Title: How To Behave In A Cave
“Things to Remember When in the Cave”
Text: I Samuel 22:1
For the next few weeks I want to talk about caves. More specifically I want to talk about how we are to behave when in the caves of life. We must clear something up about caves before we begin this series. What is a cave?
A cave is a natural underground void large enough for a human to enter. Some people suggest that the term cave should only apply to cavities that have some part that does not receive daylight.
Some of you may be thinking why in the world is my Pastor going to preach on caves. That doesn’t make to much sense. There were several men in the Bible that dwelled in caves for a season of their life. There are several people in this congregation that are in a spiritual cave as we speak. A cave is a type of a dark hour, a struggle, a trial in your life that you face. It seems to be void of light. We all go through them. We Pastors like to focus on the wonderful God that we serve and I still will through this message, but sometimes we have a tendency of misintrepreting the Pastor and we think that he is saying that your life is full of roses when really your life is full of the thorns that hold the roses up.
Jesus said in John 16:33; “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation:” We look at that one Scripture and we think, man even Jesus said that we were going to be full of trials and tribulations. But we fail to read on into what Jesus is really saying in this Scripture. Don’t stop there: “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
Sometimes bad things happen in life and we just want to retreat, we want to back up. Have you ever been there before? You just don’t understand what is taking place in your life. I have been! In this life the devil sends all kinds of tribulations your way to try to make you run and hide in a cave where no one can find you. Maybe there are some of you here this morning that fear, discouragement, failures or disappointments are driving you in a cave. Or maybe battle fatigue is making you faint along the way because you are so weary in well doing. Jesus knows how dangerous it is to get weary in well doing.
II Thessalonians 3:13; “But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.”
Galatians 6:9; “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
The Bible is full of reasons for good cheer. Jesus says, “I know that in the world you are going to have tribulations.” What does that tell us about where tribulations and trials come from? From the devil! But Jesus goes on to say, “Be of good cheer, be happy, be joyful, start rejoicing because I have overcome the world already.” You don’t have to stay in the cave. You can come out once and for all, and be victorious in every cave experience of your life. God does not want you to stay down in the cave, He wants you to get up, stand on your feet and go forward with Him.
There are some things that we must always remember when in the cave:
I. IT CAME TO PASS
When in your cave, always remember, it didn’t come to stay, it came to pass.
When your back is up against the wall, you don’t have to give up; you don’t have to get discouraged. No matter what it is that has come against you, it didn’t come to stay. It came to pass away. Sickness didn’t come to stay in your life. It came to pass away, in the Name of Jesus. Failure didn’t come to stay. It came to pass in the Name of Jesus. Financial famine didn’t come to stay in your life. It came to pass in the Name of Jesus. Any problem you can think of didn’t come to stay. It came to pass because Jesus declared in Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” So whatever it is that comes against you, you can say, “That thing is in the earth, and it is going to pass away. I will have victory over it, because the Word of God is going to dominate this area of my life. And His Word will never pass away.
Caves are not always bad for us. We read of the men in the Bible that had cave experiences and everyone of them, because of how they behaved in the cave, came out victorious. Everyone of these men knew that they were coming out of the cave because they knew their God. They knew the character of their God.
We must remember that this cave experience came to pass, we must also remember:
II. WHO GOD IS!
Who is God? What is the character of God?
The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, reveals to us that God is everything that we need Him to be. This morning, I want to do a review of the entire Bible to try to help you understand who God really is. I want to give you some examples through Scripture of the kind of God we serve. I am confident that once you hear all these Scriptures, you will leave here knowing that the Lord wants to bring you out of the cave.
Genesis 15:1; ¶ “After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”
Genesis 17:1; ¶ “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God;”
Just when Abraham thought it was impossible to fulfill the promises of the Lord, the Lord shows up and says, I am the Almighty! If you are in that cave of impossibility, the Lord is saying, “I am the Almighty.” No matter how impossible it may look, I am the Almighty! Take a minute to think about what that Almighty means. Full of might, full of power, full of anointing. It means I am full of whatever you need Me to full of. You are coming out of that cave because He is the Almighty.
Exodus 15:26; “And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.”
Deuteronomy 5:6; ¶ “I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” Egypt being a type of sin – God is our deliverer who brought us out of bondage.
Isaiah 43:3; “For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour:”
Isaiah 48:12; “Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.”
Isaiah 51:12; “I, even I, am he that comforts you:” Even in the midst of the cave, remember God is your comforter.
Jeremiah 3:12; ¶ “Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.”
Jeremiah 9:24; “But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.”
John 6:35; “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
John 8:12; ¶ “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
John 10:9; “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”
John 10:10; “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, (in other words, I am the life giver) and that they might have it more abundantly – (I give life to the in abundance to the full until it overflows).
John 10:11; “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
John 14:6; “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (I don’t care what any preacher tells you, Jesus is the ONLY way to heaven. There are not several doors or several ways, the only way to get there is through believing in Jesus Christ. He is the only way)
Revelation 1:8; “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
These few Scriptures just gives you a glimpse into the character of God. I have tried to describe to you and paint a picture for you of who God is. I want to encourage you this morning that God is going to bring you out of that cave you are in. You will not stay in that cave forever. This too shall pass.
After reading all these Scriptures, I want to review something with you this morning. This is the review. It is the devil that is bad. But God is good. I just want to remind you of that today. Repeat after me: Devil – BAD; God – GOOD. Why do some people have a problem hearing that God is so good and every perfect gift comes from God Himself!
James 1:16-17; “Do not err, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
God – GOOD; Devil – BAD! Do we understand that before we move on to the next thing? God is good and He will pick you up when you are down in the deepest cave you have ever been in. That is the kind of God that we serve. When things look their worst, God is always ready to pick you up. He will tell you in His Word what you need to do to come out victorious.
Even if you are at a point where it seems you have fallen and you are trapped in a cave of discouragement, you don’t have to stay there. If you keep your eyes focused on God and don’t give up, you are going to win every single time.
Stop beating yourself up and thinking how bad you must be, or how terrible your life is, and start packing your bags and getting ready to go. God always has a way and He wants to bring you out of whatever cave you happen to be in this morning. So, if you are in a cave right now, wondering what you are going to do, then I want you to rest assured that God is a good God and if you will behave in a Godly manner in this cave, you are coming out!
While you are in the cave, you must remember that this experience shall pass and you must also remember who God is. We must remember that He is a good God and you will not stay in this cave forever.
