Hindsight Is 2020
Key Passage: 1 Samuel 21
Date: June 7, 2024
Pastor asked me to give the testimony for tonight. So you are stuck with me up here. But I just thought about it. He asked me to give this testimony. And I thought, what does Rutherford County Church—I’m a little nervous now—what does Rutherford County Baptist Church mean to me? We’ve been here for a little over three years now, and we came straight out of Bible College.
I think about it. We never really were on our own after Bible College. This has been kind of a transition for all of us, my wife and I, to be on our own, to be out of Bible College, to be working somewhere in the ministry. I didn’t think that I would be able to get right out of Bible College to a place to serve, and the Lord had a different way, and I’m so thankful for that.
I just wanted to take this time to thank you all for being so kind to us, kind to our family. We’ve learned so much since we’ve been here. We got married, and I think we moved here; we were married for seven months, something like that, six, seven months. We were newly married coming here, had a baby on the way, and we had so much to learn. We’re just so thankful for y’all taking us in and all the little gifts, the notes, the smile, encouragement, the friendship. It’s all been very helpful to us, and I just wanted to give a testimony. It’s just been such a blessing to be here. We’ve called this our home. This is where we want to be. This is where the Lord has led us.
I’m just so thankful. We’ve kind of grown in our marriage, and now I’m a father of two. It’s just amazing what the Lord has taught us since being here. I’m very thankful for our pastor. I had a guy who was in Bible College with me. We finished about the same time, and he left to go to a church. That pastor was telling him one thing over the phone, but when he got there, he believed totally different.
I’m thankful we have a pastor that says what he believes and believes what he says. I’m so thankful for that being my mentor, my friend, and my pastor—my preacher. I love calling him preacher because that’s what he is to me. It means something when I call him preacher. I’m thankful for the things that we’ve learned here. One of the things that sticks in my mind probably the most out of the preacher’s messages is when he preached about training up, and he used this story. I don’t remember if it was a peach tree or what.
He used a story about a tree that you have to train up, training up your children. That meant a lot to me, just in those formative years, here we are with our new kids.
I’m very thankful for our pastor, and I’m thankful for you guys. I’m thankful I came here with zero music knowledge. Praise the Lord, I have a wife that graduated with a four-year music degree. You’ve been very patient with me, those that have been in choir, and even congregation singing. I still make a ton of mistakes, but I appreciate you being so patient with me and patient with me as I preach.
I was listening to one of my old sermons—the first sermon I preached when I was here—and it’s just amazing. Y’all didn’t kick me out. You didn’t say, “All right, we don’t want this guy.” I’m very thankful for y’all being so kind to us. It’s neat. One of the biggest things that sticks out to me is the soul winning: spring campaign, fall campaign, soul winning. We just get on the “attack bus,” as I call it. We get out there, getting in the neighborhoods, and just to see church members—it’s not something preachers have to come up here and point you out by name.
And say, “Hey, you need to come out.” He’ll encourage you, and we get on that bus. There’s such a fervor, there’s an excitement about going and telling people about Jesus, and I love that. I’m just excited about what the future has for our church. I’m excited with the new property being purchased, the plans that are being formed even right now, and I’m thankful to be a part of that. My wife and I both are just thankful to be here. So thank you guys for that.
Please open to 1 Samuel 21.
In God’s Word, it’s our 11th Wednesday night on the subject of the life of David. We’re at the segment of his life when King Saul is seeking to kill David. David is basically for years just running and hiding and going to different places and whatnot. We’re kind of at the beginning of that period of his life.
We’re going to try to pull out three things, things I think God would have us to face tonight on that. The title of the whole thing would be, “Hindsight is 20/20.” I thought that would be fitting. It’s 5/20, 2020, you know. So, “Hindsight is 20/20.” Every once I try—all right, you got to give me credit for trying. But 1 Samuel 21, and we’re in verse number 10. 1 Samuel 21 and verse number 10. Would you please stand as we read God’s Word together? I appreciate your faith in us. Praise the Lord, you’re in church on a Wednesday night. That’s awesome. Two visitors on a Wednesday night. That’s wonderful. Glad to have you both with us tonight. That’s just great.
Verse number 10. The Bible says, “And David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul,” and went to Achish, the king of Gath. I’ve heard it pronounced “Akeish.” How do you want to pronounce it? Now, let me just say a word about Gath. Gath, in many ways, was the headquarters of the Philistines. It was kind of like their capital. So you’ve got David going over to the capital of the enemies, if you will. Okay.
The servants of Achish said unto him, “Is not this David, the king of the land?” By the way, that wasn’t true. He wasn’t yet; Saul was still king. There were rumors and whatnot, and that’s what they had heard. “Did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”
And David laid up those words in his heart and was sore afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. He changed his behavior before them and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Then said Achish and his servants, “Lo, you see the man is mad. Wherefore then have you brought him to me? Have I need of a madman? He had brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence.” So, this fellow coming to my house—David therefore departed thence and escaped to the cave of Adullam.
I’ll just say a word about the cave of Adullam. I don’t know that we’re going to discuss it—I’d like to, one of these days, I don’t know if I’m going to do it—but you can actually look up online about the cave of Adullam. It’s very interesting, just a perfect hideout for about 400 men. It has several different entrances coming in and out, and then you get inside and you’re shocked how big and large it is—just perfect. They hid out there for a while, but I don’t think we’ll really get to that tonight. This thing here about him going to Achish, or Gath, we’re going to talk about that a little bit at the beginning.
Let’s pray. Would you ask God to speak to your heart, please, as I do the same? Father, Lord, these people came to Your house. They’re trying to follow You, Lord, they love You. And, Lord, they need—and we need—Your touch from heaven, Lord. Father, You said You’ve chosen the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. So, Lord, I pray You use it tonight just to be a help to Your people. Give them what they need. Grow us, Lord, in You. Give us wisdom for You. And, Lord, we’ll thank You and praise You for what You do, Lord. Father, we’re asking for You to touch us everyone because of Jesus. So, Father, we’ll thank You for it in Jesus, and we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
I want you to go back and just very quickly look in verse number 10 there. “And David arose and fled that day for,” what’s the next word? Fear. Fear made his decision. Saul is trying to kill him. He had gotten the bread—remember we talked about that last week—got the sword of Goliath, but he said, “Well, Saul’s going to find out.” And fear drove him to go to the enemy’s camp. That’s the headquarters of the Philistines. That’s, if you will, the lifelong enemies of Israel. Fear caused that decision.
Now, here’s something interesting. Once he got over there, fear didn’t leave him. There was fear there also. Look, if you will, in verse number 12. He’s over there in Gath, where he ran to. And they’re over there saying, “Well, he’s the king,” and they’ve said, “Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands,” and they’re saying all these words. And what happens? Verse number 12: “And David laid up these words in his heart and was sore afraid.” Now, maybe it was pretty crafty of him to come up with this madman routine, you know. But he wouldn’t have had to come up with a madman routine if he hadn’t been in the enemy’s camp.
Fear is what made these decisions. Fear caused him to run over there. And then fear said, “Oh, I got to do something. This guy’s about to kill me.” And fear made him act like a madman. He got out of that, but here’s what—briefly here—we’ve discussed this before. Can I just say fear is a bad decision-maker? Let God be your decision-maker. Let faith be your decision-maker, not fear. Fear is always—it’s a bad decision-maker.
There have been a lot of young ladies and young men sometimes who, out of fear that they’ll never find the right one, dated a person—well, not just dated—and they’ll end up marrying the wrong person because you don’t want to get in there a little bit. Your heart gets in there; it’s hard to turn back. Out of fear, they think they’ll never find anybody better, so they just kind of settle. Fear is a bad decision-maker.
A lot of people have never tithed, just out of fear. I’m not saying that necessarily for the church; God takes care of the church. But for their sake, they would be so much better off, but they let fear make that decision. I wonder how many people have died and gone to hell. They may have gotten saved if someone—I want to witness to them—but they didn’t witness to them because fear made the decision. Fear will paralyze you when it comes to witnessing to someone. It’s amazing; fear is a bad decision-maker.
I’m not saying every one of our people should be in church tonight, and I praise the Lord for those who are watching online tonight. I’m not saying ever that one of them should be in church, but I’m sure there are some who ought to be here, and God has already spoken to their heart about being here, but just fear. And fear—I’m not saying, I’m not making the decision for everyone. I understand Brother Glenn; I understand what he told me about this. I understand that perfectly. He’s about to visit his wife in the hospital and so on. I don’t know every situation, but I guarantee you there are some making this decision out of fear. And fear is a bad decision-maker.
I wonder how many have never stood for truth on the job out of fear. Man, I’ve been there. I’ve been there in factories and welding shops. I think one time walking in the break room, there were only a handful of guys, maybe 10, 12 guys in there. They were talking about how queers, homosexuals, sodomites—whatever we call them—were born that way. It would have been easy to just eat my meal over there and not say anything. But somebody needs to stand up. Now, in love, not hypocritical, not yelling, screaming at them, but somebody needs to stand up and voice God’s side: that God doesn’t make someone like that. They chose to do that. Just because it feels natural doesn’t mean God made them like that. Sin always feels natural. Was everybody happy? No. But don’t let fear make your decision.
I wonder how many ministries have never been started for the Lord, whatever the ministry may be—neighborhood Bible studies, telling you back to all with the kids of the neighborhood. How many of them haven’t been started? This fear, this fear is not a good decision-maker.
David made his decisions here. David was a great man, but man, hindsight’s 20/20. How did that work out when he went over to Gath? Well, not too good. He had to let this spit run down his beard. How about being good at the scribbling on the gate? Oh, amen, I could have done that, you know. Tell you what, Brother Kevin, I think you read those things over there tonight; I noticed that. But I’ve been good at that.
I wonder how many have never stood up to the bully in their life out of fear. Say, growing adults—oh yeah, there’s always bullies around—just fear. Don’t let fear be your decision-maker. Act in faith in the face of fear. For the most part, you’re not going to get to the point where you get rid of fear. It’s going to be there, but act in faith in the face of fear.
Abraham followed God to a land he had never seen. Was he afraid? I guarantee he was afraid. In fact, he didn’t quite leave until God told him to, but eventually he did in faith. Moses overcame this stuttering, you know, his speech, and he overcame the fear. Praise the Lord, he did in time. Elijah faced 850 prophets of Baal in that epic showdown on Mount Carmel. He faced it. Esther faced certain death to save her people from genocide, basically, and she faced it. She faced her fear.
Face—like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They said, “No, we’re not going to bow the knee. No, go ahead and throw us in. God is able, but if not, we’re not going to bow the knee.” They faced it. Face your fear. Mary overcame the fear of being unwed—not fully married. They were espoused, not stronger than engagement, but not fully married. Imagine all the talk around town, and there was a chance of her death even at that time. Joseph faced the fear of taking her to be his wife when everybody was saying all these things, and he had never seen a virgin give birth. But out of faith, he overcame these things. Great Christians have overcome fear over the years simply by faith. You’ve got to say, “We’ll make this decision in faith, and I’m going to follow what God wants me to do.” In faith, I cannot let fear make my decision.
I was so happy when one of our people the other day told me their hours had been cut, the couple’s finances are tight, but they’re still tithing. Well, that’s faith. I’m not saying that, like I said earlier, I’m saying that God takes care of them for that. By the way, so often when fear is there, when we need to tithe—well, when our finances got tight, we said, “Man, we’ve got to make sure we’re tithing because we need God’s blessing right now, that’s for sure.” But it’s faith or fear. Faith.
Let’s look at a couple other things. It’s easy for us; we’re looking back, you know. I don’t know what I would have done, but hindsight’s 20/20. We can look at it now and find out what happened with that decision out of fear. Let’s look at another thing, hindsight. Let’s jump over to chapter number 22. We’ll read the first verse there. Let’s get a couple of verses there. Chapter 22. We just have two more points. Y’all still with me? Awake out there? Man, nobody’s snoring yet? Wow. Brother Heard, thank you. Chapter 22, here we go. Here we go. Chapter 22.
Look in verse number one. “David, therefore, departed thence and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither unto him. And everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and they became a captain over them: and there were with him about 400 men.” By the way, Chronicles adds more into that, and David kind of tested those men, saying, “Hey, you’re going to follow me or not.” Finally, they said, “We’ll follow.” He said, “All right,” you know. But let’s keep going here a little bit. Verse number three.
And David went thence to Mizpah of Moab. Let’s just pause for a second. I’m sorry, but I want to just say a word or two here. Remember Moab? A couple generations before, remember that lady that came from Moab? That’s David’s great-grandmother, Ruth, the Moabitess. So it kind of makes a little bit of sense. David is taking his mom and dad. They have some roots back over there, see? He takes his mom and dad over there to Moab. Well, that’s where great-grandmother Ruth was from, see? So it makes a little bit of sense why David is taken into Moab.
Verse number 3: “And David went thence to Mizpah of Moab. Excuse me, went thence to Mizpah of Moab. And he said unto the king of Moab, ‘Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth and be with you till I know what God will do for me.’” I like that. And he brought them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold.
I felt like the Lord just wanted us to point out some things since we’re looking back in hindsight. Remember when David—and I’ve said it so many times—David was the little shepherd boy. Samuel the preacher comes. God said one of those boys is going to be king. Jesse brought Eliab, the oldest one, and Abinadab, I think it’s the second one, but all seven brothers were there. God kept saying, “Nope, nope, nope. Don’t look at the height of the captain. It’s all that. I look at the heart.” And none of them. The Bible says Jesse, Dad, brought him by there again, two times. Finally, old Samuel said, “You don’t have any more boys than this?” “Well, yeah, I do, but he’s out in the woods watching the sheep.” I’ve said it so often: How would that make you feel if you were David?
“Dad really believes in me.” For whatever reason, someone will say, “Well, maybe it’s because he’s trying to protect David.” Well, what boy wants his dad to protect him like that when he’s going to make him king? Whatever the excuse. Jesse just didn’t call David until Samuel said, “We’re not eating. No fried chicken tea. Get that boy.” I mean, anybody get that boy after that? Come on now. Imagine that—just the family dynamics there. Okay, you kind of got that in your mind? Dad didn’t even want to call for David.
Then a little bit later on, Dad says, “Hey, David, won’t you go over there and bring some food to your three oldest brothers in battle?” Remember, that’s when old Goliath, big mouth, came out there and started—ah—the fires. Remember all that? You know that. That’s when David said, “Well, boy, somebody needs to shut that big mouth trap up over there.” Remember what his oldest brother, Eliab, said? “Well, you little brat, you! I know the naughtiness of your heart. You’re proud.” Let me use that word: pride.
Here’s the thing: David was so wise. We preached about one of these ones and that, but David—the Bible says, here’s the exact word, I know it because I wrote it down, amen—he turned from him. David was so wise. I said, “That’s not my fight. My fight is over there with that guy, Goliath.” Imagine that. David is the one they wouldn’t call when somebody was going to be anointed king. And then David is the one—the oldest brother—is just going after this younger brother here. Yet in the end, the family comes to David. David has to take care of them.
Even the brothers. Let’s look back to that one verse there—verse number one: “David, therefore, departed thence to the cave of Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither unto him.” David is the one who has to take Mom and Dad over to Moab, introduce them to the king over there, and say, “Hey, take care of him.”
Here’s the thing in this point number two, hindsight, you know, is so much better. But the outcome is so much better when God is fighting the battles. I really think—and we have nothing recorded of David getting mad at his brothers when, “Well, Dad, why didn’t you call me? You know I was one of your sons,” and Jesse had to ask twice, and why didn’t you—Samuel had to ask twice—why didn’t you come get me? Never recorded. Fighting with his brothers, his dad. Then later on, the older brother wants to fight with David, just getting on to David. It doesn’t record David complaining about my older brother and this. David just turned from him. I’m saying, unless God wants you to fight that battle—and by the way, He can make it very clear that God fights those battles—the outcome is so much better when God fights it.
David ends up the guy, really, that’s kind of keeping the family together with all that’s going on. They go to David. David becomes the leader of the family. The brothers come to him, and he leads them. Mom and Dad—he’s with Mom and Dad, “Let’s go to Moab, take care of you there.” It’s just so much better when God is fighting the battles. So many times, I get out there, I want to fight the battle. God says, “All right, let’s see how you do over there.” And 20 years later, we’re still fighting the battle—a bunch of fighting, bickering, and fussing, all. God can handle those battles.
It’s amazing; often, not always, but often God makes it so those that are coming at us—when God fights—so often, those are the people that end up needing us. Think about old Joseph. His brothers hated him, the Bible says. They talked about killing him, and finally old Reuben—he said, “No, no, no, let’s get a little money. Let’s not kill him,” and all that. You know the story. He was planning on getting mad there, but anyway, they sold him, and they hated him. Yet in the end, Joseph took care of them. In the end, they came, and they’re bowing down to him. And even after Dad dies, David said, “I’m not here to hurt you. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. I’m going to nourish you.” That’s when God fights battles.
By right, can I just say, well, it takes some time—longer than it did for Joseph, years and years? Sometimes we’re not willing to wait on the Lord like we ought. Told him about me. Remember old Jephthah? His mom was a harlot, and the other boys, you know, from the other mom there, so they said, “We’re going to kick you out.” And they kicked him out. Yet when the enemy came—the Ammonites—and they were coming after him, you know what? “Jephthah, we need you. Come on to help us out.” God took care of Jephthah.
It’s interesting, Elijah and Ahab. Boy, they had an interesting relationship. First Kings 17—Elijah’s not mentioned, and all of a sudden, in First Kings 17, Elijah is just on the scene. Man, he’s got a 25-foot long finger pointing out: “Ahab, you’re the guy,” you know? They battled it out and battled it out. Ahab tried to kill Elijah; he was chasing him and Jezebel. But in the end, at the very end of Ahab’s life, Ahab humbled himself. God had pronounced judgment on him and his family. God said, “Hey, Elijah, go tell him the good news: It’s not going to happen in your lifetime because he humbled himself.” In the end, Ahab needed Elijah. Elijah was the one to deliver the message to him. I’m just saying, so often when you fight the battle—excuse me—when you let God fight the battle, in the end, you end up meeting them. It’s amazing how God does that so often.
Moses and the children of Israel—they’re complaining. They’re murmuring so often against Moses. It’s amazing. Moses must have been a patient man, I tell you for sure. Poor Moses. They went after him, but so often God was going to pour His wrath out on Israel, and Moses is the one who had to stand up and pray for them. God said, “All right, I withhold My hand of judgment because of Moses’s prayer.” They needed Moses. How about Job and his three, quote-unquote, friends that came after Job? “Man, you’re a liar, you hypocrite, and you’re a deceiver,” and all that. Yet in the end, what God said: “Hey, fellas, you better get Job to pray for you. I’m not going to hear your prayers. You better get Job. Ask Job to pray for you.” They needed old Job.
It’s amazing how God works so often when we let Him fight our battles. How about Moses and his sister Miriam? She started complaining about him and who he married and his leadership and all that. God struck her with leprosy. Say, if your dad would have spit in your face, you wouldn’t be doing this thing here. If Dad just got on to you instead of saying no to you and put his foot down, it wouldn’t be going on. But it did. And what happened? Moses had to pray for his sister: “Lord, I know she’s my sister. I understand, Lord. I’ve been living with her for a long time. I understand about her, but would You have mercy?” Now, I’m being physician a little bit, but really, most of that was to pray. And that’s the seven days outside the camp.
How about Jesus and Jerusalem? He wept over Jerusalem. Yet they came after Jesus. They were the ones crying, “Crucify them, crucify them, crucify them, crucify them.” Yet, praise the Lord, I’m sure about 3,000 saved, and then 5,000 men saved—I’m sure some of those were that same crowd—they knew they needed Jesus. I’m just saying, do right. God can fight our battles. He does so much better than me. Unless God clearly leads you to stand up and say, “All right, I need you to be involved in this one,” let God fight battles. He can handle them.
It reminds me of Romans 12, verse number 20. It says, “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” I mentioned before, but it’s interesting that phrase, “heap coals of fire on their head.” I think it has to do with: if I fight my battles, their head just keeps popping up. We fight and fight and fight. God heaps coals of fire. Who wants to raise their head when you have coals of fire up there? Man, you keep your head down on that.
I love this verse. You can look it up; you’ll know it. It’s Exodus 14:14. One of my favorite verses; it’s a wonderful verse. Exodus 14:14—it’s a good one. It says this: Exodus 14:14 is a good verse. I like it, of course, it’s God’s Word. I like it. Old brother Bobby Robertson was the one who pointed it out to me. He’s one of my heroes in heaven now. That’s a good verse, though, but it says this, Exodus 14:14: “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” That’s a good one to claim.
People are going to come at you from time to time, and it’s not going to make sense why they’re coming at you. You’re just not going to understand why in the world—what are they ever doing? It doesn’t make sense. Sometimes you just got to let God handle those things. “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” The good thing is when God takes care of it…
David ends up leading the family. He’s going to take care of them all. They came to him; David has to take care of them. I’m just saying, when you let God take care of problems, God does a much better job taking care of it than me. Hindsight’s 20/20. Let’s get this last thing in. Look over in chapter number 22, just one verse, and we’ll be done. First, we talked about don’t let fear make your decision. That comes better when God fights my battles. Then the last thing, real quickly, chapter 22, look in verse number five. Verse 22, verse number five. Are you all there tonight? Amen? Good, good. I appreciate you staying along in faith.
Verse number five there: “And the prophet Gad said unto David, ‘Abide not in the hold.’” I tried to find out a little bit where exactly this hold was, and I don’t know that we can really nail it down; people say different things. But I believe it was in Moab. It wasn’t in Judah. I know that because of the rest of the verse: “Abide not in the hold, depart, and get thee into the land of Judah.” Then David departed and came to the forest of Hereth. Here’s the thing: God didn’t want David hanging out over there. I don’t understand everything about it. Maybe he would have gotten caught by Saul. Maybe Saul would have killed him there. Maybe God just didn’t want David to hang out over in Moab. Maybe there was too much stuff over there in Moab. Not sure. But here’s the last point: God can give you leadership, and He will, if you are acknowledging Him in all of your ways. He’ll give you leadership right when you need Him.
David would have been stuck in this hold. I don’t know the outcome if David had stayed there; not sure. But right when David needed some leadership about a decision, God gave it to him. You can bank on it: when you need God’s leadership, if you’re looking for it, you’re yielded to Him, He’ll give it to you. I’ll never forget years ago—years ago—it was a pretty large decision about someone being in a certain position in church years ago. I was about to pick up the phone to call someone and ask them to do something. It would have been a major mistake. It would have been a bad mistake. I was praying, “Now, Lord, at best I know this is Your will; if it’s not Your will, please stop me.” I was literally about to pick the phone up, literally, and it rang before I could pick it up and call.
That phone call had major effects on that decision. By the time that phone call was done, I knew that was a horrible decision. I’m saying, right when I needed it. If you are seeking God’s leadership in your life and His will for your life, right when you need it, it’ll be there. It always will be there. It is a wonderful promise. Look over in Proverbs 3, verse number six. Proverbs 3, verse number six—many of you might know it. Proverbs 3, a lot of times we’ll do five and six together, but let’s just focus on six for a moment here. Proverbs 3, look in verse number six right there. He says, “In all thy ways acknowledge him.”
We’ll go back to it. Here’s the promise: “And he shall direct thy paths.” That’s a promise from God. “He shall”—that’s sure. You can count on it. You can bank on it. “He shall direct thy paths.” Guaranteed. Now, I’ve got to acknowledge Him. Here’s the thing: in all my ways. Sometimes I think, “All right, Lord, is there an area that I’m not acknowledging You in? You’re in charge of that area in my life. I’m acknowledging You’re God: my finances, my family, my marriage, my every—my pastoring, my every area.” Acknowledge Him in all thy ways. “All right, Lord, You have control over this area, how I handle this situation, how I handle this situation.” Acknowledge Him in all the ways. And God says, “I direct.” By the way, there’s peace there. All right, He’s going to direct in His time. Sometimes you’ve got to wait a little bit.
Sometime again, “All right, God promised me He’ll do it. Don’t know how to fret about it.” Maybe you need to go over: “All right, Lord, I’ll make sure I’m going to—is there an area I’m not acknowledging You in?” And I ask Him, and the Holy Spirit speaks to you, “Oh, I want to acknowledge that area also.” Now we’ve acknowledged Him in all your areas. There’s a peace. God said He’ll direct; He will. Maybe I have to wait a little bit; that’s all right. But when I need it, He’ll direct. He always does.
He says, “Promise.” David is in this hold, and I don’t know the end of it, but when David needed some direction, God gave it to him. He always does. I was a youth pastor in another state years ago, and we felt like the Lord was leading us on, so we just moved—moved to another state and moved on. About two years later, a church across town from that church called us and said, “Hey, we want you to come up here and preach and maybe be a candidate to take the pastorate.” They needed a pastor; some of the people I knew had moved over, whatnot. I thought, “Well, I’ll come preach, but I won’t candidate.” I had been taught ethically that’s not right; that’s just what I’ve been taught for years and years. I can’t do that. I came and preached there, and some of our old friends, good people, were there. I went and preached there.
I went back to where we lived in another state. We were moving. I went to see my pastor there before we moved. In fact, we were talking about moving. He said, “I believe you ought to move and so on,” and moving back up to college. I told him about the situation, and he said, “Oh, that town’s big enough. You’re going to be across town, whatnot, and you need to go there as pastor.” I said, “Well, I’ve always heard all my life that’s not right.” He said, “Oh, it’s big enough. It’s no problem at all—building and land and all that paid for, parsonage and all that good stuff.” He said, “Man, you ought to go there. There’s a good opportunity.” So we had already got everything in motion to move. We moved back up to Indiana. I called the people. I said, “All right. I’ve been advised, and I’m going to follow. He’s my father; I’m going to follow his advice. So I’ll come to preach. I want to be a candidate.”
He said, “Now, his old friend—he’s in heaven now—he said, ‘Well, you know, if I call you a candidate, it’s pretty much a done deal, unless we find out you have some crazy belief or something we didn’t know about.’” I said, “Well, you know, I do have a couple crazy beliefs. I believe you ought to have ice cream every Sunday night after church and fried chicken every Sunday afternoon.” He said, “Probably a done deal.” So, all right, we set it all up, and I was coming—I think maybe the next night or two. It’s funny. I worked second shift at the time at a factory, and I couldn’t go to Wednesday night church. John was just a little fellow, maybe three or four. He was sick. Tammy was home with the kids, and she said usually—usually she’d just stay home, couldn’t put him in the nursery because they wouldn’t allow him to have a temperature in there. But she said, for some unusual reason, “I’m going to go to church tonight.” She couldn’t put him in the nursery, so she couldn’t go in the main sanctuary. There’s a hallway around, and they have the service playing on a speaker in the hallway. She just said, “I’m going to be in church.” She said, man…
Just amazing. She said pretty much from the beginning to the end of the message, Brother Howe just got up and preached the whole time about why it is ethically not right to go to a town where you’ve been pastor, youth pastor at, and it’s going to divide God’s people. She said the whole message. In fact, we have the tape and all that later on. I was about to make that decision; God made it so clear. I remember before cell phones were popular, I had to go to a phone booth in Indiana and call that fellow back and say, “Hey, look, I just told him everything. I said, ‘I just feel like God’s speaking to me. I can’t make that decision. I can’t do that.’” The preacher preached the whole message, and he had no idea about anything going on. He just preached on it right when I needed it. That’s been what, 23 years ago? I’m so glad I didn’t go there. Praise God, we’re over in middle Tennessee now. I love it. The first time in our life, my wife and I just felt at home when we came to LaVergne and Smyrna. We both just looked at each other: “We’re finally home.” I thank God for that. I’m saying God gave me the leadership right when I needed it, and He always will. Always. “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
David is in that hold. I don’t know how—I don’t know exactly where the hold was. I take it as Moab because it wasn’t in Judah. I wonder how the preacher found him. Go Prophet. God must have guided him, saying, “David’s over there. Go talk to that boy; he needs some direction.” God will always send this message to you, always when you need it.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? Three things.
You said, “Preacher, God spoke to my heart. I’m not going to let fear make my decision. I’m going to try to make it in faith. Whatever the Lord wants, that’s what I want to do. I’m not going to make my decision out of fear.” God spoke to my heart about that. That’s you, that’s you, that’s me. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Thank you for letting the Lord work in your hearts. Me too. If you hear tonight, you say, “Preacher, I need to trust God to take care of the battles, the situations. I need to let Him fight it. I want to be there just standing, whatever You want, Lord, I’ll do it, but I need to let Him fight them. He does a better job.” God spoke to my heart about that. I want Him to fight my battles and trust Him during the situation. If God spoke to my heart about that—God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. That’s one for me too. Me too. Thank you so very, very much for letting the Lord work in your heart.
“Preacher, I’m going to acknowledge Him in all my ways, and I’m going to trust in His leadership. I’m just going to trust. I’m going to wait. I’m going to follow. I’m going to have peace because He said He’ll direct. I’m just going to acknowledge Him.” You don’t just seek to acknowledge Him in all—I’m going to trust. I’m going to rest in faith in His leadership. God spoke to my heart about that tonight. That’s you, not slip in the bridge. That’s me. God bless you. Oh, He’s a wonderful guy. He’s a wonderful guy. God bless you. Thank you so very much. Thank you, sir.
Would you please stand? We’ll have a word of prayer, and our instrument will play. Would you just come spend some time with the Lord? Would you do that? Just crawl night to Him. Father, thank You, Lord. We have such a privilege from Your Word to look at the hindsight. Lord, I messed up 10,000 times, but it’s a blessing we look back at David’s life. Lord, help us to learn. Thank You for Your leadership. Thank You for You fighting our battles. Thank You so often how You make it turn around—just Your hand does it. Help us to rest in You during the meantime. Bless our people, Lord, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Original File: Hindsight Is 2020 - Pastor Paul Chisgar 52020