Title: How To Behave In A Cave – 3
“David’s Cave – Five Keys to Victory – 2”
Text: I Samuel 22:1
Last week I started a very powerful series on “How to Behave in a Cave.” I know that many people were touched by the power of the Holy Ghost through the Word of God and in the after service. I believe that we have started our journey of coming out of the 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.
There were several men in the Bible that dwelled in caves for a season of their life. 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. There are several people in this congregation that are in a spiritual cave as we speak, but after last week we were and still are encouraged that we are coming out of that cave. We determined last week that we don’t care how long it takes or what it takes, we are coming out of that old cave.
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: Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
This morning we started talking about David’s cave. We find this in:
I Samuel 22:1-2; ¶ “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. 2 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.”
Four hundred men went with David into the cave. However, they were not exactly the kind of people you like to surround yourself with when you’re going through a trial. Usually, when you are down, you want to try to find people who are up. But here, people who were in distress, in debt and discontented surround David. These guys were losing at the game of life.
Something happened to those men when they followed David into the cave. They may have been discouraged when they went in, but they didn’t stay discouraged. They didn’t stay in debt, they didn’t stay in distress and discontentment. God showed them how to get out! And He wants to show you in the next few weeks how to come out of your cave.
In fact we find these same men in I Chronicles 11:
I Chronicles 11:9-10; “So David waxed greater and greater: for the LORD of hosts was with him. 10 ¶ These also are the chief of the mighty men whom David had, who strengthened themselves with him in his kingdom, and with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of the LORD concerning Israel.”
These same men were so successful and blessed that they joyfully contributed out of their vast wealth to finance the building of the temple of God. Now that is success! Something has happened to them. They were not the same men when they came out of the cave as they were when they went in. That is God’s desire for each of us. He wants us to come out of our caves different then when we went in. He wants to strengthen us. He wants to renew us. He wants to make us mighty warriors for Him but sometimes we have to face the cave first. The cave experience was the best thing that could have ever happened to these men but I am sure that they did not think so when they were in the thick of that cave.
Tonight we are going to pick up where we left off this morning. In Psalm 57 we find five keys to successful behaviour in a cave. This Psalm is David’s own record of his own thoughts when he fled from Saul into the Cave of Adullam.
Psalm 57:1-11; ¶ <
I. DAVID LEARNED TO TAKE REFUGE IN GOD
Psalm 57:1; ¶ “Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusts in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.”
David made God his refuge. REFUGE: DEFINITION
1. Shelter or protection from danger and distress
2. A place that provides shelter or protection
3. Something to which one has recourse in difficulty
4. Recourse actually means: A turning to someone or something for help or protection. A source of help or strength.
David realized that it was God that would protect him from every danger and calamity in his life. Even in the midst of his cave he knew that the cave was not his refuge, but God was. David learned to put his total concentration on God and fully trust in Him. This was the first step in David’s coming out of that cave. It all goes back to last week’s message in knowing the character and goodness of our God. Even in the midst of the cave, God was David’s everything.
Once David made God his refuge, calamity and trouble had to go. David said, “I will make God my refuge until these calamities are gone.” In other words David understood that his calamity did not come to stay, it came to pass away. There are some of us here today that try to depend and lean on God for a week or two or maybe even a month or two and then once it seems like He is not intervening, we just stop and say, “well I guess that didn’t work out all that well.” Good thing David wasn’t this way. David said I will put God as my refuge for as long as I need to. If I stay in this cave for another year, my refuge is still God Almighty. No matter what may come in my life I have determined that God is always #1.
Some of us need to make that same determination today. While we are in this cave, we will determine to come out no matter how long it takes. God is our priority no matter what happens in my life. I will stay focused on Him until this cave experience passes. I am coming out. David had to learn to make God his refuge. It was part of his behaviour. David constantly reminded himself and others that God was His refuge. Listen to how many times he repeated it:
Psalm 9:9; The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.
Psalm 46:1; ¶ God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:7; The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Psalm 59:16; But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.
Psalm 62:7; In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
Psalm 62:8; ¶ Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.
Psalm 71:7; I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge.
Psalm 91:2; I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Psalm 91:9; ¶ Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
Psalm 94:22; But the LORD is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge.
Psalm 142:5; I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.
David made God his refuge. When troubles come and caves come some people feel like all is lost and they are all alone. But when you make God your refuge there is no way that you can be alone. When your protector is always present it is impossible to alone. It is like having secret service or a body guard with you at all times and our secret service is Jesus Christ. David may have thought that all is lost, but because he made God his refuge, he was not alone.
David, in the physical, was hiding in a cave. But in his heart he was hiding under the shadow of God’s wings. He was hiding in God, not in that cave. We must realize that even though we may be in the cave right now, we are still in God. In the natural you may be in a hospital bed or at some low point in your life. Or you may be in the cave of sickness or discouragement. But it doesn’t matter what your situation looks like because if you are making God your refuge, then when you look at it through eyes of the Spirit you are not in a cave, you are in God.
It is when you are in God and when you realize that all those things are temporary that God begins to pave the way to your success. And when you make Him your refuge, He will always bring you out victorious. It is time that we give glory to God because every calamity has to go away when you take the first step of abiding under the shadow of His wings and making Him your refuge until these calamities or caves be overpast as Scripture states David did.
II. DAVID LEARNED TO CRY OUT TO GOD
The first key to your victory is learning to make God your refuge. This is way that David behaved in the cave. The second thing David learned was to cry out to God in the moment of his discouragement. First, you make God your refuge until everything else dissolves away in the spirit realm, then, when your eyes are only focused upon God, you cry out to Him.
David learned to cry out to God very early in life. He made prayer his commitment in life. It wasn’t just something he did when he was down and in trouble. It was his lifestyle. He did it when he came against the bear and the lion; he did it when he came against Goliath. And when he came against King Saul, who had made him his enemy, David cried out to God again.
Psalm 57:2; “I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.”
You should never underestimate the power of prayer. It parted the Red Sea. It raised the dead. It has always brought victory everywhere it has gone. That is what prayer has done and it will continue to do even for you! When you cry out to God, He makes a difference. When you fervently cry out to Him, nothing is impossible! One of the mandatory behaviours while in the cave is to learn how to pray with passion.
James 5:16; “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
If we read beyond verse 16 of James 5 the Bible gives us a perfect illustration of the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man. His name was Elijah.
James 5:17-18; “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”
Elijah was a normal man who was just like you and I. He had strengths and weaknesses, up and downs of life. He wasn’t always perfect. But the Bible says that when he cried out to heaven, it did not rain for a space of three-and-a-half years and when he cried out again, the heavens poured out rain. The very heavens will respond to a person who cries out fervently with red-hot petitions to God.
That is exactly what David learned when he was in that cave. He cried out to His God, the One he knew would perform all things for him and God answered him. There is power in prayer that is available to every one of us. It was not something that was just for a special select few, like the prophet Elijah or King David or Smith Wigglesworth or John Wesley. God wants all of us to stand strong and have a life committed to prayer and crying out to our refuge because that is the kind of prayer that He responds to.
When in the middle of your cave we must learn that God is our refuge. He is our protector; He will not allow harm to come to you. He does not want you to stay in that cave forever. We must also remember that it those cave experiences we must learn to cry out to God because He is the only One that can truly help you.
