Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, good morning, West Campus. Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you're watching with us for the first time, my name is Chet. I'm the campus pastor here. And we're so glad that you are with us today. And today we're continuing a sermon series we started last week called Unstuck. And we're talking about those times in life where we just feel like we can't get any momentum, where we're banging our head against a wall, where we're just in the mud. And we're talking about how God uses these times, and also how to rely and to lean into God when we feel stuck. So we're going to continue that today. But before we do, would you just bow your head in prayer with me?
[00:00:41] Father, we thank you, Lord, that you are the God who leads us out of all the challenges of life and delivers us safely into your kingdom.
[00:00:52] Father, we pray today that you could help us to see that you are trustworthy, you are good, and you are wise, Father, and we can rely on you. Help us also to notice the people you send in our life to help us when we are stuck. And we ask for all these graces in the great name of Jesus.
[00:01:12] Amen.
[00:01:14] Well, several years ago, my wife and I, we lived in a neighborhood in West Park. Cleveland. Cleveland area. And. And we loved it. And it was fun because we'd always walk a lot of places. And we were walking down our street one time, and there was a.
[00:01:30] A front porch that was, like, filled with books. And it basically had a sign on it that said, hey, come and take these for free. They're my dad's. He passed away, but if anybody wants them, you can have them. And so I'm a lover of books. I was like, wow, that's pretty cool. I mean, not that the guy passed away, but that they're giving all these books for free. And so I went up on the porch and I started looking, and there was, like, some awesome books on here. There was a ton of, like, Greek and Roman history and a lot of really cool stuff. And I was like, I wonder who this guy was. Like, he seemed from all these books. I'm like, this guy maybe was a history teacher or a professor, but it was really got me excited because there were some awesome books there. And one of the books I took was a book called the Spartans by Paul Cartledge. And it was this comprehensive history of the ancient Spartans. And you probably recognize that name, but they're known as being this great culture of warriors.
[00:02:35] And so I read this book, and it's a really, really kind of fun and interesting book.
[00:02:39] But one of the things that the book tells is about this guy named Lycurgus who was like kind of the George Washington, if you will, of the Spartans. And Lycurgus really created what we think of when we think of Sparta as these great warriors, these very disciplined community, all this kind of thing. And Lycurgus lived somewhere between seven and 800 years before Christ.
[00:03:08] So a long, long time ago. And one of the things that he did was he built a society that kind of put the community above the individual. And one of the main ways of doing that was he developed what became known as the agoge.
[00:03:28] And the agoge was that when boys were seven years old, they were taken from their families and they were enlisted into this really, really challenging training.
[00:03:40] And this training would go on into adulthood, and it would prepare them to be Spartan warriors and Spartan citizens. And they would lose their connection with their family, but gain a broader connection with their whole community.
[00:03:55] And the agoge is what ended up allowing these great warriors that are kind of unsurpassed in history to develop.
[00:04:05] And he was the one that created that and brought that training.
[00:04:10] Now, I'm thankful that in our world today, we didn't have to grow up and do that kind of thing. But it's really an interesting thing to think about and to see how we use this training to prepare these people to be great warriors. And when we look at the pages of Scripture, we see time and time again that God uses different ways to train his people.
[00:04:36] And the people that he uses more in powerful ways. They go through these unique seasons of training. And sometimes when you're in these seasons of training, you feel stuck because it's not easy, it's not pleasant. Always it's challenging, it's stretching. But it's also necessary for what God wants to do in our lives. And today I want to talk about one man in particular and his story. And he's the man, King David, who is one of the most significant people in the pages of Scripture. He was an ancient king about a thousand years before Jesus.
[00:05:16] And God would use him powerfully, but before he would be king, he would have to go through some unique training. And that's what I want you to see today. And so today we're going to pick up at First Samuel, chapter 22. First Samuel tells the story of David. It's one of the coolest books in the Bible to read because it reads just like an adventure movie. There's battles, there's challenges, there's wins, there's losses, there's all these kinds of things that happen. And it's the development of David to be king. And here's where we pick up in 1st Samuel 22, it says this. David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam.
[00:06:02] Now the cave will become the training ground. This will be David's agoge.
[00:06:09] And God is going to use this cave to develop David for the future that he has for him. So David departed and he escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his fathers heard of it, they went down there to him.
[00:06:26] And then says this. And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. So all these kind of rough people come to him. Those who are in distress, in debt, bitter in soul, all these malcontents come to David. Maybe not exactly the support group that you were hoping for, but it's the one you get. And that's what David got. And it says this. And he, David became commander over them.
[00:07:03] And there was with him about 400 men.
[00:07:08] Now, these verses are really interesting because what we're going to learn is that these men, these people that come to him in the cave of Adullam, will become the future leaders of the kingdom that God has for David. They will become his brothers in battle and in life. They will become this nucleus of this amazing time in history that God is gonna use. But it all starts in this cave. It all starts in this frustrating experience.
[00:07:46] And yet God is gonna use it to train him. And so today, what I wanna talk to you about is that, like David, we might find ourselves in a cave.
[00:07:57] Maybe not a literal cave, but a metaphorical cave. We find ourselves in a place where we don't want to be, in a place where we're like, I'm just trying to escape from the problems and the difficulties and find my footing. And this isn't a place I plan to be, but this is a place where I'm at. And this is the cave. And what I want to show you today is that God will use the cave as a catalyst in our lives. If we lean into him in the cave, if we learn what he wants to do in our lives in the cave, the cave will become spiritually transforming to us. And so today I want to just show you this, and I want to talk about three things. What brought David to the cave, kind of entering the cave.
[00:08:48] I want to talk to you about living in the cave. And I want to talk to you about leaving the cave.
[00:08:53] In each of these phases. I think there is tremendous spiritual value we can learn from David's experience. So let's talk about entering the cave. And I just want to tell you what brought David to the cave of Adullam. Now, if you read First Samuel, you'll read that David's life at this point is bottoming out.
[00:09:17] He's at the cave because he is coming to rock bottom. And just to give you a quick summary, here's what essentially has happened. David has lost his job.
[00:09:29] He kind of had a place of prominence in the kingdom of Israel. But Saul, who was the king at the time, begins to become jealous of David's success. He becomes threatened by David. David has done nothing wrong, but Saul just doesn't. He feels like David is a threat to him.
[00:09:51] And so he begins to run him out of his kingdom and to persecute him and to try to kill David. So David has been immensely loyal and he gets treated as the worst enemy, even though he isn't. And he's lost his job, he lost his wife, he's run out of his house. His wife was Saul's daughter.
[00:10:16] And so now he can't be with his wife and his family. He lost his best friend Jonathan, who was Saul's son, and he can no longer be with him. He even we see right before this incident, he loses his self respect because he has to hide among the enemies, the ancient Philistines, and they find out that he's David. And so to keep from being arrested and killed, he has to act like he's crazy and lost his mind. And he drools on himself and he does this whole charade so that he doesn't get arrested. So here's what I'm saying to you today. David's life is bottoming out.
[00:11:00] Everything that can go wrong is going wrong. And so what the author tells us is that David tries to escape from all this, escape from Saul, escape from the Philistines, escape from all these problems. And his plan to escape lands him in the cave of Adullam.
[00:11:22] Now that word, Adullam is a Hebrew word and it means refuge.
[00:11:28] And so we might literally translate that it's the cave of refuge.
[00:11:34] And that's what Dave was. David was trying to find. He was trying to find a safe place, a place where he could land and recalibrate and maybe figure out a way forward in life. He was seeking refuge. And when life bottoms out, we all are looking for refuge. We're all looking For a safe place, a place that we can find help. And I want to just ask you today, if you're open to it, where do you go when life bottoms out?
[00:12:09] Where do you try to find refuge?
[00:12:13] Because one of the most important things about us is where we go to find refuge when our life bottoms out.
[00:12:23] You know, unfortunately, sometimes we can go to the wrong things.
[00:12:27] We can go to habits of comfort that are unhealthy. We can go to habits of addiction that make us even more stuck.
[00:12:36] We can go to people that our unhealthy relationships are toxic, and we can make things worse. But I want you to see that even though David's life bottoms out, you know, where he really goes for refuge is he goes to God.
[00:12:54] And here's how I know this, because David wrote at least three Psalms in the cave of Adullaham.
[00:13:02] And there's Psalm 134, Psalm 57, and Psalm 30, 34.
[00:13:10] If the first Psalm. I meant to say 142. I don't know if I said that right or not, but. But these psalms show what his experience was in the cave and how he was processing it and what was happening. And the psalms are not written in chronological order. They're ordered by kind of theme and topic. So when you look at these psalms, I think Psalm 142 might have been the first psalm that was written in the cave. Because here's what he says in Psalm 142. He says, look to the right and see there is none who takes notice of me. No refuge remains to me.
[00:13:52] No one cares for my soul.
[00:13:57] And so what we see is that David is at rock bottom.
[00:14:00] His life is bottoming out. And he's saying, there is no help for me. No one cares. No one sees me. There's no one to help me. And David is just pouring out his soul.
[00:14:15] And you know, when life bottoms out, that can be a really healthy thing to do. Just to say, all right, this is where I'm at, and this is what's going on in me, and this is what this all feels like.
[00:14:29] And God invites us and allows us to be vulnerable and real with him. But here's what David also does.
[00:14:38] Even though he doesn't feel God's help and presence, he talks to himself in this moment rather than listening to himself.
[00:14:49] See, in this psalm, he lays out what's going on. But. But he doesn't just stay there in this feeling of no one cares for me. He then says these words in the psalm. He says, but I cry to you, O Lord, I say, you are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.
[00:15:16] He says, but even though I feel like no one cares for me, and I feel like I have no refuge. And he then says, but, God, I know you are my refuge, and you are my portion, and I'm looking to you. And that little turn right there is so incredibly important because one of the things that gets us into trouble in life is we just listen to ourself instead of talk to ourself.
[00:15:43] If David just would have stayed in this cave and he just would have listened to all the. The hurt and the pain and the frustration that was going on in his mind, he would have stayed stuck in the cave.
[00:15:55] But what he does in the psalm is he starts talking to himself. He's saying, I know no one cares for me.
[00:16:01] I know that I feel that way right now, and I know that I feel that I don't have any refuge. But then he says, but here's what. Even though I'm feeling all these things, I know that God still is my refuge. And he begins to preach to himself, if you will, and to say, look, even in the cave there is hope for me because God will help me. And that's such an important term that we all need to learn to do in our lives. We need to sometimes just say, all right, I know I'm thinking and I'm feeling these things, but here's what I know to be true about God. And I'm going to speak it into my soul and into my life until it takes root. And then David ends this psalm. It begins so hopeless, but he ends it with hope.
[00:16:49] Because once you and I begin to talk to ourselves instead of listen to ourselves, we start to gain a sense of hope. And here's how he ends the psalm. He says, the righteous will surround me for you, talking to God will deal with bountifully with me.
[00:17:10] So he says, even though I'm in the cave and I feel like no one cares for me, there's coming a day where I will be surrounded by people who care for me, good people. I've been surrounded by enemies right now. I've been driven from my home and my family and my friendships and all of this. But there's coming a day where I will be surrounded by. By people who love God and do what is right. And he said, and they will look at me and they will see that God has been so generous for me. That is a vision of hope right there. That is a vision of a better future. He looks around the cave walls.
[00:17:53] And in this moment, he says, yeah, I'm in the cave right now, but I'm not going to be here forever.
[00:18:00] I'm going to be surrounded by something better. And here's what I want you to know today.
[00:18:05] When you enter a cave, you need to raise your expectations.
[00:18:13] When you enter the cave and when life drives you to that place, you know what you need to do? You actually need to raise your expectations and say, you know what, this is where I'm at, but this is not where I will end up.
[00:18:30] God has something better for me. I don't know when, I don't know what, I don't know how, but there will be a day where everyone will see how generous God has been to me. And for some of us today, we're stuck in the cave and we're beginning to believe that this is as good as it's going to to get.
[00:18:54] And we're losing hope, we're losing motivation, we're losing drive, we're losing our well being. And even though it feels completely unnatural, what we need to do is raise our sense of expectation and say, God, I can't see it or feel it, but I trust you for a better future. And David does that. And then we see this. Now he's in the cave.
[00:19:22] And in the cave, I believe he writes Psalm 57.
[00:19:28] And in Psalm 57 he says these words. He says, my soul is in the midst of lions, I lie down amid fiery beasts, the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
[00:19:49] And so David's in the cave and he's still struggling because he's hiding there from people that are after him, that people that want to do him harm. And he's saying, again, God, my soul is surrounded by all these predators, by all these people who want to take from me and hurt for me. And he thinks that that's who he's going to be, surrounded by only people whose desire is to hurt and destroy him.
[00:20:20] But I want you to see what happens in the cave.
[00:20:23] Samuel, the author tells us that when David was in the cave, his family came to him.
[00:20:31] And you get the sense that his family didn't ask, hey, is this a good time to show up? Are you busy? It says no. They just, they came to him.
[00:20:41] And I love this because his family showed up and they showed up to support him and to love him.
[00:20:50] And you know, one of the best things that, that we can do for people when they're hurting is to just show up and to give them the ministry of Presence is to just show up and just to be there.
[00:21:05] So many times we're worried about, you know, what do I say to my friend or to my family because they just went through this really hard thing or they're in this really hard spot. I don't know what the words are. I don't know what to do. And I just want you to know, oftentimes the most important thing you can do is just show up.
[00:21:23] There are no perfect words.
[00:21:26] There are no things that you can say that are just going to fix everything and heal everything. But your presence can do so much. And David's family, they just show up and they show up to love him and to support him. Now again, David's thinking, no, the only people that are showing up for me are the people who want to destroy me. And God says, no, David, I'm sending people that love you.
[00:21:54] I'm sending people that will be with you. I'm sending people that you can build a future with.
[00:22:03] And God not only sends his family, but he sends this really interesting ragtag group of people. The people that are in distress.
[00:22:14] And that word means that they are under great pressure. So these stressed out people, the people that are in debt, they can't pay their bills.
[00:22:26] Great, thanks.
[00:22:27] And the people that are bitter in soul, that are discontent, these people begin to surround David. Now it might not have been the group that David was hoping for or asking for, but it was the group that God sends. See, sometimes the people that God brings into our life, they come in unexpected packaging.
[00:22:51] You don't recognize them at first.
[00:22:54] Cause here comes people, David's got a bunch of problems, and here comes a whole group with a bunch of problems. And David's like, oh great, you got problems, I got problems. Are we just gonna commiserate here? How is this gonna be helpful? But yet these are the people that God is gonna build a powerful future with and through.
[00:23:18] And if you are in the cave today, I want you to look at the people that are moving towards you in this season.
[00:23:28] You might not have recognized them because they came in distress, they came in debt, they came in discontentedness. They may not, may not look how you expected, but. But God always does this amazing thing. Through a bunch of ragtags, he builds powerful community.
[00:23:50] Do you have a rough group of people in your life that you know, at the end of the day, they love you, they are loyal to you, they are for you. Maybe on the exterior, everything doesn't always look right, but you know, their heart is for you. I get the sense this is the type of people that were moving towards David.
[00:24:11] And David recognized that they had something to offer him, and he had something to offer them.
[00:24:19] Samuel tells us that David became the commander over them. He began to realize, hey, I need to lead these guys. I need to form us together.
[00:24:31] God is doing this for a purpose. And they built and they strengthened their relationships.
[00:24:38] And I believe that in this season of our church, as we move into this fall, one of the big things that we're going to put a lot of emphasis on is life groups. And life groups are these little pockets of community in our church where we learn together, where we build relationships, where. Where we grow together, where we support each other, where we pray together, where we do all those types of things.
[00:25:05] And just like David recognized that God wanted him to lead this group, I believe that in this season, God is putting it on some of your hearts to lead a group in our church as well, to help people who maybe are in the cave or who are struggling, and maybe you're in the cave yourself. That's okay. David was in the cave, too, and he's like, look, we need each other, but I'm going to take ownership of moving us in the right direction.
[00:25:36] And I want to encourage some of you to step up and to lead a group this fall. We're going to do a training in September for three weeks. And so we'll help get you ready, get you prepared, and we'll support you along this journey. And. And then we want to launch these groups in October, and we want to build as much and as strong community as we can in our church during this season.
[00:26:03] And the way that is going to happen is that some of us are going to have to sense that prompting by God's spirit and say yes to it. And so if I'm talking to you today and that's you, then I want you to go on her website and sign up for our regroup Express training. That's what it's called. And if you sign up for that, we'll get you going, we'll get you on that journey, and we will begin to build and create more healthy community in our church. Because I think it's one of the most important things we can do in this season of challenge and transition as a church family. And so David did this, and he began to offer leadership. But all through this time, he also was strengthening himself in the Lord. Here's what Psalm 57 says at the end. It says, awake, my glory, awake, O harp and lyre, I will awake the dawn I Will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples I will sing praise among the nations and what David was doing is he was saying, man, every day I'm waking up and I'm connecting to God.
[00:27:20] And every day I'm trying to create moments where we can worship God together and we can thank him and we can serve him. And what David was doing in the midst of the cave was he was making sure to feed his soul on the presence, on the goodness, on the greatness of God. And when we're in the cave, one of the best things we can do is start our mornings with prayer, is start our days with worship, is start our day by acknowledging the greatness and the glory of God and thanking him. And you know what the second thing we can do is? We can come together on Sundays and we can worship together.
[00:28:02] That's what David says in this psalm. He says, I'm giving thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples. See, it's great to worship God alone, and you need to do that, but you also need to worship him among his people.
[00:28:17] It's something different, and it brings a different strength. This is why Sundays are so important.
[00:28:23] Make Sundays a priority. We have all week to do all the crazy stuff that we do. But guess what? Our souls need corporate worship. We need to worship God among His people. There is a special grace and strength that comes.
[00:28:42] And in our busy lives, one of the easiest things is to let church slip out of our schedule. And I get it. But here's what I believe.
[00:28:54] When you're in the cave and even when you're out of the cave, we need that time together.
[00:28:59] Because not only do we get strength from God's people, we also feed God's strength to his people.
[00:29:08] And that's something we can only do together. And so David prioritizes this, and the cave becomes a place where God molds him.
[00:29:19] Because here's something that is beautiful about the cave. It becomes the place where.
[00:29:26] Where we're actually really open to God.
[00:29:29] See, when life bottoms out, it's painful, it's frustrating, it's discouraging. But it also usually means we are hungry and desperate for God.
[00:29:40] And it means that all the clutter and all the things that get in the way now kind of can get pushed aside, and we can actually receive and hear, learn from God. It's a place where God can truly shape us.
[00:29:56] And in this cave, God truly shapes David, and he shapes the people that are with David. And if you're in a cave today, I want you to look at those walls and say, hey, this is God's training ground.
[00:30:11] God is preparing me for the future. It's not going to be easy. It's not going to be comfortable, but it's. It's necessary for the good work that God has for me. And today in our church season, I couldn't help but think about where we're at.
[00:30:28] And as I'm in our Willow Creek gym, our temporary location, I'm looking at these walls and I'm seeing that there's no windows. I'm like, you know, this is kind of like a cave like structure, but yet this is the place where I know God is training us.
[00:30:45] God is preparing us. God is molding us for the future that he has. And these cave walls are necessary, and they're good if we can lean into what God wants to do in us and through us.
[00:31:00] And then David begins to leave the cave.
[00:31:04] The author tells us that David moves on from this cave. And when you read Psalm 34, it seems like it's the last psalm that is written in the cave. Because here's what it says. It says, I will bless the Lord at all times.
[00:31:22] His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Do you remember Psalm 142? David says, no one cares for me. That's how he began that Psalm, Psalm 34. He begins, I will bless the Lord at all times. I sense a transformed man here. I sense God has been molding him. It goes on. My soul makes its boast in the Lord.
[00:31:46] Let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together.
[00:31:56] I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
[00:32:02] Those who look to him are radiant. Their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles.
[00:32:15] It's such a powerful psalm. But here's what, what David is showing us.
[00:32:21] We can leave the cave with a new drive to praise God.
[00:32:29] We can leave the cave with a concrete experience of God's deliverance.
[00:32:35] It was like, look, I prayed, he answered.
[00:32:39] There's no ambiguity there.
[00:32:41] There's no mystery there. I've experienced the deliverance of God. David says he is trustworthy and he is good. We can leave it with a commitment to live a more noble life. And if you read the rest of Psalm 34, that's what David says. He said, I want to go out of here and I want to be a better man.
[00:33:03] I want to serve God in a greater way.
[00:33:07] And we can leave the cave knowing God's ability to deliver us is greater than life's ability to get us stuck.
[00:33:17] And so I want to encourage you today to see the cave that you might be in as this powerful catalyst, this training ground for the future that God has for you. You don't need to throw rocks at the walls. You don't need to hate this place. And you certainly don't need to lose hope.
[00:33:38] You need to lean into God and you need to lean into the people that God is sending your way.
[00:33:46] And some of us, you need to become a leader of them, like David did, a commander. You need to step up because God wants you to give them something as well. And church, here's what I believe. We can go through the cave and we can come out of it experiencing new life and new strength and new hope.
[00:34:07] Because when we go into the cave with Christ, we come out of it experiencing the power of his resurrection.
[00:34:16] And I know that's what he has for you and that's what he has for us. So let's pray. Father, we thank you that you meet us in the caves of life. We thank you that you don't fail us or forsake you. We thank you, Lord, that you use it for training and for our good. And Lord, we pray for our brothers and sisters that are in the midst of it now.
[00:34:40] That Lord, we could see your presence there with us and we could see the people that you want to surround our lives with today. That Lord, we could be open to them, but we could also offer something to them as well. And we pray, Father, that in it all we could leave this experience with a new sense of praise and trust in you. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
