This Sunday, we return to our series preaching through the book of 1 Samuel.  We pick up where we left off, and that takes us to chapter 20.  In this chapter we have David, the anointed, future king of Israel in a tough place as the realization and tension between the present King Saul, and his son Jonathan, who is his best friend.  The overall problem, however, is not the point of this chapter.  The point is how 2 friends, both men of God who love the Lord, struggle with very adverse circumstances due to Jonathan’s father, King Saul.  What can they do about Saul (dad) who is set on killing David for no reason?  How can they get past this and continue life, especially because they may never see each other again? In this message I want to make 4 observations where we see discouragement, fear, anger, and despair and how 2 spiritual men dealt with these even though they are only beginning to realize the problem – which has no immediate answers or resolve. 

Our scripture reading this Sunday is from Acts 4:32-37.  This passage speaks of a man who was an encourager: Barnabas; even his nickname (which he was given by the other apostles) speaks of him being an encourager!  Imagine being that kind of person?