GRACED III

The Behavior of Grace

1 Samuel 30; 1-20

Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, ² and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. ³ So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. ⁴ Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep. ⁵ And David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite had been taken captive. ⁶ Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

⁷ Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, “Please bring the ephod here to me.” And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. ⁸ So David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?”

And He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail to recover all.”

⁹ So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the Brook Besor, where those stayed who were left behind. ¹⁰ But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred stayed behind, who were so weary that they could not cross the Brook Besor.

¹¹ Then they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David, and they gave him bread and he ate, and they let him drink water. ¹² And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. So when he had eaten, his strength came back to him; for he had eaten no bread nor drunk water for three days and three nights. ¹³ Then David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?”

And he said, “I am a young man from Egypt, servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind because three days ago I fell sick. ¹⁴ We made an invasion of the southern area of the Cherethites, in the territory which belongs to Judah, and of the southern area of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.”

¹⁵ And David said to him, “Can you take me down to this troop?”

So he said, “Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this troop.”

¹⁶ And when he had brought him down, there they were, spread out over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. ¹⁷ Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. ¹⁸ So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. ¹⁹ And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all. ²⁰ Then David took all the flocks and herds they had driven before that other livestock, and said, “This is David’s spoil.”

I.                   THE POWER OF GRACE

1.     Grace changes your position

Romans 3:24

²⁴ being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

2.     Grace changes your condition

Acts 20:32

³² “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

II.               HOW GRACE BEHAVES

1.     Grace is Thankful

2 Corinthians 4:15

¹⁵ For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

2.     We must speak Grace Speak

Colossians 4:5-6

⁵ Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. ⁶ Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

3.     Grace produces faith and love

1 Timothy 1:14

¹⁴ And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

4.     Grace produces Humility

James 4:6

⁶ But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

1 Peter 5:5

⁵ In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

5.     Grace produces Endurance

1 Peter 5:12

¹² By Silvanus, our faithful brother as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.

6.     Grace has Responsibility

1 Peter 4:10

¹⁰ As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

7.     Grace produces a desire for more grace

2 Peter 3:18

¹⁸ but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

8.     We must behave in the Spirit of Grace

Jude 1;4

⁴ For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Answer Key: Position; Condition, humility,