The Cave and the Cross Part 1

Guest (Male): Maybe you, like King David, are in a cave-like experience. Pastor Ed says God is up to something good.
Pastor Ed Taylor: Do you know our souls don't grow in times of comfort and ease as fast as they grow in the caves? The problem is so clear in our lives. We prefer, 99.9% of the time, the comfort and ease. We will actually rearrange our whole life for ourselves to be comfortable and at ease. We will purposely avoid things and situations for our own comfort and ease. And while we're striving and arranging things in an effort to live out our days in comfort and ease, life isn't like that. You can't live in comfort and ease forever. There are times of the cave. Now turn over real quick here to Psalm 57, verse 5. These are psalms that were written around the cave. One of the beautiful things, there are so many great things to learn in Samuel, but one of them that I am really enjoying is plugging in the different psalms into the life of David. If you just read through the Bible and you read through the psalms, all 150 psalms, plugging in the psalms where they were written, what exactly was going on in the life that's recorded for us in the scriptures, well, here's one of them in Psalm 57. Notice with me verse 5. It says, "Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above all the earth. They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down. They've dug a pit before me; into the midst of it they themselves have fallen. My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and give praise. Awake, my glory! Awake, lute! Awake, harp! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, O Lord, among the peoples. I'll sing to you among the nations. For your mercy reaches into the heavens, and your truth into the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be above all the earth." Where was this written? Go back and read the title under Psalm 57: "To the Chief Musician. Set to 'Do Not Destroy.' A Miktam of David when he fled from Saul in the cave." This was a psalm of the cave. These were words written in the cave. These were words inspired in the cave. Flip over to Psalm 142, verse 3. The cave is a place of development, a place of spiritual growth. As much as we want to get out of the cave, God wants to use the cave. The cave represents darkness, representing on the run for your life, representing loneliness, coldness, a place of hiding. You can think of a lot of things regarding the life of the cave. In your life and mine, we can live in our home, we can turn on the lights, we've got heat, we've got a fireplace, we can flip on a television, we can pull out our phone, and yet all of those luxuries and all those comforts can still be used in the cave. You could be in a cave and appear from the outside to have everything all together. So what is God doing in the cave? Notice Psalm 142, verse 3: "When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path. In the way in which I walk, they have secretly set a snare for me. Look on my right hand and see, for there is no one who acknowledges me. Refuge has failed me; no one cares for my soul. I cried out to You, O Lord. I said, 'You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Your name. The righteous shall surround me, and You shall deal bountifully with me.'" Where was that? A prayer when he was in the cave. That's where we find David back in 1 Samuel. He's on the run and he escaped to the cave.
Guest (Male): Can you look back on your life and see how God used very difficult circumstances to help you grow and develop? We'd prefer not to go through those cave-like experiences, but the truth is it's often how we grow into the person God wants us to be. Today on Abounding Grace, we find the future king of Israel on the run and in a cave. Pastor Ed Taylor will make the connection to how God shapes and molds us through trials and tribulations. We'll be in 1 Samuel, chapter 22.
Pastor Ed Taylor: Open your bibles, would you, to 1 Samuel, chapter 22. We are going to study a whole bunch of verses today: two, verses 1 and 2. I don't want to spend time on the whole chapter without giving us an introduction and a reminder of the reality of how God will use you. Not use the person next to you, not use the person that you know about, but here you are, seeking to grow in a midweek study environment. You're investing your time in the things of God. Some of you come here curious about what the Bible has to say. You want to study the Bible or you're interested about what's happening in this church. You might be out somewhere listening on the radio and you're in a church and you're just curious and you're wondering and you're looking at your life and your past and the realities of your failures. You're looking at you, and when you see you, you just don't think God can use you. I want you to know that's not an accurate view of your life. In Jesus Christ, you can be usable in His hands. God wants to develop in you a heart to serve Him and to be usable. Now, I don't think there's anyone here today that would choose to live a life on the run, to live a life being chased literally for your life. As we see in this section of Samuel, this is part of David's life. It's a hard life to live life on the run. I don't know that personally, although I can say that in my life before Jesus Christ, I guess you could say that I was living my life on the run away from God. There were people in my life telling me about God. I was raised in a church up until about the sixth grade. It's not that I had a lack of knowledge of God; I wanted nothing to do with Him. I wanted to do my own thing. But it's a hard life to live life on the run. It's even harder as you consider that God's hand is upon your life, that God's anointing is on your life, that God's promise has been given, confirmed and reaffirmed, like in David's life. David is a man on the run, and yet he's a man that has the anointing of God in his life. He's been anointed the next king. And what David is facing is not fair, and what David is facing is not kind, and what David is facing is not righteous. It's truly unjust and not what you would expect for a follower of God, not what you would expect to read for a man that has been anointed king. He's been told he's the next king, and where do we find the next king? On the run, dealing with the ups and downs of life. It's normal to face difficulties, no matter what your calling in life is. Following Jesus today won't relieve you or me from the difficulties of life. It won't relieve us from hardships. It won't relieve us from the consequences of sin. It won't relieve us of the consequences of our own sin or the sin of others. Life is difficult in a world that is sold over to sin. And that's what Peter said. Don't think it's strange concerning the fiery trial that's about to try you. Don't think it's strange as if some strange thing happened to you. It's not strange. And what we find here in verse 1 of chapter 22 is David departing from there and escaping to the cave of Adullam. And when his brother and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became a captain over them. And there were about 400 men with him. The text says that he escaped to a cave. Now, a cave is not the most encouraging escape destination. I mean, if you want to escape, it would be better to take a cruise. One of the cruise lines, their tagline is "escape completely." They're not inviting you into a cave. If you go with us to Israel, we'll go up into the areas of En Gedi and you can see with your own eyes, or even down in the areas of Qumran, what a cave is like. You know what a cave is like? A cave. Like Fred Flintstone, but without the TV and without the rock chair. Do you guys know what Fred Flintstone is? Because I said that one other time and everyone was like, "What's that?" Netflix it or YouTube it, you'll figure it out. All the cartoons that we were raised on. It's a cave. God uses caves though, doesn't He? When I think of caves, I immediately think of Elijah. Elijah got a word. He ran to the cave. He had just been used greatly to defeat the prophets of Baal and then, with the word of a woman, he runs away for his life. She threatened to kill him, so he says, "I'm out of here." And where does he run? He runs to the cave. But it was in the cave that God revealed Himself. He says, "Elijah, what are you doing here? What are you doing here in the cave?" Well, David is going to get the same kind of insight in the cave. God is working on, and God is working in, and God is working out the next king. What's God doing in your life? What is He working out in the cave? What is He working in? What is He working for next? What is He developing? A lot of spiritual growth comes in the caves of life. Imagine that. Would we even have seen that? Would we even have predicted that? The cave, it's a place of spiritual growth. You know our souls don't grow in times of comfort and ease as fast as they grow in the caves. The problem is so clear in our lives. We prefer, 99.9% of the time, the comfort and ease. We will actually rearrange our whole life for ourselves to be comfortable and at ease. We will purposely avoid things and situations for our own comfort and ease. And while we're striving and arranging things in an effort to live out our days in comfort and ease, life isn't like that. You can't live in comfort and ease forever. There are times of the cave. Now, turn over real quick here to Psalm 57, verse 5. These are psalms that were written around the cave. One of the beautiful things, there are so many great things to learn in Samuel, but one of them that I am really enjoying is plugging in the different psalms into the life of David. If you just read through the Bible and you read through the psalms, all 150 psalms, plugging in the psalms where they were written, what exactly was going on in the life that's recorded for us in the scripture, well, here's one of them in Psalm 57. Notice with me verse 5. It says, "Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be above all the earth. They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down. They have dug a pit before me; into the midst of it they themselves have fallen. My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and give praise. Awake, my glory! Awake, lute! Awake, harp! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, O Lord, among the peoples; I'll sing to you among the nations. For your mercy reaches into the heavens, and your truth into the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be above all the earth." Where was this written? Go back and read the title under Psalm 57. "To the Chief Musician. Set to 'Do Not Destroy.' A Miktam of David when he fled from Saul in the cave." This was a psalm of the cave. These were words written in the cave. These were words inspired in the cave. Flip over to Psalm 142. Pick up with me in verse 3. The cave is a place of development, a place of spiritual growth. As much as we want to get out of the cave, God wants to use the cave. The cave representing darkness, representing on the run for your life, representing loneliness, coldness, a place of hiding. You can think of a lot of things regarding the life of the cave in your life and mine. Here we are, we can live in our home, we can turn on the lights, we've got heat, we've got a fireplace, we can flip on a television, we can pull out our phone, and yet all of those luxuries and all those comforts can still be used in the cave. You could be in a cave and appear from the outside to have everything all together. So what is God doing in the cave? Notice Psalm 142, verse 3: "When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path. In the way in which I walk, they have secretly set a snare for me. Look on my right hand and see, for there is no one who acknowledges me. Refuge has failed me; no one cares for my soul. I cried out to You, O Lord. I said, 'You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Your name. The righteous shall surround me, and You shall deal bountifully with me.'" Where was that? A prayer when he was in the cave. That's where we find back in 1 Samuel, David. He's on the run and he escaped to the cave. We often don't associate escape and a cave, but indeed God has more work to do in the future king. As David runs away, you'll notice others are running to him. He's running away, but people are running to him. The first group of people we see in verse 22 is his family. It says right there, all his brothers in verse 1 and his father's house, they went to him. That's the first group that gathered next to him. Isn't that interesting? Isn't it encouraging? There is some encouragement, but it's not so encouraging if you want to run away from everybody, if you just want to be alone. I was listening to someone today. They were describing a long day and they described getting away. They escaped into a secret place just for five minutes. They just wanted five minutes. Now, that's great and that's acceptable and we need those times of recharge. But imagine if you're trying to get away from people for just five minutes and they follow you into your place of refuge. It's encouraging because you're not alone, but it can be discouraging because you want to be alone. But you want to be alone, but God doesn't want you alone. So what happens when you're on the run? You never get away from people. And the people that will show up first are going to be the people closest to you. You know how you go through trials sometimes and one of the things you learn is who your friends are. And what else do you find out? Who your friends are not. You find out the reality within difficulties and trials, who your friends are and who they're not, or the depth of relationship is often tested and revealed. David, a man that's running from Saul, he also has people running after him. His family joined him. And don't forget, even though David, we're learning a lot about his faults and failures, David alone in his life should remind us that God will use anybody. He's up and down. He's got all kinds of stuff going on in his life. He's making all kinds of mistakes. We already know that. We already know it's only going to get worse, quite frankly. There are some big mistakes that he's going to make, big sinful mistakes in his life that are still up ahead according to the text. We know some of the consequences from those sins lasted until he met Jesus face to face in heaven, unfortunately. And yet, he also had great things going on for him. He loved God. As weak and as frail as he was, he was a man after God's own heart. Let me just say this: when you're a man or woman running after God, even though he's running away from Saul, when you're a man or woman running after God, people will run to you for help, for encouragement, for support, and for discipleship, even when you're discouraged. God will send people your way. His family came. You know what this meant? This is no small thing, either. This is no small thing that his family came to him, because what they were doing by coming to David at this time in this way was they were declaring their allegiance to David and no longer following Saul. That was a big statement to make. This was a huge thing. They linked up together with David no matter what the cost was. That was their decision. "I'm with you all the way to the end, David. You're my brother, you're my son. I'm with you all the way to the end." Yet, in verse 2, it wasn't just his family. David also attracted some struggling people. 400 guys. How are they described? You might want to circle it. It says those that were in distress, those that were in debt, and those that were discontented. These are very difficult people to hang out with, 400 of them. You're discouraged and who does God send you? People that are messed up. Just like the Bible says, God's ways are not our ways. And what David needed was not a bunch of 400 people just to all kinds of encouragers. What David needed were people to draw out the encouragement from him. David needed people so he could start writing psalms of encouragement directly from the Lord. He needed these men more than he realized. And they were to gather to him. So they began to gather around David, a group of men that ultimately would become, and we'll see later, they become these folks in distress and debt and discontentment will later be known as David's mighty men. These are David's mighty men, and how do they start? In a rough spot. Men that will ultimately share the kingdom with David, men that will ultimately fight alongside David. And yet, they started out in very difficult positions. And the Lord, I believe, today is gathering men and women in the same condition around Him. Those for the most part who are distressed with the conditions of the world in which they live. As I look around, I'm distressed at what I see. I'm distressed at what I hear. And I just want to invite you, please, please, please pray as this trial starts in our city. Please pray as the wounds are opened up again. Please pray. As so many in our own church, it's been a couple years, you may have forgotten that over 400 people from our church were in one of those two theaters. Some were in the shooting theater. That family now is with Pastor Louie. But many of our staff and a lot of people from our church were in the adjacent theater and this is opening up all kinds of things in people's hearts. And they may never share it with you; you're going to have to pray for discernment to say, "Are you okay?" I'm distressed. I'm distressed at how, I'm sure you share the same thing. I don't need to explain it to you. I'm sure there are distressing things that you see. And I'm distressed over our city, just the open wound that's coming back in. How this is just reminding people of their loss and their sadness and how families have, not only of those, fortunately, those in our fellowship were able to exit the theaters alive, although many of them so damaged in their minds and having nightmares and hard to sleep as if it was the same day or the smells and the sounds and all of that is coming back. But also families lost precious loved ones in a distressing, horrible event. I'm distressed. Are you distressed? You see anything that distresses you? Things that transcend political issues, things that transcend political mistakes, like lives are at stake. People are dying. And they're dying and going to hell because of the consequences of sin, whether it's their own sin or the sin of someone else. It's tragic. And our debt, debt, I dare not take a survey today of what kind of debts here, but every time we do a financial peace class, literally that class as they do the first stages, and they always send me an email, millions of dollars of debt exist at the beginning of that class with a group of 50, 60, 70, 80 people. Debt. People are in debt. Our country is in debt. The world economy is in debt. Not only is it a distressing time, but we live in an age of debt. God is gathering people through this to Himself. Then there are those that are discontent. And we all go through seasons of discontent. We all go through seasons of being unhappy with the way things are. Whether it's the way things are at work, whether it's the way things are in our family, whether it's the way things are in our own personal life, discontent. It's not just the consumerism; don't get that. It's not just the consumerism, this word discontent. It's not just that I don't have enough or I'm not making it, although it does encompass that. This discontentment actually speaks more of a political discontentment among these people. They were unhappy with the leadership of Saul and for good reason. He was a madman, filled with deep mood swings. He was melancholy with a vicious temper and he was getting dangerous. His tyranny, Saul's was beginning to damage the innocent. And so those that were really upset with the way the kingdom was going gathered to David. Those that were really in debt because of the way the kingdom was going gathered to David. They looked for a leader, they looked for someone to pledge their allegiance to in order to serve with. And isn't that what the Lord is doing today with the conditions of the world? He's grabbing and drawing people's attention to a better King, to a better leader. And I dare say that some of the things that drew you to Jesus Christ were your debt or your discontentment or your distressing times. David was surrounded by them and I'm so encouraged he didn't send them away. I think it's important here to pause just for a moment and consider what people see when they see the church outside of these walls, the world in which we live, the world in which we work, the world in which we hang out in. What does the world see on the outside when they look at the church? Or perhaps you may even see the church, what do you see when you see the church? Perhaps you see it with all its imperfections, all its difficulties, all its mistakes. We have a lot, don't we? Can we get an amen on that? Let's admit it. We're not in heaven. So while we're not in heaven, God's working it out in our lives. There's no perfect church. There's no perfect church. Is that bad news to you? And you're like, "Oh man, I'm going to leave." No, every church is imperfect, every leader's imperfect. We're all in the process. The church isn't a place of perfection. It's not a place where people have it all together. It's not a place where we're filled with folks that have arrived and we're the perfect specimen of what it means to follow God. Many years ago, Ted Turner would look at the church and say, and I quote, "Christianity is for losers." Now, he didn't mean that in a good way; he meant that in a bad way. He was being critical and caustic. And yet, there is a truth to that statement, friend. There is a truth to that statement, but not in a critical way. The reality is is the church is made for broken people, for people that recognize their brokenness, the reality of the condition of their life because of sin. Yes, there is an element there where Jesus is for the hurting, Jesus is for the discouraged. He's for the one that knows their need of God. The world system has it backwards. The way that we were raised is completely backwards because the idea that was ingrained in us, and it's still very popular today, is the idea that God will help those who help themselves.