth.



Are you willing to let go of the past, with all its hurts and

disappointments and bitterness and acknowledge your role in the harm

that was done? Are you willing to open your hands and let go of that

which you call your own so that your identity will be in God and God

alone? Are you willing to press on toward the prize of the high calling

of getting to know Jesus Christ?



Let us not pray just for a successful life in terms of everything going

our way, because we will surely be disappointed. Let us pray for a life

in which we are aware of the presence of God no matter what it is we

are going through. Let us bring God out of the prayer closet and into

the everyday realm of our lives.



Our goal each day should be to love God as much as possible, through

the many ways in which we go about our daily schedule. If we go an hour

without thinking about God, ask for forgiveness and get back on the

journey. No matter how much you think you have lost, if you still have

Jesus left, then you have enough to make it in this life and in the

life to come.