"Situations and Problems"

Situations And Problems

1 Samuel 18 and 19; today we will be in 19:1-15

Seth Godin, in one of his blogs, clarifies the difference between a problem and a situation. He writes, “We can also have conversation on whether it’s a problem (problems have solutions) or whether it’s simply a situation, something like gravity that we have to live with.”

When you don’t take the time to clarify if something is a problem or a situation, you are unable to address it in a productive manner. Investing time in trouble shooting a situation is both frustrating and futile. You never find adequate plans, nor clear solutions. Understanding something is a situation allows you to learn contentment. You live in it. You are able to reserve energy for the things you can do something about.

A problem has a solution. The solution may not be readily available. The solution may not be easy to find. The solution may not be what you think it is. But somewhere lies an opportunity to solve the puzzle.

It is true that we often mistake a situation for a problem. However, what is more rampant is the tendency to view a problem as a situation…something you can do nothing about. You run into a challenge. You encounter a perceived limitation. You quickly labeled it a situation. You move on without clarifying if the situation is really a problem. 

Remember, a situation is something you can do nothing about. Too often the difficult is viewed as ‘there is nothing I can do.’ It is an easy way to avoid addressing a problem. 

My question to you today is do you have a problem or a situation? Or is your situation really a problem? One of the earliest lessons in David’s life was that power is overstated and expensive. David lived in the king’s house, married the king’s daughter and became the king’s son-in-law, but he saw first-hand the corruption of power and he was not willing to fight tooth and nail for it or pour heart and soul into it. Obviously, Saul was not himself, things were not pretty and the stakes were ridiculous. God’s blessings were not in the palace or the politics of Saul but in the person and presence of David.

The Situation

1 Samuel 19:1-10 (NLT)

Saul now urged his servants and his son Jonathan to assassinate David. But Jonathan, because of his strong affection for David,  2  told him what his father was planning. “Tomorrow morning,” he warned him, “you must find a hiding place out in the fields.  3  I’ll ask my father to go out there with me, and I’ll talk to him about you. Then I’ll tell you everything I can find out.” 4  The next morning Jonathan spoke with his father about David, saying many good things about him. “The king must not sin against his servant David,” Jonathan said. “He’s never done anything to harm you. He has always helped you in any way he could.  5  Have you forgotten about the time he risked his life to kill the Philistine giant and how the LORD brought a great victory to all Israel as a result? You were certainly happy about it then. Why should you murder an innocent man like David? There is no reason for it at all!” 6  So Saul listened to Jonathan and vowed, “As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be killed.” 7  Afterward Jonathan called David and told him what had happened. Then he brought David to Saul, and David served in the court as before. 8  War broke out again after that, and David led his troops against the Philistines. He attacked them with such fury that they all ran away. 9  But one day when Saul was sitting at home, with spear in hand, the tormenting spirit from the LORD suddenly came upon him again. As David played his harp,  10  Saul hurled his spear at David. But David dodged out of
the way, and leaving the spear stuck in the wall, he fled and escaped into the night.

Saul declared open hunting season on David and placed a “wanted” tag on his head. The Philistines were no longer Saul’s choice of weapons. He dispatched his son Jonathan and all the servants – not some, but all – to do the job and finish David off. However, Jonathan was not cut from his father’s cloth or a chip off the old block. He looked out for his friend and his sister who was married to David, but Saul looked down on his own son and questioned the loyalty of her daughter.

David did all he could to gain Saul’s trust, but when that failed, he fled and escaped. Tried as he did, David could not slow or stop the king’s madness. He did not blame Jonathan for having such a father, the soldiers for serving such a boss and even Saul for issuing such an order. Saul was mad, but David was not. The third attempt on his life was the bottom line. He believed in the goodness of the heart, but he also believed in the ravages of sin, the depravity of man and the corruption of power. The madness of King Saul was in full swing. One minute he listened to his son, the next minute he listened to no one. One minute he thought David was an asset, another a liability. One minute he believed that David did no wrong to the king, the ensuing David had his eye on the throne. The king couldn’t decide if David was innocent or impeachable, if he wanted David fixed by his side or
stuck to the wall. Poor David was afraid to turn his head, rest his back or close his eyes.

The good news of David’s conquest and the good side of David’s character again produced another bout of jealousy, madness and violence. David’s works were not just good (v4), but “very good” in Hebrew, which NIV translated as “benefited you greatly.” David was as trustworthy, impeccable and faultless as could be. The king wanted him dead as much as the Philistines did. When David’s very best was not enough, it was time to leave and relocate – and not a minute too soon. When Jonathan’s stirring speech wore off his father, Saul’s raving jealousy broke out immediately. The two sides of Saul were well chronicled. When Jonathan was present, Saul was an angel, but when his son was absent, he was fiend. The army needed David for fighting, but Saul hated him for winning. David was in a lose-lose or no-win situation; he lost when he won. His winning struck a chord with Saul, but it was not music to his ears. Later, David’s music was not good therapy anymore, but bitter medicine to Saul

The Problem

1 Samuel 19:11-15 (NLT)

11  Then Saul sent troops to watch David’s house. They were told to kill David when he came out the next morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, “If you don’t escape tonight, you will be dead by morning.”  12  So she helped him climb out through a window, and he fled and escaped.  13  Then she took an idol and put it in his bed, covered it with blankets, and put a cushion of goat’s hair at its head. 14  When the troops came to arrest David, she told them he was sick and couldn’t get out of bed. 15  But Saul sent the troops back to get David. He ordered, “Bring him to me in his bed so I can kill him!”

The hardest thing for David to leave was not the glory and the honor, but the love and the friendship. David had to leave a sick king, his loving wife, his best friend and his fellow soldiers behind. Hurting them was never on his mind. David had won many fights but not this fight, because the hunter was once his mentor, the father of his best friend and the father of his own wife. It was a fight he could not win and must not win. Staying behind would hurt more than it would help. His best friend could not confront his father for long, nor could his wife fool her father more than once. Choosing father or husband, birth father or best friend were not healthy options. The father- son and father-daughter relationships were at breaking point. The father called her daughter’s husband his enemy to her face.

The Philistines used to be Saul’s traditional enemies, but now David was public enemy No. 1. For David, to win would make his friend and his wife fatherless and the nation powerless. Seeing people fight or die for him was not his style. The people would not accept a killer king either and all Israel and Judah that loved David, including the palace servants, would end up fearing him instead. David did not want to stoop to the king’s level; he must soar to new heights. Defeating the weakened king, who had lost his head, his heart and health, would not make him a better man. He did not want to follow in Saul’s footsteps – to be mad, moody, melancholy, manipulative, malicious and murderous. David, who had killed Goliath and two hundred Philistines, chose to be “bigger” rather than fight Saul’s men who were merely following orders.

A gospel singer by the name of Jekalyn Carr has a song called You’re Bigger and in the song she says…

 You’re bigger than any marital problem.

 You’re bigger than any broken home.

 You’re bigger than our mistakes.

 The stripes on your back make you bigger.

 Your blood makes you bigger.

 Your love makes you bigger.

 You overcame death and that makes you bigger.

How true are those words? Our God is indeed bigger than any situation. He’s bigger than any circumstance you face or any problem. And so my message to you today is to encourage you to praise God…

 Praise the Lord in the middle of your situation.

 Praise the Lord as you go through that situation and then

 Praise Him in Advance for victory in your situation.

 Go on and thank the Lord for the miracle in advance.

 Praise the Lord for the Breakthrough in advance.

 Go on and give him the glory and honor for making a way even though what’s right in front of you says otherwise.

And here’s the thing about it, when you praise the Lord in advance, you’re taking the focus away from the problem. Away from the pain. Away from the heartache. Whatever it is that you’re facing and you’re placing that focus on Jesus Christ, that’s the power that stands behind praising him in advance. You’re saying to the problem, “you’re not big enough to make me stop praising the Lord.” Sure, you’re causing me some discomfort. Correct, I don’t like this situation I’m in. Yes, this pain might be great, but Jesus Christ is still bigger than all of that.

When you praise God in advance, you’re acknowledging him to be bigger than the problems the supervisor at work is giving you. When you praise God in advance, you’re saying, “Lord my car might be giving me trouble. My best friend might have betrayed me and on top of that I have some bills which I don’t know how I’m going to pay, but you’re still bigger than all of that.” You see there is power in praising God in advance. We need to praise God whether or not we have what we want. We need to praise him for his wonderful sacrifice. He so loved each and every one of us that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

So listen today, I encourage you to take a stand whatever you’re facing. I assure you it’s not bigger than Jesus Christ. Whatever you’re going through can’t be bigger than the Lord because he is the Almighty. He is the all- powerful one. In Acts 16 Paul and Silas didn’t see the prison they were in. They didn’t focus on the guards, the chains, or the fact that they were uncomfortable. No they focused on God

Acts 16:25-26 (NLT)

Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.  26  Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!

Most Christians do not realize the inner power that they have been given to handle life and instead go through life struggling to live good lives but never really standing out as men and women that are radically different from others. Most Christians have no idea that they have as a resource a power that is greater than anything they have ever experienced and rather than tapping into that source continue to live their lives in the same way as those around them. Most Christians, as a result, die having left no more of a mark on this world than their unbelieving neighbor.

Now let us be confident that as we praise and thank God in advance each of us will experience a suddenly moment in our situations where things will turn around.