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Hello Redemption Church! I am sure missing be in the same room with you. I hope you don’t have corona virus quarantine blues. I am praying for you every day.
For you that are tuning in for the first time.. Welcome. I am Chris Fluitt. This is Redemption Church in Plano, Tx.
Everyone please let us know if you have any prayer requests, needs, or even praise reports.
CONTACT – 469-467-8111 info@redemption-church.com facebook.com/myredemption
I want to hear from you – Tell me something you can’t wait to do when we get past this covid-19 quarantine.
We are in the 4th week of the Circle Up series
Circle up
We need community. We need family. We need friendship. We need intimate relationships.
Last week we taught you how to draw a circle.
How to draw a circle
You can draw a circle by attaching your circle to a central anchor. We told you that Jesus is the best anchor for your circle.
A surrounding circle
I can imagine that some people may really resist a message of community.
- Perhaps you were injured by a community. Perhaps they betrayed your trust.
- It could be that you think community is a lot of work keeping people happy without really receiving any benefit in return.
Community circles require work on your part, but when done correctly they bring blessing, strength, and protection.
Think about football – The huddle is a circle. The huddle is an real authentic meeting… Plans are formed… because of the huddle the players walk to the line of scrimmage with confidence.
Circle the wagons – When pioneers needed protection they would make their wagon train form a circle. It offered protection during uncertain times.
A surrounding circle is beneficial.
Proverbs 15:22 (NIV) Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.
Psalm 133:1 (NIV) A song of ascents. Of David. How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!
Psalm 133:3 (NIV) It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.
1 John 1:7 (NIV) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
1 Peter 4:8-10 (NIV) Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
We need each other. We need to circle up. We need to surround each other.
Church we need to be a surrounding circle.
Encircle your family, friends, brothers, sisters, community, world…
Encircle the outcast, the widow, the orphan, those near and far…
It is good to be surrounded with love and care… But there are times of quarantine & isolation.
Quarantine & Isolation
It is strange to hear my 4 year old say the words “quarantine, social distancing, and corona virus.”
We are living in a time where we are to stay at home… Avoid contact with people… do not gather in groups beyond 10 people and stay more than 6 feet.
Corona has reminded us that there are times where you feel alone…. “Does anyone really care?” “No one calls me…”
We are in a time where we are limited… How can we really be there for our friends? How can we form a surrounding circle when we aren’t allowed near each other?
What am I going to do?
I can’t go to work… I can’t get paid…
I can’t go to the church and pray and hear the choir and experience the beauty of the sanctuary.
I can’t lean on my brother… That’s how you spread Corona.
I need a surrounding circle… but I look around and no one is there.
David in Philistia
Real quick Bible story context…
- David at a young age had been chosen by God to be the king of Israel.
- David later kills a giant named Goliath. Goliath is from an enemy nation called Philistia.
- David the giant killer and chosen of God is hated by the king who at that time sat on the throne of Israel.
- King Saul, in anger and jealousy, chases David completely out of Israel.
- David hides from Saul in what country? David goes to the land of Philistia. He goes first to the town of Gath… The hometown of the giant Goliath… and here he asks his enemies if he can stay in this area.
- David lived among his enemies.
David was quarantined. David was in isolation.
Was David still a man of God? Yes!
Were the promises of God still true? Did
God still have purpose for David? Yes!
Was David still a man after God’s own heart? Yes!
This was a lonely and difficult season for David. But His season had a reason
Your Season has a Reason.
I need to tell someone today, your season has a reason.
Your difficult circumstance does not define you. The promises of God are still true. God’s plan for you is not dictated by the storms of life.
Your season has a reason. Lord reveal the reason for this season.
So David is in Philistia
David in Philistia
He has part of his family with him and he has some men with him… and they
are living in quarantine & isolation in a small area called Ziklag… and
then things get worse… While David and his men were away the Amalekites
attacked Ziklag…
1
Samuel 30:1 (NIV) David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the
Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned
it,
1 Samuel 30:2 (NIV) and had taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way.
1 Samuel 30:3 (NIV) When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.
1 Samuel 30:4 (NIV) So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep.
1 Samuel 30:6 (NIV)
David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters…
Hold on… This was already a difficult season, but now it is worse. Can you relate?
Now David has no one… His nation of
Israel has rejected him… His family has been taken… And now his men want to
kill him.
Quarantine & Isolation
You may feel all alone right now. You may feel like no one cares. You may feel betrayed. You may feel lonely and cut off… BUT LOOK WHAT DAVID CAN TEACH YOU…
1 Samuel 30:6 (KJV) …but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
In the middle of his quarantine & isolation… when his family was gone, when his men wanted to kill him, when he was all alone, David remembered that God is a surrounding circle.
God is a surrounding circle
When no one is there, God is still there.
When no one cares, God still cares.
When everyone turns against you, God is still for you.
God is a surrounding circle.
Psalm 34:7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them.
Psalm 145:18 The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.
When Jacob was lost in the dessert…
Deuteronomy 32:10 “He found him in a desert land, And in the howling waste
of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the
pupil of His eye.
Psalm 139:5 You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.
Psalm 32:7 You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.
Psalm 125:2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So the LORD surrounds His people From this time forth and forever.
Zechariah 2:5 ‘For I,’ declares the LORD, ‘will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.'”
Proverbs 18:10 The name of the LORD is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.
Psalm 121 I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come
from? 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; 8 the Lord
will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
Psalm 91 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 1He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty 2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Psalm 139 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there…
even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Our God is a surrounding circle!
David encouraged himself in God!
Wherever you are I pray that the encouragement of the Lord would strengthen you!
David stood in the middle of a burnt to the ground Ziklag and found encouragement in God… and here is what happened next.
1 Samuel 30:7 (NIV) Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Bring me the ephod.” Abiathar brought it to him,
Bring me an Ephod
The Ephod is the clothing of a priest. Without digging into all the spiritual significance of the ephod.. When David asked for the Ephod he was asking to go into God’s presence… He was asking to go and ask God what he should do next… The ephod represents Worship & prayer! It represents the presence of God surrounding you!
1 Samuel 30:8 (NIV) and David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?” “Pursue them,” he answered. “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.”
God is a surrounding circle! David surrounded himself in God’s presence and God told Him what to do and how to be successful.
In a few moments were are going to be talking to God. You must surround yourself in God! You need to ask God what to do and how to be successful.
So David leaves Ziklag to go after the Amalekites and rescue his family. But it was not going to be easy to find the people who taken their family and stolen their wealth… these people did not want to be found… So watch what happens…
1 Samuel 30:11 (NIV) They found an Egyptian in a field and brought him to David. They gave him water to drink and food to eat—
1 Samuel 30:13 (NIV) David asked him, “Who do you belong to? Where do you come from?” He said, “I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite. My master abandoned me when I became ill three days ago.
When David in his isolation circled up with God, God led him to someone else who was isolated. This slave had become sick and was left to die.
You who are feeling isolated! God wants to encircle you with His love, strength, and care and he wants to lead you to others who are isolated.
1 Samuel 30:14 (NIV)
We raided the Negev of the Kerethites, some territory belonging to Judah and the Negev of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag.”
God brought David to this man to help him… and then David finds out that the person God brought him to had the information he needed.
When you surround yourself in God, every meeting can be a God ordained moment!
The Egyptian leads David to the raiders…
1 Samuel 30:17 (NIV) David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day, and none of them got away, except four hundred young men who rode off on camels and fled.
1 Samuel 30:18 (NIV) David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives.
1 Samuel 30:19 (NIV) Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back.
1 Samuel 30:20 (NIV) He took all the flocks and herds, and his men drove them ahead of the other livestock, saying, “This is David’s plunder.”
Quarantine & Isolation
What started in disaster… quarantine & isolation… and attack and betrayal had become a blessing.
Your Season has a Reason.
In this season David found he could encourage himself in the Lord!
In this season David put on an Ephod of Prayer & Praise!
In this season David helped the Egyptian in need.
In this season David recovered everything that had been taken and received more than had been taken.
You are not a loser in this season. You are going to win. You are going to gain.
IF GOD IS YOUR SURROUNDING CIRCLE
God is a surrounding circle