When God Says No: The Grace of Closed Doors

Amen. Thank you for that good prayer. If you have your Bibles with you, let's turn to 1st Samuel chapter 29. We're going to jump back into our uh study in the book of Samuel. And I think it'll be um I think it'll be helpful today. Follow along if you got a Bible. uh if you don't pull one out of the pew or pull it up on your phone. 1st Samuel chapter 29. I think you'll see some things in scriptures along with me that'll help you win your life because every one of us has had or will have this experience where you pray for something, you put yourself in a position to get it and it was a big fat heavenly divine no. And I got to be honest with you, when I hear no from heaven, I feel a little bit abandoned because I prayed. I positioned myself. I prepared. And then the door shut and not quietly either. It slammed. And sometimes I and and maybe some of y'all don't necessarily interpret the shut door as an act of love. We kind of interpret it as kind of a a letdown. It's like, you know, you say things like, "God, why did you bring me this far just to stop me?" And it's moments like these that 1st Samuel chapter 29 stand in holy contradiction to our feelings because it's in this chapter that God protects David. Not by opening a door but by saying no and stopping in his path. And here's the other thing. David doesn't even know that the Lord's doing it. So before we get into chapter 29, let's let's go back to figure out how we got here. We need to understand how David got here because nobody see David is uh he's in the land of Gath. He's serving Aesh the king. Y'all remember this. We got here in chapter 27. So, three chapters ago, three chapters ago, David is sitting around and nobody here, nobody, nobody, nobody here wakes up and thinks, you know what, I'm going to go live with the Philistines. But when we look at the story of David, nobody here decides, you know what? I'm gonna go live a life that's not honoring to God. And yet, how how do we wind up doing things like that? And that's where David's going to come and instruct it because the way he got to the land of Philistines didn't start in chapter 29. It started in chapter 27. David was tired. Y'all remember this from sermons gone by. Saul had been chasing him. Now remember, David's been anointed to be the king. He knows he has a divine calling. He's got an identity, the future king of Israel. But Saul's been chasing them for years. He's been fighting battles for years. He's been uh pursued relentlessly for years. The pressure has been mounted for years. But then in chapter 27, there's a key verse and it says, "And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul." And that's the problem right there, dude. You're not going to perish. God told you to be the future king. Saul's not going to take your head. But he said in his heart, there's the problem. He said it in his heart. not in prayer and in his heart. And and when you start making decisions based on fear instead of faith, you can end up in a place that feels safe but really is spiritually dangerous. You can end up in the land of the Philistines. So here David is, he goes to Akash, who's king of Gath. Gath people, that ought to ring a bell because that's the hometown of Goliath. And now David finds himself living in the shadow of a victory that God once gave him. And this this is the subtle drift because he went to Aash for survival, but it was survival at first, but then it became a strategy. Then it became a settlement for 16 months. Let me say that again. For 16 months. In case you missed it, for 16 months he's living in the land of the enemy. For 16 months, he's waking up in the wrong place. And then going to sleep there again. For 16 months, he's learning the rhythms. He's speaking their language. He's adapting to their ways. He's picking up their nuances. And here's what's dangerous about that. What starts out as survival can slowly become a settlement. And at first, David is just trying to stay alive. Then he's trying to stay comfortable. Then without ever saying it out loud, he starts to belong. And and that's for 16 months. 16 months is long enough for something that is completely foreign to start to feel familiar. It's long enough for something that's wrong start to feel right. It's long enough for your environment to start uh shaping your instincts. And here's the scary part when we read through here. Nothing in this text, nothing in this text says that David sought the Lord about any of it. There wasn't a prayer uttered. There wasn't an inquiry made. There's no shall I go. There's no shall I stay. It's just movement without consultation. It's it's direction. It's it's decisions without divine direction. And it's times passing without any surrender at all to the Lord. And and that silence is kind of loud because this is the David. This is the David who once wouldn't even lift a sword without talking to God first. This is the same David who inquired of the Lord before the battles. This is the same David who wrote all the psalms. But right here, there is no recorded dependence on God at all. And so what we're looking at for this 16 month, he just didn't relocate. He drifted. And these kinds of drifts don't happen all at once. Nobody announces it. Nobody schedules it. Nobody says, "Today I begin my slow departure from dependence on God." It kind of happens quietly. And this is what's important. This is how the United States is responsible for some of the statistics that we were talking about. It happens one unpraed prayer at a time. It happens um one rationalization at a time. It happens one compliment at a times. It happens one this makes sense at a time until one day you look up and you are far from where you were but you're even farther from where God called you to be. So I want I want to say this as plainly as I can before we jump right in. You can be chosen and still drift. You can be anointed and still wander. You can have a calling on your life and end up in the wrong place. Hear me. If you don't write anything down, write this down.

Being anointed doesn't mean you're on autopilot. You can wind up in the wrong place and be anointed all day long. And make no mistake about it, all children of God, all the born again who outnumber the sands of the sea and the stars of the sky, number so vast that no man can number them. People that are going to heaven in this earth, on this life, can wind up in the most miserable spots. So I say that because your anointedness does not guarantee your godliness. Your anointedness does not eliminate your choices. Your anointedness doesn't eliminate drift. So here's what I want to encourage y'all to do. I want to encourage you from the young to the old. You got to be intentional about your life. And you have to intentionally seek God in worship, in prayer, and thoughts and actions and votes that you cast. Intentionally seek God. or you may unintentionally start settling somewhere that you were never meant to be. You will wind up in the land of the Philistines if you don't have an intentional life about you. So here we go. Chapter 29 verse one. Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphac. So this is a this is large. This is not going to be a small skirmish. This is full mobilization. War is coming. They're going to wipe out a civilization. And this isn't just any war. Israel's the target. David's people, David's promise, David's future. Verse two tells us, "And David and his men passed on in the rear word of Aesh." Rearward, that's one of those older words that means the rear guard. And and that's what makes this so striking. A David is commanding a very strategic part of Aesh's army that's going to fight Israel. David, y'all, y'all get this. David is not just present with the Philistines. He's positioned with them. He's in formation. He's under command. He's marching into battle. He's a He's assigned a tactical role. David with the Philistines. And I say that and I wonder sometimes because I've been guilty of this, too. How many of y'all are fighting against your future right now? You got a future. Maybe God's put a calling on your life. Maybe maybe it's not your calling. Maybe you're fighting against your marriage. Maybe maybe by the decisions that you make. Maybe by the actions that you take or or worse yet for you passive aggressive people, actions you don't take. Or maybe it's by your attitudes. You know, our attitudes can affect our our future. They can actually fight against our future depending on the attitude that you take. Are you putting more faith in your your politics or in the Prince of Peace? Um, are you putting more faith in your wealth or or in the one that owns the cattle of a thousand hills? Are are you putting faith in your your your righteousness, which if I can be blunt is a joke? There is none righteous, know not one. You are altogether unprofitable. The poison of asps is upon your lips. That's how the Bible describes every single one of us. It gets even more graphic by saying that your righteousness is as filthy rags. That's that's a minstal call, people. That's the best you got to do on your best day, your most holy day, the best your righteousness is before God. So, where's your faith? Are you fighting against your future? Because David is, he's in not only fighting against the f, he's positioned with him. And it's all because of a drift. Because in ancient warfare, the person that was in charge of the rearward guard, they they they protected the army from surprise attacks from the back. They they kept the formation so that there's not going to be any stragglers or any desertions. They served as kind of a strategic reserve and and it was a place of trusted leadership. So this isn't some random placement. David is is not being scuffled off to the side. He is embedded in the military structure marching, aligning, moving forward. And this is staggering because this is the same David who killed Goliath, who led Israel's armies, who wrote the Psalms, who was anointed the king over the very people that they're going against. Do you see the tension? David is being put in a position to fight against the very people that God anointed him to lead. But I Hey, let's let's give him benefit of a doubt. I mean, David's earned that, right? Let's give him benefit of a doubt that he wasn't going to bring his agame to the battle. Or maybe he was thinking, "I'll do a surprise attack against the Philistines." We don't know because scripture is silent. There's nothing in his history, nothing in his heart that would suggest that he might raise his hand against God's people except where he's positioned. And because he stayed with the Philistines, he's put in a very compromised position because even if he doesn't attack Israel, Israel is going to be attacking them. So his people are at risk. He's going to lose something. Somebody's going to pay a price because David is now in a position where he cannot move forward without some sort of conflict. He's in the formation. He's under the command. He's moving towards the battle. And the battle is against Israel. And what happens before this moment comes? If he fights, he violates his identity. If he refuses, he exposes his allegiance. If he hesitates, somebody's going to die and he jeopardizes everyone around him. Because of David's decision, there is no clean way out of this battle. Not because David is necessarily evil, but because David, listen to me, because David is not operating in his true identity. David is not a soldier of the Philistines. He's the future king of Israel. How many of us are not operating in our true identity today? Brothers and sisters in Christ. So, here's the tension. He's not just near the wrong thing. He's positioned in where sooner or later something's got to give. And this is where the drift gets dangerous. Not when you forget who you are, but when the circumstances that you're in force you to act in a way that contradicts who you are. Here's the issue. Aesh trusted David completely. David seemed to trust Aesh's protection. But nowhere is David seeking the Lord. Not a prayer played, not a psalm written. And that's how drift works. You get confidence. You gain confidence of the wrong people while losing dependence on the right one. And this is what makes God's intervention in this chapter so powerful

because David is not at the edge of compromise considering it, praying about it. No, he's flirting with it. He's in a position in the un in the uniform, in the formation, in the rear guard. And that's when God steps in. Not earlier, not later, right at the point where compromise becomes action. So David just didn't wander into the wrong place. He actually took up position in it. So here's what I'm because here some people aren't just struggling because they are around something. Some of the struggles that some that may be listening right now, it's not because you're around it. It's because you're entrenched into it. You're positioned in a relationship that you know is wrong. You're you're positioned in a habit that's killing you. You're positioned with a mindset that's poisoning you. You're positioned in a compromise that's killing you. And sometimes our Lord doesn't gently whisper. He reassigns you. He removes you. He shuts the door because he knows that if you stay there, you're going to act. Maybe the Lord's done that to you already. Verse three. And then said the prince of the Philistines, "What do these Hebrews hear?" I love that question because it's the right question. You get it. Ah and his men are coming up. Okay, they're joining the Philistine armies. David's in the river. And the Philistine generals that see Aesh coming to his people, they look and they go, "What are the Jews doing here? What are they doing here? They're Jews. They're Hebrews. What are they doing here?" And what's really cool, um, sometimes the world will see your misalignment before you do. When you're not operating according to who you're called to be by Christ, they look at David and they say, "This doesn't make any sense." And Aashesh says, "Is not this David which has been with me these days, these years, and I have found no fault with him." Aesh is impressed with David.

That's not a compliment really. It's a warning. Apparently, David's so good at being a Philistine that they in love with him. And when the enemy's comfortable with you, Something's off. The princes, I love this. The princes aren't convinced. Verse four. And the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him. They're not angry with David. They're angry with Akash. And they tell him, "Send them back." And then they say something profound. Wherew with should he, that's David, wherewith should David reconcile himself unto his master? Should it not be with the heads of these men? In other words, they're like, "How's David going to get back in good with the Israelites by taking our heads off?" That's a problem. In other words, if this man turns on us in battle, we are dead. They don't trust him. Then they quote the song, remember Saul has killed us thousands. David has killed us 10 thousands. Let's get the ninja man out of here. Then we go to verse six. And Aesh calls David and says, "Surely as the Lord liveth, thou has been upright." Now, isn't that something? The Philistine king is actually invoking the name of the Lord to affirm David's character. But then comes the turn. Nevertheless, the princes favor thee not. In other words, I'd let you go, but they don't like you. You got to go. Wherefore now return that thou displeas not the lords of the Philistines. And like that it's over. No negotiation, no appeal, no reconsideration. David is is sent back. Verse eight. And David said to Aesh. Now see, David's been given an out. You're in a compromised situation with your federal 600 Israelites. You don't have to fight against your people. you just gotten out. And then David, does he jump on it? Well, and David said to Akash, "But but but what have I done?" He's upset. He's confused. He's advocating for the very opportunity that would have destroyed him. And I go, "Fight, David. David, do you hear yourself?" Fight who? Israel. your people, your promise, your calling. That's how far drift can take you. You can start defending what God is trying to deliver you from. Now, let's step back because what feels like reflection, it's actually kind of protection. If David goes into this battle, there are only bad endings. If he fights against Israel, he is disqualified from being their king. If he refuses to fight, he is exposed and destroyed. If he turns on the Philistines, he's going to die as a traitor. There is no good outcome. So, this is what happens. God intervenes not with a prophet, not with a vision, not with a dramatic moment. The Lord uses the suspicion of pagan leaders to block David's path. That is grace. I don't understand this battle. You know

the scriptures say all things work together for good for them that love the Lord. I am not an absoluter but God is big and we have a vast body of people that want to limit it to the things in the chapter. Oh, what do you say to these things for knowledge and predestination? Our God can take the suspicion of the lords of the Philistines and use it to protect his children. Our God can use all things. Our God can take a stone and fell a giant. Our Lord can use all things. Our God can take two fishes and five loaves and feed 5,000 on one side of the sea and 7,000 on the other side of the sea. All things. Does that mean that he's the author of bad things? No. But he can bring good out of bad because he's God. He speaks and worlds are created. He breathes and life is formed. The biggest star in the universe. It's like Beetlejuice. It's a 100,000 times larger than our solar. Not even 100. It's a billion times larger than our solar system. And it's just the fingerwork of his hands. That's our God. He can do anything. He can take our wretched lives. He can take our worst decisions. He can take the decisions and the suspicions of our enemies and use them to bring about the outcome that he wants. That's our God. And so he takes the suspicions of the Philistine lords and he uses that and and and and he protects them. And our God says, "Look, because sometimes the great sometimes the greatest threats we have is not the external opposition. It's the internal misalignment that's inside of us." David didn't need a giant to fall. He didn't need to be protected from that. He needed to be protected from bad decisions. And God says, "Here, I am not going to let you go any further." So, he put obstacles in the path. Our Lord allows rejection. Our Lord will shut doors. Our Lord will let things fall apart that you're trying to hold together. Not because he is against you, but because he is for you. Our God will let you lose your job. Not because he's against you, but because he's for you. That's the God that we serve. And that's what David's going through right now. We love open doors. We love coffee shop versus like God will open doors no man can shut. But we don't really shout the other side. Oh, you know, God will open doors that no man can shut. Well, what about the other side of it? God will shut doors that no man can open. And he's doing it here. And sometimes that's the greater miracle because an open door requires an opportunity and a closed door requires intervention. So God has to actively step in sometimes to stop us. So David walks away from this encounter thinking, "I missed something." But heaven is saying, "I spared something." And some of us right now are living in that tension. You think you lost, but you were actually rescued. Relationship that didn't work out, job that didn't come through, door that slammed in your face, you thought it was rejection, but it might have been rescued. And here's the beauty of it. The closed door places David exactly where he needs to be for chapter 30. When he returns to Ziglag and he finds out that it's burned, then he seeks the Lord again. None of that happens. This door stays open. None of that happens if he's allowed to go fight with Israel. God sometimes has to say no to get you back to him. So now let's lift our eyes to someone who's greater than David. Let's look at the son of David. Because David was kept from fighting against his own people. But Jesus stood in a place where his people rejected him. David was turned away from the battlefield. Our Lord walked straight into one of them. David was spared. Jesus was not. And because Jesus was not spared, you and I can trust the heart of God even when we don't understand the hand of God. So maybe one of the most mature prayers that we can pray is, Lord, thank you for what didn't happen. Thank you for the doors that you closed. Thank you for the paths that you blocked. Thank you for the things that you didn't let me walk you in. Thank you for protecting me even from me. And here's the thing. One day we're going to look back at the rejection and realize it was one of the greatest acts of grace in our life. This chapter, this chapter is not about David getting it right. It's about a God who refuses to let him get it wrong. It's about a grace that interrupts, a grace that blocks, a grace that says, "I love you too much to let you go there." If you've ever had a door closed in your life and you didn't understand it, this chapter is a reminder that God is still writing your story, even in the places where he says no. And sometimes the loudest expression of his love is his refusal to let you continue. If you'd like to serve Jesus as we do here at Camp Creek Primitive Baptist Church, we'll give you that chance as we

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