A Mad Man in the House

A Mad Man in the House

1 Sam 21:10-15 And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? 12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. 14 Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad : wherefore then have ye brought him to me? 15 Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?

1 Cor 14:23 If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad ?

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This sermon is something that I have never done before, a sequel to a previously preached message. Every once in a while, you get a hold of something in the Spirit and it seems that the more that you study it, the more there is to it. The first message was entitled "The Prophet is Mad" and our text was from Hosea 9:7 where the people said of Hosea "the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad." The word for fool there meant "silly, to be disregarded" and the word for mad meant "crazy; insane." "The prophet of God," they said, "is crazy and loony and a little insane, therefore we shouldn't have to listen to him." It was an attitude that arose Hosea said because of the generation's sinfulness and because of their backsliding.

We find this attitude of considering the sold out, in-tune-with-God preacher mad throughout history. And the attitude always arises when someone is really preaching the Word of God to people that are sinful and do not want to change. "The prophet is mad" they will say. Not mad as in angry or ticked, but mad as in a little insane, a little crazy, a little too extreme, and a little too overboard and serious about God. When Hosea preached the word of God, they said "he's mad." When Jeremiah preached the same thing later on, they said of him "He's mad." Jeremiah didn't just speak the message of God but he delivered the powerful words of God as if there was "fire shut up in his bones." They said the same of Isaiah when he prophesied about a coming virgin birth of a king that would rule all of the universe. They said the same about Ezekiel when he preached about a vision of angels and a throne in heaven and wonderful winged creatures attached to wheels with eyes on it. "He's mad. Listen to the fanciful words that he is speaking. Listen to how crazy this stuff sounds. He's got to be nuts, therefore we don't need to obey the other stuff that he is teaching us, after all who would obey a mad man!?" Ezekiel laid on his side every day for over a year and played with sticks to get people to pay attention to the Word of God. And so the critics joined in: "someone that devoted, and that religious, and that faithful to God has to be mad." But it was the voice of a lost and wicked generation.

Into the New Testament, we find the same spirit rose up against the precious One who was the king born of a virgin birth. They said about Jesus:

John 10:20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?

We have so many pictures in our mind of how Jesus preached and taught that has been supplied by movies and books and such, but I want you to realize that when the message of God got hold of Jesus, that He spoke with such passion and emphasis that they labeled Him as "a mad man." He didn't just preach in monotone. He wasn't a zombie that so many portray Him to be, but He was passionate about His cause, so much that His enemies would say about Him "He's mad, why would you want to listen to Him." It was the voice of a generation that did not want truth.

And, of course, when the Holy Ghost fell on the Apostles in the upper room in Acts 2 and they began to spill out into the streets speaking in other tongues as the Spirit of God gave the utterance, some of the crowd scoffed and mad fun and said "these men are drunk." Different words, but same spirit. "They're just crazy." These religious people are "mad."

And so it is of special importance when Paul stood up in court to defend himself before Agrippa and Festus, that as Paul began to passionately tell of his conversion experience with Jesus Christ and how that Jesus Christ had not only risen from the dead, but He was the Messiah, Jehovah become salvation, that the idolater and unbeliever Festus cried out "Paul, thou are mad. Much learning hath made thee mad." In other words, Paul, you've been spending too much time in the Word of God. You are a little too zealous for this thing. You believe it a little too much. The prophet is mad, he said!

And they said it about every other prophet and preacher that ever got a true message from God and stood firm on the Word of God, submitting to the Spirit. They're mad, they proclaimed after the Wesley brothers came to America and received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues and got a revelation of true worship. And so it follows that if to be mad is to trust in God's Word and have a relationship with Him. If to be mad is -- as the world says -- spend too much time in God's Holy Book, and be a little extreme for Jesus. If to be mad is to be drunk on the Holy Ghost wine, and to be radically different from this sinful word, then -- my friend -- we need more madness! I want to be mad like Jesus was mad! I want to be mad and crazy like Paul was crazy! I want to be mad like Hosea was and be like Jeremiah where the anointing and word of God was like "fire" in me! Our sinful world doesn't need more Christians to sit on a pew and feel religious and yet do nothing, but our world needs some people that are "mad" about this thing! People who will get a little crazy and a little beyond normal for God! People who will speak and act and live for Jesus in such a way that people will either have to desire what they have or back away saying "they are mad." I want to be known as a mad man in the house of God, because if I am that way, then I'll be in pretty good company!

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But let's move on in the scriptures on the topic. We need to be mad, but not just mad for madness sake. We need to be the "right kind of mad." Some of you were crazy when you came in here, but if we're going to be crazy for Jesus, then we need to identify the traits of Godly madness. By being mad, I'm not talking about just being weird. I'm talking about being mad as He would have us to be mad. I'm talking about being a mad man in the house of the Lord.

In our text, we find a peculiar story about King David. He is running from King Saul that is trying to kill him, and David goes the wrong way. And in his running, we find that David finds himself in the land of Gath. When the king Achish brings him into the court, David quickly realizes that he has made a mistake. Gath, you may remember, was the home of the giant Goliath, who just had happened to be killed by this man David when he was a boy. And as David listened to the king, he realized that they were still aggravated at him for killing their champion and that they were probably about to hold him prisoner until they decided what to do with him. Thinking fast, David did a curious thing.

1 Sam 21:13 And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.

"He changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands." What does that mean? I've heard some scholars try to say that David had an epileptic seizure or something. But the scriptures clearly state that David "feigned" it. In other words, David changed his behavior and acted mad so that they would not hold him prisoner. It was a conscious decision in his right mind. Simply put, he changed the way that he was behaving so that he could be set free!

Let me preach to you a little bit. To be mad with a Godly madness, you must be willing to change your behavior so that you can be free! Too many people come to God but don't want to change their behavior, and when they continue to have problems with the lust of the flesh, or with willful sin, they get mad and blame God for their lack of ability to overcome their issues. But the problem is not in God or His power or His blood or His name, but in their will. If you have in your will power to choose to sin, then you also have in your will power to choose not to sin! If David could change his behavior to avoid being held by the enemy, then you can too. But here's the key: it's your choice. You can change your behavior if you want to, but you've got to want to. You've got to choose to not be bound by the enemy. It has to be your choice.

That's what repentance is. It's more than just saying you are sorry, but it is making a choice to change your behavior once you get up. It's choosing to not be bound by the enemy of sin anymore. It's choosing the life that Jesus Christ brings rather than the death that sin gives. Sin destroys you. It hurts your family, it destroys every relationship that you have, it destroys your self-esteem and your dreams and most of all, your body. And there is power through the Holy Ghost to live free from the bondage of sin. Jesus Christ paid an awful price on Calvary that purchased your redemption, but you have to choose to allow it to work in your life, and it starts with true repentance. Not just telling God you are sorry in lip service but asking Him for a change in your life. True repentance is choosing to change your behavior so that you will no longer be bound by the enemy!

We need a mad man in the house today! We need someone who will change their behavior to match the Word of God and stop giving the devil leeway in their life! We need someone who will truly repent and let God get involved in your everyday actions! We need somebody to get hold of true heart, felt repentance that when you get up, something's different in your life and you walk out to live a changed lifestyle through the power of the Holy Ghost. God doesn't want lip service today or religious obligation but He wants someone who will get mad enough to change their behavior and refuse to be bound up by the enemy! Look at what the king said:

1 Sam 21:15 Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?

The enemy didn't want such a mad man in his house! But God feels differently! God welcomes someone who will get mad enough to change their behavior for Him! And don't feel strange if when you begin to change to match the Word of God that your old friends think you mad, because you are! Peter wrote:

1 Peter 4:3-4 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: 4 Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:

You know what Peter was saying in verse 4? The world thinks you are strange because you no longer do the things that you used to do! When you truly repent, there is a death of some desires and some greater desires to do Godly things comes in to replace them! And so people begin to consider you "strange" because you are not bound by the enemy like they are. People consider you weird because you don't need that stuff anymore or that lifestyle anymore to make you happy! They are going to call you mad! But if that is so, so be it! We need a mad man in the house of God! Someone who will come out from among this world and not walk according to the lusts of the flesh and who will be separate! Someone who will be looked upon as "they have changed so much since they came to God, surely they've gone mad!" God needs such mad men!

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But that's not the only lesson to be learned from this story of David in our text. As I began to study this story, I came across a surprising but fabulous fact. The word in the Hebrew that is translated "mad" is halal (haw-lal'). And that same word is translated over a hundred times in scripture as "praise." Let me say that again so that you get what I am saying. That same word for "mad" as in David "feigned madness" is basically the word for praise! Listen to the following scriptures where they word is translated as praise:

Ps 18:3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised : so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

Ps 22:22-23 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee . 23 Ye that fear the LORD, praise him ; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.

Ps 69:30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

Ps 106:1 Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Ps 117:1-2 O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. 2 For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD.

Ps 149:1-3 Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. 2 Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. 3 Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.

Ps 150:1-6 Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. 2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. 3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. 4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. 5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. 6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

Because of this, there are many Bible commentators that believe when David feigned madness, all he really did was act like he was in the temple praising Jehovah God! Could it be, that when David closed his eyes, it came naturally to him what to do, because of the many hours that he had spent worshipping God!?

I can't answer that, but I can tell you one thing becomes clear: if we are to be mad as God wants and desires, then we must learn to praise with passion and energy! God is worthy to be praised! If you can't get mad and a little crazy in praising God, then you don't have a true revelation of how good He is!

David changed his behavior by praise! It's time some of us got a true revelation of how powerful praise is! Praise has the power to change your behavior. Praise has the power to deliver you out of the hand of the enemy! If you've come in here feeling bound by depression and despondency or even by your flesh, why don't you try praising your way out of it!? If you've been battling doubt and the enemy has been trying to get you trapped in a prison of unbelief, why don't you bust out of it with praise! It's time to change your behavior through praise! It's time to get beyond what you feel like through praise! It's time to get more than you were expecting through praise! It's time for someone to get their deliverance through praise. He will inhabit your praise! It's more than emotion. It's more than hype. It's more than just jumping around, because when God responds by coming into your situation, then something's going to change! Is there a mad man in the house of God today? The enemy doesn't want the mad man in the house. Hear the King of Achish say "get him out." It's time to make the enemy uncomfortable! David, it's time to get mad in praise to our God who is worthy!

And let me say this, since I'm on the subject of praising God and letting His Spirit move freely! It's alright if someone gets the Holy Ghost in this place! It's alright if someone surrenders to the Spirit of God and begins to speak in a heavenly language as the Spirit gives the utterance! It's okay if someone wants to pray in the Holy Ghost and build up their most holy faith! In our other text, Paul said:

Now I know that Paul was correcting a situation in Corinth where they needed to do other things but speak in tongues and that he was trying to get them to put the Word and singing and testimonies and prayer back into the service with their worship. But let me just say that when you look at it in light of our service, I can't say that it would be a bad thing for all of us to get so in tune with the Holy Ghost that we all began to speak with tongues. It wouldn't be a bad thing for people to say that "they are mad." After all, if Jesus was mad, and Paul was mad, and Hosea and Isaiah and David were all mad, then why shouldn't we be! If we've got the same Spirit and the same Word and the same future...If I'm going to live in heaven with a bunch of mad men, then why not practice being among mad men down here!? I understand what you are saying to the bunch in Corinth, Paul, but I just wonder about the people under the sound of my voice here today: "when's the last time that someone called you mad because of the Holy Ghost moving through you?" Last week? Last month? Never? Has anyone accused you of being drunk on something and all you were doing was just leaving church? Could it be that the church of today has lost something that the Early Church had: a little Holy Ghost madness? Could it be that David's madness to worship and praise God no matter what the situation was one of the things that contributed to him being called "a man after God's own heart?"

I'll say this: understanding this principle helps you alleviate worry. As in it answers the question "what will I do if this happens?" Because to be like David and Paul the answer is always "I'll praise God, madly!" What will you do if you have a good day? I'll praise God madly! What will you do if you have a bad day? I'll praise God madly! What will you do if have money in the bank or if you are broke? I'll praise God madly! What will I do if I find myself in a difficult situation with an enemy out to destroy me? What are you going to do David? "I think I'll just start praising the Lord!" Paul, they want to put you in jail, take you to Rome, and behead you, and now it your turn to speak, what are you going to do? "I think I'll tell them about how my God's not dead by He's alive, and has resurrection power, and I think I'll get a little excited about it!" Worry leaves when you just get mad enough, living for God that you will praise Him no matter what! We need a madman in the house today! We need some madwomen in the house today!

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We find in Acts chapter 12 one of those funny occurrences that could only have happened in real life. The story is that Peter has been arrested and is in prison awaiting his death the following morning. He's locked up in an inner prison changed between four soldiers. It looks pretty bleak and dismal. The church assembles in Mark's mother's house to hold an all night prayer meeting for Peter. They are praying diligently for his release and unknowingly to them, God hears their prayer and dispatches an angel to release Peter. Peter is asleep when the angel taps him on the shoulder and says get up, and as Peter gets up, the chains fall off of his hands and feet. As he puts his coat on to follow the angel out the open door, he thinks that he is still asleep and dreaming and it is not until he steps outside the outer gate of the prison and the angel has disappeared that Peter realizes that he is actually free and God has delivered him!

When he comes to himself, he immediately realizes that he must get as far from the prison as he can because to stay close to it is to be in danger of being captured again. Let me say that this is a lesson that some people never seem to learn. When God has delivered you from the bondage of something and has set you free, you can't go back home and hang out at it's front gate! After your deliverance, you need to get as far away from the gate to that place as possible because the longer and closer you stay to what you were delivered from, then greater the chance of you again becoming ensnared! "Pastor, I get delivered but then I can't stay that way." Stop hanging around the gate! Go find where the church is at! If you do nothing, you'll go right back to where you were!

As Peter thinks about his situation, he realizes that the church is probably praying for his release and it comes to him that they are probably at Mark's mother's house. He heads there quickly, not knowing how soon the soldiers will be after him. The church is still there praying fervently and intently for a miracle! They are praying "Lord set Peter free" and the funny thing is that God has already answered their prayer and their miracle is on the way and they don't even know it!

When Peter gets there, listen what the scriptures say happens:

Acts 12:13-16 And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. 14 And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. 15 And they said unto her, Thou art mad . But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel. 16 But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished.

I love this story for a number of reasons, and because it reveals to us a lot about human nature. First of all, when the little girl, Rhoda, realized it was Peter, she believed but didn't open the door to receive it! How many people today will pray for revelation and hear the preached word of God and realize that it is for them, but they won't open the door in their life and receive their miracle?! The other funny thing about this is that these people are all praying and travailing and fervently beseeching God "Please set Peter free." And when the girl comes in and says "Peter's here standing at the gate" the first thing that they say is "you're mad." Then when she said it again, they say "well it must be his angel." And then we they finally opened the door where Peter was still knocking, the scriptures say that they were astonished to see their miracle that they had been praying for there!

Is this not the response to a preacher today that comes into this house and says "God can do miracles?" We pray for our miracle. We pray for that healing. We pray for the Holy Ghost. We pray for a new anointing or healing over something in the past. Oh, we pray fervently sometimes, but when the miracle show up at the door, and the minister says "your miracle is here," our first reaction is to say "he's crazy." And then our second reaction is to try to explain the miracle away. And then when we actually receive our miracle, because God is a gracious God and keeps knocking and giving us opportunity after opportunity, we are astonished that God actually did what He said that He would do. Silly human beings!

Let me ask you a question. "Why did they say that she was mad?" For one because they had only heard about the miracle and not actually seen it. They were hearing about it from a go-between. Before you call me mad when I tell you that God can and desires to fill you with the Holy Ghost, ask yourself have you ever actually seen it in your life? There are miracles that await outside of the door that you have never seen, but that doesn't mean that they are not real! God's promises are yeah and amen, and it doesn't matter if you've ever seen them or not, they are for you, but you've got to believe enough and get crazy enough to open the door! The miracle will only come to the mad man in the house who is willing to open the door!

Another reason why they said that she was mad was that she was speaking of a miracle that she had never seen either, but had just heard about. The little girl recognized his voice through the door, but hadn't actually laid hold of him to see if he was real and seen him with her own eyes! Let me say that God has miracles and signs and wonders and blessings and anointings and harvests and moves of the Spirit that even I have never actually seen. Call me mad if you want to, but I believe that God is able to do abundantly, above all the we can ask or think.

Some people live in the past. They want God to move "like He used to way back then." The problem with living in the past, is that you limit God to the past. Could it be that God's not answering your prayer to "take you back" to that first anointing, because He desires for you to go above that!? There's a harvest and a work that God wants to do that goes beyond anything Castroville has ever seen! "How do you know preacher? Have you ever seen it? No, but I've been praying for it, and I can hear it knocking on the door of the Spirit! I think I'll go let this revival in! I think I'll open the door to my miracle. "You're mad, preacher." If it takes a mad man to open the door, then I'll be mad enough to open the door! Call me crazy. Whisper that there is a mad man in the house if you want to, but I can tell you what I'm NOT going to do and that is I'm NOT going to keep here in my religious ritual doubting that God can move and do whatever great miracle I need, when it's on the other side of the door! Call me crazy, but I'm mad enough in Jesus to go open the door! My miracle is here!

I close with this! They called her mad because there was not enough time between their prayer and their answer. They hadn't prayed all night long yet. I don't know if this happened, but knowing human nature I can see some dear sister addressing the group with a "now we're going to pray all night long until something happens, and it may take us 12 hours of continual intercession until we see it, but let's believe that God will eventually do it." There's nothing wrong with having an attitude to pray until. There's nothing wrong with enduring. God sometimes makes us wait and I've preached even recently that we must be persistent in our prayers. Jesus taught that and we believe it.

But the problem is that sometimes we get so accustomed to God waiting a while to answer our prayers that we forget that He can, if He so chooses, answer them immediately. That was the problem with the prayer meeting in Acts 12, they entered into the prayer with the attitude that it was going to take a long time before they saw anything happen. They believed God could do it but not immediately. And so when Peter's outside the door, they had a hard time believing it. After all, they hadn't even started sweating and beating the walls yet! They hadn't even gotten out the gallon jug of olive oil! And so they called Rhoda crazy because she believed that God would answer their prayer quickly!

Here's the point: there's a mad man in the house today. I believe that God can answer your prayer instantly. I believe that someone can get their miracle right now! I believe that someone can have a change in behavior and repent right now! I believe that someone can get the Holy Ghost right now! There are some things that you should expect to take a while to see the fruition of. Such as when you are praying for direction for your life or the will of God in a decision that you must make, or you are praying for the salvation of a loved one who is currently not living for God. But that lesson of persistence should not be the first thought when it comes to prayers of deliverance! Because God desires to answer prayers of deliverance almost instantly! If you want the Holy Ghost, or need deliverance from anything depression, a desert place, something to do with sin, or even bitterness or something from the past that you need healing from, God is able -- call me a mad man if you want to -- but I believe that God is able to do it RIGHT NOW!

I'm mad enough to believe that some of your answers are at the door of the Spirit knocking. I'm mad enough to proclaim it that you can have it here, right now! But you've got to open the door. Is there a mad man in the house today? Is there a mad woman?