THE SANDCASTLE AUTHOR GUARDIAN Do you see what...
THE SANDCASTLE
AUTHOR GUARDIAN
Do you see what I see ?
Do you hear what I hear ?
We die so that Jesus might live in us,
Jesus was born to die for us to live
The maker of the world and all that we see was born as a baby on this planet that He
might now be born in our hearts, that we might be raised up with Him
Try to visualise yourself walking along the shore line, imagine as you walk along
a sandy shore on a summers day and picture in your mind as you walk along this sandy shore
line looking towards the sea the blue sky and waves lashing and grabbing at the shore
As you picture this scenario in your mind now close your eyes and picture a sandcastle
Have you got that picture in your mind ?
The bible is full of pictures , parables, stories, illustrations and examples as the
Holy Spirit throws imaginations into our minds so that we might capture a part of the
message God is revealing to us at a specific time
A picture can tell a multitude of words and reveal to us a message so that we might begin
to grasp and comprehend a simple message
And so now at this time you are picturing a sandcastle ?
Ok so as you look at this sandcastle...ask the question...."How did the sandcastle get
there ? "
Simple question and yet even the scolars , theologians and scientists fail to see the
fingerprints of God in creation
Some fail to see the moulding, shaping and crafting of the creator and go to great lengths
to describe how creation came about WITHOUT God
How silly it may seem to a child to explain the sandcastle was formed by the waves and winds
and the angle of the rain beating down
Or to say " It simply happened by chance "
And yet many believe the scientist or the scolar and go about their business as if
"All is well "
You would never believe a sandcastle got there by accident ..would you ?
And yet many still go along with the falseness of a life that just "happened by chance"
"A world that formed by accident when a nucleus and mass of atoms and particals exploded
to form space , time and this planet and ultimately "You and me "
Denying God and the maker as Lord of Life is in itself a contradiction
Denying God is in itself admitting there is a God
Why would you deny a God that did'nt exist ?
Why would you go to such great lengths to deny a God that did'nt exist ?
The athiest can be the spokesperson of many who deny God in their hearts in silence
Millions deny access to God and yet their words remain unspoken
The Athiest speaks out and lets the world know "THERE IS NO GOD "
Why do that ? if He did'nt exist in the first place ?
Would I deny the existence of the sandcastle on the beach ? .....well some do
Would I deny that the sandcastle was formed by a maker ?....well some do
But God is still God whatever people say or think...He is not affected by their
thoughts or words in that He is still the same forever throughout eternity
However what God thinks of people certainly affects their future
Rather than placing weight on what we might think of God we ought to place
more weight on what God thinks of us, as this affects our life now and in after
God moulded us in His image,He continues to shape us..
Cut from the same cloth..
God looks down all on the earth and views the hearts of people made in His image
to see if there are any that might have hearts that can be moulded to be more like Him
To see if there are any that might be willing to do His will and walk in His ways
He searches peoples hearts and His eyes view and cut deep into the heart
Life is so short like the sand falling between the fingers of a persons hand
The hour glass is emptying, the time is short....God says "Do you see what I see ? "
If you remember nothing else about this message...remember the picture of the
sandcastle and remember the hands that formed it
Lord God in Jesus name we speak to you and we ask that your precious blood that was
shed would cleanse us and make us right with you
We know that there is nothing we can do to make us right with yourself apart from
coming to you through Jesus and by His blood
Nothing we can do can ever make us right with yourself, no blood shed nor works done
can ever make us righteous, apart from the blood of Jesus and the works of yourself
No clever theology nor way with words nor blinding science can ever say a word that
even matches your glory or wisdom
We can never be good and even our best deeds are as filthy rags to you, only through
the blood of Jesus and the cleansing of your precious blood can we enter into your prescence.
Only through Jesus name can we be made right and you look at us and see Jesus who payed
the price and you look at us and see Jesus and say " with you I am well pleased "
We come to you for protection and guidance Lord and we hide in you
Deliver us from the enemy, let the Goliath sword cut the cloth of the persuer
Let our enemies be scattered and let your right hand be known
In Jesus name amen
We come to Psalm 52,53 and 54
firstly lets focus on Psalm 53
Psalm 53 (New International Version)
For the director of music. According to mahalath. A maskil of David.
1 The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."
They are corrupt, and their ways are vile;there is no one who does good.
2 God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
3 Everyone has turned away,they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,not even one.
4 Will the evildoers never learn—those who devour my people as men eat bread
and who do not call on God?
5 There they were, overwhelmed with dread,where there was nothing to dread.
God scattered the bones of those who attacked you;
you put them to shame, for God despised them.
6 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!When God restores the fortunes
of his people,let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!
Now Psalm 53 is a duplication in Gods word of which there are many and if you turn to
Psalm 14 you will find the identical Psalm
Except for verse 5
In psalm 14 verse 5, David or God speaks of "The frustrate the plans of the oppressed, but the Lord
will protect His people "
Here God may well have been speaking of leading the chosen people through the Red Sea and we
see that the persueing enemies were drowned in the waters but that Gods people came
through and were saved
In Psalm 53 verse 5, ...the Psalm speaks of "God scattering the bones of His enemies and putting
to shame those who reject Him or rejecting them"
You can read about this in 2 Kings 19 where the assyrians attacked Judah and God threw
away the bones
In as much as they reject Him ...He rejects them
These are the two slight differences between Psalms 14 and 53
God knows all things and crafts the heart of His people...His people
we hide in Him in the shadow of His protection
Cut from the same cloth
We take our Goliath sword and we fight the good fight
Lets look at some cross references to Psalm 53
Psalm 33:13-15
New International Version
From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind;
Psalm 33:13-15 (New American Standard Bible)
13The LORD looks from heaven:He sees all the sons of men;
14From His dwelling place He looks out On all the inhabitants of the earth,
15He who fashions the hearts of them all,He who understands all their works.
Romans 3:10 (New International Version)
10As it is written:"There is no one righteous, not even one;
Psalm 44:7
New International Version
but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame.
Psalm 14:7
Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes
of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad
And so we go back one Psalm to Psalm 52 and we learn about Doeg the edomite
This is where we are at in Psalm 52, Gods speaks of Doeg the Edomite here in Psalm 52,
David says to Saul " David has gone to see Ahimelech the hight priest "
And In Psalm 52 David is fleeing from Saul, to the High Priest
Ahimelech, and this is where David eats the showbread, and David was given the sword of
Goliath in 1 Samuel 21:7
Lets read
And so we first read of Doeg the Edomite in 1 Samuel 21:7 as we read
1 Samuel 21
New International Version
David at Nob
1David went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he met him, and asked,
“Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?”
2David answered Ahimelech the priest, “The king charged me with a certain matter and said
to me, ‘No one is to know anything about your mission and your instructions.’ As for my
men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place.
3Now then, what do you have on hand?
Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.”
4But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is
some consecrated bread here—provided the men have kept themselves from women.”
5David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenevera I set out. The
men’s thingsb are holy even on missions that are not holy.
How much more so today!” 6So
the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread
of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the
day it was taken away.
7Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the Lord; he was Doeg the
Edomite, Saul’s head shepherd.
8David asked Ahimelech, “Don’t you have a spear or a sword here? I haven’t brought my sword
or any other weapon, because the king’s business was urgent.”
9The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of
Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there
is no sword here but that one.”
David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”
Here Saul orders the death of Ahimelech and all his company and Doeg the edomite
kills the high priest Ahimelech and all with him
Now there was a city called Nob, it was known as the city of priestsand Saul goes ahead with
his armies and attacks Nob and kills all the priests, men , women and children.
Now you might see this through human eyes and hear this through human ears but the question
we should be asking is "did they know God ? " and what was the fate of Saul ?
What will happen in eternity ? these are the questions we should ask
Briefly we shall look into the life and heart of Doeg the Edomite and see what kind of man
he was...
Doeg was a learned man a scolar, he could argue his way and had the gift of the gab as
they say in modern language.
An intelligent man and well versed , but his heart was not in the right place
Just because someone knows the scriptures well does not mean a thing
Simply because someone can recite scripture and speak as if they know God does not mean a
thing
Even the devil himself can do that..
Instead look around the person and see the followers, view the fruit, study who they are
pointing too, watch what affect they have on those around, look under their words,
discern and see through their eyes, listen to what God is saying to you about that person.
So we see Doeg saying and singing the praises of David as he speaks to Saul, but the
motives are to make Saul who is already mad with jealousy even more jealous and angry
And we see not only wrong motives but thoughts becoming actions as he goes ahead and
murders as instructed Ahimelech and his company
Doeg was like the man walking on the shore who failed to see the fingerprints of the maker
or the maker of the sandcastle or he may have seen but denied in his heart
For why would you deny someone that does'nt exist ?
______________________________________________________
Now Psalm 54 and in Psalm 54
David hiding
Now we turn to Psalm 54 where David runs to the cave of Adullam and we can read
about his in 1 Samuel 22
The cave of Adullam among the hills of Judah was near to the place where David
had slain the giant Goliath situated near Bethlehem.
And here we see David with the very sword that had slain the Giant Goliath given to him
by the high priest Ahimelech before he was killed by the unbelieving and jealous Doeg
And so David maybe still with the sword of Goliath runs in haste from Saul
to a hill about 500 feet high where we find numerous caverns, these were large caverns
pitted into the hill fortified by Rehoboam, these caverns were one of many places
fortified by Rehoboam against attacks from Egypt , 2 Chr. 11:7
Here we find David seeking refuge and haven in the cave of Adullam, a place where David
could find solitude and rest, peace and a time of seeking his God
In fact the name "Adullam" means "refuge"
Here David seeks refuge not in a cavern but in his God
But it was not long before Davids family joined him and many other followers
This place that was the sanctuary and haven for David soon became full, the place that was
once empty became a place of refuge and a sanctuary for many
In 1 Samuel :1-2 we read that many discontented men, men that were in trouble, men that
were in debt, men that were on the run and men that were seeking came to David and had
heard of where David was until the cavern was full with some 400 men
This Adullam, the place of refuge, the fortress, the haven the sanctuary , the fortified cavern,
became the place where David sought the Lord and enquired of the Lord
This was Davids Hiding place, this was Davids Fortress, this became the refuge for many
and a fortress for those who were discontented
Never judge an empty place, for that which is empty God can use, for that which seems
barren can become full, God can make something from nothing
And so this haven that was empty became full as people sought God and sought refuge
Do you see what I see ?
Do you hear what I hear ?
This is what Psalm 54 is about
God will scatter the bones of the enemy and He save those who cross over from
death to life and swallow up death
The Doeg of unbelief will walk past the sandcastle of the maker and deny the hands
of the maker and not see the fingerprints of He who made it, they shall look at creation
but deny the creator
The David believer will see the sandcastle and know the maker and see the marks
They shall seek refuge in the cavern of Adallum and it shall become full
But the Doeg and unbeliever shall not see nor hear and their eyes shall become dull,
and they shall become corrupted and shallow in their thinking as a stream compared
to the sea
They shall not see nor hear and will follow after false things and be misdirected
But the wise shall seek the cavern of the Lord and the refuge and their eyes shall be
opened and their ears shall be unblocked and on that day they shall have revelation
And the place that was empty shall become full, says the Lord.
As you seek His resting place this Easter time in the hiding place of Adallum,
remember that you are also raised up with Him and when people seek to find you they
will not find you, for your old self is gone and your new self is alive
You are raised up from that place and only your old cloths are left and you have received
new garments of praise
When people search for you on that day, the old you will be gone and they will only
find the new you in Christ, for you are raised up with Him
Many after this time will see you as the "new" person having sought refuge in Him in the
cavern of Adallum and you will have the new garments of praise and the old cloth will be
left behind
Though the enemy will seek after you and seek to destroy you , you will be protected by
the fortress of Adallum
And all those from that day who are distressed , in debt or discontented with the life they
have known will seek you out and join you in that cavern of praise and prayer
This Easter time remember the sandcastle of the maker and the cave of Adallum "Your
refuge" in times of trouble
Lord God in Jesus name we come to you our refuge and we seek you , we who are
discontented and in debt, we who are in need , we who seek the Lord most high.
We come to you the maker and molder, the sculptor and painter of our lifes
We come to you and seek you our haven and cavern , the Adallum of our lifes
We pray that the eyes of the unbeliever would be opened that many would seek you and
find you and hear you and see you and receive revelation
That they would seek to run to the cavern of refuge and find a haven in you
Those who are discontented and in trouble, those in debt and in distress
Those who are discontented with life and who seek more
Lord bring them in Jesus name amen