Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope
Speaker 1: it gives you perspective to see God is moving in
Speaker 1: your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: This week's sam as Psalm on I got some good news.
Speaker 2: My oldest son has fallen in love with an album,
Speaker 2: something I feared may never happen because you know, we
Speaker 2: live in the day of the single. Nobody listens to
Speaker 2: albums anymore. But my son, having impeccable good taste, mostly
Speaker 2: informed by his genetic code, has fallen in love with
Speaker 2: an album. If we weren't in church, i'd tell you
Speaker 2: that it's a Kendrick Lamar album. But what was so
Speaker 2: good to me about that is I was scared that
Speaker 2: he would never have the experience that I had when
Speaker 2: I was about his age. He's twelve, and he uh
Speaker 2: and he would just listen to songs, you know, Spotify
Speaker 2: stream songs and just you know, garbage stuff that's out
Speaker 2: there now. I didn't know if he'd get into good
Speaker 2: quality music and and and I never knew if he
Speaker 2: would have the moment that Eric and I had growing
Speaker 2: up in the mean streets of Monks Corner, South Carolina,
Speaker 2: falling in love with.
Speaker 1: With an album. Uh.
Speaker 2: The first album that I fell in love with was,
Speaker 2: of course by the great Christian worship band Guns n' Roses. Uh.
Speaker 2: The prophet Axel Rose was the first preacher whoever touched my.
Speaker 1: Soul in a powerful way.
Speaker 2: And I wanted him to have that experience, to really
Speaker 2: get into the music. And and he looked at me
Speaker 2: the other day he said, I just feel like Kendrick
Speaker 2: gets me. Compton and Wax are just to light. But
Speaker 2: that point aside, it was good. It was good to
Speaker 2: me to see him get into I wanted him to
Speaker 2: know that, you know, I wanted him to feel that
Speaker 2: I've I wanted him to know that it's not just
Speaker 2: because see like in this series, I want you to
Speaker 2: know that God gets you, and I want you to
Speaker 2: get into God. Can you see how excited I am,
Speaker 2: or caffeinated or something in some combination of caffeine and
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. You got me fired up to tell you
Speaker 2: that God gets you and touch somebody and say I
Speaker 2: don't get you.
Speaker 1: Thank God he does.
Speaker 2: And the more you get into God, you realize that
Speaker 2: God gets you all of you. And yet when we
Speaker 2: come into church, sometimes we read little fragments of scriptures
Speaker 2: and phrases and things that sound good. It's like people
Speaker 2: who say, oh, I don't listen to the lyrics, I
Speaker 2: just like the beat.
Speaker 1: I hate those people.
Speaker 2: You don't understand the depth the backstory.
Speaker 1: You just like the beat.
Speaker 2: And sometimes we're like that in church. You know, I
Speaker 2: will bless the Lord at all times, and his praise
Speaker 2: shall continually be in my mouth, not thinking about what
Speaker 2: that says.
Speaker 1: You're just like how it sounds like, yeah, I will.
Speaker 2: Bless the Lord as occasionally once in a while on
Speaker 2: Sunday for twenty eight minutes. I will bless the Lord
Speaker 2: at all time. I mean all the time, not all times,
Speaker 2: not like all the time all the time. I'm not
Speaker 2: going to get in front of people and do it
Speaker 2: or anything like that. But you know, I'm not not
Speaker 2: gonna lift my hands or any but you know it
Speaker 2: sounds good.
Speaker 1: I like to beat. So I thought what we do today.
Speaker 2: Last week we were focused on Psalm fifty nine, which.
Speaker 1: Was a banger.
Speaker 2: We discovered that not only is David a shepherd, but
Speaker 2: he is a goat, the goat the greatest.
Speaker 1: Of all times.
Speaker 2: Some people were offended by that assertation that David was
Speaker 2: the greatest rapper of all time.
Speaker 1: I stand by it.
Speaker 2: We are rocking to his mixtape, The Book of Psalms.
Speaker 1: Free Millennia.
Speaker 2: After he pinned these words, they still resonate in our souls.
Speaker 2: But this week we're going to look at some things
Speaker 2: that he said that might surprise us. In Psalm one
Speaker 2: and this is more of a ballad.
Speaker 1: The tempo is a little slower.
Speaker 2: Because David is conflicted and he cries out to God
Speaker 2: about it. I want to read all seven verses from
Speaker 2: Someone forty two where David says, I cry aloud to
Speaker 2: the Lord. I lift up my voice to the Lord
Speaker 2: for mercy. I pour out before him my complaint. Before him,
Speaker 2: I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me,
Speaker 2: it is you who watch over my way. In the
Speaker 2: path where I walk, people have hidden a snare for me.
Speaker 2: Look and see there is no one at my right hand.
Speaker 2: No one is concerned for me. I have no refuge.
Speaker 2: No one cares for my life. Elijah, nobody's praying for me.
Speaker 2: I looked around for help, and all I found was hardship.
Speaker 2: I cry verse five to you, Lord, I say you
Speaker 2: are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.
Speaker 2: Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need.
Speaker 2: Rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are
Speaker 2: too strong for me. Set me free from my prison,
Speaker 2: that I may praise or name.
Speaker 1: I want to so.
Speaker 2: Bad, but I can't right now. Set me free. Only
Speaker 2: you have the keys to do it. Then the righteous
Speaker 2: will gather about me because of your goodness to me.
Speaker 2: One more thing I want to read you before we
Speaker 2: talk about it for a few moments from for Samuel
Speaker 2: twenty two. This is the backstory. This is the backstory
Speaker 2: to the to the beat, and just one verse for
Speaker 2: now for Samuel twenty two, verse five. But the prophet
Speaker 2: God said to David, do not stay in the stronghold,
Speaker 2: go into the land of Judah. So David left and
Speaker 2: went to the forest of hered My subject for today is.
Speaker 1: The setup in the stronghold.
Speaker 2: When we started song, I don't know if you found
Speaker 2: yourself like me, wanting to tell.
Speaker 1: David that you're not allowed to do this.
Speaker 2: When he cries aloud to the Lord in verse one
Speaker 2: and lifts up his voice to the Lord for mercy
Speaker 2: in verse one.
Speaker 1: At this point in.
Speaker 2: The psalm, I have predicted this predicament. It is in
Speaker 2: verse two that I'm a little surprised when David says,
Speaker 2: I pour out before him my complaint. At this point,
Speaker 2: I want to pull David aside and say, didn't you
Speaker 2: know that you were supposed to bless the Lord at
Speaker 2: all times and his praise continually be in your mouth?
Speaker 2: And David said back to me, yeah, I wrote that
Speaker 2: psalm too, that Psalm thirty four. But this one's a
Speaker 2: little different, because sometimes before my mouth can be filled
Speaker 2: with praise, I have to pour out something else to
Speaker 2: make room for what I know seeing now disappoint of
Speaker 2: the sermon where people start getting real confused on me,
Speaker 2: because we have been taught sometimes that unless we can
Speaker 2: come to God the right way, we can't come to
Speaker 2: him at all. And the fact of the matter is
Speaker 2: a lot of us don't pray, don't worship, and don't
Speaker 2: enter into the presence of God in that specific and
Speaker 2: tangible way wherein He can heal the issues of your heart,
Speaker 2: because we are scared of what would happen if we
Speaker 2: really opened ourselves up and told him. In fact, I
Speaker 2: was talking to my friend. I'm not going to say
Speaker 2: his name. I don't want embarrass Eric Phillips, but we
Speaker 2: were talking the other day how for us, it's very
Speaker 2: difficult for us sometimes to tell God how we're feeling.
Speaker 2: Which is funny because I have a feeling that he
Speaker 2: already knows how I'm feeling. But I'm scared to tell him.
Speaker 2: And here's why I'm scared to tell him. I know
Speaker 2: why I'm scared to tell him because of something my
Speaker 2: dad used to say. My dad used to say whenever
Speaker 2: I would start crying. He had this line he would
Speaker 2: say to get me to stop, and the line was,
Speaker 2: finish it if you know it. If you don't stop
Speaker 2: that crying, I'll give you. Your dad was an abusive
Speaker 2: maniac as well.
Speaker 1: Now, my dad is a great time.
Speaker 2: And I get it, and I get it, But when
Speaker 2: David uses this image, I was surprised because I'm so
Speaker 2: used to the psalms being a place where we.
Speaker 1: Pour out our praise.
Speaker 2: I was surprised to see David pour out his complaint
Speaker 2: because I didn't think you were supposed to complain if
Speaker 2: God was good to you.
Speaker 1: And I read the whole psalm, and he.
Speaker 2: Started the song saying he was pouring out his complaint,
Speaker 2: and he ended the song by saying that God was
Speaker 2: good to him. And I couldn't put the two together,
Speaker 2: because what do you have to complain about if God
Speaker 2: has been good to you. I'm sometimes afraid to complain
Speaker 2: in the presence of God, and so I don't pray
Speaker 2: because I can't say what I know I'm supposed to say.
Speaker 2: So I don't say anything because I'm gonna tell you,
Speaker 2: I'm scared that if I say what I really want
Speaker 2: to say, God might give me something to cry about.
Speaker 2: I'm scared sometimes to pray to God before I come
Speaker 2: preach what I really feel like praying to God, which
Speaker 2: is I'm not feeling this today, because I'm scared if
Speaker 2: I say that to him, he'll put some on my
Speaker 2: voice box where I can't preach.
Speaker 1: I'm afraid if.
Speaker 2: I complain to God about my children, then he might
Speaker 2: look on somebody else who's been praying that they could
Speaker 2: have kids, and they can have kids. And here I
Speaker 2: am complaining about something that I pray and ask God
Speaker 2: to give me, and I feel kind of guilty. So
Speaker 2: now I stand at the distance and I won't tell
Speaker 2: God what I have to say. But I learned something
Speaker 2: about God is that he is the only safe place.
Speaker 1: Where I can pour out my complaint.
Speaker 2: And if I don't learn how to pour out my
Speaker 2: complaints in His presence, they will spill over somewhere else
Speaker 2: Where else can I go but his presence? Who else
Speaker 2: could I tell but the one who knit me? Where
Speaker 2: else where else is it safe? What are you gonna do?
Speaker 2: You're gonna go on Facebook and tell your troubles. The
Speaker 2: presence of God is not a place.
Speaker 1: To bypass your emotions. It's a place to process them.
Speaker 2: And what that means is this, The only way into
Speaker 2: the presence of God is from where you really are,
Speaker 2: not from.
Speaker 1: Where you wish you were.
Speaker 2: You can start your prayers with O Sovereign God of
Speaker 2: the Seas and Nemo and Dorian Sydney, Australia, Oh God,
Speaker 2: Sovereign Father. Can start there.
Speaker 1: That's preferable.
Speaker 2: But in case you can't, in cases one of those days,
Speaker 2: in case you don't even feel saved, in case you
Speaker 2: just want to bash some heads, bust some heads, in
Speaker 2: cases one of those stays, in case you don't feel
Speaker 2: God at all, you know it's okay to tell God
Speaker 2: I don't feel you right now, but I need you. God,
Speaker 2: come to my rescue. You know who I am, You
Speaker 2: know how much I need. How in the world are
Speaker 2: you gonna get to the place the attitude, the mindset
Speaker 2: that God wants you to have and where he wants
Speaker 2: you to be if you don't start from where you
Speaker 2: really are. So it gives me permission. If David did it, teuch,
Speaker 2: somebody say, if David did it, If David did it,
Speaker 2: so can I and pour out my complaint in his presence?
Speaker 2: And he said, he said, I I cried allowed to
Speaker 2: the Lord.
Speaker 1: Allowed.
Speaker 2: The word has different meanings. If you spell it, you
Speaker 2: know you're allowed to complain.
Speaker 1: Allowed.
Speaker 2: And this is something that took me a long time
Speaker 2: to learn because I always tried to fight what was
Speaker 2: going on in my mind in my mind. The only
Speaker 2: problem with fighting what's going on in my mind in
Speaker 2: my mind is that is enemy held territory because I
Speaker 2: have strongholds in my mind. And when I go to
Speaker 2: pray and my heart is overwhelmed, my mind.
Speaker 1: Can't keep up with my spirit.
Speaker 2: Because my spirit knows what I need to pray, but
Speaker 2: my mind gets in the way.
Speaker 1: Who am I helping? So far? Who am I helping?
Speaker 1: So what I do? I wish I would have brought
Speaker 1: him out. I didn't remember to bring him out.
Speaker 2: I have some airport that I put in my ear
Speaker 2: so people will think I'm having a conversation on the
Speaker 2: phone in case they look in my car, or in
Speaker 2: case they see me going through well. I don't ever
Speaker 2: go to Target, but if I happen to go to
Speaker 2: Target once a year my annual trip to Hell, I
Speaker 2: would put in my AirPod.
Speaker 1: And I don't fight my mind in my mind.
Speaker 2: Because I can't win the level on the level that
Speaker 2: I'm fighting on. I have to get altitude. I have
Speaker 2: to fight from an elevated place. So I fight my
Speaker 2: mind with my mouth. You can pray any way you
Speaker 2: want to, but when you really get in a situation,
Speaker 2: you don't fight in your mind. You pray out loud.
Speaker 2: I want you for the next seven days. The next
Speaker 2: seven days, you can do whatever you want after that,
Speaker 2: but for the next seven days, tell somebody for the
Speaker 2: next seven days you're allowed to pray.
Speaker 1: Allowed. I want you to stop. I want you to stop.
Speaker 2: Closing your eyes and worrying and calling it prayer because
Speaker 2: you can think a thousand things at once? How many
Speaker 2: can how many aren't even paying attention to me?
Speaker 1: Right now? You got something in the.
Speaker 2: Oven, but you can only say one thing at a time.
Speaker 1: So when I open my mouth.
Speaker 2: I'm not just being emotional, I'm being strategic. In fact, Well,
Speaker 2: this is a shout right now to let God know.
Speaker 2: Come on rock Hill, shout somebody.
Speaker 3: In the back of Valentine, shout.
Speaker 1: In the overflow. Let's tell the place with praise. And
Speaker 1: see what I love about God is.
Speaker 2: I don't have to start with the script of the
Speaker 2: mightiest onliest Goddess. One is stuff, the sunniest and the stars.
Speaker 2: I can look at God and said God, I hate
Speaker 2: myself right now.
Speaker 1: Did you see how I just acted? And God will say, yeah,
Speaker 1: matter of fact, I did. And I see how you're
Speaker 1: gonna act tomorrow. And I decided to send my son
Speaker 1: to die for you, with.
Speaker 3: Complete foreknowledge of all of your false.
Speaker 1: If I make my bed in hell, you are there.
Speaker 2: If I say out dwell in the othermost parts of
Speaker 2: the sea.
Speaker 1: God is in the depressed place. God is in the darkness.
Speaker 1: God is in the cave. And David starts writing this
Speaker 1: song and.
Speaker 2: He has good acoustics, because you know you can sing
Speaker 2: good in the shower, because the acoustics make you think
Speaker 2: you can carry a tune. You ever did that you
Speaker 2: got in the shower, You like I should probably I
Speaker 2: should probably get an agent.
Speaker 1: I sound just like the recording. But the acoustics in
Speaker 1: the shower make you think.
Speaker 2: Okay, David has good acoustics because he's under attack.
Speaker 1: But he's in a cave.
Speaker 2: And some of the best expressions of your relationship with
Speaker 2: God will be born not when you are crowned in victory,
Speaker 2: but when you are hiding in despair. So David is
Speaker 2: a giant killer, and David has a future as a
Speaker 2: leader of an entire nation that God has called out
Speaker 2: his people. Have you ever had your calling in conflict
Speaker 2: with your circumstances? This is David's situation.
Speaker 1: In PS.
Speaker 2: I mentioned briefly, but I want to go back to
Speaker 2: it the historical record in First Samuel twenty two, because
Speaker 2: David is in a safe place, a cave, in a duel,
Speaker 2: the Bible says in verse one, David left Gath. Hey,
Speaker 2: you want to do something real cool this week, go
Speaker 2: and study where Goliath was from.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm go ahead and tell you now because I
Speaker 1: studied it for you. It's Gath.
Speaker 2: So he has to go hide in the place where
Speaker 2: he just defeated an enemy. He has to go hide
Speaker 2: for a little while in a place that he doesn't belong.
Speaker 2: The problem with Dave that going to get this when
Speaker 2: they see him. He's still got Goliath's sword that he
Speaker 2: took after he cut off his head and maybe a
Speaker 2: little bit of blood on it.
Speaker 1: And David is on the run from Saul.
Speaker 2: Who's throne he is going to occupy, and so he
Speaker 2: can't stay in the place he belongs because the king
Speaker 2: wants to kill him.
Speaker 1: But he can't stay with the enemies that he's fighting against.
Speaker 2: Have you ever felt like you didn't fit anywhere? Just
Speaker 2: kind of quite fit? Are there at least three weird
Speaker 2: people like me in here? Do you ever feel like
Speaker 2: you don't fit where you came from, you don't fit
Speaker 2: where you're going. Have you ever felt too churchy to
Speaker 2: be worldly, but a little too worldly to fit in
Speaker 2: some churches where you have to And so David I
Speaker 2: had something right there, and David he escapes. But watch this,
Speaker 2: This is the phrase that got my attention. Everybody say escape, escape,
Speaker 2: because everybody has a way that they escape. That's what
Speaker 2: guns n' roses was for me. That's what that's what
Speaker 2: Elijah's headphones are for him.
Speaker 1: It's a way for me to escape just for a
Speaker 1: little while.
Speaker 2: I can get out of my situation and get into
Speaker 2: something else. But the way that you escape, here's the principle,
Speaker 2: could lead to greater captivity. So it is it is
Speaker 2: so important where you go when you run, because sometimes
Speaker 2: what you run to will end up running you.
Speaker 1: The Bible says.
Speaker 2: That David escaped from the land of God and he
Speaker 2: was safe from the sphere of Saul, and he escaped
Speaker 2: to give me my verse the cave, which is a
Speaker 2: safe place, but he escaped to something that he was
Speaker 2: trapped in. Now we understand what David had to complain
Speaker 2: about in Someone forty two, because he's supposed to be a.
Speaker 1: King and he's stuck in a cave and he's safe,
Speaker 1: but he's stuck and he knows there is more to
Speaker 1: me than this, and he is shocked. Now watch this.
Speaker 2: David is not surprised by the enemies that surround him.
Speaker 1: He's surprised by the friends that didn't.
Speaker 2: David was not expecting that it would be easy to
Speaker 2: be a king. He was not expecting to ascend to
Speaker 2: the throne without any battles. He wasn't expecting cotton candy, lollipop,
Speaker 2: Santa Claus yahweh. He wasn't expecting to be able to
Speaker 2: take the moving sidewalk to the throne to rule the people.
Speaker 2: But he was expecting that the people God called him
Speaker 2: to serve would have his back. And he looks around
Speaker 2: in Psalm from the Cave of Adullam and says, I'm
Speaker 2: not surprised by who's surrounding me to kill me. I'm
Speaker 2: surprised that nobody is surrounding me that cares about me.
Speaker 3: Have you ever looked around and been surprised?
Speaker 1: Where are the people I helped? Where are the people
Speaker 1: I prayed for? Where are the people? This is what
Speaker 1: it's like to be a parent.
Speaker 2: I thought it must be lonely for David in the cave,
Speaker 2: to be aul alone in the cave.
Speaker 1: And then I kept reading and I discovered he wasn't alone.
Speaker 1: Can I show you I have a seat, I'll show you.
Speaker 1: I love this stuff, man, touch.
Speaker 3: Somebody, say get into it, get into it, get into it.
Speaker 2: Don't just settle for a little a little cassette single,
Speaker 2: a single. Yeah, don't just settle for a little, a
Speaker 2: little This is the Dane the larn me.
Speaker 1: Because you like to beat.
Speaker 2: The backstory is this David is in the deepest place
Speaker 2: of despair, not because he's surrounded by trouble, but because
Speaker 2: he can't find his support, and he's in a stronghold,
Speaker 2: looking for a support system, looking for somebody to be
Speaker 2: there for him. You mean I I killed this giant
Speaker 2: that was defying the whole nation. You mean you mean
Speaker 2: I helped you move, was trying to make it practical
Speaker 2: or something we can live with, because most of us
Speaker 2: aren't hiding from wicked kings.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't mean that we can't relate.
Speaker 3: Mm hm.
Speaker 2: David says, I looked around and nobody was there, But
Speaker 2: it wasn't true. Just read the whole rest of the verse.
Speaker 2: Verse one, same verse. He's in the cave of Adullum.
Speaker 1: That's where he was. He says, I looked to my
Speaker 1: right and nobody was there.
Speaker 2: That's what he wrote some forty two, and his brothers
Speaker 2: and father's household herd about it, and they went down
Speaker 2: to him there. So he was surrounded. But there is
Speaker 2: a difference between being surrounded and feeling supported. And God
Speaker 2: sends David some people in a cave, and maybe he
Speaker 2: wrote that before they came.
Speaker 1: And maybe he wrote it a they came. Here's one
Speaker 1: thing I know.
Speaker 2: Everybody in that cave needed something from David.
Speaker 1: Here's how I know.
Speaker 2: The Bible describes David's team in verse two. It says,
Speaker 2: not only did his brothers and father come, who, by.
Speaker 1: The way, didn't believe in him.
Speaker 2: His dad didn't even bring him in on draft day
Speaker 2: when Samuel came through town with a horn.
Speaker 1: Of oil looking for the next king.
Speaker 2: Now you want some help in the cave because Saul's
Speaker 2: gone crazy, and you think maybe I can defend you
Speaker 2: because I'm good with a.
Speaker 1: Sword in a slingshot.
Speaker 2: You feel like people only call on you in certain times,
Speaker 2: like you don't hear from them for two years, and
Speaker 2: when they call you, you kind of want to say,
Speaker 2: why don't you just cut the crap and tell me
Speaker 2: what you want? Because I know you didn't call me
Speaker 2: to check on me. I know there's no way in
Speaker 2: the world you just called me to see how.
Speaker 1: I was doing.
Speaker 3: Then let's just skip through the preliminaries.
Speaker 2: How you doing bro, how I'm doing is just tell
Speaker 2: me what you need, and I'll tell you whether I'm
Speaker 2: gonna do it or not. But let's just cut through
Speaker 2: all this so I can save the time that you
Speaker 2: would spend pretending like you care about me.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's just me. I would bless the Lord at
Speaker 1: all times.
Speaker 2: And and David is surrounded, but he does not feel supported.
Speaker 2: He's got a full email email inbox. Does anybody still
Speaker 2: email anymore? By the way, Okay, And it's not that
Speaker 2: he's not getting any text, it's just that they're all transactional.
Speaker 2: It's not that he doesn't know anybody, it's just that
Speaker 2: nobody really knows him. Nobody cares. He didn't say nobody came.
Speaker 2: He said nobody cares. I got a crowd around me,
Speaker 2: and I smile so good. They have no idea that
Speaker 2: I feel like it's all fake, so quiet it's getting
Speaker 2: That's when I'm preaching my bad when they're standing up
Speaker 2: and shouting and all that, I ain't saying nothing really important.
Speaker 1: When it gets like that here, you're that funeral vibe.
Speaker 1: After that, that's what I like. Who really cares?
Speaker 2: If I couldn't provide for them?
Speaker 1: Would they care? I think I wonder sometimes if I.
Speaker 2: Couldn't pick up the mic, if I couldn't do what
Speaker 2: I did, who would I be.
Speaker 1: And who would really love me? If I didn't have
Speaker 1: a big church.
Speaker 2: I'm just trying to tell you I'm not David, but
Speaker 2: I can.
Speaker 1: Relate, and I have a feeling.
Speaker 2: Every husband can relate, every wife can relate, every friend
Speaker 2: can relate.
Speaker 1: I know every parent can relate.
Speaker 2: To look around in wonderm does anybody really care about
Speaker 2: me as a person?
Speaker 1: When are they gonna ask me? How were you? And
Speaker 1: everybody around me needs something from me. Look who God
Speaker 1: sent to David in the cave. Thanks a lot, God.
Speaker 1: Look at verse two.
Speaker 2: All those who were in distress, or in debt or
Speaker 2: discontented gathered around him.
Speaker 1: Really, this is my team.
Speaker 2: Huh. Really, I don't know the sequence. Nobody does. But
Speaker 2: what's God messing with?
Speaker 1: David?
Speaker 2: Nobody surrounds me, And God said, all right, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: put four hundred. The Bible says there were four hundred
Speaker 2: of them. I'm gonna send four hundred rough the roughest
Speaker 2: thugs you've ever seen in your You're gonna have some
Speaker 2: company in the cave now, David Hey, make some room,
Speaker 2: get the cot red. I heard you, David, here comes
Speaker 2: some backup.
Speaker 1: But God one David didn't. No, can I preach? Can
Speaker 1: I preach? These men would be the same men who
Speaker 1: would bring him to the throne. These men.
Speaker 2: That God sent to David in the cave would be
Speaker 2: the same man who would chase down lions in pits
Speaker 2: on snowy days.
Speaker 1: And rip their mouths open. And if they wouldn't have
Speaker 1: been rough, they couldn't have been relentless. And if David
Speaker 1: hadn't been in the cave, they wouldn't have come. Damn.
Speaker 1: It was a setup, That's what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1: It was a setup.
Speaker 2: There are some things that can only come together in
Speaker 2: the cave when you get alone and you feel alone,
Speaker 2: and you say God, I needs you, And God says,
Speaker 2: now that you know that, I'm what's Indeed, I can
Speaker 2: give you what you don't even know they pray for
Speaker 2: if you'll get deferent and open your mouth and get real.
Speaker 2: Come on, is anybody ready to get real with God?
Speaker 2: I'm done pretending. I'm done playing do it by faith,
Speaker 2: touch by people say you got what you need, You
Speaker 2: got what you need, You got what you need.
Speaker 1: Come on, you see you got what you need. You
Speaker 1: got what you need.
Speaker 2: It might look like debt, it might look like disorientation,
Speaker 2: it might look like discontent. But those were David's mighty
Speaker 2: men in disguise. I'm telling you, a little boy, lunch
Speaker 2: isn't all you can eat buffet with God puts his
Speaker 2: hand on it.
Speaker 1: What you have is what's your need for where you are.
Speaker 1: You are not stuck. It is not over, so can't
Speaker 1: kill you. And you're not alone. Shout about it. Come on,
Speaker 1: shout about it. So David is not alone. Touch somebody,
Speaker 1: say you're not alone. You're not alone. Look them in
Speaker 1: the eyes, say you're not alone. You're not alone.
Speaker 2: The person on the other side of you that you've
Speaker 2: been ignoring every time I told you to turn to
Speaker 2: your neighbor, look at them and say you're not alone either.
Speaker 2: Don't leave him. You've been in a stronghold. David doesn't
Speaker 2: know what's next, and he says something real crazy. He
Speaker 2: says something real crazy because the men come to him,
Speaker 2: the broke relatives come to him. Everybody wants a piece
Speaker 2: of David now that he's got a contract, right, And
Speaker 2: he's like, I don't know I'm in this place right now.
Speaker 1: I'm in this cave. And he leaves the cave with
Speaker 1: these folk, and he's got to do something with his
Speaker 1: mom and dad.
Speaker 2: So he goes down to Moab, where they have good
Speaker 2: retirement communities assisted living.
Speaker 1: I don't know he went there.
Speaker 2: He had a tie there because his great great grandmother
Speaker 2: was a moabike.
Speaker 1: You can study this as much as you want.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of connections here, and which ones you
Speaker 2: see determines is determined by how you look. When he
Speaker 2: drops his parents off in Moab, I want to read
Speaker 2: you this. I didn't really get to keen on this
Speaker 2: last time, but I want to.
Speaker 1: Say it here. He tells the king of Moab. He's like,
Speaker 1: I need a place, a safe place for my family
Speaker 1: to stay.
Speaker 2: So will you look after mom and dad who weren't
Speaker 2: really looking out for me, who demean me. You know
Speaker 2: how it says David was a man after God's own heart.
Speaker 2: You know how Jesus is called the son of David.
Speaker 2: They had one thing in common. They did it for
Speaker 2: others who wouldn't do it for them. Wow.
Speaker 1: They were willing to die for the people who were
Speaker 1: willing to kill them.
Speaker 2: And so David makes arrangements for his parents to stay
Speaker 2: in Moab. Only problem with Moab is not really a
Speaker 2: bad place. I don't want you to conjure up images
Speaker 2: of Ninevu where they would impale their enemies.
Speaker 1: I don't want you to think Nero or.
Speaker 2: Anything like that was persecuting the New Testament Church, frying
Speaker 2: them in vats of oil.
Speaker 1: But Moab Moab was a place where they worshiped other gods.
Speaker 2: And so David goes down to a place that's not
Speaker 2: necessarily bad, but sometimes you go places to survive.
Speaker 1: That end up imprisoning you in the process.
Speaker 2: And he drops off his parents and he says verse three,
Speaker 2: verse three, can they stay while I or until I
Speaker 2: learn what God will do for me? David, you know
Speaker 2: that you're destined to be a king?
Speaker 1: Yes, I do, but right now.
Speaker 2: I'm in this cave of confusion, and what I know
Speaker 2: God has promised me does not take away the confusion
Speaker 2: of wondering how he will bring it to pass. So
Speaker 2: I need a safe place to stay while I figure
Speaker 2: out how is God going to do this? And he
Speaker 2: drops his parents off and he's got everything verse four
Speaker 2: under control. The king says, sure, and what else are
Speaker 2: you going to say to David, hit you with a
Speaker 2: rock or something.
Speaker 1: You don't help him.
Speaker 2: Out, and they stay with him as long as David
Speaker 2: was in Oh, there it is the stronghold. God sent
Speaker 2: me to preach to somebody today who's in the stronghold.
Speaker 2: The stronghold is not a bad thing. Please understand that
Speaker 2: when Second Corinthians ten four says we demolish strongholds, you
Speaker 2: stick around church a little while. You hear us say
Speaker 2: some churchy things, these little vocabulary words that we have,
Speaker 2: and we'll talk about pulling down strongholds.
Speaker 1: But before you pull them down, understand what they actually are.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I know you understand the military term that a stronghold
Speaker 1: is a fortified place.
Speaker 2: A stronghold is a place where opposing forces can't get
Speaker 2: to you. But a stronghold that protects you from one
Speaker 2: enemy might imprison you to another one. So the Prophet
Speaker 2: God says to David in one of the only two
Speaker 2: times that we see him in scripture, the Prophet God
Speaker 2: says something to David that I believe the spirit of
Speaker 2: the Lord might be saying to you today. Lake Norman
Speaker 2: University Online, Kansas, Nebraska. From sea to Shining Sea, I
Speaker 2: want to make an announcement teenagers, people who are not
Speaker 2: teenagers anymore, people who have lived several lifetimes since your
Speaker 2: teenage years. I want, I want to. I want to
Speaker 2: declare the word of the Lord to you, and the
Speaker 2: word of the Lord to you as this for Samuel
Speaker 2: twenty two five. Do not stay in the stronghold because
Speaker 2: it's a setup. Because if you stay in Moab too
Speaker 2: long now, state of mind, it may not be a
Speaker 2: physical location.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about your marriage.
Speaker 2: I'm not telling you to get a divorce and blame
Speaker 2: it on God because he said leave Moab.
Speaker 1: I know people take my message and say twist them, but.
Speaker 2: The stronghold is usually something that you ran too.
Speaker 1: To protect you. Let's see how real you're willing to
Speaker 1: be now.
Speaker 2: I want all the pessimists to raise your hand right now,
Speaker 2: all the pessimist, all the spouses a pessimists, grab the
Speaker 2: wrist of your partner and make them play along with
Speaker 2: high interactive sir men. I'm gonna tell you why you're
Speaker 2: a pessimist. It's a defense mechanism. It protects you from disappointment.
Speaker 2: It protects you, like the gin Blossoms used to say,
Speaker 2: if you don't expect too much from me, you might
Speaker 2: not be let down. So I got let down and
Speaker 2: I didn't like how that felt. So now I just
Speaker 2: expect people to suck, and when they do, I'm not surprised.
Speaker 2: Come on, how many pessimists in the house. And it's
Speaker 2: fine to be realistic. But what you don't know when
Speaker 2: you developed the pattern of pessimism neurologically in your brain
Speaker 2: and spiritually in your heart. When you hide in that stronghold,
Speaker 2: it protects you, but it traps you. It protects you,
Speaker 2: but it also ensnares you because you now create the
Speaker 2: reality that you projected through your expectation. So you are
Speaker 2: not surprised that life sucks. But life sucks because you
Speaker 2: were not prepared to be surprised by anything other than
Speaker 2: the fallen condition of sinful man. And so when God
Speaker 2: really wants to show you his goodness in the land
Speaker 2: of the living, you can't see.
Speaker 1: It because you're in the stronghold.
Speaker 2: So pessimism protects you from disappointment.
Speaker 1: But it imprisons you as it protects you.
Speaker 2: Every addiction is, at its root a form of self defense. Wow,
Speaker 2: because I'm taking something, or I'm seeing something, or I'm doing.
Speaker 1: Something or I'm saying something.
Speaker 2: Because you can be addicted to a whole lot of
Speaker 2: stuff more than pills. I got some friends that are
Speaker 2: addicted to problems. If it even looks it's like it's
Speaker 2: going to be a good day, they will spike the
Speaker 2: coffee just to screw things up so they can feel
Speaker 2: normal in a state of self sabotage. I'm preaching like
Speaker 2: I know you now. Only God could show me this
Speaker 2: about you. You are addicted to drama.
Speaker 1: It protects you.
Speaker 2: The drama protects you from having to be productive and steady,
Speaker 2: because if you create drama, you'll have something to blame.
Speaker 2: It's a way of escape. That's why a lot of
Speaker 2: us blame others. It's a stronghold. It's a stronghold. It's
Speaker 2: a way for me to not have to take responsibility
Speaker 2: because if I.
Speaker 1: Blame you, I don't have to deal with the shame
Speaker 1: of me. And now I'm imprisoned to bitterness.
Speaker 2: And David, if you stay in the cave, you won't
Speaker 2: be able to save the people of Kayla. David had
Speaker 2: a battle to.
Speaker 1: Fight in Judah that he didn't know about.
Speaker 2: He had an army that God was forming that he
Speaker 2: couldn't see for what they were because he was in
Speaker 2: the stronghold. And there are things that God has surrounded
Speaker 2: you with that you can't see in the stronghold. So
Speaker 2: the prophet says, you gotta.
Speaker 1: Go to Judah. You gotta go to Judah.
Speaker 2: If I had a fired up church, I would preach
Speaker 2: this saying, if this was code Orange Revival. Oh, if
Speaker 2: I was at Matthew's right now, if I was at
Speaker 2: Lake Norman, I would have you touch seven people and
Speaker 2: tell him get to Judah. Get to Judah as quick
Speaker 2: as you can. Get to Judah. Judah is the place
Speaker 2: that represents praise. In fact, the very word Judah means praise. Now,
Speaker 2: I see what David was doing in Somes is what
Speaker 2: it was saying in First Samuel twenty two. I'm leaving
Speaker 2: this stronghold. I'm stepping outside of myself, outside of my feelings,
Speaker 2: outside of my circumstance, and I'll step it in my
Speaker 2: future hits.
Speaker 3: Anybody going to Judah today, come on, get it, pray,
Speaker 3: get to Judah. Get to Judah.
Speaker 1: You won't see what God can do for you in
Speaker 1: this cave.
Speaker 3: You gotta go to Judah.
Speaker 2: You gotta get back to the place where you will
Speaker 2: be crowned as king. You gotta get back to the promise.
Speaker 2: See Thithan starts stand up and help me close this sermon.
Speaker 1: He starts some.
Speaker 2: Trapped in a cave, but he ends put verse seven up.
Speaker 2: He in someone for forty two coming out of prison.
Speaker 2: He starts some one forty two behind bars, but he
Speaker 2: ends someone forty two riding bars.
Speaker 1: He starts some one forty two in a cave that
Speaker 1: seems safe.
Speaker 2: He ends someone forty two knowing that God is my
Speaker 2: refuge and nothing can by any means harm me.
Speaker 4: Nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing, nothing, nothing, no one,
Speaker 4: nothing can stand against the promise of God. He started
Speaker 4: with complaint, but by the time he got.
Speaker 1: Done, he was filled with praise.
Speaker 3: I know you came the third turning, but why.
Speaker 1: Not lift your hands and praise out.
Speaker 3: I'm not stop where are starting?
Speaker 1: JP not stand where I start?
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us special thanks to those of
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Speaker 1: Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.