Lesson from the Life of David (God Still Uses Messed Up People)

Background -
- David kills Goliath
- Jonathan and David became friends - The people celebrate David’s victory - Saul hates David
- Saul tries to kill David
- David takes Michal as a wife
- David continues to experience victory over the armies of the Philistines - Saul orders Jonathan to kill David
- Jonathan tells David that Saul wants him dead
- Jonathan talks to Saul and Saul promises to not kill David
- Saul tries to kill David
- David gets away
- Michal helps David escape
- Saul tries to kill Jonathan
Let’s look at David and Saul for a moment:
David has a resume full of immortality. Yes, that David. The one after God’s own heart. Everybody talks about how bad Saul was.

Saul doesn’t have problems with his wife or his kids.
Jonathan loved David, but he didn’t betray his father. He actually died next to his father.
Saul is talked about. David is celebrated.
Acts tells us that Saul disobeyed God, but David was a man after God’s own heart.
Saul was rebuked for his disobedience and all he cared about was his kingdom.
But, David, when he found out he had gone against the Father he didn’t care about all of that natural stuff, but don’t take your spirit away from me.
1 Samuel 22:1-5
Do you ever feel like you can’t finish one battle before another one comes your way?
The devil never challenges losers.
“For the just engage in many struggles. Does an athlete contend only once? How often, after he has won many victor’s crowns, is he overcome in another contest!” - 2 Timothy 2:5
Nobody challenges a loser.
These were not the kind of people he was expecting to be surrounded by as the anointed king of Israel.
How in the world had fortune turned this quickly?
He thought he was heading for the throne, but he was hiding in a cave instead.
But David had to go through the cave to get to the palace. He learned three things in the cave:
- How to pray.
- How to praise.
- How to persevere.
In other words, he learned to encourage himself. On the surface, he had nothing to praise God about while hiding in the cave.

So he looked on the inside and realized that if he really wanted to, he could always find something to praise God for.
He started to praise God not for what he could see but for who his God was.
“I will praise you, LORD, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.” - Ps. 57:9–10
“I cry to you, LORD;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.” - Ps. 142:5
The same will work for us: deciding that we will allow God to be God is absolutely liberating.
Don’t praise Him for what you can see; praise Him that He’s simply God, and that even in the cave He has a plan.
As a matter of fact, the cave is often where He’s preparing us to be stronger for the palace later.
Don’t look at the thing you had to come through as a liability to your destiny, but a necessity to your purpose.
Adullam - the people’s justice.
Some of you have disqualified yourself because of your lack of qualifications.
Someone who is qualified, but can’t keep fighting will not last.
Don’t count yourself out just because you don’t fit in and things in your life haven’t added up.
David - the beloved.
David drew these people to him. Less than average.
God can do more with people who take off their masks and embrace their misfit status than people who hide behind safety.

Broken people - Brokenness is the greatest gift we can give God. It’s a gift that God can work with; it’s a gift that moves His heart.
1. Family
2. Distress - considered a disability. stressed or in anguish.
3. Debt - owing more than one has the ability to pay. This is not your car note. This is your sin debt.
4. Discontented - breathless at the place of appetite, passion or life. Bitter.
Your past, Your friends, Your debt, Your bitterness, Your disability tells you are not worthy and you believe it.
You need to show your past the door.
When you got saved, there should have been a funeral.
Holy Spirit will tell you after you get saved that the foolishness you’re doing ain’t right.
You just keep ignoring the voice of God.
You’ll look to the culture for advise. They’ll help you get to hell. They will confirm for you that you can do whatever feels good.
Try it before you buy it.
You can help that’s the way God made you.
The problem is is that Holy Spirit will help you know.
He’s trying to get you out and your comfortable staying in.
You’re trying to do a new thing, while playing with the old thing.
You can’t be a captain while your still a captive.
It is not the Blood plus anything.
Jesus because of His brokenness at Calvary can understand our brokenness.

Rock bottom is not where you go to die, but where you go to be recreated. Jesus very seldom spoke to needs, but He always spoke to potential.
The people who have it all figured out will never go very far with you. These men knew David had invested in them.
2 Sam. 23:8-12
They overcame the limits of their circumstances and became triumphant and honored men in the service of King David
Be drawn to be people that pour into your destiny not your history. The church was never created to entertain you, but to equip you.
The reason that many believer move on from church is because they are waiting to be entertain and not interested in being equipped.
2 Samuel 22:1-3
Had it not been the strongholds in your life you wouldn’t know the goodness of the Lord.
The devil has defeated many by creating a stronghold, but he already knows if you overcome that stronghold you will be a force to be reckoned with for the kingdom.