(Review of last week’s material)
- When you are out of the will of God, you make very bad (dumb) decisions.
- Understand that your sin never affects just you. It affects those around you too.
- When you aren’t listening to the Spirit of God, or following God’s Word, you are listening to your flesh or emotions.
In the cave of Adullam, it was God and David period.
These are the Psalms David wrote while he was in the Cave of Adullam:
(Psalms 142:1-7 NLT) A psalm of David, regarding his experience in the cave. A prayer. 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. (4) I look for someone to come and help me, but no one gives me a passing thought! No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me. (5) Then I pray to You, O LORD. I say, “You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life. (6) Hear my cry, for I am very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. (7) Bring me out of prison so I can thank You. The godly will crowd around me, for You are good to me.”
(Psalms 57:1-11 NLT) For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time he fled from Saul and went into the cave. To be sung to the tune “Do Not Destroy!” Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy! I look to You for protection. I will hide beneath the shadow of Your wings until the danger passes by. (2) I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill His purpose for me. (3) He will send help from heaven to rescue me, disgracing those who hound me. Interlude My God will send forth His unfailing love and faithfulness. (4) I am surrounded by fierce lions who greedily devour human prey–whose teeth pierce like spears and arrows, and whose tongues cut like swords. (5) Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens! May Your glory shine over all the earth. (6) My enemies have set a trap for me. I am weary from distress. They have dug a deep pit in my path, but they themselves have fallen into it. Interlude (7) My heart is confident in You, O God; my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing Your praises! (8) Wake up, my heart! Wake up, O lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song. (9) I will thank You, Lord, among all the people. I will sing Your praises among the nations. (10) For Your unfailing love is as high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. (11) Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens. May Your glory shine over all the earth.
In the Cave of Adullam, David did the following:
- He turned loose of his own strength
- He turned loose of his own ideas
- He turned loose of his own wisdom
- He abandoned himself completely to the will of God
The Cave of Adullam is where David quit and God took over.
The Cave of Adullam is the line where David’s life being David’s responsibility and became God’s responsibility. It is where he came to the end of himself.
This is the place in our lives where we quit trying to make God’s plans and promises come to pass and we surrender and let God bring to pass His own plans.
David repents and God is able to begin a work of restoration in David’s life:
(1 Samuel 22:1 NIV) David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there.
- Notice that the first thing that God restored back to David was his family relationships.
- David tells the Lord that he does not have an army and God brings to him 400 messed up miss-fits.
(1 Samuel 22:2 NIV) All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him.
- God then began to bless David materially as David and that small army began to conquer other armies and spoiled them.
- David had a great capacity to not only confess his guilt in the things that he caused, confess his sins before the Lord, but he also had a great capacity to forgive himself and go on.
(1 Samuel 22:20-23 NIV) But one son of Ahimelek son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled to join David. (21) He told David that Saul had killed the priests of the LORD. (22) Then David said to Abiathar, “That day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, I knew he would be sure to tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of your whole family. (23) Stay with me; don’t be afraid. The man who wants to kill you is trying to kill me too. You will be safe with me.”
Look at another incident that David caused:
(2 Samuel 12:19-24 NIV) David noticed that his attendants were whispering among themselves, and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked. “Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.” (20) Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate. (21) His attendants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!” (22) He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ (23) But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” (24) Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The LORD loved him;
If this was you could you receive your forgiveness and then forgive yourself and move forward if you were guilty of these things?
It doesn’t matter how big your mistakes are, the forgiving and restoring power of God is always greater!
When you get to the cave of Adullam and you quit and give up to God, that will begin the turn-around in your life.
- Moses had his Cave of Adullam experience after he killed the Egyptian and spent 40 years in the wilderness and when he surrendered is when God could use him to become the leader He wanted Him to be.
- The woman with the issue of blood had been to many physicians and spent all that she had and rather grew worse BUT when she had heard of Jesus she came to Him and was healed.
- Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus came to himself when the Lord confronted him.
(Acts 9:5-6 NIV) “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. (6) “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Turn loose of yourself and let God bring it to pass.
(Philippians 1:6 NIV) being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
The thing that David did right this time was to wait on God and let God make the ruler over all the nation of Israel.
(Luke 1:31-33 NIV) You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. (32) He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, (33) and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
God even brought Jesus into the earth through the lineage of this great king and as the scripture says, Jesus will one day rule from the throne of His father David. Notice it does not just say that God will give the throne of Israel but He will give Him David’s throne.
- God will restore relationships, restore your strength, and God will begin to bless and increase you like never before.
- He will take those failures and mistakes and turn them around and cause your ending to be so much better than your beginning!