1. Running On Empty 1 Samuel 30:1-19
One hot, Georgia summer our church went to a local Christian camp and lake to enjoy great fellowship, food, and fun.
My high school friends and I went on a canoeing trip on the lake for something cooler to do. There were about 5 or 6 of us that rowed to the middle of the lake in a flat-bottom boat. After rowing in the hot sun, several of us jumped in the water to cool off. Everyone eventually got back in the boat except for me. I was enjoying the refreshing water, so I held on to the back of the boat and began kicking the water to propel the boat.
We went to the other side of the lake and saw some storm clouds rolling in, so we headed back in. Everyone remained in the boat while I remained kicking in the water. At one point we came to a stop. Our group was talking, laughing, and enjoying ourselves.
Suddenly, the two youth rowing the boat urged us to get to shore because of the oncoming storm. The boat moved quickly and I lost my grip. It was then that I realized I had relied on the boat to keep me afloat. My legs were too weak to keep my head above water. I thought I was going to drown. Fear overcame me. I quickly prayed, “Help.”
As I bobbled in the water, I got someone’s attention and everyone was attempting to get me back in the reach of the boat. It seemed like an eternity for that boat to retrace itself about 6 feet. Someone extended an oar and pulled me to the boat and they helped me get in.
When we have depended upon ourselves and trials cause us to lose all our strength, we are completely helpless. Only God can save and strengthen us. Only God keeps us from being overwhelmed when we are tired and empty.

2. Running On Empty
God redeems us and our longings when we rely on Him and His strength.

3. Running On Empty Trials Make Us Empty God’s Strength Fills Us Up
God’s Strength Meets Our Need
God’s Strength Redeems Us
Whose Strength Do You Use?

4. 1 Samuel 30:1-6 (NIV)
3  When David and his men came to Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4  So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep… 6  David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.
1 Samuel 30:1-6 (NIV) 1  David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, 2  and had taken captive the women and all who were in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way.
3  When David and his men came to Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4  So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. 5  David's two wives had been captured--Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
6  David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.

5. Trials Make Us Empty David’s Depression and Distress
Our Depression and Distress
Life’s Trials
God’s Strength
Felt Needs
- Conflict
- Loss
- Sorrow
- Despair
- Our Thinking and Beliefs
As a man thinks, so is he.
FAITH

6. So do not fear, for I am with you; Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. — Isaiah 41:10
How is the Lord helping you?
What a wonderful question. Someone asked me this recently about a trial I am going through: my husband is deployed with the U.S. Army for the first year of my son's life. He left three weeks after our son's birth. We are now five months in, with seven to go. What seemed impossible when we got the news—me parenting a newborn alone, in a sleep-deprived state—has been made possible by God's providences.
God has given me teenagers who volunteered to clean my house and watch my son so I could get a break. He has given me a church that prays diligently. He has given me an iPad, through my uncle, so that father and son can see each other better over FaceTime. He has given me a two-month reprieve at my parent's house on a peaceful inlet in Washington State. He has even helped me find my wallet when I was imagining waiting days to get a new debit card, and thereby grocery money.
Another woman asked, "Is God meeting your needs?" Then she laughed. "Of course He is," she said. "How is He meeting your needs?
What if, instead of asking people how they are, we asked them how God was meeting them in their current trials? We would be pointing each other to where our eyes should be focused: the Cross, God's promises, and God's blessings. 
We would be helping each other remember that God met our biggest need when Jesus became a lowly man, was cut off from His Father, died, and then rose again, opening the door for us to follow Him into Heaven. 
So do not fear, for I am with you; Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. — Isaiah 41:10
God's promises are sure, because His biggest promise—to rescue us from our sinful state—has already been fulfilled. 

7. 1 Samuel 30:7-8 (NIV)
8  and David inquired of the LORD, "Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?" "Pursue them," he answered. "You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue."
7  Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, "Bring me the ephod." Abiathar brought it to him, 8  and David inquired of the LORD, "Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?" "Pursue them," he answered. "You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue."

8. God’s Strength Fills Us Up
Our Prayer
David’s Prayer
Our Help
David’s Help

9. 1 Samuel 30:11-15 (NIV)
11  They found an Egyptian in a field and brought him to David. They gave him water to drink and food to eat–… 15  David asked him, "Can you lead me down to this raiding party?" He answered, "Swear to me before God that you will not kill me or hand me over to my master, and I will take you down to them."
11  They found an Egyptian in a field and brought him to David. They gave him water to drink and food to eat  part of a cake of pressed figs and two cakes of raisins. He ate and was revived, for he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days and three nights.
13  David asked him, "To whom do you belong, and where do you come from?" He said, "I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite. My master abandoned me when I became ill three days ago. 14  We raided the Negev of the Kerethites and the territory belonging to Judah and the Negev of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag." 15  David asked him, "Can you lead me down to this raiding party?" He answered, "Swear to me before God that you will not kill me or hand me over to my master, and I will take you down to them."

10. God’s Strength Meets Our Need
God Shows Us the Path
God Meets Our Need

11. 1 Samuel 30:16-19 (NIV)
18  David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. 19  Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back.
16  He led David down, and there they were, scattered over the countryside, eating, drinking and reveling because of the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from Judah.
17  David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day, and none of them got away, except four hundred young men who rode off on camels and fled.
18  David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives.
19  Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back.

12. God’s Strength Redeems Us
God Gives Us Victory
God Restores Us
God Redeems Us

13. Whose Strength Do You Use?
My Strength
God’s Strength
Does It Matter?

14. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weak-ness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. --2 Corinthians 12:8-10
In the words of the Apostle Paul….