Thank you so much. How's it going everyone? Good morning. Well, my name is Chris Britton
and it's always a pleasure to get the opportunity to just break open God's Word. And I'm excited
because it's week two of our exciting series, Topographical. All right, Topographical.
And in the sermon I will reveal a, you know, because when we come up with some of the names
for these, Greg or somebody will introduce some, like we actually think about this stuff, y'all,
but we'll be like, what about this name? What about this name? What about this name?
But I'll tell you, Pastor Jen, there was a name I didn't put out there, but I'm going to reveal
it to you all. But I knew it wouldn't make the list. Well, some of those things. But this series
is all about exploring some of the fascinating places that are mentioned in the Bible.
And we're going to uncover not just, you know, where they're at and show you some maps just for
the fun of it to take you back to a geography class. But we're going to dive into some of the
stories in those locations, some of the things that went down there. And hopefully what will
happen is that you'll discover how they still hold meaning for us today. They're not just stories,
but we can learn because sometimes location doesn't matter. Location matters when you respond to some
things. There's in my classroom a lot of times, you know, I work at an alternative school with
students and a lot of students don't just wake up and say, I want to go to alternative school
one day. So in the classroom at the beginning of the school year, I'm like, yo, we don't have to
front. Like you're at this location for a reason, but I'm not going to beat your head over every
single day. But does you, so I start off my semester, my semester sometimes and I ask a question,
does where you're at determine how you end up? And a lot of them say, no, no, no. And I'm like,
so you understand going into this school year because you're here doesn't determine how it has
to be here for you. It doesn't mean that you have to fit all the stereotypes because you're at an
alternative school. And I say, what do you, because you're at this location, what do people think of
you? Like, oh, we're stupid. We just fight. We do this blah, blah, blah. Are some of the things true
that have happened? They'd be like, well, yeah. But does that mean because you're at this location,
it still has to continue that way. So location matters how we respond to some things. It matters
how we respond to some questions that we might be asked. If you're at a birthday party with somebody
and somebody asks you a specific question versus if you're just at home and someone asks you through
a text, a lot of times you might feel a little bit more comfortable answering with a text.
Or not even responding to the text. Amen. So location matters. Location and proximity matter.
But one of the cool things about your pastoral staff here, I've never said that, but
we've all had the opportunity individually to be at some of these biblical places. Some of this
through travel and some of it through master's degree programs. But as we talked about it,
going into this series, we were just excited to be able to pinpoint some of the places that we've
been at and unpack some of those things collectively with our church. So again, I mentioned this before,
but we live in a day and age where people don't just have to respond to one another face to face.
Back in the day, you just had the option of a phone call if you could reach them, if they were
right there where the phone was connected and plugged into the wall into some of these old
houses your kids might be like, what is that box underground for? What is that? Can I hook my Xbox
to that thing? But now we have the opportunity to have what some would say Twitter fingers.
We can respond on social media to things. We can be like as crazy as we want to be sometimes,
or we can just feel empowered because we're not face to face. Right? But because of that, there's
some funny things that happen sometimes. Like there's companies that get involved in some of
this online bickering, like Burger King versus McDonald's at one time. Burger King tweeted,
we flame grill our burgers. Can't beat that smoky taste. McDonald's response, our burgers speak for
themselves. No flame grilling necessary. I don't know about that comeback, but that was their
their clap back. Tesla and Porsche. Tesla said electric cars are the future. Get on board.
Porsche response, we've been going fast for decades, electrifying the present. Classy comeback.
Some of y'all will appreciate this one. Taco Bell had some beef, no pun intended, with Chipotle.
Taco Bell was feeling feisty one day to start this, to start it off. We've got the crunchiest
tacos in town. You can't resist. Chipotle, we are all about fresh ingredients and real flavors.
No compromises, or I would have put no porta potties needed, you know, to get our stuff. But I know
some people are like, I really like Taco Bell. But in life, right, sometimes we do not have that
luxury to respond in that way. We might be faced with things that we have to face head on. And we
don't have time to think of a clever tweet. We won't have time to think of like, ooh, and edit
to our liking. You know, because now we can sit on it for a whole day and come back to it and be
like, yeah, it's time to post it now. But what happens in life when you have these circumstances
that are difficult that you have to make quick decisions that you have to, and where you're at
in proximity to the people and the people that are around you. Sometimes you want to, you feel like
who wants to be a millionaire when you're just like, can I make a phone call real quick?
You know, you want to tap into some lifelines, but what if you just have to make a decision?
That is big. Well, today we're going to focus on two places. And anybody ever heard of a guy
named David in the Bible? Sweetie. Yep. He's like, yeah, that's my boy. But we're going to focus on
two places where David, he kind of had to make some quick decisions about what he was going to do.
And the first one is very familiar. The second one, sometimes not so much familiar, but the first
one, there's tons of coloring books and messages about all this stuff and all that, you know,
facing your giants, plenty of things like that. That's the title of my message. No, it's not. I
would never do that. But David was a young lad. And as he was a young, budding leader, he made
a quick enemy of King Saul. King Saul did not enjoy David. And we're going to talk about what
that led to in the showdown at a place called the NGetty. Can y'all say NGetty? NGetty. It's just fun
to say. But the first place that we'll go to, we'll show the first slide, please. Boom, boom.
We are here. But so Israel, right at the tip of that red arrow, there's a lot of action that
took place in that little small slice of pizza. A lot of stuff that we read about things of that
nature went down there. And that's where we'll find, you know, David, young David being obedient
to his father and his brothers were at war with King Saul. And there was some drama going down.
And David happened to be kind of just delivering his brother some food. And he made a decision
to get with the business that day. Meaning like he felt kind of frisky. He needed to get and
engage the drama in a way where he was victorious. We'll go to the next slide, please. And yeah,
I know we got kids in the building. So we just put a sad face right there. But I was, I was there.
I'm not holding what young David was holding. I just hold my bottle of water, which is very
important when you're out there. But you can't really see it. But we, on one of the first days
when my cohort for the master's program, we hiked up, that looks like I'm, this doesn't look like
I'm tired at all. But I really was rejoicing that I had water left for the way down. And it was our
first day. And we went on this hike. And when you're, when you're on one of these kind of
excursions, you know, you're trying to soak up everything that you can. And I called my professor
at the time, I call him Indiana Jones, because he was so excited to show us everything, which was
cool. But when you got to walk everywhere like that, your body's like, this ain't cool. So you're
itching to go to all of these places. But it's like, it's just around the corner. You know,
people say it's just around the corner. It's not really around the corner. It is around the corner,
but it's not really around the corner. So in the upper right, you'll see that this, this stream
went through. And the stream went through and there was this valley there. Later on, actually,
when we were up there, they had discovered some ruins of a little place that David had built
later on in his life when he was king, that would overlook this battleground where he was victorious.
You know, when you're a king, you can do some things like that. Yeah, can I have a place where
it's a reminder of the good things that had happened in his life? So anyway, there's this
valley that this big showdown had took place. And we'll go to the next slide, please.
And I actually took these photos, I didn't know what I was doing. And my camera was like
overheating like crazy. So I just was trying to take some pictures. But where that big stone is,
that actually it was very dry there. But that was the stream that ran through where David would have
been able to go down and take some of those rocks. I smuggled some rocks on too. But as you hear the
story sometimes you hear about King Saul's army hiding. So I was looking, where would I hide if I
was here? And I looked around and I saw these bushes up there. I was like, I would be hiding
I would be hiding up there. Right? All right, you is kind of like a bowl, if you will. So you could,
you could definitely the pictures doesn't give the size of the shrubs and stuff. But you can see some
foot trails up there, where it would have been a group of people that would have been able to hide
that way. So King David, I'm sorry, as Dave young David was delivering some food to his brothers,
he heard Goliath right there in that middle valley. And he did the whole famous David versus Goliath
thing. David got the stone. And he did the thing and killed, you know, unlife Goliath and took him
out. Now as a result of that, you would think that the king would be happy.
But the thing King Saul was not says Saul has killed people made mixtapes about it. Well,
there was a song that the people would sing. And people would say, Saul has killed his thousands.
And David, his 10,000s. It's a really catchy hook to this Bible verse. You can hear the song right
now. Saul has killed his thousands and David his 10,000s in the scripture saying first Samuel
8, this made Saul very angry. So Saul went straight to Twitter.
Actually, he didn't. He just hated him and he let it be known. He really did let it be known.
We'll go to the next slide, please.
And if you can look up there, you see, and this isn't how I can say like I was really
there just because my picture is on there. But I put like, oh, you were there. But I am in the
location where the battle would have taken place. And like most of us, if there was a king after us
with the whole army, what would you do? Y'all seen the new Flash movie? You know, you get out of it.
So David had a nice little following right now. You know, comparatively, King Saul and, you know,
I don't know, David might have had more followers than King Saul at the time and stuff like that.
He was getting more popular. But David had a group of people as well and they retreated to this place
called the En Gedi. If you go to the next slide, please. And it's worth noting, I know Pastor Jan
mentioned it before, sometimes when we read these scriptures, we can go from one verse to the next
verse. And it sounds so easy, like it's just around the corner. But from being over there
experiencing the heat and the terrain and the ruggedness, you have to be pretty disciplined,
you have to be pretty self-conscious. And you have to take care of yourself to get around to these
places. So David retreated to the En Gedi. And if you can see that, the white water junction,
that body of water right there, there's actually no white water junction. It's the Dead Sea. Why
do they call it the Dead Sea? It's not even a joke. There's nothing that can live in there.
You're like, why? What's that? It's so salty and it hurts when you get in there too.
You know how salt heals wounds and stuff? So imagine like a deeper concentrate of salt and
you just have a paper cut and you're like, let me go into the Dead Sea. And you're like, ah!
So somebody joked when we got in there that was like, hey man, it's gonna hurt you, man.
Any kind of open thing that you got? And I'm like, man, I don't got nothing. And yeah,
you go in there and it... Yeah, you find out. Your body's like here, here, here, and then other
places. But because of the salty concentration, it kind of just lifts you up. Somebody said, hey man,
just let it be a lazy boy and it'll recline you. And I did it. And you're just like, this is so
cool. But then when your head gets back, you automatically want to... And then it gets in
your eye. That's a whole nother sermon right there. So we had someone that... There's always
some people that just, for whatever reason, they don't want to listen to the locals.
And they was trying to splashy swim and they couldn't really swim. And they didn't really
want to do the lazy boy recliner thing. And they tried to fight it and turn. And then their head
went in to the thing and some of the locals just backed away. Later on, I said, why you back away?
They was like, because all that stuff was gonna get in our face. We wasn't even gonna be able
to see and help her. So I went in, because I grew up off Baywatch and... The Dead Sea edition.
But the Dead Sea, there was a person that wrote about that area in that region,
in the Enghetti. And this is what they had to say about it. There's a blogger named Wayne Stiles.
He said, ancient travelers who made their way along the shores of the Dead Sea would no doubt
shake their heads when they saw it. Because most likely they'd ask, how could so much water stand
in such a barren place and none of it be drinkable? Before the obliteration of Sodom and Gomorrah,
the Jordan Valley looked like the garden of the Lord, says Genesis 13 10. But afterwards,
even the many springs that bubbled beside the Dead Sea tasted too salty to swallow.
The plentiful waters gave nothing in the way of sustenance. They only offered a spiritual
prompt of the need to take God seriously. And against this kind of depressing backdrop
of death and desperation flows the Enghetti. The Enghetti is over there. And in all honesty,
like exaggeration fails to describe the relief, if you're in that place, the relief that the
Enghetti would have given to the weary traveler. And even today, the Oasis offers refreshment for
the locals and tourists like us. I had a video to show, it wasn't happy with me. But you can go to
the next slide, please. So a big question is, why did David go from a fearless warrior to becoming
a professional in the hide and seek? He was trying to be a professional in the hide and seek. He was
trying not to be found. He was out of there. He was like, I did that thing, but now I'm out of here.
Come find me. You know what I mean? So it's kind of funny because you hear about the heroics of
David, but this kind of begs a question where we see David and what if retreat is stronger than your
gut response? What if everything doesn't get handled in the way where you kill something
and say, look, and what if David showed an alternative way to get to a place where he needed to be so he
can be refreshed, figure things out before he tried to respond to this situation? And he actually let
the situation come to him. But as we were tourists, and you can go to the next slide, please, as
tourists on this, this is a picture that I took because the Engedi was not on our trip plan.
And I want to be honest with you, and the video would have showed this. I'm kind of glad it didn't
work. Very revealing because I was upset when I was taking the video. We had just spent time at
the Dead Sea, and we was out there. And really the rule of thumb was we're going to get up very early.
We'll go on our bus. And we had to be very just like when he opens the bus door, say, let's go.
Let's get to the place, do what we got to do. And after like noon, you want to eat and go to
and just chill for the rest of the time. And we'll talk about it. We'll do our homework and stuff
like that. But we didn't want to be out there at 1 o'clock or 2 or 3. So it was about that time.
In Indiana Jones, he said, oh, I know this isn't on there, but how many of you want to go to the
Engedi? And I was just like, man, my Bible knowledge was like, I don't even know where that's at, bro.
Like, let's keep going. And there was people that were like, oh, the Engedi, the Engedi.
And he called the audible and he said, hey, he was talking to the bus driver. And then I realized
that we're pulling into the Engedi. So he says, hey, if you guys don't want to go, it's probably
it's around the corner. We're going to go see this waterfall. It's around the corner.
It's about a 30 minute walk, just 30 minutes walk. So I'm not very good at math, but I was like,
dang, 30 that way and then 30 back. And I know we're going to stay there and probably do a Bible
study and pray or something. And then I do that. So I'm factoring like 30, 30, 30,
hour and a half out there with me. I'm like, I'm cool. I'm staying on here. And I was trying to
be like a leader to see if people follow people that follow Chris Britton that day. They follow
Indiana Jones. So I'm on the bus. Somebody say, hey, you coming, man? And I was like, all right,
let me let me go out here with my bad attitude. So I grabbed my camera and I'm in the back and
I'm just taking the pictures. So I'm taking the pictures because I'm kind of mad that my group was
way up there. They was leaving me. And I'm like, they don't even care. I'm out here. Something
could happen to me. I'm tired. And then my camera was like overheating. I never knew it even had
that the words on the screen like that. It just was hot. It was like going off. So I was I tucked
it under my arm. And I'm just like, then you sometimes you go and you get to that point of no
return where it's like, I don't know where I'm at. If I turn around, I don't even know if the bus
is still there. So I got to catch these fools going up this thing. And every time we just kept
going up and I turn around the corner, they're going up and I'm running out of water.
When people say waterfall, you can go to the next slide, please.
You say waterfall. I don't do no justice, but just sometimes to look at these. But in this picture,
I like it the most because it kind of show you some of the depths of where we were going to a
little bit as you look at the pictures. So our tour bus went in and that big circle was like,
you know, they make some things touristy. They had a snack shop right down there. But then it says
like, you're kind of on your own when you start walking after this gate. And in there, we all
these little twists and turns until you end up in where that red circle is that you go to the next
slide, please. Now, in the video, you hear me saying like, why do we keep passing these little
waterfalls? Why I thought I was like, man, it seemed like he was going to take us swimming at
first because I'm like, I can hear water. And every time I turn the corner, I hear water, I'd be
excited. But there'd be tourists and kids playing in there happy. And then I will look up and
Indiana Jones is still walking higher. And I'm like, what? So we keep going up and up and up.
So the picture on the top left is like these little kids are having so much fun. And I just wanted to
be like, hey, y'all, like, let me come down there and just hang out with y'all. But they kept going
until that picture right under the scripture, first Samuel 2329 says David hid in the cave
at the end Getty when running from Saul. So I'm going up, I finally catch up to one of the
professors that was towards the back. He asked me if I was okay. I think I lied and say, yeah, I'm
good. And but this fresh mist was blowing. And I'm like, man, what's around this corner, man? He was
like, this is where we're trying to take you guys. And it was like a Disney movie when I turned the
corner. I literally felt like the birds were singing to me. They were everything was so beautiful.
There was birds flying in and out of the cave. And there was kids playing in this big mist that
just filled this whole place. You were like in this refreshing place. And along the sides of it
under the waterfalls, you see little divots. And I was like, I'm not going in there, but
this is cool because I could see how David obviously would have tried to follow this water
flow because that's the only thing that was given life out there. And over and over, if you've seen
the video, I've say it too much. But at that location, it makes sense. I kept saying like,
oh, I need this living water, the living water. I understand why if Jesus said I have this living
water, water really meant something. It was life. It gave life. My head was throbbing when I got up
there. And there was a video that I put in there and they have this waterfall. And then they have
this chain. I think it says don't cross this line. I couldn't read it. It says don't cross this line.
I couldn't read it though. So I stepped over it and I went under the waterfall for just a moment.
And I'm not making this up just for today. It's because we in church nothing. But after about 10
minutes, my headache went away. I felt totally refreshed. I was soaking wet and dry by the time
I got back to the bus. However, on the way down, I experienced this peace like all this water
and all this grumbling I did up here. And I felt like I was on this journey where David reached
this place where he spent some time with God there. He was refreshed. So when King Saul picked up the
GPS and found out where he was and sent people, and we'll go to sorry about that. I'll read this
very quickly. But this is what happened. David gets into this situation that's kind of goofy.
But check this out. So when Saul returned from following the Philistines,
he was told, behold, David is in the wilderness of the En Gedi. Somebody dropped his location.
Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all of Israel to go seek David. Saul didn't, he didn't like them.
If somebody say 3,000 people for you, Chris, you're a bad man. 3,000? 3,000 people. It says,
now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men of David said to him,
here is the day of which the Lord said to you, behold, I will give your enemy into your hand,
and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you. Then David arose and I'll skip the little
part. Well, King Saul goes into one of the caves. They ended up going up there, and I'm guessing,
and when you go there and you look at all the vegetation, you look at all the green,
you know there's a path of water. You're going to know. People are like, how do they know David
was up there? David's going to be where the water's at. So they're figuring that David's not going to
be out at the Dead Sea. We're going to keep following this thing up until we find him.
So funny thing that happens is King Saul and his men, they go up there, and then King Saul
needs a porta potty. He had Taco Bell or something. But King Saul goes into the cave that David and
his boys were hiding at, and the Bible cutely says to relieve himself. And David's guys are like,
yo, this is time, bro. Like, look at this. God just gave them to you right on the toilet.
That's a good God. And David says he stealthily went and cut the corner of Saul's robe off. Go
to the next slide, please. 1 Samuel 24, Saul entered to the cave where David and his men were
hiding, and David cut off part of Saul's robe while Saul relieved himself. That is a real scripture.
That's a good memory verse for the kids. He cuts off part of the robe. Why would he do that?
And we see
all of David's guys was probably stunned, but afterwards David's, after David had struck him,
he cut off his robe. He said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this
to my Lord, lowercase l, I should point that out, the capital L, Lord's anointed,
to put my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed. So David persuaded his men
with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up, that's funny,
and left the cave and went on his way. And afterwards, see the story could have ended
right here and have been like, no, this is really, this is cool. Like he could have, but David,
he showed himself. It said after my Lord, the King, and Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his
face to the earth and paid homage. And David said to Saul, why do you listen to the words of men
who say, behold, David seeks your harm. Behold, this day, your eyes have seen how the Lord gave
you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you, bro.
I said, I will not put my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. See my father,
see the corner of your robe in my hand, for by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe
and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have
not sinned against you, though you hunt my life with 3000 dudes. May the Lord judge between me
and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. David,
I believe because he chose to retreat to be refreshed, to get his mind right, he realized,
I could kill him. I don't have to kill him. I want to do what God is calling me to do in this
situation. Even when his voice was like, bro, like he's right there, go ahead and take him out.
And David didn't even listen to his guys. He's like, yeah, you're right, but that's not what
I'm supposed to do today. And not only that, all right, we see in the story where David lifted up
the head. In this case, David lifted up the Yeezys. No, I'm just playing. But he lifted up the garment
and to me, I was talking to somebody about, I was like, that shows to me the same amount of strength
killed Goliath just by lifting this because the power was in his hands to take someone's life in
that situation as well. Next slide is just for the kids. You can try to make this at home with the
Legos, do Bible study. I'm going to try to make this at home with the Legos, do Bible study.
The brick testament is really cool. I'm not going to go really long on that one. Okay, let's go to
the next slide. But as I walk down, as I walk down, hey, we got the kids in here now, so we're trying
to have some fun. Some of y'all can be like, I could tell you were a youth pastor.
At the end of the day, I think that we can learn a lot from this because there's sometimes we
need to get to a place or location around people in the presence of God that can help to recharge
us, to help us get to the place that we need to be. And so I think that's the way that we can
get to a place or location in the presence of God that can help to recharge us, to help to motivate
us, to help us to think deeper than that gut response when we face adversities or other things
in life that just kind of smack us right in the face because I don't know about you, but if you
know that there's some people that are after you for something, your gut response is to get away
and everybody around is probably going to agree with you. And I'm like, yeah. And even in this
case, David, I believe gained a lot of his strength from retreating to this location,
the location that gave him time to be refreshed in this kind of an oasis and this verse.
So you can go to the next slide, please.
Leave us the last slide. Is there any more slides? All right. But one thing that as I walked down
to go back to the bus and I just was kind of rejoicing, I was thinking about when we have
time in the location of God's goodness or in a place, wherever that is, I know some people
set up places in their homes where they can relax or some people might have to go to the
certain place. I know somebody that used to live in very hard circumstances and sometimes the only
place that was their oasis was the bathroom. I know it sounds funny and I'm not trying to actually
be funny because that, you know, is a part of the story that happened was all relieving himself.
But sometimes there was a person that told me sometimes there was things in the house that
was so crazy. When I went to the bathroom, that was the only place nobody wanted to mess with me.
They'd be like, oh, we're not going in there. And I was sometimes like, oh,
we're not going in there. And I would sometimes have to pretend like I'm doing something, but I'm
not. I'm just getting peace. And when I leave the bathroom, I go back and I could be in a better
space. But that's what I believe the fruits of the spirit. We see that with David in his life as he
grew up to be an awesome leader. And David wasn't perfect. We didn't understand that, but neither
did we. However, we do see David's fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, those things that you can't go to Dollar General
and just pick up. How do you get those? When I used to be in the U.S., how do you get that? How do
you get that? And there's no easy way. And that's when we do need the spirit of God to bring that
within us so we can display that. And I'll close with these last thoughts.
Let's consider areas in our lives where we can cultivate greater fruitfulness. Are there areas
where we can bear more of the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control? How can we as individuals or even as a community commit to
nurturing these fruits within ourselves and sharing them with others? Secondly, like David,
how can we seek out our own life-giving oasis? What does that mean for you?
Where can we find solace or where can we find renewal? Where can we find a place, a location,
a space where we can connect with God in the midst of some of the hardships of life?
Or how can you identify a place and make it a priority to retreat to them
instead of offering that gut response sometimes that we do very often? And lastly,
let's honestly assess where we are drawing our strength from.
Right? If I'm in that situation with David in the cave, I probably would have listened to my voice.
Yeah, you're right. It makes sense to me. Why am I just going to take some of his clothes?
Like I could just get rid of the whole problem right now and it's done.
But where are you drawing your strength from? Are we relying on sources of energy,
are we relying on sources that may leave us empty or parched, or are we continually drinking from
the well that would be God's living water? And my prayer is that we can be reminded to draw our
strength, our sustenance and guidance from God, allowing his presence to flow through every aspect
of our life. So in conclusion, as we leave today, I pray that we can strive for greater fruitfulness
and intentionally seek life-giving oasis in our life, draw strength from God's living water,
and find solace in the safe places that he provides. May our lives be a testament
to his transformative presence. Let's pray. God, I thank you for your word. I thank you, God, that
you provide some of these stories that sometimes they seem goofy, sometimes they seem just so
far-fetched for us, but I pray that within some of the funny stuff today that we can find ourselves,
Lord, wanting and desiring to draw closer to you. And may we leave this place, Lord, just
encouraged and searching and exploring for places that we can find a personal oasis to connect with
you. In your name I pray. Amen.