SPEAKER_00: Alright, how's that?
SPEAKER_00: Alright, 1 Samuel chapter number 22.
SPEAKER_00: And if it's your first time with us, we are so glad to have you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I'm Jarrett Wells, the pastor here at Lake.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad that you're here to join us for our study as we continue through the life of David.
SPEAKER_00: We're looking at the heart of the matter.
SPEAKER_00: Is this thing working?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all hear me?
SPEAKER_00: Feels kind of low.
SPEAKER_00: All right, maybe it's just me.
SPEAKER_00: But we are looking at the heart of the matter in 1 Samuel chapter 22.
SPEAKER_00: And we are entering into a new chapter in the life of David this morning.
SPEAKER_00: A new chapter, not just physically in the Bible, but a new chapter of his life.
SPEAKER_00: We no longer see David tending the sheep in the field.
SPEAKER_00: We no longer see David at the side of Saul being an armor bearer or slaying Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: We no longer see David, you know, with his family.
SPEAKER_00: We come to a season in David's life where now he is running as a fugitive from a murderous, insane king, King Saul.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a new chapter of his life that many people believe goes on for like seven to ten years, where he's running from his life and he's hiding in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: He's hiding and looking over his shoulder, wondering when Saul and his army is going to come and kill him.
SPEAKER_00: And we see here in chapter 22, in verse number one, I want to read just the first few words of this verse, and we're going to get into it.
SPEAKER_00: It says, David therefore departed from there and escaped to the what?
SPEAKER_00: Cave of Adulum.
SPEAKER_00: This is a season of David's life where he's hiding in caves.
SPEAKER_00: And you think about how far he's come.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, before you know it, I mean he was he was killing Goliath, he was the talk of the town, everyone loved him, and now, just a few chapters later, he is hiding in a cave.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to ask y'all, has anybody ever been in a cave?
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not talking about spiritually and emotionally and all that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about a literal real cave.
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if you've been in a cave.
SPEAKER_00: What's something to describe a cave?
SPEAKER_00: How would you describe a cave?
SPEAKER_00: Dark.
SPEAKER_00: What else?
SPEAKER_00: Suffocating, damp, cold, uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a very pleasant place to be, is it?
SPEAKER_00: It's not a place where you would like to live and stay for a long period of time.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I went to a cave one time.
SPEAKER_00: We've been to a few different caves, and one cave that I went to, you know, you're traveling around with a tour guide and a group of people, and everybody's got flashlights, and it's got lights on the edge of the walkway and all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: They designed it so you can tour it.
SPEAKER_00: But this one tour guide, he said, you know, we're gonna do something today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna turn out all the lights.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all ever had that happen?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna turn out all the lights so you can see exactly how dark a cave is.
SPEAKER_00: And y'all, when they turned the lights out in that cave, you could almost feel the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: It was dark, like dark.
SPEAKER_00: It was dark.
SPEAKER_00: And can you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: Think of that.
SPEAKER_00: David didn't have no comfortable cave.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have a cave with a tour guide, turning the lights on and off.
SPEAKER_00: He found himself going from the field, from the palace to the cave.
SPEAKER_00: In a season of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Not just a physical cave, but for 10 years, David was walking through a season of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe some of you can relate to that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been in that season of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if you've been in a season of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're there right now.
SPEAKER_00: A cave that you're in where it's uncomfortable, it's not pleasant, it's cold, it's dark, it's damp, it's depressing.
SPEAKER_00: It's not something you would like to stay in very long, but you found yourself in a cave.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in a financial cave.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're you got a bad diagnosis in a health, you know, you're in a health crisis cave.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in a uh you know, emotional uh relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe people have turned you on you, betrayed you, hurt you, done you wrong.
SPEAKER_00: David was hated without cause.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in a deep cave this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I heard a doctor say I heard a story of a doctor.
SPEAKER_00: He he called his patient and he said, Look, I got some bad news and I got some worse news.
SPEAKER_00: The patient said, Okay, well, give me the bad news first.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Okay, well, you're gonna die in 24 hours.
SPEAKER_00: Pretty bad.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, what could be the worst news?
SPEAKER_00: He said, I was supposed to tell you yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: A cave.
SPEAKER_00: Darkness, suffering, pain, emotional.
SPEAKER_00: Look, what about this?
SPEAKER_00: Lonely.
SPEAKER_00: The crushing loneliness, heartache, grief of being in a season of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: I think we can all relate to that, right?
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing Christians are not exempt from caves.
SPEAKER_00: David was doing everything right.
SPEAKER_00: Up until this point, we, you know, we we didn't look at chapter 22.
SPEAKER_00: He had a little flaw, crack in character, or chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: But David was relatively doing most things right.
SPEAKER_00: And he ended up in a cave.
SPEAKER_00: A season of hurt and pain, confusion.
SPEAKER_00: Where he's looking around saying, God, why is this happening?
SPEAKER_00: God, why are you allowing these things in my life?
SPEAKER_00: He was hitting rock bottom, so to speak, right?
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine what David was going through?
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing: this is what I love about this study, is that we don't have to imagine, because he writes us down, he writes it down what it's like to be in a cave.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, and if you take notes, Psalms 142, if you look at Psalms 142, the heading of Psalms 142 says this A prayer from a cave by David.
SPEAKER_00: And notice what he says: he says, I cry out to the Lord with my voice, with my voice to the Lord, I make supplication, I pour out my complaint before him, I declare before him my trouble.
SPEAKER_00: When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then you knew my path.
SPEAKER_00: In the way in which I walk, they have secretly set a snare for me.
SPEAKER_00: Look on my right hand and see.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: For there is no one who acknowledges me.
SPEAKER_00: Refuge has failed me.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to the pain in his heart.
SPEAKER_00: No one cares for my soul.
SPEAKER_00: I cried out to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I cried out to the Lord and said, You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.
SPEAKER_00: Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low.
SPEAKER_00: Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I.
SPEAKER_00: Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise your name.
SPEAKER_00: The righteous shall surround me, for you shall deal bountifully with me.
SPEAKER_00: What do we see when David was in this cave?
SPEAKER_00: We see his heartache, we see his pain, but we also see his faith.
SPEAKER_00: He's crying out to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what we need to understand that I believe David under, you know, probably had to come to understand the same same thing when he was in a cave.
SPEAKER_00: The cave was not a detour from God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: It was part of God's plan to prepare David for his purpose.
SPEAKER_00: It was not a detour.
SPEAKER_00: The road to the throne led through a cave.
SPEAKER_00: And it was in this season of darkness and suffering that led David to become the man that God was calling him to be.
SPEAKER_00: What are we studying here?
SPEAKER_00: The heart.
SPEAKER_00: God will do some deep work in your heart in a cave.
SPEAKER_00: In a season of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: In a painful experience.
SPEAKER_00: And you may be there right now.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a, this is not, look, I know this is this caves are gloomy, okay?
SPEAKER_00: This is a little gloomy.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes that's life.
SPEAKER_00: God was preparing David and teaching David some things in this cave.
SPEAKER_00: And he he was he was learning from this cave.
SPEAKER_00: And we also can learn some lessons from a cave.
SPEAKER_00: What can we learn?
SPEAKER_00: Three things that David learned, I believe, in this cave.
SPEAKER_00: He learned about God, he learned about people, and he learned about himself.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens in a cave.
SPEAKER_00: You learn a little more about God, you learn a whole lot about people, and you learn more about yourself.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to ask you, I want to frame this in three questions this morning.
SPEAKER_00: First off, what does the cave teach about God?
SPEAKER_00: What does the cave teach us about God?
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to write this down.
SPEAKER_00: Keep this in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Remember it.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
SPEAKER_00: God is still faithful in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we could have had a few more amens right there.
SPEAKER_00: God is still faithful even in your cave.
SPEAKER_00: Even in your darkness, even in your hurt, even in your pain.
SPEAKER_00: He was faithful with David when he was in the field tending to the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: He was faithful with David when he went up against Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: He was faithful with to David whenever he was being the armor bearer to the king.
SPEAKER_00: And he was even faithful to David while he was in this cave.
SPEAKER_00: You see, just because he was in a cave and it was cold and it was dark, God was still there with him.
SPEAKER_00: God did not abandon him in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't abandon him in the suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And the thing about a cave, the thing about a dark cave is look, you can't always see God.
SPEAKER_00: You can't always hear God.
SPEAKER_00: And you can't always feel God.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not about feeling God, it's about trusting God.
SPEAKER_00: And he is still a faithful God.
SPEAKER_00: Even in your greatest painful, dark moments of your life, he is still a God that will not leave you all alone.
SPEAKER_00: That's the promise that we claim.
SPEAKER_00: That's the promise we hold on to.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you this because if you haven't already, you will be in a dark time where you're crying out saying, God, where are you?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just just remember what I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_00: He is still there with you.
SPEAKER_00: He's still faithful in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: He has not left you alone in your darkness and in your suffering.
SPEAKER_00: The other thing we learn about God, and David learned about God, is that God is enough in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: He's enough.
SPEAKER_00: What did David do?
SPEAKER_00: He cried out to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 142, he says, Oh God, you are my refuge.
SPEAKER_00: God, you are my portion.
SPEAKER_00: God, you are enough.
SPEAKER_00: And look, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, think about this.
SPEAKER_00: Everything was stripped away from David.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he lost his family.
SPEAKER_00: He lost his friend Jonathan.
SPEAKER_00: He lost his position.
SPEAKER_00: He lost his reputation.
SPEAKER_00: He lost his authority.
SPEAKER_00: He was a commander of an army.
SPEAKER_00: He was a high-ranking military figure.
SPEAKER_00: He lost all of that.
SPEAKER_00: He lost, look, he lost everything he was propping his security of himself up on.
SPEAKER_00: He lost everything that he was propping his identity up on.
SPEAKER_00: God removed it one by one, by one by one.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because when David got to that point where God was all he had, he realized that God was all he needed.
SPEAKER_00: That's what a cave will do.
SPEAKER_00: It'll get you to the point where everything is stripped away.
SPEAKER_00: Except the one who will never leave you.
SPEAKER_00: And when God is all you have, you discover that God is all you need.
SPEAKER_00: You know what a cave does?
SPEAKER_00: A cave has a good way of exposing what we're really trusting in.
SPEAKER_00: Are we trusting in our career?
SPEAKER_00: God can take it away.
SPEAKER_00: Are we trusting in our finances?
SPEAKER_00: God can take it away.
SPEAKER_00: Are we trusting in our our our position?
SPEAKER_00: God can take it away.
SPEAKER_00: Are we trusting in a relationship?
SPEAKER_00: God can take it away.
SPEAKER_00: Are we trusting in our health?
SPEAKER_00: God can take it away.
SPEAKER_00: That we're fit, God can take it away.
SPEAKER_00: And one by one, it's like God was knocking down the stakes that was holding up David's identity until David found himself.
SPEAKER_00: All he had to trust in was God, and that was all he needed.
SPEAKER_00: A cave exposes what you're really trusting in.
SPEAKER_00: And God will bring you to those caves to make you realize that he is enough.
SPEAKER_00: And he's always been enough.
SPEAKER_00: God is enough in a cave, in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: And also we learn about God is He is still at work in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: He's still working in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: God's silence is not God's absence.
SPEAKER_00: The cave is a test.
SPEAKER_00: And how many of y'all students in here know the teacher can't always help you out during the test?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you do, they do maybe, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But look, the cave, the darkness, you don't always hear God, but are you still gonna trust God?
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna trust that he's still working in your life?
SPEAKER_00: A cave reveals your faith.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you may not be able to see God at work, but you can trust that he is still at work.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the cave was not a detour, the cave was a part of the plan to prepare David.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you one more thought before I move on to the next question.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is faithful in the cave, and because God is enough in the cave, and because God is still working in the cave, you can still praise God in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: Praise him where?
SPEAKER_00: Anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: In the cave.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking about the song we sang.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all thinking about like what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, my mind's all over the place.
SPEAKER_00: Praise him where?
SPEAKER_00: In a cave.
SPEAKER_00: Praise him where?
SPEAKER_00: Anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: David realized that he didn't just have to praise God when he was in the palace.
SPEAKER_00: He could praise him even in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: He could praise, he could lift up his hands.
SPEAKER_00: He said in the Psalms, he cried out to God.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's another Psalm that David wrote while he was in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in Psalms 57.
SPEAKER_00: Do I have those verses up there?
SPEAKER_00: I don't have that, huh?
SPEAKER_00: Let me turn there real quick.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 57, you can write it down.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to notice what David said in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 57, let's just read a few verses.
SPEAKER_00: The title, again, I love looking at the title of these Psalms because it says a psalm of David when he fled from Saul into the cave.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so we're getting a diary account of David while he's fleeing from Saul in a cave.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, let's just, I'm not gonna read the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: Let's jump down to verse number seven.
SPEAKER_00: Look what David says while he was in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: He said, My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast.
SPEAKER_00: I will sing and give praise.
SPEAKER_00: Where now y'all don't know what to say.
SPEAKER_00: In a cave, anywhere, in the valley, in the struggle, in the pain.
SPEAKER_00: David said, I will give and I will sing and give praise.
SPEAKER_00: Awake my glory, awake lute and harp, whatever a loot is.
SPEAKER_00: I will awaken the dawn.
SPEAKER_00: I will praise you.
SPEAKER_00: He was making a decision that because God did not leave him alone, because God is faithful, he said, I will praise you, O Lord, among the peoples, I will sing to you among the nations, for your mercy reaches unto the heavens and your truth unto the clouds.
SPEAKER_00: Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Let your glory be above all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, church, what can we learn about God?
SPEAKER_00: He is faithful in the cave, he will never leave you.
SPEAKER_00: He is still at work, so we can lift our hands and praise him no matter what we are going through.
SPEAKER_00: We learn a few things about God.
SPEAKER_00: We also learn something about people.
SPEAKER_00: What does the cave teach about people?
SPEAKER_00: And the verse some will abandon you in your cave.
SPEAKER_00: Some will forget about you in your cave.
SPEAKER_00: Some will turn their back on you in your deepest, darkest moment of life.
SPEAKER_00: And let's not just pretend that that doesn't hurt.
SPEAKER_00: Look, David was, think about it, he killed Goliath, and the whole nation was praising him.
SPEAKER_00: He killed Goliath and everybody wanted to talk to him.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody wanted to shake his hand.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody wanted to say, you know, I know David, I've seen him over here.
SPEAKER_00: He was the talk of the town.
SPEAKER_00: He would be like Lane Kiffin in Louisiana right now.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody loved him.
SPEAKER_00: Just wait till he loses the game, all right?
SPEAKER_00: He was popular, all right?
SPEAKER_00: He he was popular when everything was going his way.
SPEAKER_00: But then whenever he was in a cave, for a while, he was all by himself.
SPEAKER_00: Where were the people that praised him?
SPEAKER_00: Where were the people that loved him?
SPEAKER_00: Where were the people that wanted to be with him when everything when he was on top?
SPEAKER_00: Here's a hard truth, church, that we need to remember.
SPEAKER_00: A hard truth is that some people will love what God is doing through you more than they love you.
SPEAKER_00: They love you when you're popular.
SPEAKER_00: But here's something else we need to remember.
SPEAKER_00: The palace reveals the fans, but the cave reveals the friends.
SPEAKER_00: Cave has a good way of weeding out people in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, and that's not a it hurts, but that's not a bad thing.
SPEAKER_00: Because God knows who is supposed to be in your life, and God knows who's supposed to just be there for a season.
SPEAKER_00: And a cave will remove the ones that are not truly there for you, but it'll do this also.
SPEAKER_00: Look, some will abandon you, but some will be there for you.
SPEAKER_00: Some will come to you in your cave.
SPEAKER_00: It will reveal to you in your darkness, in your season of suffering, the ones that really care for you.
SPEAKER_00: And look, when you're in a cave, you'll look around.
SPEAKER_00: David said, I looked and no one was there with me.
SPEAKER_00: No one cared for my soul.
SPEAKER_00: He looked around, and who he thought should be there wasn't, but also who was there was probably surprising.
SPEAKER_00: Look what it says in verse number two.
SPEAKER_00: Uh well, let's finish reading verse uh one, chapter 22, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Dulum.
SPEAKER_00: So when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is what I believe, and I can't prove it, and I'm not saying it's Bible truth, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But I believe when David wrote Psalms 142, he may have been in this cave in the time period where nobody was there with him.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I can't prove it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know for sure.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know if this is the same setting, but it was David's prayer from a cave, and he said, Nobody's with me.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Nobody cares for me.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Nobody loves me pretty much, you know.
SPEAKER_00: It's like all he had with God was God.
SPEAKER_00: And then maybe after he finished writing that psalm, he, this is just my imagination, right?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he heard some footsteps coming.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe he looked in the cave and there was a there was a torch.
SPEAKER_00: Someone came with a torch, and he's like, Oh, Saul's army coming to kill me, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But then, one by one, his brothers started coming in that cave with him.
SPEAKER_00: Remember his brothers?
SPEAKER_00: Eliah put down on him, said, you know, he criticized them.
SPEAKER_00: He said, David, what are you doing trying to fight Goliath?
SPEAKER_00: His brothers were jealous of him.
SPEAKER_00: His brothers, you know, uh kind of had a little tension.
SPEAKER_00: But what happened?
SPEAKER_00: His brothers came to him.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says, All of his father's household, quality friends are revealed in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: Quality friends are revealed in your cave.
SPEAKER_00: Then one by one by one, and then it says, four hundred people came in that cave with David.
SPEAKER_00: They was having a cave party.
SPEAKER_00: Look, it says in verse number two, and everyone who is in distress, Everyone who was in debt, everyone who was discontented gathered to him.
SPEAKER_00: So he became captain over them.
SPEAKER_00: And there went out 400 men with him.
SPEAKER_00: With them.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what the enemy wants us to believe.
SPEAKER_00: The lie the enemy wants us to believe is that nobody is there for you in your dark season of life.
SPEAKER_00: You may be there right now and you think nobody cares for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not careful, I don't want to be insensitive, but you can almost start throwing a pity party for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And we see that Elijah, one of the greatest prophets in the Bible, he's he he called down fire from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Then what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: He ran under a juniper tree and said, Oh, God, just kill me.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's here with me, nobody's fighting.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the only one.
SPEAKER_00: And God had to wake him up and open his eyes that there is 7,000 people that have not bowed the knee to Baal.
SPEAKER_00: You are not alone.
SPEAKER_00: God revealed to him that I'm with you, and there are people there that love you, and I still have a purpose for you.
SPEAKER_00: But the enemy will tell you that you're the only one struggling and nobody cares.
SPEAKER_00: You're the only one hurting and nobody's there.
SPEAKER_00: But listen, church, if you look around, if you really look around, there are people that love you and care for you.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they don't show it in the right way.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they say the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they, you know, show their love in different ways.
SPEAKER_00: But look, there are people that love you and care for you in your cave, in your darkness.
SPEAKER_00: You just have to open your eyes and look at those that are there for you in that time.
SPEAKER_00: And then what else do we learn about people?
SPEAKER_00: We learn broken people attract broken people.
SPEAKER_00: Broken people attract broken people.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the people that came to David.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in verse number two, the ones that were in distress, the ones that were in debt, everyone who was discontented gathered to him.
SPEAKER_00: This was not the cream of the crop of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: This was the outcast.
SPEAKER_00: This was the ones that were, you know, rejected.
SPEAKER_00: These were the ones that are in debt.
SPEAKER_00: These were hurting people coming to another hurting person.
SPEAKER_00: David was hurting, they were hurting, so what did they do?
SPEAKER_00: They came to sit with him in his cave.
SPEAKER_00: Hurting people can help hurting people.
SPEAKER_00: They helped David, and David helped them.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what that takes?
SPEAKER_00: It takes a word that we don't like: vulnerability.
SPEAKER_00: Being real.
SPEAKER_00: You can't fake it in a cave.
SPEAKER_00: You get to know somebody real good when you're stuck in a cave with them.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And look, what attracted these people to David was that David was real, and real is relatable.
SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, is the church is so bad at this.
SPEAKER_00: I know I've talked about it before, you know, but and and I believe that this church, I see God breaking down some of that false image that we try to pretend like everything is okay.
SPEAKER_00: Because look, what if the church would really just be real?
SPEAKER_00: Stop pretending and say, I'm hurting, I'm struggling, my marriage is struggling, my family is struggling, I need a friend.
SPEAKER_00: If we would open up, David had to let them in his cave.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we have to open ourselves up and let people in that season of darkness so that they can sit by us in it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the church is about, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're called to do.
SPEAKER_00: People can't relate to perfection, they relate to brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to, as a church, we're not all perfect people.
SPEAKER_00: We're imperfect, hurting people that sit with each other in our hurt and not just have group therapy, but point each other to the God who promises to comfort us in our hurt and in our pain and in our suffering, the God who will provide, and the God whose His grace is sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: We lead each other to that refuge, to that hope.
SPEAKER_00: Broken people attract broken people.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you one more thought this morning, one more question.
SPEAKER_00: And here's probably a very important question for us to ask ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: What does the cave teach about ourselves?
SPEAKER_00: What does that season of darkness teach about ourselves?
SPEAKER_00: And I'll say it, I'll add this.
SPEAKER_00: You don't always learn it in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you look back and you learn it after the cave.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the cave, you're like so confused and you're hurting, you know what's going on, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But when you look back, you say, okay, I learned something.
SPEAKER_00: What did you learn about yourself in the cave?
SPEAKER_00: Three things real quick.
SPEAKER_00: The first is this the cave reveals our faith.
SPEAKER_00: The cave reveals our faith.
SPEAKER_00: David could have gotten bitter, he could have gotten angry at God, he took, he could have turned from God, but he turned to God.
SPEAKER_00: He prayed, he cried out to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to praise God when everything's easy.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to sing, Great is thy faithfulness when your bills are paid.
SPEAKER_00: And there's food on the table, and relationships are strong, and health is okay, but when everything starts falling apart, that reveals your true faith.
SPEAKER_00: The cave doesn't always give you faith.
SPEAKER_00: Many times it just reveals the faith that's already there.
SPEAKER_00: Are you trusting in Him truly?
SPEAKER_00: Gives you an opportunity to grow your faith muscles, to reveal the faith that's within.
SPEAKER_00: It reveals your faith.
SPEAKER_00: It also prepares you for your purpose.
SPEAKER_00: There's some of you right here, right now, that you would not be in this season of life that you're in if you didn't go through a season of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't see God doing great things in your life, and you wouldn't see how this is working out the way it is if you didn't go through.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because a cave prepares you for what God has next.
SPEAKER_00: David would not have been the king that God had called him to be and reaching the potential of being the greatest king of Israel if he would have had a smooth sail to the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: It was through the cave that he learned how to lead.
SPEAKER_00: And you look through that, this chapter, you see, David, he went from leading sheep in a field to leading 400 in a cave, to eventually leading a nation in its golden years.
SPEAKER_00: Because God brought him through a season of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And this goes back to what I said earlier: God is still working in your darkness.
SPEAKER_00: God is still doing a work even when you can't see what he's doing.
SPEAKER_00: He's still working, the darkness will not last forever.
SPEAKER_00: And God is doing a work within the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, uh, I think about how God being at work in the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in between your Old Testament and your New Testament, there's 400 years of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: In between Malachi and Matthew, there's 400 years where there was no voice of God, no prophets of God.
SPEAKER_00: God did not speak.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the heavens were shut up.
SPEAKER_00: And the people were like, What's going on?
SPEAKER_00: Where are the prophets?
SPEAKER_00: Where's the voice of God?
SPEAKER_00: God must have rejected us.
SPEAKER_00: God must not be doing anything.
SPEAKER_00: But look, it was in the darkness that he was setting up for the greatest moment of history where Jesus came to this world.
SPEAKER_00: God is still at work in the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: I think about when Jesus was on the cross three hours, there was pitch darkness.
SPEAKER_00: God turned the lights out.
SPEAKER_00: He said, God must not be doing anything, but it was in that moment he was actively placing the sins of uh your sins and my sins upon the back of Jesus Christ, where he was being made sin for us.
SPEAKER_00: And he died in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And he was laid in a tomb in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And for three days they were like, Okay, I guess this Jesus thing is done with, but God was still working in the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: There was still something going on in the darkness, and y'all know three days later Jesus rose from the grave.
SPEAKER_00: The cave is not the end of your story, it's just part of your story.
SPEAKER_00: God still has a work that He wants to do through you, and He's preparing you for that work in the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, a cave.
SPEAKER_00: What do we learn about ourselves?
SPEAKER_00: The cave develops our character.
SPEAKER_00: God was not just making a king.
SPEAKER_00: God was making a man.
SPEAKER_00: And not just any man, a man after his own heart.
SPEAKER_00: And the process for that was he had to go through a season of suffering, a season of pain, a season of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: He had to go through a cave to get to a kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: God, listen.
SPEAKER_00: God does some of the deepest works in our heart through some of the darkest moments of our life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
SPEAKER_00: God does the deepest work in the darkest parts.
SPEAKER_00: And there are things that he wants to do in your life and things he wants to develop in your heart that he can't do in the sunshine whenever things are easy.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't that, you know, you think about, wouldn't that just be good if we just have a problem-free life and never have any issues at all?
SPEAKER_00: You and your spouse just got along all the time, every day.
SPEAKER_00: It'd probably get boring, actually, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_00: You know, the bills were always paid, and you had a nice financial security set up, and the kids always got along.
SPEAKER_00: What a utopia that would be, right?
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: You would never grow.
SPEAKER_00: Because it takes the pressure of life to develop some things in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, the grass don't grow if there's no storms.
SPEAKER_00: There's gotta be rain.
SPEAKER_00: There's gotta be hard times, there's gonna be storms, there's gotta be trials, there's gotta be caves.
SPEAKER_00: Because our character is developed in the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm old enough to remember that we didn't have all these phones that you could take digital pictures of.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you have to take a picture, you'd have a camera like this big, and you would take a picture and you'd have to go get the film developed.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if you remember that.
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if you don't know what in the world I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, a few of you.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: You see, kids, you see, kids, you there used to not be a digital world we lived in.
SPEAKER_00: There used to be actual physical film you would bring to some random guy, some random store, and you know what they do?
SPEAKER_00: They'd bring it and place it in a dark room and they'd put it in some solution.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what it had to do?
SPEAKER_00: It had to sit for a while.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody following where I'm going here?
SPEAKER_00: It had to sit.
SPEAKER_00: If you took it out too soon, it wouldn't be fully developed.
SPEAKER_00: If you took it out too soon, you might ruin the picture.
SPEAKER_00: You had to let it sit for an appropriate time in the darkness, and then when you bring it into the light, you can see what was developed.
SPEAKER_00: What a picture of what God does for us.
SPEAKER_00: He brings us into the darkness for an appropriate time, a season of suffering, a season of pain, and we have to sit through our cave.
SPEAKER_00: You can't rush a cave.
SPEAKER_00: You can't rush the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: It's God's timing.
SPEAKER_00: But one day, he will bring you out of it, and you will see that he was doing a work in your heart the whole time, preparing you for what was next.
SPEAKER_00: You're only developed in the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: David entered the cave in the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And God changed his heart and made him more.
SPEAKER_00: You know what he was doing?
SPEAKER_00: He was making him more into the image of himself.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just lay it out to you, real simple.
SPEAKER_00: The cave conforms you into the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the darkness does if you allow that work to be done.
SPEAKER_00: And the good news is that you have a savior that knows a whole lot about the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: David went into a cave, but Jesus went into a grave.
SPEAKER_00: And just like David came out of the cave, Jesus came out of the grave.
SPEAKER_00: And because he came out of the grave, he won't leave you in your darkness.
SPEAKER_00: He is with you.
SPEAKER_00: He will develop you.
SPEAKER_00: He will work in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And he is working to conform you more into his image.
SPEAKER_00: And I think about how Paul said in Philippians 3 10.
SPEAKER_00: He says, that I may know him.
SPEAKER_00: The power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: The fellowship of his sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: Being made conformable unto his death.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, If I suffer, you'll suffer too.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot become more like Jesus by bypassing the suffering.
SPEAKER_00: We have a song of invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I believe we mess up.
SPEAKER_00: Here's where I believe we mess up, church.
SPEAKER_00: Don't lose me.
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
SPEAKER_00: We go through caves, right?
SPEAKER_00: We go through darkness.
SPEAKER_00: We go through seasons of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, listen.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the time, what we're praying for is God, get me out of the cave.
SPEAKER_00: God help me get out of this situation that I'm in.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: We may should redirect that prayer and not just pray, God, get me out of this, but God teach me something while I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: God, I know that this is your will.
SPEAKER_00: I know that, Lord, that I'm here for a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: God, teach me, conform me.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, don't rush the cave, don't waste the cave.
SPEAKER_00: God has you where you are for a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: He's wanting to do a work in your heart to conform you more into the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not going to pretend like it's not painful.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, I know some of you right now, personally, I know you're going through extreme suffering, painful experiences, grief, loneliness, fear, worry.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: David didn't know what was around the corner.
SPEAKER_00: David didn't know how he was gonna get out, but he trusted in the God that led him to that cave.
SPEAKER_00: And he lifted his hands and he praised him while he was in that cave.
SPEAKER_00: Because it was not a detour of God's plan, it was a part of God's plan to get him to his divine future.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you're there right now.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're there right now.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in a season of darkness, and you don't know what's gonna happen, you don't know where to turn, you don't know what to do, and your heart is broken, and you're lonely, and you're afraid, and you're scared, and you're like, God, I don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I want to encourage you to do?
SPEAKER_00: First off, cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: Know that he's with you in that cave, and then and then here's the hard part.
SPEAKER_00: And then praise him.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, praise him.
SPEAKER_00: Where can you praise him?
SPEAKER_00: In a cave.
SPEAKER_00: Anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he is the God that hasn't left you in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: He's the God that is next to you right now.
SPEAKER_00: He's near to the broken-hearted.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm slowing down, it's on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Because I want God to really do some work in your heart right now.
SPEAKER_00: How can the suffering make me look more like Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: That's what we need to be asking.
SPEAKER_00: And I want everyone to let's bow our heads, close our eyes, spend some time.
SPEAKER_00: Let God do some work in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever you are right now, maybe you're looking back at the season of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: You know what you should do?
SPEAKER_00: Praise Him.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're about to go into the season of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: You know what you do?
SPEAKER_00: Trust Him and praise Him.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're sitting in it right now, right in the middle of it, at rock bottom.
SPEAKER_00: I want to challenge you.
SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
SPEAKER_00: Praise Him.
SPEAKER_00: Know that He hasn't left you.
SPEAKER_00: Even in your brokenness, He's there.
SPEAKER_00: Your heart is broken, He sees it.
SPEAKER_00: Shedding tears at night, He sees it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't understand, He knows.
SPEAKER_00: He has not left you.
SPEAKER_00: Even if you don't feel Him, He is there.
SPEAKER_00: And one day you're gonna look back and say, My God never failed.
SPEAKER_00: My God never left.
SPEAKER_00: My God is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to raise your hand this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You say, I'm in a cave this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in a cave.
SPEAKER_00: Would you raise your hand up this morning?
SPEAKER_00: I'm in a season of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: See those hands all over.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you this morning as we sing to lift your hands and praise him.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the Lord is working on your heart to come down to this altar in just a form of worship and humility and praise him.
SPEAKER_00: To bring all of your burdens to him and say, God, I need you in this cave.
SPEAKER_00: Cry out to him like David did.
SPEAKER_00: Say, God, I can't do it alone.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you this morning, I want you to step out of your comfort zone right now.
SPEAKER_00: Come down to this altar, find you a place in your seat.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe grab someone by the hand and say, I need someone to pray with me.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the Lord's placing on your heart to go pray with someone that you know is struggling.
SPEAKER_00: At Lake Church, we get real.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get real this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna close and pray, and I want you to obey what the Holy Spirit is calling you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Father, God, we pray that you would move in hearts.
SPEAKER_00: God, that you would bring comfort, bring peace.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we know you're the God that never fails.
SPEAKER_00: You're the God that never leaves us, doesn't abandon us in our darkness.
SPEAKER_00: I pray you would reveal yourself near to the one that's hurting this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And they can find comfort in your presence.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's all stand and if you need prayer, if you need to just spend some time this altar, would you come forward this morning and let the Lord do a work in your heart?