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Newington Three Angels Church

Eric Walsh

Strength in Times of Darkness

All right, we're gonna go right into God's word.

We have a full day today and we have a full church.

Good to see so many familiar faces and new faces.

And now that you've been here, you are no longer a visitor if this is your first time, you're part of the family.

So we're glad to have you and remind you again, 4.30, concert from BMA Academy.

Hope to see you all there and we're gonna get right into God's Word.

Our scripture reading was taken from 2nd Timothy chapter 4 starting at verse 2.

It says, preach the word, be instant in season.

Out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables." Our message this Sabbath is entitled Strength in Times of Darkness.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your Word.

Once again, Lord, I ask that you just make me a nail on the wall.

Hang upon that nail a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Father, we, more than ever, need a word from you.

So Lord, bless us now, not just in the preaching, Lord, but in the hearing and understanding of your word.

This is our prayer in Jesus's name, amen.

So we're gonna go to Psalm 56 in verse 1.

This message today is a message that has prophetic significance on the 1 hand, but on the other hand is very practical if you're going through something in your life right now, if you're facing trial and difficulty right now.

So the backdrop comes from Psalm 56, and I'm just gonna read the first 3 verses.

It says, be merciful unto me, O God, for man would swallow me up.

My enemies would daily swallow me up, for they be many that fight against me.

And then we're gonna go into a little more prophetic things at the end.

But David, at this point, David's story is an interesting story.

You all remember that David killed Goliath.

1 of the best stories in the Bible, the teenager comes, this giant warrior comes, Saul is like, you can't fight him, you're just a kid, he's been fighting since he was a kid.

They say Goliath could have been as tall as 14 feet, 15 feet tall.

David gets a stone, 5 stones, and a slingshot, and takes down the giant.

You would think after that he would forever be a national hero.

Saul, the guy who's basically the guy who basically he delivered from this giant because Saul was the king.

He was the 1 supposed to do the fighting.

David delivers him out of it and Saul grows to hate him.

And part of the reason why is because when they came back from battle, the women sang, Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his tens of thousands.

Can you imagine the ego of Saul when he heard that?

It starts in like 1 Samuel chapter 19 and David is there.

The Bible talks about how David would play the harp and the evil spirit would leave Saul.

But in 1 Samuel 19, David plays the harp and the evil spirit still affects Saul.

He becomes recalcitrant to the working of God even through holy music.

Saul is after him, but David makes a mistake.

He goes and he begins to work with the enemy, King Achish.

And he starts doing this mercenary behavior.

And then eventually he's rejected by the enemy.

In fact, David gets into a predicament where he almost had to fight against Israel for the Philistines.

And God delivers him by actually having the Philistines when David shows up with Achish to fight against Saul, they say, wait a minute, isn't this the guy that killed Goliath?

He's obviously working for the other side.

David and his 600 men have been rejected by Saul.

They've been rejected by Saul's enemies and they're going back to retreat to the town that they're just holding down, kind of like an old school Airbnb.

But on their way back, 1 Samuel 30 says this, And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag, that's the name of the town David was allowed to stay in, that on the third day, it was a three-day journey, that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag and smitten Ziklag, meaning they'd taken it over.

They went in and they took Ziklag, they took everything in it, and they set the entire town on fire.

Verse 2, they took the women captives that were therein, they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went on their way.

So they're coming back, David and his 600 men, they didn't have to fight like they thought they were going to have to fight.

They're walking back, and if you can imagine, from the distance, as they are coming over the hills of what is now southern Israel They see smoke ascending over the hills Now there's not much out there as you're gonna see I'll show you a map The battle that they were going to with the Philistines up top, where the green and the red arrows come together, but they were sent back, if you look at the bottom of the picture, you see Ziklag down there, they were sent all the way south.

So they were going 3 days journey away from the battle.

They thought that they would be safe because they went in the opposite direction of the war.

Sometimes we think that by avoiding conflict, we will avoid pain.

And sometimes the greatest pain comes because we've not addressed those things that need to be dealt with so David and his men were going back can you I want you to see it the smoke's coming up the town is on fire verse 3 and so David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire.

When they get to the city, the entire city has been burned with fire.

And their sons and their daughters were taken captive.

Then David and the people that were with him, who was with him, his 600 men, mighty men of war, lifted up their voice and wept, and I want you to see this, until they had no more power to weep.

This was so devastating, These 600 men left their families in the South.

They thought they left their wives and their children safe, but as they're coming back, they see the smoke.

You imagine they drop their armor, their weapons.

They see the smoke as they get closer and closer They don't hear anyone screaming.

They don't hear anyone speaking or shouting when they get there Everyone is gone.

The town has been burnt and they are left with nothing.

I Want to ask you a tough question Have you ever been to Ziklag?

Have you ever had a time in your life when Everything you held dear seemed like it was about to disappear I've had many a zick lag experience Many of them 1 of the most devastating ones was when my mother Called me that she was diagnosed with cancer.

That was a zick lag experience and it only got worse over the 3 years.

I still can remember Having to fly to Miami to deal with her death.

I can tell you it was so dark it made no sense She was so young so vibrant such a child of God It made no sense And sometimes even as you weep in those situations, tears are not enough.

Have you ever been in a zig lag where you've been lied upon?

Someone has mistreated you on the job, they've said things about you that's not true, that they've put you in a bad situation and it's as if you're defenseless.

Maybe you've been in a situation or in a relationship that turned into a ziklag.

You trusted and committed your life to a person and ultimately that person did not turn out to be like the children of God.

They were the Amalekites and took everything.

I want to submit to you that many of us will visit Ziklag.

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Strength in Times of Darkness

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