Do Not be Afraid – 7

 Do Not be Afraid – 7

Subject – Leaving the Cave

By Rick Welborne

1 Samuel 22:1 (NIV) 

1 David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam...

–Key - You need to know that it is when we are in the cave that God does His best work in molding and shaping us. 

2 Corinthians 12:8‑10 (NLT) 

8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 

9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 

10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

–Sermon tonight:

1. Courage to venture out.

–How is it possible for us to receive divine encouragement from God? I believe the first place to begin would be to honestly face and name our discouragement

–Last week we read where David did this:

Psalm 142:1‑3 (NLT) 

1 I cry out to the LORD; I plead for the LORD’s mercy. 

2 I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles. 

3 When I am overwhelmed, you alone know the way I should turn. Wherever I go, my enemies have set traps for me. 

–Silly question for most of us...are you able to complain? Some of you may have discovered that complaining is your spiritual gift.

–Old Testament scholars tells us that there are different kinds of psalms: Psalms of Thanksgiving, Enthronement Psalms about the King, psalms of wisdom.

–The single post popular category is called the psalm of lament. The most frequent psalm consists of someone complaining to God...Why the Book of Psalms is so popular!

–Amazingly, God is not put off by this. God allows people to do this...in fact, I believe He encourages it. This is what David does while he is in the cave.

Key - He gets quiet enough before the Lord to get to the bottom of his pain and discouragement...He finally gets transparent with God even though God sees all.

–So many people never have the courage to do this, instead they bury their discouragement deep down inside.  They put on the front...they force the smile.

–Failure in our day carries with it shame...the shame not just of having experienced failure, but of being a failure. Facing this is so hard for us humans to do. 

–William Shakespeare is buried in Strat-ford-upon-Avon at Holy Trinity Church and he is buried 18 feet deep so no one will try to dig him up. Isn’t that what we do with our hurts and failures?

–We attempt or desire so many things to happen in our lives and when those things do not happen or we fail when we try...we get so disappointed.

–Most of us are not real surprised that we fail at something...what we regret the most is that the pain of failure caused us to not own our failure and to learn from it.

–When you fell...own it...move on...and heal...don’t bury it...pray a prayer of lament.

–When we are honest about it and begin to explore beneath the surface, we discover that much of the pain of failure is not just that we did not achieve something...it is what others might think of us as failing.

2. Elijah found himself in a cave and he had to deal with his fear and failure.

–Obviously he had been a very successful prophet of God...took on 450 prophets of Baal, took on an evil king along with his wicked wife and predicted the weather like no one else...powerful.

–The opposition of one queen (Jezebel) triggered something in him...he became fearful and discouraged.

1 Kings 19:1‑4 (NKJV) 

1 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. 

2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time." 

3 And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 

4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, "It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!" 

–Something amazing did not happen...God did take his life. God was not finished with Elijah yet and I suspect He is not finished with you either. God was very tender with Elijah.

1 Kings 19:5‑8 (NKJV) 

5 Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, "Arise and eat." 

6 Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. 

7 And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, "Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you." 

8 So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. 

–The original angel food cake! God treated Elijah much like you would a cranky toddler...Have a snack, take a nap, and we will talk when you are more human...toddle another day.

1 Kings 19:9 (NKJV) 

9 And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" 

–God tells Elijah that He is about to pass by...there was a great wind, an earth quake, and a fire but God was not in those...His sweet whisper. What are you doing here, Elijah?

–The best part of this question is that God did not say “What are you doing there?” God was in the cave with Elijah...What are you doing here in a cave with Me?

–I wonder if Elijah was surprised by this...we have no trouble believing God is with us when we are defeating false prophets or seeing fire fall from Heaven...or a widow’s child living.

–You see, the cave is the most wonderful place of all to find out that God loves you and that He is with you. If God can love me here...He really does love me.

–The great gift of the cave when you are there and you feel like a failure is that you are loved and valued by God. It was in the cave that David cried out and said:

Psalm 142:5 (NKJV) 

5 I cried out to You, O LORD: I said, "You are my refuge, My portion in the land of the living. 

–As long as my sense of being valuable and significant is tied to my success, it will be a fragile thing.  

--But when I know in my heart of hearts that I am loved and valued by God even when I fall on my face...I am gripped by a love stronger than success or failure.

John Ortberg: You can risk being fully honest with God for a very important reason: God is never a God of discouragement. When you have a discouraging spirit or train of thought in your mind, you can be sure that it is not from God. Always, His guidance leads to motivation and life.

–Ortberg asked one of his spiritual mentors: How do you assess the wellbeing of your soul?  How do you gauge your spiritual condition?

–His friend said that the first question he asked himself was this: Am I growing more easily discouraged these days?  

--Because he said, if I’m walking closely with God, if I have a sense of God being with me, I find that problems lose their ability to damage my spirit.  

–Ever been there? Things pile up...pressure builds...you find yourself in a place where little things begin to bother you tremendously...what do we do?

3. Take action when you find yourself in a cave!

–When David was faced with the reality that his city was burned, his family was taken (everyone else’s also), and his men were speaking of stoning him...he took action!

1 Samuel 30:6‑8 (NLT) 

6 David was now in great danger because all his men were very bitter about losing their sons and daughters, and they began to talk of stoning him. But David found strength in the LORD his God. 

7 Then he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring me the ephod!” So Abiathar brought it. 

8 Then David asked the LORD, “Should I chase after this band of raiders? Will I catch them?” And the LORD told him, “Yes, go after them. You will surely recover everything that was taken from you!” 

–The ephod was a reminder of God’s presence. Usually for the priest. There are times you do not have time to call the preacher or a mentor.

1 Peter 2:9‑10 (NKJV) 

9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 

10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. 

–You are a royal priesthood...you can call upon God...why go thru man when you can go directly to God? In his pain and discouragement David was able to hear from God...Pursue and you will surely overtake them.  

David took action! The reason so many people get paralyzed by fear is because they fail to be honest and transparent about where the failure came from and they fail to take action to fix it.

–When you realize that you have failed in some area or that you are weighed down by discouragement the single most destructive thing you can do is nothing!

Psychologist David Burns: When I am faced with a challenge and I do nothing, it leads to distorted thoughts–that I am helpless, hopeless, and beyond change. These in turn lead to destructive emotions–loss of energy and motivation, damaged self-esteem, feeling over-whelmed. The end result is a self-defeating behavior–procrastination, avoidance, and escapism. These behaviors then reinforce negative thoughts, and the whole cycle spirals downward.

–The good news is that taking one single step of action can be extremely powerful in robbing failure of its power. When we take action...even if it is small steps...hope gets born and hope always triumphs. 

–Failure does not have to be fatal...failure can be the motivation to take action and make the changes that will lead to a new hope and a new life.

–This is your life. You can’t get out of it. So get into it. Take one step toward trusting God in an area where you feel you have failed. One small step of action is often worth more than a hundred internal pep talks.  

Ephesians 5:14‑18 (NKJV) 

14 Therefore He says: "Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light." 

15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 

16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 

17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 

18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,