The Cave and the Cross Part 2

Pastor Ed Taylor: Today on Abounding Grace: The cave and the cross. It's at the cross and the cave where God does His best work, where God does His most thorough work, where God is developing you right now. The cave that you're in is not being wasted by God. I want you to know that as you look at your cave, I want you to reconsider it and see it as the cross. It's a call of God for you to die to yourself, for you to come to a deeper place of surrender in your life, a place where you recognize that hanging there with Jesus, even if in your imagination, you're saying, "I'm with You, Jesus. I do not want to be a part of this distressed, debt-ridden, discontented world. This world is not my home. I'm devoted to You. I'm dedicated to You. Your love, Jesus, is better than life. My relationship with You is greater than my own life." God is calling you back to the cross today.
Announcer: We are delighted to be with you. Welcome again to Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. We'll be continuing our series in First Samuel. Now, to bring you up to speed, David is on the run from King Saul, who is trying to kill him, and he finds himself in a cave. Pastor Ed is going to relate this to our cave-like experiences and reveal how God often uses them to develop us into the person He wants us to be. Maybe that's exactly where you're at today. Allow the Lord to encourage you now through this message from First Samuel 22.
Pastor Ed Taylor: 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, or the way things are in our family, or the way things are in our own personal life. Discontent. It's not just consumerism. Don't get that. 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 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. 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. I dare say that some of the things that drew you to Jesus Christ were your debt, or your discontent, 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. What does the world see on the outside when they look at the church? Or perhaps you 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. While we're not in heaven, God's working it out in our lives. There's no perfect church. Is that bad news to you? If you think, "I'm going to leave," every church is imperfect, every leader is 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, as Ted Turner many years ago 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. Yet, there is a truth to that statement. There is a truth to that statement, but not in a critical way. The reality 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. 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. As if we get it going, God, and we'll take it from here, and we'll get it going and You come. No, it's not true. The Bible doesn't teach that. Nowhere in the Bible will you find that type of truth. It's not truth. In so many ways, it's a teaching that's anti-Bible. It's anti-God. If the Bible were to say such a thing, it would say something more along the lines of, "God helps those who cannot help themselves." God helps those that realize they have need. That's why, as believers, you've got to understand that when mistakes happen, when sins are committed within the body of Christ, God will resist pride. He will resist your pride. Pride is not the way to get out of a mistake. Pride is not the way to handle a sinful mistake. The best way to handle a sinful mistake is to go back to the way you got saved: humble and broken. Humble and broken, and then say, "God, I'm so sorry I've veered from the reality of my salvation experience. I realize now that this was a season where I thought I could live independent of You, and I was relying on my own resources, on my own thinking. But now, I'm back to the place where my own sin is revealed to me. God, You don't help those who help themselves. God, You help those that admit that they are nothing. I am nothing apart from You, Lord, and I desperately ask You to forgive me." That's godly sorrow that leads to repentance. But pride? It just gets resistance. You get pushback. And you wonder why I can't hear from God anymore. Are you prideful? I'm just not getting anything from the Word. Are you prideful? I'm just not in fellowship with other believers. Are you prideful? Because God resists the proud, but almost instantly He will give grace to the humble. That's what the Bible says. And we're going to find that in David's life. In the times where he was prideful, God resisted him. In the times he was broken, God swooped in and encouraged him and brought him back. God helps the helpless. God helps those who realize they need help. Jot it down in your notes: in John chapter five, you'll recall Jesus was there at the Pool of Bethesda. Do you remember that? With all those desperate people? They were just desperate for healing, desperate for a touch. Bethesda literally means a house of mercy. They were wanting mercy. There was a great multitude of people, the Bible says, that were wanting to be healed. Jesus just zeroed in on one, but they were all desperate. They were all ready. They were waiting for the moving of the water to be touched by God. In a very physical way, they could realize and they did realize their need for God. In a very real way, the Lord showed up. You see, these people, those that in verse two are distressed, those that are in debt, those that are discontented, those people are us. Those are us. That describes us. I don't know what category or subcategory you're in, but don't forget where you came from. Don't forget where you came from. God is moving you, He's growing you, He's maturing you, but don't forget where you came from. Remember David becoming a type of Jesus Christ, where Jesus is a greater David. He is the greater one. He is the greatest one to come. Through these things, God has drawn us to a King to follow. He's drawn us to a person to devote our lives. Jesus is worth all of our effort, all of our energy, all our devotion, all our dedication. Jesus has drawn us through the difficulties of our lives. The Father has drawn us to Jesus in order, as we find David does, to fight the good fight. The fight of spiritual warfare, the fight in spiritual darkness, to rescue people, to draw them through our own lives and through our own love and our own sacrifice. Not necessarily within the walls of this building, although I believe this property dedicated and devoted to God is used to its capacity to glorify God. But God is not limited to a building. He dwells in you and me. We come to be developed and built up. But we go into the world, and as we live in this world like all of us do, God is wanting to use us. He's wanting us to draw people to the Greater Than David. What's getting their attention? Debt. What's getting their attention? Distressing times. What's getting their attention? Discontentment. Even as true for you and me. You see, God—you're in great debt right now—God wants to use you. You're just discontented with life—God wants to use you. You are distressed because of things in your life—God wants to use you. That doesn't disqualify you. It brings you into a place of humble submission to God, doesn't it? I hope so. I hope then when you come into the face of God, you begin to see the reality of your situation. You begin to see the reality of what God really wants to do. He puts hope into the situation. He shows you that there is a greater way to live your life. He reveals to us that there's a greater way to spend and invest your life. He reveals to us that there's a greater one to follow than the god of this age, little g. You look at David here and you're just like, David's running away, but you can't run away from God. Running away from Saul, which makes sense—I mean, I think any one of us in David's position would be running too to preserve our lives, wanting self-preservation. And yet as he's running away in the physical, there's no way to run away from the spiritual. David will say that much in the Psalms. He'll talk about "Where if I go up into the heavens, You're there. If I go down to the depths, You're there. Where am I going to go away from Your Spirit, Lord?" He knew that. He's learning that. He's growing in that area. Let's go to the New Testament. The New Testament really—move over to First Corinthians chapter one as we wind down. These first two verses of First Samuel chapter 22 are greatly explained in First Corinthians chapter one. They can be used together. The insights and the illustration of First Corinthians chapter one—of course you can use yourself as an example—but you can also use these men that were gathered to David, who were able to rise above their circumstances. Why? Because they had a leader that was leading them away from them, leading them in the ways of truth. So beautiful, so encouraging. Notice with me in verse 26 now of First Corinthians chapter one. If you like to write in your Bibles, you can write these verses next to First Samuel chapter 22, and then over in First Samuel you can write First Corinthians chapter one, because they totally go together. Paul's writing to the church in Corinth and he says, "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called." "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty. And the base things," verse 28, "of the world, the things that are despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are." Why? "So that no flesh should glory in His presence." Now, I have to say, there are many people when we look at this and we read this, and maybe even some of you listening right now, you're offended at this verse. You might even look at this verse and go, "That doesn't describe me." But it does. It describes every follower of Jesus Christ. Now, it's describing us, not many, right? Most of us fall into this category. But there's weakness in our lives in all variety of different ways. Not many wise. Not many noble. You look at the church today, there's not many among us that have letters before our names or after our names, for that matter, or many letters in your name. You don't have many letters. You don't have many degrees. You haven't been to school. We have a few doctors, we have a few dentists, there's a few lawyers and veterinarians among us and a few professionals, but not many. Paul didn't say not any; he just said not many, not many. Most of us, we came from a rough background. I mean, if we could change it, we'd want to change it, but we can't. That's just the way it was. We made a lot of bad decisions. And as we look at that, you go, "But God still used you?" I know, it's amazing, isn't it? It's amazing. Because if we were looking for—many of the church committees looking for pastors right now—if I was to submit my resume, they'd laugh. They wouldn't even process it. They'd just laugh at me. "You want to be a pastor?" No, I don't want to be a pastor. God just told me to. I mean, kind of, no, I don't want to be a pastor. I would rather—no, of course I want to be a pastor. Why? Because God's hand's upon me. And yet in many of the way the church rules today, they'd look at my background and go, "No, you ain't going to make it." I don't know if I'm going to make it or not. I just want to obey God. I guess I'm just going to have to teach the Bible and see if God uses me. Maybe that's the decision you need to make: just admit that you're not wise. It's not a negative thing. Just admit that you're not mighty. Or just admit that you're not noble. And then admit, verse 27, you're just foolish. It's just foolish. It's just foolish that God would look at all the options on the earth today and save you. If God can save Ed, He can save you. I mean, I can go every name I can think of and every face I can remember. If God can work in them and choose, then the question is why won't you embrace the choice of God in your life? Embracing it. Paul's writing to the church in Corinth and reminding them of their calling and their humble beginnings: foolish, weak, base, despised. The things that the world would write off. The things that the world wouldn't give another chance to. The things that the people of the world—and when I say things, I literally mean the people of the world—that God wants to just confound the world and there's no explanation. I can only speak for myself now. There's no explanation why I should be alive today. There's no explanation why I should be married today. There's no explanation why I should have the family that I have. There's no explanation that I should be a pastor except for the grace of God. That's it. I don't deserve it. I didn't earn it. I don't have any credentials. All that God does in my life, just like all that God does in your life, is His grace. It's all His grace. There is none of you and all of God. The quicker you embrace that, the farther you will move along and the farther I'll move along in maturity. That's the truth of God's Word. The problem is pride slows us down. It's like a backpack of weights of pride, and we begin to pat ourselves on the back and say, "Oh yeah, I really did do a good job," and "Look at me," and "Look what I've done," and "Look what I've accomplished." One of the first things I share with the men that we're raising up in ministry here and the leaders in general is this: don't you dare touch the glory of God. The Bible says that God will share His glory with no one, no one. The minute you begin to touch the glory of God and take credit for only what God has done is the very first decision that you make on a backslidden-away-from-God path. It's really quick to get off of that because when you look at your life, you just have to conclude like I do that you be thankful for the work of God in your life. Be thankful for the faithfulness of God. Be thankful for the scriptures where even when we're faithless, He remains faithful. You've got to be really happy for that one, that God doesn't change. He doesn't deny Himself. God has chosen us. Those that are in debt? Yeah, got our attention. Those that are in distress? Yeah, God used a lot of distress in my life in 1990 and '91 to get my attention. He did. He used a lot of stuff going on. That was the first Gulf War. Marie and I were young marrieds, our marriage was a mess, I was a drunk and—yeah, God used a lot of distress to go—I remember laying in bed at times just thinking—maybe you're laying in your bed right now—you're laying right there and you go, "There's got to be more to life than this." I'm going to answer that question for you: you're right. Jesus has so much more for you than the low-level living that you're living right now. You think you have it all and you're on the party scene, "Look at me, haha," and yet you're the only one on the dance floor that knows how empty you are, and how lonely you are, and how fearful you are of death and what will happen in eternity. You don't know today that when you die, you don't know where you'll be. As a matter of fact, you pretty much think that you will be separated from God because that's how you're living right now. The only way you'll get into heaven is that kind of theology you made up that, "God's going to let even good people in, it'll be okay." But Jesus came to say that unless a man or a woman is born again, he won't see the kingdom of God. There you are processing your life and you're wondering, "Will God use me? I'm so foolish." Yes. "And look at my bank account, man, it's upside down. It's only red." God can use you. Absolutely. Not only can God use you, but He can also enable you to get out of debt. He can also enable you to not only get out of debt but to have so much excess that you can use it for the work of God. Did you know God can do that in your life? That's testimony all over this room. When we got saved, Marie and I were in big-time deep debt because that was another problem. I had all these, man, I'm sorry. I was all these. I was all messed up because I just did what I wanted to do. I just did what I wanted to do, and what I wanted to do was not the will of God. You look at your life and you go, "I'm just so distressed, I can't even think straight. Can God use someone like that?" Yes. But see, the key is that in their circumstances, they went to the caves with David. It's in your circumstances that God will not make this decision for you. You have to decide. You don't go to the caves to join Jesus Christ. You know where you go? You go to the cross. Jesus is bidding you to come to the cross and die to yourself. He's calling you to say, "Hey, you come and follow Me. You want to follow Me? Do you want to live a life that's different than what you have? Do you want an eternal promise? Do you want to make a difference in the world today? Do you want to make a lasting, eternal difference, one that will be remembered for eternity?" There's a lot of people on the earth right now that we remember over the years, they're legends. Their names are pretty much embedded in society culturally in the world right now, and there's the illusion that they'll be known forever. They won't be known forever because there's a new heaven and a new earth coming with a new Ruler, King Jesus. He's going to come and rule and reign, and the only one that will be known forever is Jesus, and the only things that will be remembered are the things that lasted for eternity. So, even if you make any kind of progress on the earth, you want to make progress not only for the earth but also for eternity. Jesus bids you to come to the cross. It might require a detour into the caves, but it's at the cross and the caves where God does His best work, where God does His most thorough work, where God is developing you right now.