CLIMBING OUT OF YOUR CAVE

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CLIMBING OUT OF YOUR CAVE

• Todays Message
• Part One

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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.

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Text 1 Samuel 221-4

• 1Sa 221 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 222 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.

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Text 1 Samuel 221-4

• 1Sa 223 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 224 And he brought them before the king of
  Moab and they dwelt with him all the while that
  David was in the hold.

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Let's turn to Psalm 611-2 and listen to what
David said in those verses.

• Psa 611 To the chief Musician upon Neginah, A
  Psalm of David. Hear my cry, O God attend unto
  my prayer.
• Psa 612 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.

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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.

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• 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

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• There are times when we too find ourselves in one
  of lifes 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

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• Isa 457 I form the light, and create darkness I
  make peace, and create evil I the LORD do all
  these things.

Psa 3723 The steps of a good man are ordered
by the LORD and he delighteth in his way.
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• Rom 828 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 829 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.

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• 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.

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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.)

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• (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 141 Job 57 John 1633 Eccl.
  217 Eccl. 223. As Follows

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Job

• Job 141Man that is born of a woman is of few
  days, and full of trouble.

Job 57 Yet man is born unto trouble, as the
sparks fly upward.
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JESUS

• Jhn 1633 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.

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SOLOMON

• Ecc 217 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 223 For all his days are sorrows, and his
  travail grief yea, his heart taketh not rest in
  the night. This is also vanity.

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• 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. 214.)
• Rev 214 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.

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• 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.

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• (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!

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Heb. 125-13

• Hbr 125-7 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?

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Heb. 125-13

• Hbr 128-9 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?

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Heb. 125-13

• Hbr 1210-11 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.

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Heb. 125-13

• Hbr 1212-13 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.)  
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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!

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• (Note We often find ourselves in the caves as
  well, dont 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 Gods 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.

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• 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.)
  

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Question/Comments

• Next Week Part 2