1 / 27

CLIMBING OUT OF YOUR CAVE

CLIMBING OUT OF YOUR CAVE. Today’s Message Part One. Introduction.

banyan
Download Presentation

CLIMBING OUT OF YOUR CAVE

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. CLIMBING OUT OF YOUR CAVE Today’s Message Part One

  2. Introduction • Have you ever cried at a movie where bad things happen to good people? I have! (real tears) I always like movies where in the end, the Hero or heroin climb out of their situation victorious and changed for the better. Today we start a three week Series on Climbing out of your cave.

  3. Text: 1 Samuel 22:1-4 • 1Sa 22:1 David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father's house heard [it], they went down thither to him. • 1Sa 22:2 And every one [that was] in distress, and every one that [was] in debt, and every one [that was] discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.

  4. Text: 1 Samuel 22:1-4 • 1Sa 22:3 And David went thence to Mizpeh of Moab: and he said unto the king of Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth, [and be] with you, till I know what God will do for me. • 1Sa 22:4 And he brought them before the king of Moab: and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold.

  5. Let's turn to Psalm 61:1-2 and listen to what David said in those verses. • Psa 61:1 [To the chief Musician upon Neginah, [A Psalm] of David.] Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. • Psa 61:2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock [that] is higher than I.

  6. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by life? • We all do from time to time! • This text finds David is one of those times. • He is in a dark, damp, dreary, depressing cave. • He has experienced the loss every thing and every one he leaned on in his life. • He is alone, defeated and discouraged. David is in one of the cave experiences of life.

  7. What David did not see at the time, but soon came to understand, was the fact that God was behind it all and in control of it all. • David did not know it at the time but God was going to use his time in the cave to help David grow stronger in the Lord. • The day would soon come when David would emerge from that cave far stronger in the Lord than he was when he entered that time in his life

  8. There are times when we too find ourselves in one of life’s cave experiences. • We think all of our help and strength is gone. • We feel alone, discouraged and deserted. • Ever been there? Sure you have. In fact, some are there right now! • Well, like David, when we are dwelling in one of the caves of life, we often fail to see the hand of God in what we are facing. • But, I would remind you today that just as surely as God is behind all the blessings of life; He is behind all the burdens as well

  9. Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these [things]. Psa 37:23 The steps of a [good] man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.

  10. Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose. • Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

  11. This passage contains some blessings that we need to consider today. • Here, we can learn something about the cave experiences of life ands how we can come out of them stronger than we entered them. • I want to take this episode from the life of David and preach about Climbing Out Of Your Cave. • Notice the blessings that are contained in this passage.

  12. THE REALITIES OF THE CAVE • 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 the unyielding 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. • (Ill. Psalm 142 was written during this period of time.)

  13. (Note: There are times like that are ordained for each of us as well. • We should not expect to get through this life untouched and unaffected by hardship and sorrow. • In fact, the Bible is perfectly clear about this matter, Job 14:1; Job 5:7; John 16:33; Eccl. 2:17; Eccl. 2:23. As Follows:

  14. Job • Job 14:1Man [that is] born of a woman [is] of few days, and full of trouble. Job 5:7 Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

  15. JESUS • Jhn 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

  16. SOLOMON • Ecc 2:17 Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun [is] grievous unto me: for all [is] vanity and vexation of spirit. • Ecc 2:23 For all his days [are] sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

  17. Just as they were for David, sorrows are part of our earthly experience.) • (Ill. Thank God for a home where they cannot follow us – Rev. 21:4.) • Rev 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

  18. 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 wholly 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.

  19. (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!

  20. Heb. 12:5-13 • Hbr 12:5-7 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

  21. Heb. 12:5-13 • Hbr 12:8-9 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected [us], and we gave [them] reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

  22. Heb. 12:5-13 • Hbr 12:10-11 For they verily for a few days chastened [us] after their own pleasure; but he for [our] profit, that [we] might be partakers of his holiness.Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

  23. Heb. 12:5-13 • Hbr 12:12-13 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. As hard as it may be to understand and bear, God uses the times of affliction, suffering and pain in our lives to train us to become more like His Son Jesus.)

  24. 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!

  25. (Note: 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! • Ill. 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.

  26. 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. • There are truths that can only be understood by those who are cut off and shut up with the Lord.)

  27. Question/Comments • Next Week Part 2

More Related