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Cave or King

Lee Hotchkiss · Sunday, 2 August 2026 · 45:03 · 6,109 words

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David's experience in Psalm 142, hiding in a cave while feeling alone, illustrates believers who appear fine on the outside but struggle inside. The speaker explains that God is not a reward for good performance; He loves us while we are still sinners. The sermon calls listeners to stop pretending, bring their doubts and fears to God, and trust Him as refuge. It ends with an invitation to confess Jesus as Lord and turn from sin.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

cave 23 furnace 10 david 32 basement 9 king 18 fugitive 5 performance 7 hid 8 experience 14 cry 12 guy 18 father 19

Topics

Prayer 2 Israel 2 Obedience 2 Hope 1 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 Sin 1 Faith 1 The Gospel 1

Scripture referenced 14

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Psalms 142 4:10 Psalms 142 4:35 Psalms 142 5:25 Genesis 50:20 18:06 Psalms 142:1-2 20:25 Philippians 4:6-7 21:34 Psalms 142:3 23:44 Proverbs 16 25:06 Proverbs 3 27:50 Romans 8 28:10 Psalms 142 29:24 Daniel 3:24-27 38:09 Psalms 142 40:01 Psalms 142 40:27

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 7 lines, 0:35. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Josh, and thanks for checking out one of our sermons today.

We are so glad that you're here, and we want to connect with you and your family.

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At the end of the day, we just want to connect with you and your family and be a blessing any way that we can.

You can also visit our website at theriverchurch.cc to learn more about us and what we have going on as a church.

Thanks again for joining us, and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

If you are tired or struggling right now, I would appreciate some interaction throughout the morning

because my service normally isn't until 1030, so I am that guy who's tired right now.

So how about, God is good all the time, and his mercy endures forever, right?

And I love when everybody says those things back to me, but the reality is this.

God is good, but you may not be.

It's easy to say at church, like, yes, God is good, and it's easy to praise God,

but the reality is, is we are all dealing with stuff.

And so you may not feel like you are good today.

That does not change the fact that God is good.

And today, we'll walk through things like that.

We'll walk through what it feels like to deal with the realities of life.

When on the outside, we profess that God is good, but on the inside, we feel as if maybe he's not

That's okay to have those feelings and emotions that you struggle with that relationship with God.

God can handle it, I promise.

Well, let me introduce myself.

Who's this guy up here talking?

My name is Lee Hotchkiss.

I'm a deacon over at Holly, and I'm blessed and privileged to be able to travel to the other locations.

We talk about this all the time.

One church, right?

Nine locations, one church.

I am one of those people who get to experience those nine locations,

and you guys are my brothers and sisters.

I don't know your names, so I think that I probably should get better acquainted with my family tree,

but I know a lot of your faces, and I know some of you guys.

So just really blessed to be able to be with you guys today.

It's okay if phones go off this morning, just as long as mine don't.

Well, I only have one, not mine, but it's just really a privilege to be able to be here today

as Pastor Jason is enjoying a, I'm assuming, well-deserved week off.

Let's open in prayer, and we will jump into the word.

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you, Lord, that this is the day that you have made.

I thank you, Father God, that we can rejoice and be glad in it.

Lord, I do pray that we understand that this world is full of turmoil and troubles.

And at the same time, Father God, I understand that you are in control of all circumstances at all times and all places.

Lord, I thank you for the hills in my life.

I thank you, Father God.

For the valleys in my life where you are with me.

Lord, I pray today that it is your words, not mine.

I thank you, Father God, that your Holy Spirit is in our midst.

I thank you, Father God, that we will be transformed by your word in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, amen.

Hey, there we go.

I love it.

We're going to be in Psalm 142 today.

I was talking to Justin beforehand.

And the book of Psalms is interesting because sometimes you get like four verses or six verses

or seven verses and you read it and you think, what in the world am I going to do with those six or seven verses?

Well, today is not one of those days.

We only get seven verses, but I think there's some pretty good content here.

I'm going to read along with me in Psalm 142.

It says,

in my path. I look for support

court, but find no one, and no one cares for me. I cry to you, O Lord, and declare that you are my

refuge and my portion. I ask you to hear my plea, because I am very low and need deliverance from

strong persecutors. I pray to be freed from this prison, to praise your name, knowing the righteous

will celebrate your bounty to me. In Psalms 142 here, we see David. He's in a cave hiding out.

He's essentially a fugitive at this point. Now, keep in mind, we have David, who has been anointed

king of Israel, anointed future king of Israel by Samuel, hiding in a cave as a fugitive from

the current king of Israel, King Saul. David had experienced

again a lot of suffering, and he was in a cave hiding out. He's in a cave hiding out. He's in a

great military victory, by far one of the most famous stories in the Bible with David and

Goliath. And he has slayed the giant. And I love thinking about David walking to the streets of

Jerusalem, carrying Goliath's head with him. Like, what an absolute victory for this young man.

And because of that military victory, the people rallied around him.

And just put him at a very high level, or put him on a pedestal. They were in awe of this young man.

And because of that, they praised him more than they did their own king, King Saul. And King Saul

was jealous that David had this trajectory to become king. And because of that, he really set

his goal in life to kill the future king. And so we see David, a proclaimed or

called king of Israel. And he's in a cave hiding out. He's in a cave hiding out. He's in a cave

called by God, future king of Israel, hiding in a cave like a fugitive. And this is very often

what we are in life today. As I referenced earlier, we experience in life extreme highs

and extreme lows. That is life. On a Monday, I could feel that everything is okay. And on a

Wednesday, I could feel like life has been shattered and falling apart, right? Phil just

talked about it a couple of minutes ago. I'm sure you've all heard about it. I'm sure you've all

heard about it. I'm sure you've all heard about it. I'm sure you've all heard about it. I'm sure

you've all heard about it. I'm sure you've all heard about it. I'm sure you've all heard about it.

Everything was just great in his household. Everybody's ready to go to camp. His son's

excited for camp and he falls off of bed, right? Low, high, low. And in life is a roller coaster.

And we need to understand that, but we need to also understand the fact that God is involved

in both the highs and the lows. He may seem harder to see at the time. And I believe that's

because we focus on our circumstances and not the father. Saul saw David as a threat

to his throne and he wanted David dead. Multiple times he tried to kill David. He made it his

mission to kill David, this hero of Israel. Two times in the Bible, we see him throw spears at

David to try to take him out. On a daily basis, he's pursuing David. He tells his own son,

Jonathan, that his mission is to kill David. And he sends men to kill David. And you see David here

hiding in this cave. Now, David's in a difficult situation. He's in a difficult situation. He's

in a difficult spot. I believe David at any time could have went and he could have killed Saul.

But he knew that Saul at the time is God's anointed king, chosen by God. And so David is choosing

obedience and obedience has him trapped in a cave, living as a fugitive. Now we see him

crying out to God, completely alone and lost. I feel like this is a very relatable theme.

I'm a child of God. I know God is with me. I'm trying to

do things right. I'm trying to walk the way that I should walk, yet I feel trapped. I'm in turmoil.

Things are falling apart. I'm in a cave. I'm in despair. You may not know it. The person sitting

next to you may not know it, but you're there. On the outside, you're perceived as you're full of

joy. You're looked at by others in high regard, yet you're feeling destroyed. You're experiencing

a cave moment. You may be living that

way today as we speak. We come to church, we go to work, we bring about the perception that

everything is okay. We put a smile on our face, yet on the inside, we're crying out for help.

We're experiencing loneliness. Maybe you've lost a loved one. Maybe you've been separated from a

loved one. Maybe you've experienced divorce. Maybe for the first time in your life, you're an empty

nester and your kids have left. Maybe you're experiencing betrayal or fear, uncertainty.

Maybe you've lost your job or things have changed in your household or you're waiting on God to

answer the call, yet you're hearing nothing. Unanswered prayer, doubt, depression, hopelessness.

The Bible says that a heart that has not hope is one that is dead or

hope deferred causes a broken heart. It makes the heart weak, right? Hope that is deferred makes the

heart weak or broken. My favorite term to use with my family or friends when they say,

how are you doing? I say, I'm great. I'm good. Everything's great. Well, yeah, but you just

experienced all this. Yeah, I'm good. I'm great. You know, think about, think about this person or

take care of this person. I don't want people to know how I really am. I don't want to get into a

deep conversation about how they can help me. I just want to deal with it myself. And so what you

find yourself, you start to isolate yourself in these times when you need those around you and

you need God more than any other time. You can't just say I'm good. I'm great. That's what the body

of believers is for today. I'm personally dealing with something right on the outside. The thought

process is this guy must be okay and everything because he's up here preaching today, but I'm

dealing with uncertainty in my life. I'm dealing with uncertainty in my life. I'm dealing with

uncertainty in my life. I'm going through a transitional time in my life where things are

uncertain for the first time in 15, 20 years. And it's caused me to trust in God and rely on God and

understand that his promises are true, regardless of the circumstances that I'm facing. Often in

times when I struggle personally, I think it's probably because I've done something wrong,

right? You, you, you kind of have this mindset of like, everything's going good,

so therefore you must be in right standing with God because things are clicking. And then as soon

as things start to go bad, you think, man, I must not be in a right standing with God.

Why do we have that mindset? Because we are in a performance driven world, right? If we treat those

around us better, they treat us better. If I spend more time and attention pouring into my

relationship with my wife, she responds in kindness. If I, if I work harder at work and

numbers are better,

then bosses will think that I'm better a worker or they'll pay you more, right? Everything in life

is performance driven. And so very often what we do is when we look at our relationship with God,

we think of it in a performance mindset, which is the polar opposite of who he is. Well, I, you know

what? My day was bad and, or I lost my job. It must be because I didn't pay tithe last week, right? Like

we're, we're trying to compete with our relationship with God, or I didn't read the Bible and I got into

a car wreck. That must've been why it is the absolute furthest from the truth to really think

about your relationship with the father. God is not performance driven. In fact, when we look at

actually the time when David was anointed King, Samuel came to David's home and he was, he was out

boy and, and out tending the sheep and Samuel will comes and

David's father brings his sons before him, all but David, thinking, hey, these are one

of the sons that you need to anoint king.

And in fact, when Samuel saw Jesse's older son, he thought, surely this is the Lord's

But this is one of my favorite verses, and you guys will catch on in here in a second.

It says, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance or his height.

So that means to me that God is actually like shorter people better.

All right, probably taken out of context.

But he says, do not consider his appearance nor his height, for I have rejected him.

The Lord does not look at the things people look at.

People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

The Lord looks at the heart of the man.

The Lord is not performance driven.

If the Lord was performance driven, we would all not have a chance.

Anyways, because we don't deserve a relationship with the Lord.

We don't deserve a relationship with Jesus Christ.

It's not about performance.

It's about the heart.

The Bible says that God demonstrates his love for us while we were still sinners.

Christ died for us.

We can't earn God's blessing.

We've never earned God's blessing.

You can't do enough.

You'll never do enough to earn his blessing.

It is a free gift of God.

Jesus willingly.

Lay down his life while we were still sinners.

Not because we deserved it.

Because we did not deserve it.

It's not about what we deserve.

It's not about what we earned.

It's not necessarily about what we do or how good we are.

It's about our heart.

It's a real, true relationship with the Father.

And David wasn't in the cave here because he disobeyed God.

David's actually in the cave here because he...

David could have eliminated Saul, yet out of obedience to God, he did not kill Saul.

And because of that obedience, he's now experiencing a valley in his life because of obedience to God.

Well, that doesn't make sense.

Because that's what makes God, God and us, man.

He's in obedience, trapped in a cave.

Sometimes faithfulness leads us into difficult places.

That's the reality of our walk.

We see this example in Genesis 50, 20.

By the way, I apologize to the tech team.

I was looking over everything last night.

I probably added a ton of verses.

We will get to the ones that I gave you as well.

We see Joseph talking to his brothers that had sold him into slavery.

One of the most incredible stories throughout the entire Bible.

His brothers, once were going to leave him for dead and decided, in my opinion, let's make a couple bucks.

It would be better off for us.

They sell him into slavery.

He experiences the worst possible conditions.

He continues to focus on God.

Eventually is elevated to second in charge of all of Egypt.

And his brothers standing before him.

Joseph says this.

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is being done now.

The world intends to bring you down and harm you.

But God intends it for good for what is going to be accomplished today.

And in the future, that is God.

It is not how we perceive things.

It's not how we see things.

It's not how our mind thinks.

It's God.

This is the difference between God and man.

God says this.

My thoughts are not your thoughts.

Neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord.

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.

And my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

There's no comparison.

We'll never be on the same level of God.

We won't be able to understand him.

That's the point.

It's called trust in the Lord with all of your heart.

Lean not on your own understandings, but acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will direct your path.

Not you will direct your path.

I want to direct my own path.

Why?

Because I think that I can figure it out.

And I've done that many times in my life, and I generally end up flat on my face.

Okay, here's the first verse I gave you guys.

Psalms 142, 1 through 2.

This is David saying, with my voice, this is him in the cave.

With my voice, I cry out to the Lord.

With my voice, I plead for mercy to the Lord.

I pour out my complaint before him.

I tell my trouble before him.

You see David here just truly just pouring out his heart to God.

He's probably bawling his eyes out like a baby in a cave all by himself, crying out to God.

Guess what?

God is not intimidated by your emotions.

He's not intimidated by David's emotions.

He's not intimidated by your angry screams to him.

They don't take him by surprise.

There's nothing that you say or think or do that he has not already.

He did not foreknow.

You can't surprise God.

Prayer is not informing God.

It is expressing your heart before him.

He knew your prayer before you thought it.

That's what makes him God and you, you.

Philippians 4, 6 through 7 says,

Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

Let your request be known to God.

Your concerns, your complaints, your hurt, your turmoil.

Tell him about them.

He knows you're going through it, but he wants communion.

He wants communication and the peace of God.

So what does it say?

Let your request be known for God.

So what do we do?

The human instinct is to do this.

Keep it inside and deal with it.

Keep it inside and don't talk about it.

But God says,

Let your request be known to me.

And then what?

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.

By communicating your request to God, you receive a peace that surpasses all understanding.

What does that mean?

It's not an earthly peace.

It's not me sitting there with my legs crossed like this or, you know, doing yoga or something that is going to create peace in my life.

That's a false peace.

It's the peace of God that surpasses all human understanding.

That only comes from him and speaking to him and praying to him.

Have you ever been in a car driving down the road and praising God and all of it?

Just out of nowhere, you just, oh, can breathe better.

What is that feeling?

Oh, man, I just, I feel good.

All of a sudden, I don't feel the stress of the world.

That's the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

I don't know why I feel this way.

You're not supposed to.

It says right here, beyond our understanding.

By pouring our hearts out to God, we will receive this peace.

This is not a suggestion, but a promise.

This is the word of God.

Psalms 142.3 says this.

When my spirit faints within me, you know my way.

In the path where I walk, they have hidden a trap before me.

God knows your path, even when they don't.

The world would try to lay traps or snares or, in my opinion,

the number one distraction of the enemy today is time, busyness, life.

Well, I've got to do, if I said to you guys right now,

what does your week look like?

I guarantee that most of you could say, okay, well, after church,

I've got to do this, this, and this to prepare for tomorrow.

And then, well, because tomorrow, I've got three things I have to do.

And hopefully, between like 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Tuesday,

I can do a little meal prep or something for Thursday.

Friday, Saturday, because the kids are always,

but our life just gets consumed with stuff, distractions.

And God says that we need to focus on him and we need to cry out.

to him and we need to pray to him and then we will receive that peace i get it life is busy but it

cannot consume us proverbs 16 9 says the heart of a man plants his ways but the lord establishes his

steps this is this is where i go wrong in life right here i am a planner i like to think about

the future now i'm not necessarily an organized planner but i like to dream i like to dream i

like to think about man if i did if i got this this is what i would do with it and i like to

create all these plans and steps and and my mind starts going in this direction and it says that

that many men have a plan but a righteous man's steps are ordered by god so what does that mean

god this is what i've been given father what would you like me to do with it direct my path

direct my steps you see david here in a in a time of confusion yet god is not confused

feels lost yet god knows his every step the phrase you know my way there is covenant

relationship it's covenant language it's it's you truly know me what does that mean to to know

someone when we think of the biblical term no it's like when adam and eve knew each other like

a husband and a wife an intimate relationship not just a when i have time relationship but

intimate relationship

know someone where he knows our thoughts he knows our every step and we're constantly

communicating with him god isn't simply aware of our life but he's actively watching over us

the book of hebrews says and no creature is hidden from his sight but all are noted all

are exposed to his eyes of him whom we must give account we all will give account one day we will

all give account for our actions you may be sitting here today and you're not a christian you're not a

believer in in the gospel of jesus christ that he died and he rose again he died for our sins you

may not be a believer guess what you are accounted for in this here that we will all give account

the bible says this that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that jesus is lord

not just christians every knee will bow and every tongue will confess what does that mean

if you are not a believer one day you will be a believer because you will confess him as lord

that's the truth of the word of god proverbs 3 5 and 6 says trust in the lord with all of your heart

lean not on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your path

romans 8 28 and we know that all thing in all things god works for the good of those who love

him who have been called according to his purpose sometimes when we're in the the cave we can only

see the cave we can only see the struggles we can only see what's surrounding us yet god

sees beyond the end the entrance of the cave he's written the entire story he understands where

you're at he understands where you feel he understands your emotions why does he understand

your emotions he created emotion why does he understand your thought he created thought

he created the breath in your body the oxygen that you breathe on a daily basis substance that

was used to create the chairs that you sit in he created that not man he created your mind your

heart he created everything he has his hand in everything your good thoughts he knows your bad

thoughts he's not he knows what you do in public and he knows what you do behind closed doors

he's everywhere he's omnipresent he's god psalms 142 4 says this look and see

there is none who takes notice of me no refuge remains in me no one cares for my soul what is

david speaking of here earthly people will fail you your friends and your family at some point

will fail you we've all experienced it

guess what? Your spouse will fail you at some point in time. They'll disappoint. Your kids will fail

you. Your expectations, your job will fail you. Earthly support will fail. No one notices. No

refuge remains. No one cares. Very often, God will remove that earthly dependence so that we learn

to rely on him. You see David trapped in a cave and he's crying out like, hey, everybody forgot

about me. Don't they remember what I did with Goliath? I was the only one, God. They've all

forgotten. Very often, God will allow you to get into a place in your life so that you can only

trust in him. I tell this story a lot of times when I go and preach and I just feel like it's

very relevant to, in my life, to this type of situation. Probably about 13 years ago,

my father had passed away.

My dad and I had a special relationship. We were tight. I don't know if I was his right-hand man

growing up, but he was definitely mine. He was always my first call. Something went wrong.

Hey, dad, what the heck do I do here? He said, I'll be right over. He would teach me how to fix

things. He was my coach, my confidant. He was my pastor. He was just my best friend.

I was absolutely...

I didn't have long enough with him, but I was blessed to be able to have the years I did with

him and know that I got to experience something that very often other people don't get to

experience is that father-son relationship. About 13 years ago, wow, 14 and a half years ago now,

he passed away. At the time, my brother-in-law and I owned a rental property. It was a duplex.

I learned a lot about fixing things and the fact that people would call me at one in the morning

to say their power went out and didn't know how to flip a breaker. I hated it. We didn't make any

money. One night, I got one of those random calls at 12 in the morning. My furnace is out. I didn't

know Justin at the time, so I had to go there. I show up at the house. It was cold. It was probably

15 degrees, one in the morning. I'm down in this basement. This was a Michigan basement. There's

bats flying all over my house. I'm in the basement. I'm in the basement. I'm in the basement. I'm in the

basement. I'm in the basement. There's probably mice running around the corner. It's dirty. It's

wet. I'm miserable. I could not, for the life of me, get that furnace to turn on. I'm not a furnace

guy anyways. I'm flipping every switch. It was a boiler, actually. I'm trying to light it. I'm

getting upset. I thought, oh, and I just naturally grabbed my phone, pulled it out of my pocket. I

know dad will answer the phone, and dialed his number for the first time since he had been dead.

I called my dad because I knew he was the guy who would pick up the phone and show up at one in the

morning. My mom might be mad at him for leaving, but he's going to show up, and for the first time,

I had to deal with it in my mind that he was gone, and I no longer had anyone to call. I had nobody

to call for the first time in my adult life, and I began to weep in that basement like a big old baby

and just cried, and I began to cry out to God, and I was mad at him. I was mad at God, and I was sad,

and I was angry, and I just felt for the first time in my life, he said, I got you, and I don't

know what it was, but I looked at that furnace, and I thought, and the furnace fired up, and I

thought, wow, he's here. He says he'll never leave you or forsake you. He's here, and for the first

time, I had preached messages throughout my life. I had been involved with a church my entire life.

I had told people about Jesus my entire life.

And for the first time, after doing all those things, I realized, wow, he's real.

He's not a guy in a story.

He's not just a guy who fed 5,000, 2,000 years ago.

He's a guy who will sit in a basement with some dumb young guy who doesn't know how or

what he's doing, and he'll sit there with him and he'll help him figure it out.

And so sometimes when our earthly support fails us, God is calling you to rely on him

and to trust in him.

How do you go to verse 5 and 6 now?

Verse 5 and 6 says, I cry to you, O Lord.

I say, you are my refuge.

You are my portion.

In the land of the living, attend to my cry, for I am brought very low.

Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong.

For me, David moves from no one cares to you are my refuge.

I don't care that nobody cares anymore.

I don't want to come across that I don't care what you guys think, but I can't.

He's the only one that I can care about what they think.

I love you guys, but you are not the one that I need to have a covenant relationship to

spend eternity with God.

David doesn't say you gave me a blessing.

He said, you are my portion.

You are my fulfillment.

You are.

All that I need.

You're not my success.

You're my comfort.

You're my safety.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And they were asked to bow down to the king.

They said, we only bow down to our God.

And then they were thrown into a fiery furnace.

And you can do a study on how hot it says.

I believe it says they turned up the furnace 10 times hotter.

And you can do math of what that looks like and try to estimate.

And it's...

It comes out to be like almost as hot as the surface of the sun.

Like just unbelievable scorching to the fact where people who were throwing these three men

into the furnace, they were dying throwing these men into the furnace.

All for just standing on their relationship with God.

And in Daniel chapter 3, verse 24 through 27, it says,

they're in the fire.

And the king leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors,

weren't there three men tied up in the fire?

They replied, certainly, your majesty.

He said, look, I see four men walking around, unbound, unharmed.

And the fourth looks like a son of God.

Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out, come here.

So the three men came out of the fire.

And the satraps, prefects, and governors, and royal advisors crowded around them.

They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies,

nor was there a hair of their heads that had been singed.

Their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

That is where God very often meets us.

In a place where we do not expect him to be, but we need him the most.

He's an 1159 God very often.

He doesn't tell you the time he's going to show up, unfortunately.

In today's world, I would love if he would shoot me a text and say,

Lee, hey, you're going.

You're going through turmoil, but at 830 tomorrow morning, it's going to be all good.

He doesn't work that way.

I don't know if he's a texter or not.

He never shot me one.

be pretty cool though last verse in psalms 142 it says bring me out of prison that i may give thanks

to your name the righteous will surround me for you will deal bountifully with with me david

expects deliverance he knows now that the cave is temporary and god is preparing him for something

greater david would enter the king as a fugitive and he would eventually become the king psalms 142

like every other poor point in the bible points us to one figure jesus christ on the cross jesus

experienced complete abandonment his ride or dies ran from him the people who were his best friends

denied him left him ran the other way no we don't know that guy not him not who me we don't know him

in fact as he stayed on the cross he said he cried out my god

my god why have you forsaken me i'm all by myself why have you forsaken me why am i on this place if

there's any other way take this from me he jesus entered the deepest darkest cave imaginable every

sin ever past present and future was put on his shoulders sins that you haven't even committed

he took on that day why not because you're a good person

not because you earned it because he loved and loves you today and that's the gospel of jesus

christ the gospel is so simple gospel of jesus christ says this if you confess with your mouth

that jesus christ is lord it's a public confession i believe it could be private with you and god

i believe that you are the lord of my life and you believe in your heart that he died on the cross

and he rose again the bible says that you are the lord of my life and you believe in your heart that

says you will be saved but it is a submission if he is lord that means that you are not you're not

the lord of your life if you try to be the lord of your life and control your life then you have

not given up lordship to the father i believe that you are the lord of my life i believe that

you are god and i believe that i am a sinner and because of that sin there is separation between

me and the father that sin will always separate me god sent his only begotten son jesus christ to

bring that communion with us so that there would never have to be separation again and if you are

not a believer in jesus christ the bible says that we are not promised tomorrow well i'm gonna wait

that was that kind of made sense but i maybe i'll figure that out next sunday we're not promised

tomorrow today is the day of repentance today is the day of repentance today is the day of repentance

today is the day to proclaim jesus christ as lord of your life it's a heart change you don't have to

do anything special you just have to confess that he is god and that you are not pray with me dear

heavenly father i thank you lord for this day i thank you father god for everybody here today i

thank you lord that they are your people pray father god that they understand what it means to

be a child of god that's simply just to sit under you your grace your love and your mercy thank you

father god for this day for you have made it

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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