Sermon Tone Analysis

Opening Statement:

Notes: this sermon was adapted from Bishop Rudolph McKissick Jr.

Text:

(NKJV)

1 David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam.

So when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him.

2 And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him.

So he became captain over them.

And there were about four hundred men with him.

3 Then David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother come here with you, till I know what God will do for me.”

4 So he brought them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.

5 Now the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold; depart, and go to the land of Judah.”

So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.

This is not what I expected!

Introduction:

We are getting ready to embark on another March madness and soon after that the start of the NBA playoffs.

When I think about all of the madness that was associated with the power outages and whether or not we were going to be able to have services today I am reminded of the 2013-14 NBA Play-offs the Indiana Pacers the number 1 seed in the east was about to play the Atlanta Hawks the number 8 seed.

I remember that the Atlanta Hawks took the number 1 seed Indiana Pacers with Reggie Miller theirs sharp shooter all the way to 7 games.

During the second round of the play offs one off the players of the pacers was interviewed and asked what they thought of the play off so far cause it seemed to be rough for them in the first round, they player responded “I have to be honest, since we were the first seed and have the best record in the eastern conference we started the years determined that we would be the first seed over Miami Heat so that we would have home court advantage through out the entire playoffs.

Our plan was to go in as the number one seed, we figured that first round would be just like a scrimmage because we would be playing the 8th seed which barely made it into the playoffs.

He then said that midway through we discovered that we were in the fight of our lives!

He said that as we began to talk in the locker room we had to be honest with ourselves we thought that being the number one seed would give us an easy track to the championship, we thought that being the number one seed that things was going to be easy for us at least up to the conference finals, but we soon realized that there we were facing a game 7 and we had to admit to ourselves that this is not what we expected!

Because they were the number 1 seed, because they virtually already been crowned to be the ones to defeat the Miami Heat and go on to the championship round because they had been anointed if you will the new kids on the block to take the next championship and be the next dominant NBA franchise.

They did not expect to have such a rough road in the process of becoming NBA’s next world champions!

As I thought about that interview and I reflected on the last series of sermons on taking down strongholds, it reminded me about the life of King David because in the 16th chapter of Samuel he was anointed the number 1 seed!

He was told that he was going to be the next King of Israel.

But it seemed like everything he went though from the moment he was anointed King was nothing but one challenge after another one disappointment after another and one set back after another.

Where we find David in the text that I have laid before you is that he has been on the run from the current King Saul who has very made it clear that he wants Davids head on a platter!

It is very interesting to me that Saul is after David with such veracity because Saul was not there when Samuel anointed David to be King, he has no clue that David has been anointed to replace him, but he senses something about David that makes him feel intimidated in his position.

Can I tell you just very quickly one reason people don’t like you has nothing to do with your present.

Cause the reality is that sometimes even you don’t like your present, so then the people that don’t like you don’t like you because of your present they don’t like you because of your potential!

They sense something about you, they sense what God is up to in your life!

And so Saul is chasing David all over the place, he has been running from him all over the place, it is very strange that here David is, having been anointed the new king and every since that kingship he has been on a rollercoaster ride ups and down.

He goes from being armor bearer to the king, to killing a giant that everybody was scared to fight.

Now to being on the run from the man that he has protected from evil spirits.

If it wasn’t for David, Saul would be under consistent torment from evil spirits.

If it were not for David, Israel would be the bond servants to the Philistines and bowing the Philistine gods!

David has gone from the highest of highs to lowest of lows!

And now he is on the run once again from Saul.

Two miles from the city of Gath is maze of hills, valleys, and honeycombs and in those hills and valleys are some caves, and one of those caves is located near the ancient city of Adullam, and David finds refugee in that cave.

He finds himself alone in a cave with only his own thoughts to comfort himself.

He has to be looking around at the dark, dingy, damp cave thinking back to when he was told he was going to be the king, as he looked back around to what life has presented him he’s got to be thinking somewhere in his mind!

This is not what I expected!

Has life ever dealt you a hand like that, you got married and your life wasn’t just for better or worst, but it wen’t from better to worst?

It was not what you expected.

You took a promotion on your job it was greater benefits but more stress, it was not what you expected.

You excepted to call to ministry only to find that the call came with conflicts, it was not what you expected.

You went to the Dr. for a check up after being healthy and conscious with your body only to be told that there was a lump in your breast, not what you expected.

You can go through situations in life when you have been faithful to the Lord, when God has given you a purpose, and God has given you a promise and you find yourself in the midst of a situation where you find yourself saying to yourself as faithful as I have been to the Lord this is not what I expected!

You need to first understand that the anointing does not give you immunity from the challenges of life!

I didn’t think that you was going to say much to this kind of preaching because we live in a new day when prosperity preachers are teaching us to be selfish and seek the easy way, we don’t like to be told the purpose comes with problems and the anointing comes with challenges because we’ve been taught that if you throw enough money on the altar or speak enough tongues or go to enough conferences that somehow our life is going to be easier.

We want things not only our way in the faith, we want them the comfortable and the easy way.

When things don’t go our way we are ready to quit, we want the road with the best results and the easiest way.

We want to come to church do the religious things and we feel that God owes us a favor.

We buy into the new faith and this new preaching that makes the Gospel look like God on the demand, where you can just flip through the channels and just touch what you want as if God is just suppose to give it to you! WE buy into the line that God will make you a leader, but never require you to be a servant.

That you can have greatness without humility or riches without sacrifice.

We live in a day where theology has taught us short cuts and not dedication, has taught us the easy way, and not the enduring way!

So you come to church, you study the Bible, you throw a seed on the altar cause the preacher told you in seven days you were gonna get your miracle so you come to the altar and put your co-pay on the altar as if you were giving God a co-pay on medicine that He gave you and now that your catching hell your looking around in your cave and you saying this is not what I expected!

Life can find you in some crazy places!

When you’ve been faithful!

How do you manage miserable moments on the journey to fulfilling assignments!

Body:

The first thing that I believe the text is trying to tell us is that to:

1. Make sure you don’t miss the miracle being busy looking at the misery!

One of the strategies of the enemy is to try to get us so focused on whats wrong that we don’t know how to be thankful and managers of what’s still right!

We look at everything thats is wrong, and we calculate our emotions about where we are based on what’s not right.

So you spend all of that energy complaining about what’s not right, instead of thank God for the many things that are still going right in your life.

I know somebody saying where is that in the text?

Its not apparent because it does not appear to be a part of the exegetical move of the story, its just one little word.

(NKJV)

1 David therefore departed from there and escaped…

You see it’s a generality with any particularity; what do you mean?

It tells us what he escaped to, but doesn’t tell us what he escaped from!

So we need to go back to see what he escaped from, and then discover what escape really means!

To escape is to break free of confinement or to get loose from pending danger or to for go an intended expectation.

The reason the word escape is powerful to me is because it doesn’t just say that David ran…

The text says that David escaped!

So then we need to back up to the last chapter to see what he escaped from!

(NKJV)

10 Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.

11 And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land?

Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying: ‘Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands’?”

12 Now David took these words to heart, and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

13 So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard.

14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is insane.

Why have you brought him to me?

15 Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence?

Shall this fellow come into my house?”

He fled from Saul and ran to Gath and Gath was under the leadership of a king by the name of Achish, and the servants of the king recognized David as the rival to Saul.

He’s trying to find sanctuary from Saul in Gath under Achish and scholars suggest to us that the king was going to do one two things:

Either turn him over to Saul or kill him so that Saul would be indebted to Achish.

So then there were two options on the table, kill him or turn him over.

They had a plan to kill him or a plan to turn him over!

And the text said that David escaped!

David they had an intended expectation towards you, they would turn you over to Saul (who would then kill you) or they was going to kill you so the Saul would like them; so either way David you were about to die, and the fact that you escaped meant that God got you away from an intended expectation so they didn’t get what they thought they was going to get!

So before you get mad because of where are David you ought to be thankful that you are not still where you were.

Because things could really be much worst than they are!

Am I talking to anybody in here this morning?

I realize that you don’t like where you are, but if you would take a good back at what you escaped that you could thank God that He got you out just in the knick of time!

So before you beat yourself up over what didn’t go right, before you beat yourself up over what you don’t like, take a look back down memory lane and say Lord I thank you, that what could have happen didn’t happen that you have kept me from an intended expectation, I escaped!