Pasto Jon Burgess
February 23, 2020 - W2008

“From Zeros to Heroes”

Life Lessons from a King: Study in the Life of David

Pastor Jon Burgess & Pastor Jesse Tagura

February 22 & 23, 2020

PASTOR JON: Aloha, New Hope Ohana!  Our Ignite (4^th-5^th grade) and Amplify (7^th-8th grade) groups are here to join us as we continue our series Life Lessons from a King: Study in the Life of David—a man after God’s own heart.  Our youth are here to remind us that it’s not an age thing but a heart thing. We all need a heart focused on God; and our own youth leader Jesse Tagura, like David, is here to share what God has put on his heart, and to see what God thought about David in… 

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

All of us are called to a purpose in life. If there’s still breath in our lungs, God is not done with us yet—and there’s a purpose for us to fulfill in our generation! Wouldn’t that be amazing to have it said of us, that “he or she did everything God asked them to do”?  We can do that by chasing after God’s own heart and keeping our focus on Him!  Pastor Jesse and I will be talking about this, as we look at King David in Psalm 142, pour out his heart in the most difficult and loneliest of places.

David, the shepherd boy, was a zero to his own family; but God always saw him as a hero.  A hero’s journey requires obedience—and obedience brings blessing.  

When David was age 16, the prophet Samuel poured oil over his head and anointed him to be king of Israel. David probably thought it would be a straight shot to the throne; but he did not become king until he was 30—and those 14 years were full of ups and downs. In Psalm 142, we see David hiding in the darkest cavern of Adullam; his best friend Jonathan (son of King Saul) had just warned him that if he came home, “My dad will kill you.”  So, David is on the run for his life and for 14 years he lives in a cave, with his back against the wall, with nowhere to look, but up. Regardless of how you may have defined yourself or have been defined by people, God is calling you for His purposes.  

Some of us might be in the exact place that David was, experiencing dead ends, detours, or delays—tests of faith. Even if we have a promise from God, sometimes, it’s still difficult to hold on to a promise when all we see are limitations, and we need our purpose restored. God wants to show us that when we rise above the darkest places, we will come to a quiet place in a cavern or cave and begin to focus on Him. He restores our hearts to a place where we have our breakdowns and ugly cries as David did. God wants us to have the freedom to do that—it starts in the cave or cavern.  Psalm 142 is described a Maschil (a prayer and instruction) from David.  It doesn’t start with “castle prayers” when we’re sitting on top of the world; it starts in a dark cave at the bottom feeling crushed by the world, that God brings us back into focus and shows us a plan for our lives! That's exactly where David was! 

1.  Caverns Call Us Back To A Focus on Christ 

Psalm 142:1-4 NIV says: “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. (God would rather you be honest with him because that means you're focusing on Him.  If you're pretending that it's not Christian to admit that you're angry, your focus will be on yourself! So, even an angry prayer turns your focus back to the one who can answer that prayer!) ³ When 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.”

Here’s the deal about focus. Whether we have an iPhone or using one of these amazing cameras that we have here at the church to telecast this service to all those watching online, the picture can get blurry.  When a camera focuses on too many things all at once, it actually goes out of focus, and soon we have difficulty seeing the whole picture at once.  For some of us this is our faith right now. We kind of see what God’s up to but it’s really hard to understand.  Often God will cut out all the other input so all we see is Him.  He takes us into a cave, a cavern, a place where the only thing we hear is His voice. 

If we want to see the heavenly places, sometimes, God says we must be willing to go to the low places.  If we want to be able to take the next step, we must, sometimes, stop walking and get on our knees, pause a minute, and surrender everything to God. 

A dead-end could be a divine beginning if we use adversity correctly and learn from it strategically.  We have at times felt abandoned, frustrated, and insulted because, sometimes, we have been promised one thing but given something else. David felt like that, too.  We have a tendency, at times, to stay busy or keep the television or computer on so that we don’t have to face whatever we are going through—but surrender is not waving the white flag to our circumstances and situations.  God wasn’t asking David to surrender to Saul, but to surrender to Him.  It is to that end that we invite you to join the pastors and staff on 40 days of surrender. Starting on Monday, February 24^th, we will embark on a spiritual journey that will lead us all the way to Easter weekend.  Text our church phone number (808) 842-4242 every day with the word “surrender” and get a link to a new journal entry from Pastor Wayne, me, or one of our other leaders or staff.  Each of us will have the opportunity to be reminded to just take that moment to pause and surrender anew whatever is going on in our life. 

PASTOR JESSE:  This church truly cares about the young people here. I have been thinking of the people who have loved me into being who I am: God, of course; my parents; my close friends; and the leadership in this community of faith, like Pastors Jon and Cyndi Burgess, who truly champion the lives of young people around them. When we mess up and fall, they say “Hey, it might be what you did, but it’s not who you are.” When I was eighteen years old, the leadership looked over at me and said: “Hey, who is that awkward looking kid over there?  Bring him over and let’s give him “way too much responsibility.” They did exactly that! I have been at Ignite for the last five years.  As a young person, I owe this church a lot, and one of the things I should owe them is money—I have broken so many things at this church. It’s beyond me.  One of the first things we’ve broken is a roll up gate in the warehouse; we shattered the gears that cost thousands to repair; we broke holes in the walls, repaired them; and broke more holes in the walls, and had to repair that, too.  I stand here, and I can tell you that I don’t deserve this opportunity one bit! The more I think about it, the more I realize that a majority of us here don’t really deserve the opportunities that we get.  

David was probably thinking the same thing in 1 Samuel chapter 16 when God promises David a crown, but he’s trapped in the cavern; he is anointed to be king, then is imprisoned in a cave. I’m sure David is worried and anxious, and his soul is weary, thinking, “God, can I just get a break?  Can I just catch a breather?”

The storm has subsided; but in a moment we’re hit with another wave.  I don’t know if you’ve ever felt that life never gives you a break, but I have.  When I look at the life of David, I can assure you that if you’re feeling trapped in a place of anxiety, that is exactly how David was feeling. 

2.  Caverns Compel Us to Trust God’s Calling

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

I love this.  To discover the real you, pay attention to how you react when suffering arrives.  Timothy Keller says, "Suffering will even make you a better person or it will make you worse, but it will never leave you the same." In the caverns of your life, are you looking to God, or are you looking for a way out?  For David, the caves began to test his affections; the authenticity of David’s faith is put to the test when he has an opportunity to take the easy way out—see what he did: 

1 Samuel 24:3-7 NIV says: “³He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. ⁴ The men said, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’ Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. ⁵ Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe.⁶ He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” ⁷ With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.”

The ironic thing about this passage is that right outside the cave was a sheep pen, and in ancient days, a sheep pen was used for sheep to gather at the end of the day to protect them from wolves.  The Lord is asking, “Can you trust me to be your shepherd?”             

3. Caverns Are A Catalyst to Changing Our Culture

Psalm 142:7 NIV says: “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.” 

When pressure is applied, do we look to God, or are we looking within ourselves.  Heads start to turn when we’re suffering and people look at us; they are absolutely confused and say, “You are in the absolute worst predicament right now, and, in spite of that, you look to God and say, “He is enough for me.” 

I love the idea of God not only stepping into our cave; but, we, as God fearing people, stepping into the caves of other people and saying: “Hey, you’re not alone.”  I love the idea of David taking care of everyone around him—400 men with him in that cave. God was not only transforming the heart of David, but also the hearts of the individuals in the cave with him.  You see, David’s honor and conviction not only transformed his relationship with God; it transformed the hearts of everyone around him.

1 Samuel 22:2 NIV says: “All those who were in distress or in debt or disconcerted gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him.”

I love coming to church because, sometimes, we can put on a lot of smiles and we forget about how many broken people are going through the same hurts that we’re going through. But when we realize that, we can be an encouragement to them just as David was to his men. Maybe you’re in here and feeling worn and your soul is weary, thinking to yourself, I’m at a dead end and there’s no way out. Just surrender it all to The Lord, and sit in this silence, and be reminded that silence to God is not absence.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How are you helping others realize that God is enough?
2. How will you be obedient to God?
3. What are ways you will honor God?
4. What examples of David will you follow?
5. How will you make someone smile today?