Jesus made each star in heaven. He created earth and sea. He's the keeper of all knowledge, what is past and what will be. Yet he offers his great wisdom, so you will not lose your way. Like a lamp it glows, every step it shows, you can know his will each day. Trust His word. Trust His word. All God's promises are true. Trust His word. When your pathway disappears, when your joy gives way to tears, when you're plagued with doubts and fears, trust His word. He is not a distant stranger. He can be your closest friend. And He'll always listen closely when you share your heart with Him. Jesus walks the path beside you. He has been there all along. And He'll guide your feet when your step is weak. and your strength is almost gone. Trust His Word. Trust His Word. All God's promises are true. Trust His Word. When your pathway disappears, When your joy gives way to tears, when you're plagued with doubts and fears, trust His word. The pathway disappears when your joy gives way to tears. When you're plagued with doubts and fears, trust his word. Thank you. And we'll dismiss the little ones to go to class 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Can't go with Mrs. Schroeder to class. The rest of us can open up the Bible again to Psalm 142. Matthew, you're welcome to go if you wanna go to class. He's now six. Oh, is he six now? Yeah. Oh, well, you guys can decide. See what he wants to do this morning after this. Come back, you're part of my audience. All right. Psalm 142. Sankey put a... put a poet's verse to him, and it was Edgar Seitz's poetry, but it's the hymn entitled, Trusting Jesus, which says, simply trusting every day, trusting through a stormy way, even when my faith is small, trusting Jesus, that is all. Trusting as the moments fly, trusting as the days go by, trusting him, whatever befall, trusting Jesus, that is all. It's easy to sing, isn't it? But it's harder to apply when you're going through a time of testing, a time of trial, speaking about simply trusting every day, trusting through the stormy way, even when my faith is small, even when I'm struggling, that it's just going to be a desire to keep my heart in dependence upon the Lord. And as we come to Psalm 142 and look at the psalmist and what he's written, again, it's traumatic experience that the psalmist is facing, very discouraging, very depressing, very hard, very difficult. And yet throughout this psalm, you find that David is keeping his dependence upon the Lord. Where he is, he's in the cave of Adullam. And if you look at the bulletin on the front of it, there's a picture actually of the cave of Adullam. and it's wilderness. I mean it's it's basically a very arid rocky landscape similar in size to the highlands. This you know just this valley goes up and it's right there apparently in the middle of that valley and it's a very Lonely place that David finds himself in You think about the cave itself would have been cool inside dark except for the light coming from the fires of the torches that They had about the place. They would be very careful not to venture out in the daytime. So probably Just going out at nighttime and that's there if they got to go get something. That's when they get it. Otherwise, they're kept inside this cave and in this dark echoing cavern The voice of David cries out in faith to God. In verse one he says, I cried unto the Lord with my voice, with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication. And Alex, Alex, Alex, Alex. I don't think she is. But if you want to go to that class with Mrs. Shorey, you can. I was thinking that she might enjoy that a bit better. Was she going to sleep? I can't see her. She can go to the class. Yeah, they'd probably be better for her. Alright, the message this morning is you can trust God when... We're going to look at the circumstances that David finds himself in and consider this morning that you can trust God in each of those circumstances. If the cave walls could speak, you know, we've heard of if walls could speak, but if those cave walls could speak, and they can by God's power, because Jesus said, you know, if these are silent, the rocks will cry out, they could testify to what David did in that cave and has trusted God completely no matter what was taking place. And so I trust this morning will be a blessing to us as we look at David's faith. Let's pray. Father, we're thankful again for the opportunity to come to the Word of God. We pray that you'd have your way in our hearts this morning. Father, we each got different needs and the same needs. Father, we each struggle with similar things and different things, and so I pray that the Spirit of God would meet us where we're at this morning. I pray, Father, you'd give us each one something that can encourage us, something that can help us, something that can challenge us, and I pray that the Spirit of God would speak and guide in this time. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. You can trust God when, you can trust God when, first of all, you have a complaint. You have a complaint. Verse two, he says, I poured out my complaint before him. I showed before him my trouble. The word complaint here means that which is causing me to have anxiety. That which was a burden that David possessed, I poured out my complaint before him. And so, again, David would challenge us and say, You know, take your complaint to God. I poured out my complaint before Him. There's no better person to go to. It's nice sometimes. I'm a burden ourselves. And there's the times where we'll find somebody and we'll share what's taking place in our life. And they can't relate. They can't understand. They don't have time or other things. But you take it to God and God knows. God understands. Jesus is a sympathetic high priest. The old spiritual said said it this way. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows my sorrow. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Glory. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows but Jesus. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Glory. Hallelujah. You know, if Jesus knows the trouble I'm facing, then that's enough. It's enough. David could have been completely, we're gonna speak about being isolated in a little bit, but he could have been completely isolated, devoid of any human help, and if he had Jesus, it was enough. He's taking that burden to him. Think about a child. Why does a child run to mom and dad? They go to mom and dad because mom and dad don't care. Mom and dad are concerned. Mom and dad are security. Mom and dad can meet the need. Think about us as we have a problem. How quick are we to run to our heavenly father? Is that the bent of our heart like David, where it's a direct line running to Christ? 1 Peter 5, 7 says, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. The idea of casting all your terror, terror again is that we're anxiety, casting all your anxiety upon it, but casting means to set it fully on him or to put it fully on him. I got to unload some coal with Alec a couple of months ago. And as we were doing that, it was just, what, a ton of coal or something like that in 50-pound bags. Not that heavy, but you're carrying the coal, it's a burden. It's weighing you down, but it's such a relief. You get to the coal bin, and you tip it in, and all that burden goes away into the coal bin, and you're not carrying it anymore. And when you're done carrying the last bag, that's real relief. And that's the same idea of casting it upon the Lord Jesus Christ, unburdening ourselves. In fact, David speaks about it as spreading out your troubles before him. It says, I showed before him my trouble. Katie and I, this past week, we're reading through the book of Isaiah, and it's recording Isaiah, as well as in 2 Kings, the story about King Hezekiah. But King Hezekiah got a nasty letter from an enemy of God, Rabshakeh. In 2 Kings 19, 10 through 14, Rabshakeh is saying, then shall he speak to Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying, let not thy God in whom thou trusteth deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly. And shalt thou be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed? He names all these cities. Where's the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sephirbam, of Hena and Iba? And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. I like that. Is that, I mean, he did that physically. What a precious picture, but what a practical truth that God can read, God can see. And Hezekiah gets this nasty letter from this king saying, don't trust in your God. Where are these other gods who have let down all these other nations? Obviously, Hezekiah knows that God is the true God. But he takes that letter, he opens it up before God and says, God, look. You know, it's a biblical idea. this idea of setting it before God in that sense, saying, Lord, look in and see what it is. We see it in the story of Hezekiah. We see it here in the story with David, but also the early churches, they faced persecution. They're told not to preach or teach in the name of Jesus anymore. And it says in Acts 4.29, they're praying and they said, and now, Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word. Behold, they're threatening. It's as if they're spreading it out before God and saying, God, observe, God, see, God, look and consider. I was across to the pub across our house because it's been bothersome at times. And I was speaking with the man that works there. And he says, what do you want us to do, close? And I said, yeah. He said, well, you got a war on your hands. You know what? I'm glad to say this morning, I don't have a war on my hands. And everybody here knows this is something we've prayed about. We're praying about that pub. But I can spread that out before God and say, God, it's not our battle. It's not our fight. I don't have a war on my hands. But if you want to fight with somebody, as Dr. Bob Jones Sr. said, your arm's too short to box with God. God's able. We can set it there before God and present it to him, spreading out, as it were, our troubles before him. So do we have a complaint? Do we have a complaint? Is there something that's causing us anxiety? It's something that we can go to God and very frankly say, Lord, this is the need. This is what I'm burdened about this morning. We can take it to Him. So the cave would say to us, David trusted God with his complaint. You can trust God with your complaint. And then you can trust God when you're overwhelmed. Verse three says, when my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knowest my path. It was too deep. David was in over his head. It was beginning, as it were, to wash over him. His problems are more than he could bear. It's not that he could sustain them physically. It's not that he had reserves left. It's not that he had anything. He's completely overwhelmed. Joseph Paul said it well in his hymn, "'Does Jesus care?' he said, "'Does Jesus care when my heart is pained "'too deeply for mirth or song? "'As the burdens press and the cares distress, "'and the way grows weary and long. "'Oh yes, he cares, I know he cares. "'His heart is touched with my grief. "'When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, "'I know my Savior cares.'" It's a trial so deep that I can't laugh. Probably everybody in here, especially adults, have passed through some time at a point in their life just like, my joy is gone. It's like, I can't laugh. It's not funny anymore. There's very little things that I enjoy. Eating's no fun. Things that used to bring pleasure, it doesn't satisfy because we're so overwhelmed. We can't sing because our trials have robbed us of our song as well. You think about Job and what he faced in his life. As a righteous man, as one that feared God, and God said to Satan, behold my servant Job, a righteous man. And Satan said, he only loves you, he only serves you because you've given him great wealth, you've given him great health, he's got great family. Take away those things and he's gonna curse you. And God allows it to take place and Job suffers greatly. He loses his family, he loses his wealth, his health, his friends. And yet God sustained Job through the trial, and it says in Job 42, 12, so the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning. It got better. If you were to talk to Job in the trial and ask him, can your life ever be better than it has been, he'd probably say no. But the word of God says it got better for Joe. But I know it didn't replace his family, but his family was in heaven and he had a family on earth. My dad lost, I think most people know, lost his three boys in a car accident. But my dad's got three boys in heaven, he's got two boys and a girl here on earth. God's blessed my dad, God's enriched my dad. Children he'd never have had if it wasn't for God allowing him to go through that trial. So are we overwhelmed this morning? There's something that robs us of our joy, it robs us of our ability to sing. We can take hope this morning. Psalm 30 verse five says, for his anger endureth, but a moment in his favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. There's always that anticipation as a believer. Yeah, it's heavy, but God works, again, from the inside out. God can encourage me and strengthen me. 1 Corinthians 10, 13 says, there is no temptation or trial taking you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted or tried. Above that, you are able, but with the temptation or trial, also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. And it's not just, we apply it a lot of times to sin. And God's not gonna tempt us to sin beyond what we're able, but God doesn't tempt any man to sin. It's a trial, it's a test that God's gonna bear us up through and give us grace to go through that you may be able to bear it. 1 Peter. 419 says wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator. Why are they suffering? We've got a friend right now up in Aberdeen. His wife has cancer on her kidney and she's got to have surgery December 2nd. He's a minister. They're faithfully serving the Lord and yet wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their soul to him and well-doing is unto a faithful creator. Yet there's that recognition in believers' hearts that God's faithful. David's in that cave, he's overwhelmed, but yet he's setting that burden upon the Lord. And so again, the cave would tell us this morning, you can trust God when you're overwhelmed. Being overwhelmed's tough, because the feeling's gone. The sense of God's presence is gone. It's probably what David often cried out, saying, you know, why art thou so far from me? From the words of my roaring, all day long have I cried unto thee, and now here is not. That's the sense of being overwhelmed. And yet he'd remind us to trust God. So you can trust God when you're overwhelmed. You can trust God when you have a complaint. And you can trust God when you have enemies, enemies. It says, in the way wherein I walked, have they privily laid a snare for me. David, why are you in the cave of Adullam? I'm here because there's a wicked king, King Saul, that despises me. It's a man whom I love, a man whom I've served, a man that I was married to his daughter, and yet he hates me, he's despised me, he's put me into this position of seeking my death. So David, are you there because you've been disobedient? No, I'm here because I've been obedient. God anointed me as the next king. And so the position that David is in is only because of somebody else. You know, have you ever had a circumstance, again, in your life where you could say you're, in a sense, a victim? It's not because of a decision you've made, it's not because of a choice that you've made, but it's because of a decision that somebody else made that's affected you. That's David. David's, in that sense, a victim. And yet when David could have avenged himself upon King Saul, it's another cave that we find David in, in the area of En Gedi. But in 1 Samuel 24, beginning at verse one, it says, and it came to pass when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Ein Gedi. Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats. And he came to the sheep coats by the way, where was a cave. And Saul went in to cover his feet, and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave. And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee, behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily. And it came to pass afterward that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's skirt. He said unto his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. So David stayed his servants with these words and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose up out of the cave and went on his way. David, why are you in the cave of Adullam, in this case, the cave of En-Gedi? I'm here because there's a wicked man that hates me, that's seeking my life to kill me. David, is he disobedient to God? He is. David, avenge yourself, and the opportunity comes in. He could take Saul's life, he could take it as it were into his own hands, he could manhandle it, change it so that he's brought to freedom again from a place of bondage that he's been put in by somebody else. But David refuses to do it. He sets it aside, he trusts God, even though he's suffering because of the decisions of somebody else. Do you know we can trust God when we've got enemies? When somebody, we're facing a trial, and it's because, we may not say the word enemy, but we're facing a trial because of the poor decisions of somebody else. Romans 12, 19. We don't have to be burdened about it. We can trust, just like David, we can trust that God's gonna make it right. God's gonna take care of it. God's gonna work it out and be able to, in that place, like David was in, be able to ask God to deal with it. We're reading in our evening family devotions, I mentioned the story of Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor decided to move men through God alone. And you know, the story is that there's a time where he can remind his employer that his pay has not been given to him. But instead of reminding him, he waits three weeks. And then when the man says, oh, by the way, isn't your pay due? Hudson Taylor says, yes, it has been due for these past three weeks. And he thinks, God has answered my prayer because I need the money now. And the man says, well, I wish you would have told me sooner. I've sent all the money that I've got to the bank, but I'll pay you on Monday. And then a rich man comes to the place of business late that night. And the employer's leaving and meets this man at 10 o'clock at night. He comes back in and laughing and saying, why does this rich man feel compelled to pay his bills this late at night? And Taylor laughed about it too, thinking that is odd for somebody so wealthy to do something like that. And then the employer says, by the way, now I can pay you this. I'll give you the rest on Monday. And so he had the money to pay his rent. There's very few people, myself included, that would trust God that implicitly. But that's like David. David could have manipulated, David could have stressed and flexed and set himself free, but he didn't extradite himself from the circumstance. He trusted God to do it. Corey Tinboom, we enjoyed last week watching the story of Corey Tinboom, family hid Jews in, was it Holland? And hid these Jews from the Nazis. And they were arrested, they were put in prison. And we read the story and think, Corey, if only those wicked people hadn't abused you, if only those wicked people hadn't done these awful things, you would have never had to suffer through that. And if she'd never suffered through that, then we wouldn't have had the blessing last week of looking at the faith of somebody that stood strong even though they faced an enormous test because of the decisions of somebody else. And so we can trust God when we have enemies. We can trust God with our complaint. We can trust God when overwhelmed. And you can trust God when you're isolated. You're isolated. You have no human help or sympathy. Verse four. says, I looked on my right hand and beheld, and there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared for my soul. We read about David going to the cave of Adullam, that his parents heard about it, his family heard about it, and all the people that had a problem with King Saul, they heard about it, and they all went there to that cave. And so David, we know, had his army of 400 or so men and mighty men that God in His grace gave David. And yet David, even in that position of having these men, didn't feel like he had a confidant, didn't feel like he had somebody that he could share his burden with. He didn't have somebody that he felt like cared for his need. He was isolated in that place. And I believe as well, Psalms are often messy in it, aren't they? A lot of times you read through Psalm and you'll see David, but you also see Jesus. And that's the case, I believe, in this passage, as you see the isolation of the Savior. You see the Savior in that. Jesus, the Bible says in Matthew 26, 56, But all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. Jesus, when they came to take him away, he lost everybody. And we talked, we spoke briefly about mercy when we looked at the thief on the cross and praise God, there was a thief that identified with Christ on the cross and that's God's mercy. But he's going to the cross all men forsaken. He's isolated as he goes to trial. He's isolated as he's put up on the cross of shame and dies as a thief for us. All the disciples forsook him. And then we know God forsook him as well. Mark 15, 34. At the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, or Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Do you know that in this room, there's nobody that's God forsaken? And in our community, there's nobody that's God forsaken? There's coming a day, yes, there'll be people there, and there are people God forsaken in hell, but hell is the only place where somebody can be truly God forsaken. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? In life, the Bible says, the rain falls on the just and the unjust. This inch of rain that we received last night, everybody received it in our community. The blessing of the sunshine that comes is something that God gives to everybody, doesn't matter whether you're a righteous man or an unrighteous man. You could be somebody that participated in what took place in Paris, or you could be somebody that's a church-going person, but you have the sunshine, you have the blessing of God the same. But just like hell, Jesus Christ on the cross was completely forsaken. And so perhaps, as we read this, we're reading, about David, yes, he was forsaken and he felt no comfort, he was isolated. But certainly, it's a picture of the Lord. And in that position, completely isolated, David had nobody but God. Verse five, he said, I cried unto thee, O Lord. I said, thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. David looked around and he's saying, what have I got? What are my assets? What are, you know, where's my strength? Where's my security? I see nobody. Then he looked up, he looked at his God and he said, I've got God. Thou art my portion. Thou art my refuge in the land of the living. You know, the Levites, as you read about them in scripture, as other people received the inheritance of the promised land, the Levites didn't. In Ezekiel 44, 16 and verse 28, speaking about the Levites, the priests, they shall enter into my sanctuary and they shall come near to my table to minister unto me. And they shall keep my charge and it shall be unto them for an inheritance. I am their inheritance. And you shall give them no possession in Israel. I am their possession. And that's enough. If you're a Levite, you didn't get the land, but you got the God who owned all the land. You possessed him who possessed all things. I am their inheritance. What a precious statement, isn't it? You know, if you have nothing else in life, but you've got God, you've got everything. And if you've got no one else in life, but you've got God, you've got everybody that you could possibly need. Romans 8 31 says, what shall we then say to these things? If God before us, who can be against us? David isolated. Nobody cares. No, I mean, uh, what a, what a lonely condition David found himself in. But in that condition, David wasn't alone because he had God, you know, do you have God this morning? I feel bad for people that are burdened, they're depressed, they're discouraged, they've got no hope, they've got no reason to live and they don't have God because they have nothing. You read about the suicide rate in Scotland, you see how high it is, and you realize there's a lot of hopeless people. There's a lot of people that feel isolated and lonely and don't have any companionship, don't have anybody that cares. But listen, there is a God in heaven that's willing to meet their need, that's willing to be their friend that sticks closer than a brother that the Bible speaks about. He's willing to be their loving father. He's willing to be their comforter, the Holy Spirit, the one that cares about them, encourages them, strengthens them from the inside out. And unbelievers have no idea what that's all about. They've just got their burdens. They've just got their isolation. But as believers, we go to God and say, God, I feel completely isolated. And I feel like nobody really cares about this, but we know as we say that to God, that we've sung it. I know we've sung about it. I can't think which hymn it was in, but he cares. He understands. No one understands like Jesus. And so when you're isolated, you can trust God. You trust God with your complaint or your anxiety. You can trust God when you're overwhelmed. You can trust God when you have enemies. And then you can trust God when you're weak, when you're weak. Verse six, David said, attendant to my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. Like a sick man that can't get up off the bed of sickness because his strength is gone and the enemy's there and David's going down, it's for the last time. I'm weak. He cries out to God for God's strength. You know, how confidently can you do what you know you cannot do? That's faith, isn't it? How confidently can you do what you know of yourself? When you're looking at yourself, you've got your asset list and your strengths and what you've got to do, your responsibilities. You look at it and go, it doesn't equate. I can't do it. It's too great. That's David. David's looking at his little army. He's saying, you know, I got 300 guys. This fellow's got 3,000. I'm hiding in caves. Nobody cares about me. And he feels very alone. He said, I'm weak. Attendant to my cry. And at that point, he trusts God and David doesn't quit. David moves forward. The thing about David, David cut his teeth on enemies that were greater than him. Remember the story of David and Goliath. In 1 Samuel 17, four through seven, it says, there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he had a helmet of brass upon his head. He was armed with a coat of mail. And the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of brass. Have you ever seen those coats of mail? We actually saw something similar at the National Museum. In the National Museum, they had a Roman coat of mail that was all these interlinked pieces of metal. It's extremely heavy, very heavy. So he had that on, 5,000 shekels of brass. He had greaves of brass upon his legs and a target of brass between his shoulders. The staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam and his spearhead weighed 600 shekels of iron and one bearing a shield went before him. So I don't know the shackles and things and so I looked it up. His armor weighed 175 pounds. Okay, I won't tell you how much it weighed but that's more than me. 175 pounds. So it says Goliath's walking around armed with armor that's like carrying a person around. He's nine foot nine inches tall. He's 600 pounds plus and probably He's got a 15 pound spearhead, okay? One stone spearhead and a man in front of him who carried his shield. And David has a sling and a stone. He's going out to fight Goliath. How confident are you when God gives you something that you look at, you know, I can't do this. I can't handle it. It's greater than me when you're weak. David goes into battle against all odds. He returns victorious because he trusted in God in his weakness. You know, this morning, we don't have to look at the odds. I get discouraged looking at the odds of starting a Baptist church in Scotland. If I start considering what's happened in the last 60 years, because we don't have to consider the odds this morning and say, well, you know, it's a very tough thing. It's a very difficult thing. We say, you know, God is able. It's the same for us, we got unsaved neighbor, unsaved friend that we've been praying about for years, begging God to save their soul. And we get burdened about it and say, God, when? But you know, God is able, God's still able, as able today to save anybody. You know, there's nobody within this community that's outside of the power, the grace of God to awaken their heart to the point of salvation. And so, can we trust God when we're weak? It's not easy. When we're weak, that's when, I mean, we feel, completely inadequate to what God's called us to do. But in that position, David just kept his dependence upon the Lord. So we can trust God when we're weak, when we have a complaint, when we're overwhelmed, when we have enemies, when we're isolated. And lastly, the cave might tell us we can trust God when you're in bondage. Verse seven says, bring my soul out of prison that I may praise thy name. David feels like a prisoner. He feels like he's shut in. He can't get out except at nighttime. He has no security if he goes out and about. I mean, there's every chance in the world that his life's gonna be taken. He can't do what he wants to do. David liked to sit in the fields and see the sheep and enjoy the outdoors. And I think reading about David, he's very much an outdoors type person, but he's put in a cave. He's completely isolated. And in that sense, he's in bondage. You know, you might feel this morning like you're in bondage, that some problem or trouble or sin has, or even the punishment of sin, death, is bondage. But you know, Christ sets us free from bondage. Look at an alcoholic. An alcoholic is kept captive by what? Alcohol. Somebody that's in an immoral relationship is kept in bondage by immorality. They're in bondage to their sin. Oh, they brag about it, they might say, but I love it, I want it. I've talked to a guy out in front of a pub, and he says, I love to drink. I said, look, you're enslaved to drink. It's bondage. But the thing is, Christ can set us free. He has the power to break the bonds of sin, those pleasures of sin that are but for a season, that takes us into the bondage to Satan. But the Bible says, Hebrews 2, 14 and 15, For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also likewise himself took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. We talked this morning at Sunday school, death, where is thy sting? Christ is the, he's the God of the rapture, he's the God of the resurrection. He's the one that's gonna take the corruptible and give incorruption. He's gonna take mortality and give immortality. But this flesh can't go without the transforming change of the power of God and the grace of God. And somebody that's still in their sin, they're in bondage. And that sin is gonna take them to hell, but Christ can set them free. That through death he might destroy him that had the power of the death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Are you afraid of death? If you die today, where would you go? If it's hell, you ought to fear death. But by the grace of God, Christ can give you life through his shed blood on the cross for your sin and by faith in him. You know, David, he's in bondage, but he's completely trusting in the Lord. And he says, he ends the psalm with this phrase, the righteous shall compass me about, for thou shalt deal bountifully with me. Did that take place? Praise God it did. David didn't spend his life in the cave. That was temporary. David spent his life leading the children of Israel with great liberty, great freedom, and the keys to the kingdom. He was given them because of his dependence upon God. Again, if the cave of Bedouin could speak to us this morning, it would remind us that you can trust God when you've got a complaint. Maybe something that's just anxiety, a burden that you've had, and it's just a continual something on your plate. And we can cast that upon the Lord. We can trust God when we're overwhelmed, when it's too great for us, when we have enemies, when we're isolated, when we're weak, and when we're in bondage because we've got a God that is faithful and He's worth trusting, isn't He? And so may God just encourage us to take those circumstances to God in dependence upon Him. Let's pray. Father, perhaps this morning somebody is not saved and they've never trusted in Jesus Christ for their salvation. Father, we pray that today would be the day that they know the joy of being able to go to you in time of trial, in time of difficulty because they enter into a relationship with you as their father. Father, those of us that are saved, I pray that the Spirit of God help us not to carry burdens we ought not carry, and certainly not to turn away from you in unbelief when the trials are pressing upon us. Father, may your Spirit give us grace to remember that when we're in circumstances beyond our control, that you care. When we are isolated, you care. When we have a complaint, you care. And in all these situations of life, we can trust you. And we thank you for this passage this morning. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.