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[0:00] Amen. Well, I want you to turn your Bible to 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 22, 1 Samuel chapter 22.

[0:13] Look at the Word together. Every time we gather together, as we said last week, the very first time, there is a focal point here. That focal point is God's Word and the presence of His Holy Spirit through worship and His Word.

[0:34] So as we gather for the Word, we're going to read chapter 22, verse 1. We'll go ahead and read through verse 5.

[0:44] So if you find a place to get a stage, we will hear what God has said to us. The first thing that I want you to do is the beginning of the verse.

[1:02] David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Abilene. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard, they went down there to him.

[1:19] And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him.

[1:30] He became captain over them. And there were with him about 400 people. David went from there to Mizpah of Moab.

[1:42] And he said to the king of Moab, Please let my father and my mother stay with you until I know what God will do for me. And he left them with the king of Moab.

[1:54] And they stayed with him all the time. All the time that David was in the stronghold. Then the prophet Gad said to David, Do not remain in the stronghold.

[2:08] Depart and go to the land of Judah. So David departed and went into the forest of Herod. Father, may you bless the reading of your words.

[2:20] May you speak to us. May you pray for us. Draw us close. We find ourselves in a cave. Dark places. Lord, we pray that we would know that there is a sovereign God who is watching over us.

[2:36] He has a plan. And as we wait to see what God will do for us, pray that you would just help us to rest in Him. We love Him.

[2:46] We praise you. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. We've had a lot of challenges.

[3:05] Even in this last week, we got some good news, actually, from one of those challenges. And that was those of you that have been praying for Anseli. You saw them. Those of you that are on Facebook probably saw the post that Anseli's tumor that was removed.

[3:20] Anseli's tumor is not cancers. And that was... Well, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And I think there's a plan trying to get in out there.

[3:36] So I might help him out. One of those things we were just praying for the Lord for, man. Some of these things were surfacing several months ago while we were in the middle of other crisis moments.

[3:50] We got wind that this was a possibility. We were struggling with some of those things. And we saw that was surfacing on top of so many other things.

[4:00] It was like, great. Hey. You know, what are we going to... How much can we handle on this stuff? You know, you just wonder what your limits are in those things. But God knows what the limits are.

[4:12] He knows. God's actually sovereign over all of those crisis points of our life. Can I get an amen from y'all? Amen. Everybody's kind of hurt.

[4:25] We don't know how to act yet. Okay? So feel some freedom. Okay? Everybody just put your hands in the air. Like you just don't care. Everybody good? All right.

[4:35] We're praising the Lord because God's sovereign. Even as we put our flyer out, we were trying to come up with a name early. You know, we came up with a long name.

[4:47] You know, because we were trying to think of different names. And it was like Christ's first sovereign fellowship in Farblesville. It's too long for paper. But it was the ideas that were on the heart of everybody.

[4:59] It's just, man, Christ is first. And Christ is sovereign. He actually is over all the affairs of our life. And there's nothing in our life that's going on that has not passed before His throne.

[5:14] He is sovereign. What we're saying in that, even as we're saying that, He reigns. He has authority over the affairs of our life. He has active authority over the affairs of our life.

[5:26] We praise Him for it. And it's a sign of maturity for us. If in those moments of crisis and difficulty that we can actually look to the Lord like David while he's in the cave and say, I'm waiting to see what God is going to do for me.

[5:43] I'm anticipating that in this dark moment of my life, in this trial of crisis time, that there is a sovereign God who reigns over me.

[5:57] I mean, don't you want to know that somebody's in control of this? I mean, you look around in the world and the chaos that's going on in our government and our country and our churches and everywhere else.

[6:07] You just wonder, is there any place that's a haven from this? You would hope that the church of the living God would be that kind of haven. Because God is sovereign. We are the people that should recognize His sovereignty over the affairs of our life.

[6:24] To have the maturity like people in the past, like Sarah Edwards, Jonathan Edwards' wife. Jonathan Edwards, some of you may know as that great preacher of sinners in the hands of an angry God.

[6:36] The preacher of the great awakening in America where revival is spreading all across America, changing our nation. And when he died, his wife wrote a letter to his daughter.

[6:50] She didn't find out for, I think it was like a couple of months later because he was away. She finds out that he died, but she writes a letter to her daughter who finds out months later that the father died.

[7:01] I mean, just think of the time period in 1700s, or the late 1700s. She writes a letter to her daughter and she said, My very dear child, what shall I say?

[7:14] A holy and good God has covered us in a dark cloud. Oh, that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands on our mouth, for the Lord is dead.

[7:26] And the maturity to recognize that even in those hard crisis moments, that God is still sovereign over the affairs of our life.

[7:38] And that maturity is the same kind of maturity that you see in Job after his children are taken away. You know, in the storm, the thing collapses and kills his children. And he says, It was the Lord who has given and the Lord takes away.

[7:54] Blessed be the name of the Lord. Do we have that kind of maturity? If there are one wonder at times why things happen the way they do.

[8:05] I'm not just talking about the self-imposed problems of our life. You know, when we suffer the consequences of our dumb decisions. Anybody make dumb decisions? Okay, some of you didn't raise your hand.

[8:18] I'm concerned for you. But you're in the middle of a dumb decision right now. But we all think it's just, unfortunately, part of our fallen life.

[8:31] God's in control. He can even turn some of those things around where Satan meant something for evil. God can use it for our visit. God can take up some stone. гл 거ch. God. That way that it doesn't.

[8:41] 、 for our first child. Especially in these kinds of situations where suffering is out of your control, is something imposed on you. Something like, you know, somebody wants to kill you, and you're fleeing for your life.

[8:55] And it's not something that you did without being righteous. That you were being good and doing the right things. and yet you're suffering in that and you're being persecuted in that and in those moments this isn't a self-imposed suffering it's something out of your control in those moments especially we need to recognize that there is a sovereign God who's in control of our circumstances of the crisis of our life He's leading us down the path so in our passage this morning God gives us this example in David because Saul was pretty far from God at this point he started off really well it seemed called by God commissioned by God as king seemed to be ruling in the few decisions there at the very beginning seemed to be doing okay and then very quickly he falls off the edge and then he is just in a free fall as he departs from obeying the word of the Lord and this is the contrast that we're going to see between him and David the rest of the you know the rest of 1 Samuel until Saul dies and the contrast is one of them had a heart for God and obeyed his word his heart was inclined to obey the word of the Lord and one did not he's actively trying to murder David jealous that happens when you're far from God there's sin that emerges all in your heart it was already there and God was at work but he departed from obeying the word of the Lord and now all that stuff is just coming out and in fact the scripture says that God allowed an evil spirit put an evil spirit on Saul in other words

[10:44] God was doing something in this circumstance not against Saul's will Saul was willingly disobeying the word already but God was going to do something in spite of Saul David reminds us that the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord and in some of our darkest moments God is sovereign he's sovereign even in a cave and when you find yourself in these dark places and you're far from God and you're away from God and it seems like there's no support no help we rest in this as we get this church organized I think it's just a good reminder of the kind of people that we are called to be together God's got a calling on our life as I look at the passage I think there's three lessons about God's sovereignty over our life number one

[11:45] God is sovereign over the crisis in fact God may use crisis to drive you to places that you never thought you would go in a crisis right now you're dealing with something a job loss or changing churches or something like that something huge in your life this is no small thing David's on the run you see the story unfold through chapter 20 as he's running from Saul Saul's tried to kill him David has stopped at Nob he gets some groceries he picks up a concealed carry weapon it's difficult to conceal because it's Goliath's sword it's over on the large side not necessarily a concealed carry but he's picked up you know bread and a sword and now he moves on and he stops at Gath and maybe in hopes of finding some support but very quickly realizes that the king there is not going to support him he's got no help and so in order to save his own neck he if you remember the story he starts acting crazy and as the story is described he drools on his beard and acts crazy until the king says do we not have enough crazies in the kingdom that you've got to bring another one to me

[13:14] I mean sometimes you just feel that way don't you there's not enough crazies in the world that you've got to bring them to me and so he's on the run and and he's got nowhere to go and so as he's fleeing for his life the scripture here says he escaped to the cave he's fleeing from the danger of Saul and this is something that that God had stirred up to accomplish his will the crisis was actually originated in the heart of God to drive David to places where he would not have gone on his own I mean you've got to think about Saul I mean beginning you know as a as a decent leader it seemed like but man one thing he did not have was skill with a javelin if you remember the story he missed

[14:19] David like three times throwing the javelin he's in the same room with David and missed him okay so terrible aim it happened with Jonathan he threw the javelin at Jonathan Mrs. Jonathan so don't trust the guy with the javelin okay that's lesson number one he should have watched some YouTube videos or something they work on his form or follow through whatever it takes Saul's man on the other hand maybe more skilled so he sends his men to kill David and we don't know if their eyesight was poor or if Michael the daughter of Saul is really skilled at making mannequins that look like real people and they carry the bed with the dummy in it basically to King Saul thinking that it's David so that they can kill him and it turns out that they were the dummies and David's free and this danger for David is real even though

[15:28] Saul may be a little unskilled with a javelin he has the authority to kill David and he's trying God gave him the evil spirit and he's ravening he was going to murder David and so scripture says here and so he escaped to the cave of the doom somewhere between Gath and and so note here in verse 5 it refers to the cave as a stronghold in other words this is a place where David is going to return and even after he sends his parents away to try to save them and keep them safe this is going to be a place of a stronghold where he's going to return to and it's going to be a place of safety it's going to be a place of defense where he's going to try to hide and that he's going to try to be safe and he's going to try to defend himself in this cave what did God do here

[16:37] I mean you look at the story as it unfolds and it's and God is at work God put the spirit on Saul God's allowing in Christ and we have to conclude that David is allowed to flee in this Christ because it's part of God's plan God is getting him to a place where he wants him to be I mean you might be here and say I'm one of those people that I never thought I'd find myself in church on Sunday morning and I was living that way as a lost person somebody that didn't know the Lord I was like the last place I want to be is in church on Sunday morning I was asleep on Sunday morning usually recovering from something on Sunday morning usually I never thought of myself as somebody who's going to be in church I never saw myself as part of the body of Christ I wasn't a believer I never turned from my sins I didn't come to Christ and surrender

[17:37] I wasn't born again and because of that I had no desire for those things and all of a sudden crisis in my life started driving me to a place where I wanted to talk to somebody about a relationship with Jesus the crisis in my life was bringing me to a place where I never thought I would go never thought I'd come to church never thought I'd do a lot of things never thought I'd be a caster of all things they say necessity is the mother of all inventions but it's more than just necessity it seems that sometimes God is limiting our options so that we evaluate things in a different light he's limiting our options by crisis so that we look at things and do things that we never would have done otherwise because sometimes our options just seem so wide open that God allows a crisis to come in so that we can narrow the focus and go wait a second maybe something that I never considered or a place that I never thought I'd go is really the option I need to go and what's happening is

[18:45] God is using the crisis in my life because he's sovereign over every issue of my life who brought you to the cave God brought you to the cave who's the tester God is the tester he's not the tempter James 1 count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be complete lacking nothing God is at work in those trials God is at work in the crisis God is sovereign over the crisis of your life we know that even from Isaiah Isaiah 55 verse 8 said for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways declares the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways my thoughts are higher than your thoughts we do not understand what

[19:52] God is doing but God is sovereign and so when we're faced with trials and when we're faced with crisis like David we need to have the maturity to recognize that there is a sovereign God over the affairs of our lives when cancer comes when difficulty comes when things are imposed on you we must recognize there is a sovereign God over the affairs of our life aren't you glad and David knows this and we don't just know this from this passage where he said I'm waiting to see what the Lord is going to do we also have the benefit of him writing a song about it in Psalm 57 where it says it's a victim of David as he fled from Saul in the cave so now we get added insight that there's more to this that he unpacks a little for us where he says oh be merciful to me God oh God be merciful in you my soul takes refuge in the shadow of your wings hold that thought my font was too big it's coming off the page sorry be merciful to me oh God be merciful for in you my soul takes refuge in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge till the storms of destruction pass by I cry out to

[21:30] God who fulfills his purpose for me what is David recognizing in the cave in the cave when he's fleeing for his life when things are most dark most difficult for him he's protecting his family from danger he's in here by himself without help at a time when it may be one of the most difficult challenges of his life he recognizes that there's a sovereign God over the crisis of his life every crisis of my life God is using to leave me to places I may never have thought I'd go some of you are here this morning for this very reason because God's got a plan for you ask yourself how did I get here God had a plan he's got a purpose he brought you here you're not here by accident things don't happen by accident every crisis in my life he went on in Psalm 57 to say my heart is steadfast oh God my heart is steadfast

[22:39] I will sing and make melody awake my glory awake oh harp and lyre I will awake the dawn I will give thanks to you oh Lord among the people I will sing praises to you among the nations for your steadfast love is great to the heavens your faithfulness to the clouds you are sovereign over every circumstance of my life I can demand it of my soul when within me I am just so anxious and filled with anxiety about circumstances I can demand it of my soul bow before the sovereign he's in control of your circumstances stop letting your mind run wild stop letting depression overwhelm you there is a sovereign God over your circumstances he's in control aren't you glad aren't you grateful he's not only sovereign over the crisis he's also sovereign over the company it's going to be around you people that are going to identify with you

[23:51] God may use crisis to draw people to you that you never anticipated draw people together you never thought we'd go together look around right I mean we got all kinds of people here this morning all kinds of people and we come from different backgrounds so much I mean on a normal basis out in the world do we all go together you're like we don't no we don't this is a miracle every time we look at the body of Christ together it's a miracle a few verses before David was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath and he thinks at this point there's nobody out there to help him and he sends his family for help but before that you notice in this verse it says and his family came to him his brothers who rejected him his older brother particularly if you remember the story the older brother when David comes to the battlefield and Boliath is out there and the older brother comes out like what are you doing here out of jealousy he speaks to his brother and acts like he knows his brother's heart and David is there doing what the believer should be doing is trusting in God in the face of overwhelming circumstances and he's looking at all of this enemy surrounding

[25:22] God's people he's like no wait a second God's sovereign over the giant over all this stuff everything that I can see God is sovereign over these things his brother basically rejects I know your heart which is here for attention can't you take care of the sheep like the bull now his family hearing that King Saul is going to kill David recognizes that they're in danger too and now in this moment crisis has arisen in their life and God is driving them to a place that they never thought they would go and he's drawing them together as people that they may have never thought they'd be together in such a way it's not just his family as you noticed in the text and his brothers and all his father's house heard it they went down there to him verse 2 and everyone verse 2 and everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was bitter in soul gathered to David all these unlikely people being drawn to David together as they watched

[26:40] David in his suffering David is a righteous man he's a hero and he's suffering and in his suffering now all of a sudden all kinds of people are able to identify with David sound familiar because he's a type of Christ and as a type of Christ he's painting the picture of the work that Christ does when Christ draws people together unlikely people that would never go together and draws them together to serve together unlikely people like people who are as he said here in distress people that Hebrew were describing a special degree of difficulty I mean we don't know what's going on in their lives but something terrible is going on in their lives so much so that they're fleeing and hiding in a cave with David bad things are happening in their life in distress meaning maybe they were overtaken by the enemy everything that they had was ruined now they're fleeing for their lives they are in distress and so people that are fleeing for their life maybe people that Saul had gotten angry with he's known to lose his temper a little bit and try to kill you and so it could have been some of them that were fleeing for their life in distress everyone who was in debt at this time obviously you could borrow money there's

[28:09] Hebrew rules about borrowing money and paying it back but they were in debt obviously in ways that they could not pay back and so because they're not able to pay their debt they're fleeing for their lives they're fleeing because they might be thrown into slavery of some kind because of these debts and so they had a debt that they did owe we had a debt that we owed Christ paid for our debt we were in distress you ever been bitter in soul yeah and there were those bitter in soul meaning they were in a deep state of grief people that are just wandering because they're grieving because maybe they lost people in the battles that took place and there's a lot of orphans and there's a lot of wives that have lost their husband or husbands that have lost their families and people that are grieving maybe it's people that have just lost a loved one and they've just lost all hope and life and they're just out wandering but all of a sudden they see David and they found a place where they can identify with somebody in their suffering and David who was a hero to everyone is now somebody that I can gravitate to and this is

[29:28] Christ for us this is the picture of Christ that's become that Jesus when he's lifted up he said I'll draw all men to myself that's the heart of who we are as believers in Christ Jesus David was like Christ in Luke 4a the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has appointed me to proclaim good news to the poor and he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives recovering sight to the blind and to set at liberty those who are oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor this is Christ it's not just about David's example for us David is pointing to the example of Christ for us Matthew 11 28 come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest take my yoke upon you learn from me for I am gentle and lowly of heart you'll find rest for your souls my yoke is easy and my burden is light come to me that's Christ

[30:29] I find myself in distress and in debt and in grief and I realize there's a sovereign God who is over the affairs of my life over the crisis of my life and he's going to draw me to himself and to his people amen Jesus gives the parable in Luke 15 and the lost sheep the tax collectors the sinners were all drawing near to hear him and the Pharisees cried and grumbling saying this man received sinners and eats with them and then he tells the parish it's all kinds of people he's drawing to himself and I think of Carly you know just going through cancer is the difficulty and all that losing her hair she's not here today I'm going to talk about her we're not in a moment she's not going to hear it but just going through that is a difficult thing that was for her you ladies know I mean to lose her hair a big deal that was a big deal she shaved it before it started falling out because she wanted some sense of control over that but we knew what was coming and she admitted a video

[31:45] I forgot about that video cutting that hair off but just recently she posted a video of things that I can't remember how she talked about things I didn't expect while I was going through cancer things you should expect that they won't tell you about again and you know I've done some posts and sometimes I get a few likes and I'm like oh man that's awesome man I've got some likes on my clothes five somebody out there else and she did that post on the video and I don't know the final count that she had but over the first few days she had 350,000 people watched that video it may be like half a million at this point I don't know I'm going to give you a word but there's a whole lot of people that I didn't know that that's suffering

[32:49] I don't think your suffering has purpose you don't think it has significance maybe for somebody else that God is going to use the actual suffering that he led you to to allow himself to be glorified as the sovereign king of your life and he's going to use that not just for your sake but to draw people to himself as the suffering of our savior Christ calls us together as a body of believers for all kinds of suffering all kinds of situations so that collectively all of our suffering will point to him and exalt Christ in all of our suffering 1st Corinthians 6 Paul said it or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived there is a real deception for you to think that the sexually immoral or idolaters or adulterers or homosexuals or thieves or the greedy or drunkards or revelers or swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God but Paul says such for some of you you and he drew you out of that and rescued you from that and transformed you and in a moment he changed your life that was you all of you weren't in those categories but many of you were in those categories but you were washed you were sanctified you were justified in the name of the Lord

[34:25] Jesus Christ by the spirit of our God God did this he drew you out of your sin and out of your difficulty and out of your sorrow and brought you to the cross and he goes on to say in 1 Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 12 how you who were called out of all these things but as it is he said God arranged the members in the body each one of them as he chose you who were called out of all the backgrounds all of the things all of the suffering all of the sin and everything that you've been called out of called together to Christ to unite him as a body of believers so that collectively we can proclaim Christ through our suffering and through our redemption this is a good place just to interject you know as we think about being a church what does it mean talk last week about significance of places that we need as a church kind of definition of the church church isn't made a church because it has a building it isn't made a church because it meets in a house it isn't a church because it meets in its own building or a rented place it's a group of believers who have been transformed by

[35:54] Jesus covenanted together in the work of the gospel so that we together experience the ordinances together can proclaim Jesus and this this idea of being born again believers as the body of Christ we title it regenerate church membership and we are made up a body of believers of the regenerate what is regenerate anybody opposite of degenerate that's that's that's that's a good place to start degenerate regenerate regenerate we're we're we're Genesis life to to be born again we're not degenerate we're regenerate we're born again transformed by Jesus that's what makes up the church there are churches that practice open membership where whoever's there that's the church there are many non-denominational churches that have no formal membership meaning whoever comes, that's the church.

[37:03] Well, I understand the sentiment to that because you're wanting to include people, but the reality is there is an identifiable body. And there are identifiable people in that local body that sometimes when church discipline is practiced, some are out of the body.

[37:22] And it's recognized that there's somebody in the body that have the body. It's recognized that there's some leadership in who the flock is that he's going to take care of, or who the elders are going to take care of. There are definitions that we're working on for the Scripture to say it's a little more than that. It's not so loose.

[37:41] Regenerate means to be spiritually reborn. And in the context of the body of Christ, it means that the people that make up the body of Christ are those who have been reborn.

[37:53] We're made a profession of faith, meaning that we've declared that we believe in Jesus, but we're also walking the walk together. John 3, 3, Jesus said, True be, true be, I say to you, unless one is born again and cannot see the kingdom.

[38:08] So we talked about the church universal last week. The church of all believers of all time and of all places. And yes, yes, we all are part of the church, but the local expression of that is the local body of believers, the local church visible.

[38:23] Not invisible, that only God sees and God knows, but the church visible, that's meeting together, that's encouraging each other, that's covenanted together as believers to challenge each other, lift each other up when we fall.

[38:39] You can't even see the kingdom unless you're born again. The Baptists, we have a good heritage of regenerate church membership, even in the 1689 Baptist Convention, the section that describes the church, it says we're saints by calling, visibly manifesting and evidencing in and by our profession and walking, our obedience unto that call of Christ.

[39:07] That's who we are as believers. People that have been called out of sin and out of sorrow and out of suffering and called together so that now, in the power of Jesus' name, redeemed people can worship together and are actually committed to each other.

[39:23] that's the church. As the Baptist Faith and Message says, a local New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous body, an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers.

[39:38] And so, in membership, we don't identify babies as members of the body. They come, they fellowship with us, children that have not accepted Christ as their Savior Lord, are not members of the local New Testament church.

[39:55] Now, in some churches, they practice that from the time of birth. They do christening, they do infant baptism, they're baptized into the church. But as Baptists, we have practiced the regenerate membership, meaning that we're following the pattern of Acts where it says that as many as heard the gospel, they believed and we're baptized and we're added to the church.

[40:21] And this pattern is what we're trying to replicate in the local body of believers. It's like when a pastor named Vance Havner, he said, there was somebody that came to him one time and he said, hey, preacher, I want to join the choir.

[40:39] He'd never seen this guy before. He's like, no, are you a member of our church? He said, oh no, I'm a part of the church universal. He said, well, so where do you go to church or are you a part of the church?

[40:54] He said, I'm a part of this church. He said, but that's not important to me. I'm a part of the church invisible. And Pastor thought for a minute and said, well, my advice to you is to join the choir invisible.

[41:09] The idea is, you know, if we're going to be a part of the local church, if we're going to be a part of the visible local body of believers, people ought to know.

[41:23] We ought to be identified together in such a strong way that people call us the redeemed of the Lord. And in this local body of believers, although we recognize there are other local bodies in our city, that we're a people who are drawn together by a sovereign God who's over the affairs of our life and every member of the local body of believers has been brought there by God.

[41:51] All those in death, all those in distress, all those hurting, suffering together because they know there's a sovereign God over the crisis of their lives.

[42:06] and I think the third thing that I see here is that not only is God sovereign over the crisis and He's sovereign over the company that I keep and the congregation I'm a part of, He draws us together, but God is sovereign over our commission and the work that He's called us to.

[42:28] You see that in the baby. It says, everyone who is in distress and everyone who is in debt and everyone who is bitter and soul gathered to Him and He became captive over them.

[42:41] He became their leader in the cave as He's trusting God, as He's watching for God to do what only God can do. And there were with Him about 400 men, it says.

[42:54] So that means more, 400 men, referring to 400 men able to fight war. He's building together an army. And God has drawn together the army that now is going to follow through and is going to stand against Saul at the right time.

[43:11] God is doing a work. And later in David's life, he comes back to this and he recognizes after Saul's death and after the kingdom is his, and Saul is dead and the scripture says, and all the enemies are put to rest around him.

[43:27] He says in 2 Samuel 7, And then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, Who am I, O Lord, and what is my house that you have brought me thus far?

[43:44] Amen. You, the sovereign God, who was God without my crisis, who was God over the crowd that came to me.

[43:57] You, who were the God who was sovereign over the circumstances of my life, were God over the commission that he gave me to be king and leader. And here in the middle of the day is where his leadership begins as he's trusting God.

[44:15] I think in 1 Peter 2, You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellences of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous life.

[44:28] Who is he talking about? You. Because of Christ. Because of what Christ has done in you. Christ was sovereign over your life. He's sovereign over the prices of your life.

[44:40] He's gathered you together into a body of believers to encourage and challenge you and build you up. And now he's sovereign over the commission that he gives you to send you out to proclaim Christ wherever you go.

[44:53] And together as the body of Christ in this city, that means that he's called you to be a proclaimer of Jesus even in your suffering, even in your sorrow, even in your difficulties, now because you know that Jesus is sovereign over your life.

[45:11] when I think of all the things that God has called me to do, there's something that God has not called me to be. He has not called me to be a carpenter.

[45:23] Okay? I mean, I can figure stuff out and I can fix stuff. I've told so many illustrations and stories about working on my house, you know, and they never end.

[45:36] I mean, those go on and on. But if you have any idea that I am some kind of carpenter, you are so wrong. Just the other day, I was reminded of that. You know, I've been on the back of the house painting, scaffolding, you know, you know, it's really steep in the back and so it's really high.

[45:56] So three levels of scaffolding and I'm up there trying to fix, you know, the vans and paint and do all this stuff over my head. And my insurance guy comes by and sees the scaffolding, you know, and sees the rocks that are holding it up and teeth are ringing and he's making us all, hey, cancel this guy.

[46:17] James, don't let your insurance guys see that. And I survived all that. I did okay. And so now I'm working on a little shed, a little metal roof and I'm two feet off the ground and the thing, the little bench that I'm standing on flips out from under me and I fall and the bench hits just right.

[46:39] I land on my ribs this week and so, I mean, even yesterday, I feel a lot better today, but even yesterday I'm just like buckled over and hobbling around and I feel like it's not broken, but man, it's really bruised and not nearly as much as my ego.

[46:58] but the reality is there's some things that I've been called to. You know? But as a believer in Christ Jesus, I've been called to a lot of things and I have been called.

[47:15] David was called king and Saul appointed him or Samuel appointed him already. He was going to be king. God had a plan for him and he was going to, his kingdom was going to be his kingdom because the scripture says God was looking for a man after his own heart and he anointed David king and he was going to lead him through the battles.

[47:36] He was going to establish a kingdom that was never going to end so that Christ would sit on David's throne. God had a plan in all of this stuff. Calling in David's life that he was going to fulfill and God's plans are not going to be thwarted in your life.

[47:55] And the enemy is going to try to lie to you and try to steal your joy and try to steal your future and all those kinds of things. And the reality is there is a sovereign God over your life. He's over your crisis.

[48:08] He's over the crowd. He's going to surround you and the congregation you're going to find yourself. He's over the commission in your life. He's going to enable you to do things that you never thought you could do.

[48:21] He's going to bring you to places you never thought you'd go. He's going to surround you with people that you never thought you'd be with. He's going to do things that you never thought you would do.

[48:37] It's not because of you. It's because he saw it. It's the lesson for us when we think about all that Christ has called us to do.

[48:53] David taught it to his son and Solomon said it in Proverbs 16, 9. The heart of a man plans his way but it's the Lord who establishes his steps.

[49:05] In Isaiah, the prophet said as he communicates to God's people as God said my hand laid the foundation of the earth and my right hand spread out to heaven.

[49:16] When I call to them they stand forth together. Do you not think that if the God of the universe can call for the sun and the earth and the stars to move on his command do you not think for a second that he can't speak into your life and move the circumstances of your life and direct your path to get you to the place you need to be and you're here today not by accident because God is sovereign and he's going to do some things in your life and use you in ways that you never imagined he would use you and you're going to praise him like David did if I ascend to heaven you're there and if I make my bed and chill you are there and if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me Martin Luther said it this way he said

[50:16] I have held many things in my hands and I have lost them all but whatever I have placed in God's hands that I still possess why?

[50:33] because he's sovereign and Spurgeon took it even further he said God is God is too good to be unkind and he is too wise to be mistaken when you cannot trace his hand you can trust his heart he wants your heart my heart to be alive with his heart so as we obey his word he gets the glory the sovereign God who's sovereign over our crisis our crowds and even our calling and commission that's my prayer for us whatever place you're at in this some of you today are not believers and I'm not saying that because I'm judging you I'm saying that because that's just the reality maybe you were raised in church and you've heard the gospel over and over again heard it

[51:39] I don't have to tell you that Jesus died for your sin and he was buried and rose again you've heard it you know these truths you've heard it over and over and over again and not just that he died and was buried and rose again but that he died for your sin according to the scriptures and that he was the substitute for you for me you know that he died for your sin heard it and yet you've never come to the place in your life where you've submitted to him as Lord I'm not talking about being baptized in the church I'm not talking about joining a church of membership I'm talking about you being born again that's the prerequisite for a church of membership you must be born again you've come to a place where you turn from sin and you turn to Jesus and the scripture says he makes you new do you want to be new has he drawn you here today because you've been lost in your sin you've been stuck in your sorrow and he's wanting to release you from that free you from that and make you a new creation in Jesus

[52:40] I'm telling you today maybe that's why he drew me here that's why maybe the crisis of your life has orchestrated things in such a way that you felt compelled to be a church on Sunday morning it's not really even a church I don't even know what it is and it's meeting in a K-Life building and it's weird and I don't even know why you're here today God knows he brought you to your cave he can call you his work has trained some things to do and today's your day if you'll turn from sin trust Jesus come to the cross dump your sin to the foot of the cross ask Jesus his savior change him right now there are others of you here today who are struggling to know what

[53:41] God's plan is for your life trying to find his will for you in this new church it's a spark it's shaking some dust off of your spiritual life and all of a sudden you're thinking maybe I need to be here I don't know why maybe I need to be a part of this I'm still not sure why keep looking to the Lord while you're in the cave and wait and see what God will do maybe today he's called you to really plug in and pour out and jump on board and today's the day where you're going to say okay Lord I don't know what it means but today I'm committing to be a part of this word praise the Lord join a bunch of people that really are waiting to see what God's going to do I believe God's got plans that are going to blow our minds and it's not just planting a church that's going to meet our immediate need it's planting churches that might change our city planting churches that might change our state

[54:44] I mean I mean beyond us that God may be up to something we have no idea we've got people in this room right now that could go planting church what's he going to do with us it's going to be awesome to see so as we come to this time at the end I'll ask for a break to come up we'll wrap this up see plays and we sing together just a time doing business with God less formal I want you to free up a little bit okay what I mean by that is you can join together with other believers if you want just gather together find a little holy hope to get together and pray together and somebody just lead it out if you want to come up and kneel and pray down around the front or on the side or somewhere by all means just find a spot and just pray maybe today you're here and you need to be born again and the Holy

[55:53]  Spirit has opened your eyes your need for Christ is before you and you are screaming in your head that I need to respond I need to do something and my encouragement to you is to respond I'll be down here at the front you come you're coming it'll just be a step of faith and say God I'm coming to you and I'll walk you through it I'll encourage you down the path that's all I'll do and we'll get you going but let's do this together let's worship the sovereign God for our action amen I'll stand together Father bless us in this time of invitation as you inflame our wills today may you stir us up help us to see the avenue for obedience and help us even now Lord to step out of faith and trust you whether that's to pray or to commit or to surrender whatever it is Lord to do what only you can do in our hearts and draw us to yourself in Christ name we pray are no but yes let's even you hear very should tell us