John K. Jenkins Sr - The Keys to Recover

Grab your Bibles, your iPhone, your iPad, or your Android Galaxy-whatever your instrument of choice is, or a paper Bible-and turn it to 1 Samuel, chapter 30. I want to thank Reverend Wilson, who already read this so wonderfully, and I want to read it again, beginning at verse 6. 1 Samuel 30:6 says, «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 .» Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech 's son, «Please bring the ephod here to me.» Abiathar brought the ephod to David, 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 recover all.» So David went, he and the 600 men who were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those stayed who were left behind. But David pursued, he and 400 men, for 200 stayed behind who were so weary that they could not cross the brook Besor.

I want to talk about the keys to recovery. Look at your neighbor and say, «The keys to recovery.» Keys to recovery! Look on the other side and say, «The keys to recovery.» All right, you can be seated. It’s 1:01 right now; I’m going to try to be finished by 2:30. 2015 for the First Baptist Church of Glenarden is the year of restoration! Can I get an amen from somebody? Does anybody believe that this is the year that God’s going to restore all the stuff that the devil has taken? God’s going to give it back! For some of you, God’s going to help you catch up! Somebody look at your neighbor and say, «This is my year to catch up!» What goes along with restoration is also recovery: to recover what’s been stolen or taken. I’m already beginning to get testimonies of the fact that God is recovering and restoring things. I wish I could be more organized so I could bring you some of these testimonies that people give to me. I’m going to have to work on that in the future, but it is in fact happening; God is doing things.

I had one of our members tell me that God had empowered him, and it happened that he was able to pay off his mortgage 20 years ahead of time! God deserves some praise right there for that-20 years ahead of time! He said, «Pastor, you know I’ve been divorced for 16 years. I got remarried.» I said, «What? Hold up!» to the woman he had been divorced from 16 years earlier. Oh, I should have gotten a few more amens on that! That 's phenomenal! I want to talk to you about that; that’s the theme, and I’m trying to push this into your heart. I’m trying to get you to have a vision, and that’s why I’m talking about it. I talked about it on New Year’s Eve; I talked about it last Sunday, and I’m talking about it today because I want you to get it in your head and in your mind. I want you to have a spirit of expectation that we serve a God who has the capacity-and this is what the word is for our house and for the people who submit themselves under this house. This is the word that God has for our house: that He’s going to restore and cause you to recover. I thought I ought to talk to you about it.

As I thought about it, I considered David and how God brought David to a place of recovery and restoration. You know the story of David. Walk with me for just a few moments as I kind of tell this story to you that leads up to chapter 30 of 1 Samuel. Here David is, a man who was prophesied to as a child, a young man, and a teenager that he would be the king of the land. The prophet came to his house, and after his father had marched his other brothers in front of Samuel, finally Samuel said, «None of these sons of Jesse are the ones to be the king. Do you have any other boys, any other sons?» He said, «Yeah, I got David .» God likes to use people that others count out. He said, «Bring him.» The moment David came into the chambers, Samuel recognized that he was the one. But there is a time difference between the time David was prophesied to become king and the time he actually became king, and that’s what messes most people up. They cannot endure and hang on until the fulfillment of their destiny becomes a reality. They get frustrated, tired, and weary. However, David had a course of events to go through before God elevated him. Several things happened in the course of his life, and one of the things is that David went down to take some bread to his brothers who were in the army. They were at the battlefield supposedly battling against the Philistines. While they were there at the battlefield, they were all hiding in the ditch while the Philistine Giant Goliath waited for one soldier to come out from the Israeli army to fight him. None of them would. David goes down, sees what’s happening, and grabs five stones and a slingshot, then goes out and kills Goliath. Are you all with me?