Pastor Jon Burgess
July 14, 2019 - W1928

Faith: Set Your Course

Faith For The Journey

Pastor Jon Burgess

July 13 & 14, 2019

[Video – Pastor Jon Burgess from a Cave]

Aloha, New Hope! We are continuing the Faith For The Journey series and, today, I’m bringing a message from a cave in Kahuku [Oahu], as this seems an appropriate place to Set Your Course to follow God by faith—whenever we run into seeming dead ends, detours, or delays! At some point in life, we will find ourselves in a cave something like this; and, I believe, David is the best one to teach us how to respond in situations when all our options seem to be gone! 

Acts 13:22 NIV: “After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’”

Acts 13:36 NIV: “…David had served God’s purpose in his own generation…” 

When God chose and anointed David to be the future king of Israel, he was age 16, a shepherd the youngest of all his brothers; but it was 14 years later (at age 30) that he actually became king of Israel! David had no idea how many dead ends, detours, and delays there’d be before the fulfillment of what had been spoken to him by faith!

The same is true for us. Before you and I will ever see the provision for the promise that God has given us, there will be many problems—some of you are facing them now; some are ready to give up because you don’t see a way out!  

King Saul was jealous of David and tried to kill him many times. Once when David was running from Saul, he was surrounded and saw no way out! So he ran and hid in a nearby cave and cried out to God his cave prayer! A cave prayer is raw, unadulterated, unfinished, unrefined, heart-bleeding-out-before-God prayer! At such times, God will take us to…

1. Dead Ends: Where Isolation Becomes Inspiration Through Prayer

Psalm 142:1-4 NIV (A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.) ^“1 I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. ² I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble. ³When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way. In the path where I walk people have hidden a snare for me. ⁴ Look and see, there is no one at my right hand; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life.” 

Maskil means instruction. David is about to give us instructions on how we must first face our lowest place before we see the heavenly place; and know that we're in the loneliest place before we can see the Savior's face!  This is David in the Cave of Adullam! 

It’s interesting that the cave in which David was hiding is only 18 miles from Bethlehem—just 18 miles from home, family, and security! Yet, he knew that if he tried to go home, King Saul would find him.  He was so close; yet so far away!  

David had just said goodbye to his best friend, Jonathan—whose father King Saul was about to kill him! David was worried about his enemies and his surroundings, as he had no place to turn to… 

Psalm 142:5-6 NIV:  “⁵ I cry to you, Lord; I say, ‘You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. ⁶Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.’”

David must have been feeling completely and utterly alone!  But when he was anointed to be king of Israel, he must have thought it would be a straight path to the throne—but now he’s at a dead end!  Yet, out of David's cave prayers, God was preparing the shepherd boy to become king! David thought he was hiding out, but God was actually hiding him in! In this place of isolation, God was about to give him inspiration!

What’s interesting is that the Cave of Adullam, where David was hiding, is just 2 miles west of the Valley of Elah, where David faced Goliath and won his greatest victory! God had to bring David backwards before he could go forward. He is doing the same with us.

David had to be brought to this cave to be inspired and reminded of the young boy who had marched onto the field—while others were afraid and hid! Young David faced down the giant who had mocked him and his God! In a place of isolation when there is no one to turn to but God, He will turn your dead end into a divine beginning!  What God starts, He brings to pass!

[End Video]

That was a pretty cool cave in Kahuku! While I was there, God stirred my heart with this message for you…

2. Detours: Where Desperation Becomes Determination Through Prayer

David was in a place of desperation in the cave, and through his cave prayer he was determined to believe that God’s promise to him would come to pass—that one day, he would be the king of Israel! 

David would be tested in this detour: Saul would be right where David could take matters in his own hands, but he had learned a lesson of the detour and said, “I will not touch God’s anointed.  If God wants me to be king, He will promote me and bring it to pass in His timing—not mine!”

God can take the very things that we would rather avoid and, actually, use them to propel us back to our why, why we're here in the first place!

The definition of detour is going to a place through an indirect and longer way than the usual, in order to avoid a particular problem, or to do something special. So, if you’re in the middle of a divine detour right now, God is doing one of two things:  Either He is preparing you for something special, or He’s helping you avoid a problem!

I believe that in this detour God was working in David’s heart to pave the way for the fulfillment of the Son of David [Jesus], to one day come and remove all our sins.  The place of David’s greatest desperation is just down the road to a place of his greatest victory for all mankind!

[Showing news clip of a semi-trailer stuck in sand!] The truck driver had typed in the address of where he needed to go, and was following his GPS.  But he noticed that he was heading straight towards sand and thought, “Well, I can trust my GPS.”  So he kept going and got stuck smack dab in the middle of a beach! He couldn’t get out until, Carl, the tow truck driver, came, and thousands of dollars later, he was able to get back and be on his way! Every time someone got stuck in sand, they would call Carl, who always says, “They never pay attention to the signs!” God uses detours to slow us down, so we would notice something we didn’t notice before! 

James 1:2-4 NLT: “² Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. ³ For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. ⁴ So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

Could it be that God is using your frustrating detour right now to prepare you for a great victory?  

Exodus 13:17-18 NIV:  ^“17 When Pharaoh let the people go,God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, ‘If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.’ ¹⁸ So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.”

God knew the Israelites were not ready for battle! What should have only taken a couple of weeks took 40 years—because of their disobedience! Can you trust God that your divine detour will produce such a determination as to prepare you for whatever He has for you?

Cyndi and I were here 17 years ago and felt that God was calling us to plant a church. We wanted to plant it on Oahu, but felt that God was asking us to go in the opposite direction—to Seattle! Why would we want to go there?  Then Pastor Wayne said, “Hey, before you go, I want to make sure you have some prep time, so as Senior Pastor, I’m sending you as interim pastor to Kauai.”

Before Pastor Matt Higa came to Kauai, we pastored in Kapaa. We loved Kauai and said, “God, this is awesome.  This place is great.  The church is doing great.  We love the people.  God, how about here?”  We wanted to stay. But God kept saying, “No, no, no! This is not where you are staying.  You’re going to Seattle.” I said, “Really, God?  Why would you give us such a heart for these islands and the people and tell us to go where the sun never shines?”  

So we obeyed because we should!  God always wins the argument anyway, so we went for 10 years and saw God’s faithfulness in planting two churches in Seattle!

Ten years later, God opened a door for us to return to the Big Island and we started pastoring New Hope Legacy in Kona.  As a child, I was saved and water baptized in Kona, and God brought us back to the islands! We saw the church growing and people getting saved almost every single week. So we thought Kona is where we’ll be. This is amazing! 

One year into that, God brought us here [New Hope Oahu] as your campus pastor.  As I look back on that journey, I know that if I tried to make Oahu happen in my time, there is no way I would have been ready for what God wanted to do through this church. Look at the detours: From Oahu to Kauai to Seattle to Big Island and back to Oahu!  

God sees the beginning from the end:  David at the Cave of Adullam; Moses and the people of Israel; and Cyndi, me, and our family’s journey. God’s leadings may seem roundabout with many confusing detours, but it’s about preparing and building in us a determination that we would follow God’s timing, not our own! God asked, “Why don’t you share this with my people?”

3. Where Discontent Becomes Discovery Through Prayer

Discontent is a place of frustration; but through prayer it becomes a place of discovery! 

Psalm 142:7 NIV:  “Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.”

If David had cut short his detour, he would have missed out on the army that God brought to him.  If we try to cut short the plans and timing of God and skip the waiting, we would miss out on the mighty thing that God is about to do!

James 1:2-4 NLT:  “² Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. ³ For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. ⁴ So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” 

The reason we don’t like to wait is because we want God to be small enough for us to control; but if God is small enough to be understood, He wouldn’t be big enough to be worshipped! When we face dead ends, detours, and delays, will we worry, or will we worship?

STUDY QUESTIONS:

1.     What are some of your detours, dead ends or delays?
2.     Have you noticed the difference when you worried and when you worshipped? Explain.
3.     When have you felt like David in the Cave of Adullam?
4.     Describe a time when you saw the fruit(s) of waiting on God’s timing.