Caught In A Cave
Caught in a Cave
By: Bobby Sullivan
What do you do when your called to be a King but your Confined in a cave?
Psalm 142: 1-7
I cry out to the Lord; I plead for the Lord’s mercy.
2 I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles.
3 When I am overwhelmed, you alone know the way I should turn.
Wherever I go, my enemies have set traps for me.
4 I look for someone to come and help me, but no one gives me a passing thought No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me.
5 Then I pray to you, O Lord. I say, “You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life. 6 Hear my cry, for I am very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. 7 Bring me out of prison so I can thank you. The godly will crowd around me, for you are good to me.”
BACK STORY: 1 Samuel 22:5 “But the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold. Go into the land of Judah. So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.”
Introduction:
David is complaining before the Lord. Obviously, praise was not continually on his mouth today! He was looking for help but only found hardship. He was harassed and haunted by his own heart.
He was voicing how he really felt /// Like God didn’t already know.
Remember as a child hearing, “QUIT CRYING! Or I will give you something worth crying about.”
How many of us don’t go to God in sincerity for fear he will give you what your complaining about?
Why is David complaining when he says, YOU ARE GOOD TO ME?
Listen, If we can’t complain to God in His presence then I wont feel confident to even come to Him at all
The Presence of God is not the place to bypass your emotions, it’s where you process them. It’s where you lay them down. The place where you are right now is the key to open the door to His presence.
The key is not found in the future-your not there yet. It’s not in the past-you can’t change that. It is right here and right now. It’s in the present that change is made to erase the past and embrace the future.
“Here my cry.” You can think of many things when your mouth is closed. But you can only think of one thing at a time when your mouth is speaking.
God is the only safe place to pour out my feelings.
NOTE: The presence of God is where you get permission to pour yourself out.
You must fight your mind with your mouth. You are allowed to pray aloud!
(Count backwards from 10 in your mind while counting forward to 10 with your mouth) You cant do it!!
You can think of a 1000 things in your head but you can only say 1 thing at a time.
When you shout with praise it will stop your mind from wondering David must verbally remind himself how good he has it when God is good to him.
Psalm 139
1 O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.2You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. 3 You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. 4 You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD.5 You go before me and follow me .You place your hand of blessing on my head. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!
7 I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave,a you are there. 9If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, 10even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.11I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— 12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. 13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. 17 How precious are your thoughts about me,b O God. They cannot be numbered! 18 I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!.
Have you ever had your calling in conflict with your circumstance?
David was coming to grips with the reality of his situation
1.The Reality Of Sorrow – David has been brought to the absolute bottom of life! He is hurting, he is broken, and he is defeated. The Crown Prince of Israel is living in a cave! He does not rest his head on a sumptuous bed in the palace, but on cold rocks of a cave! He no longer sleeps in the bed of the princess, but he seeks rest in the damp darkness of a forsaken cave. He does not find comfort in the house of a friend, but he fights loneliness in a deserted, dirty cave. ( Psalm 142 was written during this period of time.)
2.The Reality Of Suffering – God allowed David to come to this cave, so that David might learn not to lean on the props of family, friends, finances, fame, the flesh or the future. David was taught, through his sufferings, to totally lean upon the Lord. You see, God was not trying to destroy David. He was not trying to discipline David. God was attempting to develop David in the man of God the Lord wanted him to become.
(Note: The same is true in our lives. To teach us to look to Him alone, the Lord uses the hardships of life to develop us. God does not do this to break us; He does it to build us. However, times of breaking up and tearing down often come before the times of building up!
The suffering led him on a search
The Problem is —-Goliath is from Gath. He has to hide in the place of his enemy. David can’t stay in the place he belongs because Saul is threatened to kill him and he cant really stay where he killed Goliath!
Some people just struggle to fit in anywhere!
The way you escape could lead to greater captivity. It is important.
To know where you go when you run! Because sometimes what you run to will end up running you!
3.The Reality Of Separation – David has been cut off from his family, his friends and his followers. He is in a place that prevents fellowship with others. David was brought to the place where he had nothing and no one but the Lord God. That cave was a place of separation!
1 Samuel 22:1 “ David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullum. When his brothers and his fathers household heard about it, they went down to meet him there.”
We often find ourselves in the caves as well, don’t we? God will bring us to the place where we are alone with Him and shut off from the rest of the world.
We fear those times, but they often precede the times of God’s greatest blessings in our lives! David alone in the cave; Jacob was alone in his tent; Elijah alone by the brook; Job alone surrounded by his friends; Moses alone on the backside of that mountain; Jesus alone in the agony of Gethsemane and Calvary. Each of these experienced their greatest triumph after that time of being shut up and shut off by the Lord. You see, there are lessons that are learned in the dark that cannot be learned in the light.
1 SAMUEL 22:1
He escaped something he was trapped in. Now we see why he was complaining! He is a king confined to a cave.
David is not surprised by the enemies that surrounded him. He is surprised by the friends who didn’t.
David is shocked that no one is around him who really cares. Where has the compassion for the king gone?
**David wasn’t alone in a cave. His brothers and father household. They went down to meet him there.
How many of your know there is a difference in being surrounded and be supported?
David was surrounded by family but not supported……
Everyone in the cave needed something from David!!!
VS 2 REPEAT
A crowd around you doesn’t mean they got your back!!!
WHO REALLY CARES NOW-A-DAYS?
What happened when I got my heart scare?
I’m not David but I can relate. What do I do when I feel like I have nowhere or no one to retreat to but a cave and closet even though I’m called?
Important to realize that your current reality is an opportunity for revelations to be revealed!
THE REVELATIONS OF THE CAVE
A. The Revelation Of His Call– As David’s props began to be taken away, one after the other, he probably began to doubt the promises that God had made to him so long ago. But, after a while, people began to show up at David’s cave. First, his family came; then the defeated and downtrodden men of Israel began to show up. David’s family came out of fear of Saul; the rest came because they believed David was God’s man for the future. They all cast in their lot with David. God used this motley group of people to show David that He still had a plan for David’s life.
(Note: I don’t know how God will do it, but somehow, while you are in your cave, He will come to where you are and confirm His faithfulness and His promises to you! God will use your cave as a banner to write His love over your life! Elijah had his ravens; Moses had his burning bush; Jesus had His empty tomb. God has a way of showing us that it will be all right.
B. The Revelation Of His Character– When his family and the misfit militia of Israel showed up, it probably added to David’s burden at first. Psalm 57, which was also written during that time, expresses that thought in verse 4. But, David rose to the challenge and the truth of his character was revealed in what he did during those times. He took measures to care for his elderly parents and he rose up and led his men. In other words, instead of breaking under the pressures of the moment, David’s heart was revealed. The leader rose to the challenge and led! But, it took pain and problems to squeeze that out of him!
CHARACTER is GREATER THAN CHARISMA!
Character is A description of a person’s attributes, traits, or abilities.
Charisma is a special personal quality or power of an individual making him capable of influencing or inspiring large numbers of people.
Charisma is a gifting: Just because someone is gifted with influence, wealth and personality does not mean that persons pleases God. Charisma is what you already have.
Character come s from within you not what’s on the outside of you!
It is time for us to cross the line of inadequacy and the lines drawn in the sand by the giants of our present day failures and ghost of your past.
Failure is an event not a person! We all fail sometimes
Failure is not final!
“Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts” Winston Churchill
Failure is the first step to fun or SUCCESS.
“Success builds Character. Failure reveals it” “Try and fail, but don’t fail to try”
C. The Revelation Of His Commitment– In spite of what the circumstances said about David and his situation, David held on to the promises of God, Ill. 57:1-11. David knew where to go to find refuge in the times of trouble. He did not give up, even when most others would have. He held on to the Lord and the promises of God. He knew that God would come through in His time!
Even though he wondered many times if anyone other that God really cared
Do you ever wonder when someone will legitly ask, “HOW ARE YOU?”
EXAMPLE: When I left my MLM as top dog, on one really cared because I was no longer there inspiration.
Everyone needs something from me. How about just needing me with empty hands. How about a simple drink of water? How about refreshing me once in a while!
REFRESHMENTS OF THE CAVE
A. The Refreshment Of His Followers– These men who gathered themselves around David were there because they were fed up with Saul. The distressed came to David. This word means “to be under stress and under pressure.” We are also told that those who were in debtcame. This speaks of those who “could not pay their bills.” The discontented also came. This word refers to those who are “bitter and who have been mistreated.” Here was a group of hundreds of people who have suffered under the tyranny and taxation of Saul and they are fed up. They go to David because they believe that he is God’s man for Israel.
I am sure that David could not see in his life what they saw. At that time, David could only see defeat and discouragement. While David could only see the cave; those who came to him could see the crown. They gathered themselves around him and believed in him, even when he was down!
1 SAMUEL 22:2 “All those who were in distress or in debt or disconnected gathered around him and he became their commander. About 400 of them.
Be careful when you complain because the company that God sends to your cave may not be who you want for your next convention!
What David didn’t know was that these same men would be the ones that would bring him to the throne.
If these men didn’t have the reputation of being rough, they could not be relentless.
Some things can only be supernaturally set up when your sitting in a cave.
What you have is all you need for where you are. You are not held captive in a cave. Your calling is not confined because you are more than a conqueror.
(Note: If there is any one benefit of the cave that stands out, it is the fact that caves have the ability to focus our priorities. When we go into a cave experience, we soon learn what is important and what is trivial. The caves help us focus like nothing else!
Ill. Peter was all over the map; hot and cold, before he entered his cave experience. But, when he came out of that cave he was focused like a laser. That is what the cave will do for you! It will tighten your focus onto that which is most important: finding and doing the will of the Lord. Sometimes, I think that is why the Lord sends us into the caves. (Jonah! He is running from God, but a few days in a whale focused his attention and he begins to run with God!)
Note: Thank God for the encouragers of life! Thank God for those people who can see potential in our lives, when we can see nothing good in our selves? Barnabas was that kind of a friend to Mark, Acts 15:35-41. Apparently, it had an affect on the young man’s life and ministry, 2 Tim. 4:11.
God has a way of putting people around us who can serve as encouragers in our lives! I praise the Lord for everyone who has looked at our lives and seen potential there that I could not recognize. What an encouragement they have been to this preacher!
By the way, there is a great need for that kind of ministry in the church today. There is always someone who stands ready to criticize and cut down; but there are very few who will come along side you during the hard times of your life and lift you up. Maybe God is calling you into that kind of ministry for His glory!)
YOU ARE A BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER! BRIDGEWATER
David was a bridge for his family. Even when they were not with him in the beginning, He was with them in the end.
B. The Refreshment Of His Family – David’s family comes to him in that cave. Here are people who used to doubt David. His own father ignored him, 1 Sam. 16:11. His oldest brother Eliab publicly rebuked David and criticized him, 1 Sam. 17:28. Now, they see in the man before them God’s man and God’s choice for king. The one they formerly would have passed over is the one they turn to for help! It seems that the caves of live have the potential to bring out our best.
C. The Refreshment Of His Focus – Going through the pain of seeing all his props taken away was a painful experience for David. Having to flee from the palace to hide in a cave was humbling as well. However, in that humble hide away, God began the process of transforming David into a great king. God took that rag tag band of men and, working through David, transformed them into “David’s Mighty Men.” These men, and their exploits, are named in 2 Sam. 23. Because God sent these men to David in that cave, David was able to get his mind off his problems and focus his attention on leading them and training them to be a fighting force. It was a humble beginning, but David was focused and soon he would walk out of that cave and accept the crown.
D. The refreshment of a future:
1 SAMUEL 22:3 From there David went to Mizpah in Moab and said to the king of Moab, ‘Would you let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do with me?”
**David was destined to be King but RIGHT NOW he is in a cave of confusion.
VS 4 “So he left them with the King of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David was in the stronghold.”
STRONGHOLD- is a fortified place where opposing forces cant get to you.
VS 5 “But the prophet Gad said to David, ‘Do not stay in the stronghold. Go into the land of Judah. So David, left and went to the Forest of Hereth.
The stronghold is a setup because you think there is safety and security there. If you’re not careful The cave protects you but it can also trap you.
JUDAH IS THE PLACE OF PRAISE
The Hebrew name for Judah, Yehudah (יהודה), literally “thanksgiving” or “praise,” is the noun form of the root Y-D-H (ידה), “to thank” or “to praise.”
It was in the cave and from the cave that David carried the conviction of being King!
Because of the Prophet David went from Prison to Praise
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