On the Run

1 Samuel 22-24 November 30, 2025 Pastor Sal Valenzuela
Thesis When life puts you on the run, you either run from God by taking life into your own hands, or you run to God by placing your life into God's hands—and God is faithful to those who entrust themselves to Him.
Series
Type
Expository
Tone
pastoraldidacticprophetic
Method
redemptive-historicalgrammatical-historicalapplicatory
What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

28 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #7
"Applies the truth of God's provision of community to the congregation, calling them to examine whether pride or unworthiness keeps them from joining a local church or home group, and to take concrete next steps in community engagement."
Doctrinal loci· 9 surfaced
Providence / Sovereignty · 12 Sanctification · 6 Christology · 5 Ecclesiology · 5 Ethics / Moral Theology · 4 Pastoral Theology · 4 Soteriology · 4 Bibliology · 3 Hamartiology · 1
Bible citations· 22
1 Samuel 22:1-5 | 1 Samuel 20 | 1 Samuel 21 | Psalm 23 | 1 Samuel 22:1-2 | 1 Corinthians 1:26 | 1 Samuel 22:3-4 | 1 Samuel 22:7-19 | 1 Samuel 22:20-22 | 1 Samuel 22:23 | Hebrews 4:14-16 | 1 Samuel 23:2 | 1 Samuel 23:3-5 | 1 Samuel 23:6-7 | 1 Samuel 23:9-10 | Romans 12:1-2 | 1 Samuel 23:16-17 | 1 Samuel 23:26-28 | 1 Samuel 24:1-4 | 1 Samuel 24:5-7 | 1 Peter 2:23 | 2 Corinthians 4:8-9
Theological claims· 2
  1. When life puts you on the run, you either run from God by taking life into your own hands, or you run to God by placing your life into God's hands, and God is faithful to those who entrust themselves to Him. unit #3
  2. The key difference is that while David ran to God for refuge, Jesus has run to us to be our refuge, revealing the true King who gives life through sacrificial love. unit #24
Quotations· 5
"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me." — Psalm 23 (unit #4)
"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." — Hebrews 4:14-16 (unit #11)
"Therefore offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, for this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may be able to approve what God's will is." — Romans 12:1-2 (unit #13)
"He entrusted himself to the One who judges justly." — 1 Peter 2:23 (unit #23)
"We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. We're perplexed, but we're not driven to despair. We're persecuted, but we're not forsaken. We're struck down, but we are not destroyed." — 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (unit #25)
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Full transcript

41,369 characters 28 units ~46 min reading time

0 · The preacher introduces himself, distinguishes his name from Saul's (the antagonist in the sermon), requests prayer for his church planting work, and frames the sermon within the Advent theme of 'already but not yet' that will be seen in 1 Samuel 22-24

missed phrases. My name is Sal Valenzuela and not Saul.I want to say that because my message is going to talk a lot about Saul and I want to distance myself from him, even though I'm more like him than I than I would like to admit. And anyways, I serve as a church plant resident here at Cross of Grace, and that means I get to learn from the excellent pastoral team here as I go through the ordination process and prepare to plant a sovereign Grace church in Horizon in the near future. So my family and I would greatly appreciate your prayers. We're so grateful for each and every one of you and for our family of churches. So as John mentioned earlier in the service, Advent is a season of the already, but not yet. And in these chapters that we're going to be looking at today in first of Samuel, if you want to open your Bible there, first of Samuel, chapter 22, we're gonna read verses one to five, but we're gonna be covering three chapters today, but we're gonna see there a hint of that advent of already but not yet.

1 · The primary text is read aloud, establishing David's flight to Adullam where distressed people gather to him, his arrangement for his parents' safety in Moab, and the prophet Gad's direction to move to Judah

First of Samuel, chapter 22, verses number one to number five. And as we turn there and as we read this, let's always remember and never forget that this is God's word. David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was bitter in soul gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about 400 men. And David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, please let my father and my mother stay with you till I know what God will do for me. And he left them with the king of Moab. And they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. Then the prophet Gad said to David, do not remain in the stronghold. Depart and go into the land of Judah. So David departed and went into the forest of Horeth.

2 · Provides narrative context for David's flight by recounting the events of 1 Samuel 20-21, using the movie 'The Fugitive' as an emotional analogue to help the congregation feel the weight of David's situation as a hunted, exhausted man constantly deciding where to place his trust

So I want to share a premise of an old movie with you to hopefully I want to set the scene because I just, I want to do it justice because what we just read you might have been like, okay, maybe not feeling the weight of it. And so I want to share this illustration to put us in that scene of verses one to five where David's in the cave of Adullam. And anyways, this old movie, I must have been about 8 or 9 years old when I first saw it. My parents, I think were probably watching it in the living room and I just stumbled in there watching it. I don't even know what it's rated. Okay, so I'm not telling you. I recommend it for an eight or nine year old, but I just stumbled into the living room and I was immediately hooked. And I just started asking a thousand questions and I feel like I was at the edge of my seat being just 8 or 9 years old somewhere around there. And as I've been learning with my illustrations, I often date myself. So you might not have heard it if you're young. Just pay attention to my summary because you're not gonna get it. Pay attention to my summary of this movie. But in the year 1993, a blockbuster movie came out called the Fugitive. Harrison Ford played Dr. Richard Kimball, a respected surgeon who was wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to death. On the way to prison, the bus crashes, he escapes. And suddenly the entire country is hunting an innocent man. And for the next two hours we watch him on the run. He hides in storm drains, he sleeps in abandoned buildings. He stays one step ahead of the U.S. marshals, of whom the lead marshal is Tommy Lee Jones. I don't know if you've ever heard of him. And they're convinced he's guilty. He's alone, he's exhausted and constantly facing moments of panic. The choice Kimball makes constantly is can he entrust his life to anyone? Eventually, at the very end, he's kind of forced to place his trust in. In someone's hands. So in that movie, you can kind of feel the tension of living on the run. The title is the Fugitive. He's a fugitive, constantly deciding where to place his trust. That is the emotional world of David in First of Samuel, chapters 22 to 24. And maybe you've felt like a fugitive in your life at times on the run, wondering what who you can trust, thinking maybe you can only trust yourself. So let me give you A brief context, because I know seven days was a long time ago since we last talked about first Samuel, where we left off, but a couple of chapters back in chapter 20. Let me jog your memory. After Jonathan makes a covenant with David, they agreed on a field test. I'm going to try to describe it real quick, but basically, this is how it works. There's a big feast happening, and David is one of the top guys in Saul's court, and he's expected to be there at that dinner table for this feast. And he's notably absent. And Jonathan is not convinced that his dad wants to murder David. David is convinced he had a spear hurled at him. He's trying to tell his best friend, hey, your dad wants to kill me. And they're just not in a. He just doesn't see it. So they say. Why don't we do a test? You hide out in this field. Once I see if my. If you're safe coming home to where my dad is at, to the court, I'm going to shoot an arrow out in the field next to where you're hiding. And if I say to the servant, hey, the arrows are just beyond you, then that means you're right, you're not safe. You need to take off. And if I say, hey, the arrows are right next to you, to the servant, then that's going to be your sign that you're actually safe to come back. So it's a little clandestine agreement that they have. So, long story short, David's waiting in the field a couple days. Saul gets upset. You heard about this last week and all the insults that Saul hurled at Jonathan in his fit of jealous rage. And so Jonathan finds out. Oh, man, David was right. He's not safe. So he launches the arrows out in the field next to him. He sends a boy to gather the arrows, and he says, aren't the arrows beyond you? And that's a sign that he's a fugitive. David understands I need to be on the run. He takes off. This begins his fleet. The results in David fleeing as Jonathan confirmed that his life was in danger. So then in chapter 21, the first place he flees to is a priestly city, which is at Knob. And we've seen him do this before when he fled last message that we heard, he fled to where Samuel was at. So you can see David kind of, he wants to stay close to the Lord through this fleet. So he goes to a priestly city at Knob. He's hungry and asks for food there and a weapon. He is given the Holy bread and ironically, the sword of Goliath. He then flees to Gath. And if Gath doesn't ring a bell, let me remind you, that's where Goliath is from. He flees to enemy territory, to Gath. And from Gath to the cave of Adullam, where we find him in chapter 22. So the scene is set. You understand why he's there. You understand what he's feeling. He's exhausted, he's hunted, and he's completely alone. He has fled for his life. After Jonathan's field test confirmed Saul's murderous intent, he has been to Nob and Gath and now finds himself in the cave of Adullam. His family is scattered. Danger presses in from every side.

3 · Articulates the sermon's main thesis: there are two responses when life puts you on the run—running from God by grasping control or running to God by entrusting yourself to Him—and God is faithful to those who choose the latter

And I don't know why I get all these ideas once I'm preaching. I wish I would have had a map up here that just showed you all the places that he was fleeing. Because I'm going to tell you over and over today, I'm going to need your patience. He went from there to there, from there to there. I mean, it's not from point A to point B to point C. It goes from further down the Alphabet. But this is how he begins his fleet. Okay? And you see, the stage is set. And yet, even in the midst of all this pressure, David makes a choice he does not grasp for control. He does not lash out in panic or fear. He places himself in God's hands and runs, metaphorically to God. Yes, he's running from Saul, but he runs to God. That tension between taking life into your own hands and trusting God to act is the heart of what we see in these three chapters that we'll be looking at today. And it brings us to the truth that I want us all to walk away with today, which is this. When life puts you on the run, and you will be put on the run. And if you haven't yet, you're just too young and haven't lived enough life. And some get started really early. Life will put you on the run. And when it does, there are two ways to run. You either run from God by taking life into your own hands, or you run to God by placing your life into God's hands. And God is faithful. We'll see. He's faithful to those who entrust themselves to to him, while those who seize control will find their lives slowly coming apart.

4 · Steps out of the exposition to pastorally address the congregation's expectations about trusting God during trials, clarifying that God's faithfulness means His presence with us through suffering, not necessarily immediate deliverance from it

Now, I want to make a quick note before we jump in today. And it's mainly this. When we face uncertainty and challenges, danger, we will face danger or trials. Trusting the Lord doesn't necessarily mean that we will not suffer or that we'll get immediate relief from a hardship that we're facing, but rather, it does mean. It does mean Emmanuel. What does Emmanuel mean? God is with us. It does mean that his presence will be with us, comforting us and providing for us in the midst of whatever trouble or suffering we're going through. The Lord often comforts us through. Through the trial in ways we do not expect. We want the hard times to be over. I'm chief sinner. I'm not telling you that. You need to improve on your trust. I need to improve on my trust. When hard times come, I want them to be over as soon as possible. When I enter a storm, when I find myself in a cave, I want it to be over as soon as possible. That's not what God always wants. He wants us to meet us. He wants to meet us in the hard times and bring us through them. Remember Psalm 23. Even though I walk through the valley, not fly over, not go around, not skip over, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

5 · Signals the sermon's structure: David running to God while Saul runs from God, with God meeting David through provision (ch

Right, so we're spanning three chapters today. I can't read every verse of chapter 22, 23 and 24, so I'm gonna try to do a quick flyover and point out some things in 22 and 23 and 24. But we're gonna see one unified theme as we do that. We're gonna see David running to God while Saul is running from God. And as David runs in the direction of God, as he runs to God, we see God meet him. We see God meet David in chapter 22 through provision, supernatural provision in chapter 23, we're gonna see that God meets him with direction, divine direction. And towards the end of 23 and through 24, we're gonna see how God meets David through protection, divine protection, and protecting him. So let's look at the three ways that God protects, provides for David in his circumstance.

Where this fits

Recent preaching context

The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.

Feb 16, 2025
Union with Christ is the very essence of the Christian life and the source of all fruitfulness, accomplished not through our own effort but by abiding in him as branches draw life from the vine.
John 15:1-17
Sep 14, 2025
The holy God rules by humbling the proud and raising up His king, demonstrating through Hannah's song that salvation is accomplished by His power and grace alone, fulfilled ultimately in Jesus Christ.
1 Samuel 2:1-10
Oct 12, 2025
God graciously invites all people to turn to Him in repentance and faith, promising full pardon and joyful restoration to all who respond.
Isaiah 55:1-13
November 30 · This sermon
On the Run
When life puts you on the run, you either run from God by taking life into your own hands, or you run to God by placing your life into God's hands—and God is faithful to those who entrust themselves to Him.
1 Samuel 22-24
Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Sunday-evening family table

Running to God or Running From God

For the parent

This prompt anchors in the sermon's central image: David in the wilderness, choosing to trust God rather than take control himself. The goal is to help your family recognize their own 'running' moments and practice naming where they naturally turn first when life gets hard.

In the sermon, David was on the run from King Saul, and he had to choose: run away from God by trying to fix things himself, or run toward God and trust Him. When something scary or hard happens in your life—like a friendship problem, or feeling worried about the future—which way do you naturally run first? Do you try to fix it yourself, or do you stop and ask God for help? What's one way you could practice running *to* God instead of trying to handle it alone?
Works for ages 7+; younger children benefit from a parent helping them name a specific hard situation they've faced
Draft · pending review
Couples · three questions over coffee

Running to God Together

  1. What part of David's story stirred your heart—his vulnerability, his trust, or his restraint—and why did it resonate with you personally?
  2. Where in our marriage are we tempted to run from God by grasping control rather than entrusting ourselves to His hands, and how can we encourage each other toward greater dependence on Him?
  3. What fear or pressure is the Lord inviting us to bring before Him together, and how can we strengthen each other's hand in God this week?
Draft · pending review
Memory verse this week

1 Samuel 23:16-17

And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, "Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this."

Why this verse: This passage captures the sermon's central contrast: while David faces pressure to take control of his destiny (like Saul does), Jonathan strengthens his hand *in God* by directing him back to trust in God's sovereign promise. It embodies the sermon's thesis that God sustains those who run to Him through the gift of community and divine encouragement.

Draft · pending review
Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

  1. In 1 Samuel 22:1-5, David gathers a community of the distressed, indebted, and discontented around him in the cave of Adullam. What does the sermon suggest God was doing through this gathering, and how does this challenge the way we typically think about who belongs in God's family?
    1 Samuel 22:1-2
    → Can you think of a time when you felt disqualified or ashamed to be part of a Christian community? What would it have meant for you to experience God's grace through that community anyway?
  2. What is the crucial difference between the way Saul responds to pressure—by taking life into his own hands and grasping for control—and the way David responds, as demonstrated in 1 Samuel 23:2 and 23:9-10?
    1 Samuel 23:2; 1 Samuel 23:9-10
  3. The sermon emphasizes that David inquires of the Lord before acting, receives counsel from Jonathan, and experiences miraculous protection in the wilderness. How do these three things work together to shape David's posture toward God, and what do they reveal about how God sustains His people when they are vulnerable?
    → Which of these three—direct guidance, encouragement from others, or providential protection—do you most need to trust God for right now?
  4. In the cave, David has the perfect opportunity to take Saul's life and solve his problem with his own hands (1 Samuel 24:1-7). Instead, he restrains himself and appeals to God's justice. What does this restraint reveal about David's character, and what is the fallen condition—the weakness or temptation—that this moment exposes in all of us?
    1 Samuel 24:1-7
    → When have you been tempted to take control of a situation that belongs to God's hands? What would it have looked like to entrust it to Him instead?
  5. The sermon shows that David's pattern of running to God for refuge foreshadows Jesus, the greater David, who 'ran to us to be our refuge.' How does understanding that Christ has already come to us change the way we approach God when life puts us on the run?
  6. Given that we have access to Jesus as our great High Priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:14-16), what would it mean this week to bring one specific fear or need to God with the same confidence that David brought his distress to the cave of Adullam—not hiding it, not solving it alone, but laying it before God in community and prayer?
    Hebrews 4:14-16
    → Who in your life might need to know that you are running to God rather than running from Him? How might your vulnerability with them strengthen their hand in God?
Draft · pending review
Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

This week we trace David's wilderness journey as a portrait of faith under pressure: from the foundational choice to run to God rather than from Him, through the grace of community and priestly access, to the restraint that marks true kingship—all foreshadowing Christ, our greater refuge.

Monday Psalm 23

The Psalmist's confidence—'I shall not want,' 'I will fear no evil'—flows not from the absence of danger but from entrusting himself to the Shepherd's rod and staff. David's wilderness flight mirrors this psalm's deeper truth: running *to* God in the valley of the shadow of death is the only refuge that sustains us when we cannot control our circumstances.

Tuesday 1 Corinthians 1:26

Paul reminds us that God chooses the weak and foolish—not the mighty—to demonstrate His power. David's band of four hundred distressed, indebted, and discontented men were precisely the kind of community the world would reject, yet through them God provided provision, protection, and purpose. When we run to God, we run *with* others, embracing the grace He offers through the least likely vessels.

Wednesday Hebrews 4:14-16

The appearance of Abiathar the priest in David's wilderness—the one man who carried God's presence and could inquire of the Lord on David's behalf—was a profound mercy in exile. Yet Hebrews reveals that this priestly mediation foreshadowed something far greater: Christ Himself, who suffered every human weakness, now sits at God's right hand, opening to us the very throne of grace we need when we are on the run.

Thursday 1 Peter 2:23

When Jonathan found David in the wilderness and 'strengthened his hand in God,' he spoke truth about God's covenant faithfulness, not empty comfort. Peter later shows us that Jesus, facing His own suffering, 'entrusted himself to him who judges justly'—modeling the kind of restraint and trust that Jonathan encouraged in David. True encouragement in our own trials points us not to escape but to deeper entrusting.

Friday 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

Paul's catalog of affliction—'pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not despairing'—echoes David's wilderness precariousness, yet with a radical reversal: through Christ, the One who was hunted down and executed has become our eternal shelter. We who were once fugitives running from God now have a King who ran toward us, transforming our flight into homecoming through His substitutionary love.

Draft · pending review
Pray together this week

Prayer of Trust When Life Puts Us on the Run

Father, we come before you in awe of your sovereign faithfulness. You are the God who sees the fugitive, sustains the afflicted, and never abandons those who run to you in their distress. We marvel that you met David in his wilderness not with judgment but with provision—through the community gathered around him, through priests who inquired of your will, through friends who strengthened his hand in you, and through your own supernatural protection in his darkest hour (1 Samuel 23:16-17).

We confess that when life puts us on the run—when pressure mounts and uncertainty threatens—we are quick to take matters into our own hands rather than entrust ourselves to you. We grasp for control, we isolate ourselves through pride or shame, we hesitate to bring our fears to others or to you, and we forget that you are faithful. None of us perfectly runs to God in the moment of crisis; instead we often run from Him, believing our resourcefulness more reliable than His promises (1 Samuel 24:1-7).

But the gospel reveals to us the greater David, Jesus Christ, who did not run from us in our extremity but ran to us to be our refuge. Through His finished work, we have access to the Father as our great High Priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses and welcomes our desperate prayers (Hebrews 4:14-16). In Christ, we are no longer fugitives hiding from God—we are beloved children running home to the arms of our sovereign Father.

Grant us grace this week to entrust our lives into your hands when pressure comes. Give us courage to receive community as a means of your sustenance, not as a burden on our pride. Send us friends who will strengthen our hand in you by speaking truth we need to hear. And when we are tempted to seize control, remind us that you are faithful to those who place their lives into God's hands. We commit ourselves to run to you, not from you, knowing that your providence and your love will not fail us.

Draft · pending review
Where this was preached

About the church

Cross of Grace Church
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# Cross of Grace Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [Fruitfulness in Christ (John 15:1-17, 2025-02-16)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2025/02/fruitfulness-in-christ)
- [The Theme Song (1 Samuel 2:1-10, 2025-09-14)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2025/09/the-theme-song)
- [An Invitation Like No Other (Isaiah 55:1-13, 2025-10-12)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2025/10/an-invitation-like-no-other)
- [On the Run (1 Samuel 22-24, 2025-11-30)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2025/11/on-the-run)

## About
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