If God is with you, who can stand against?

Saul is afraid of David. In Samuel 18, we see how Saul responds to David’s success in battle. After David conquered the Philistine, he became known. His popularity grew. He became close to Saul, and he became very close to Jonathan. David was appointed a high position in the military. David led many campaigns and was always victorious because God was with him.

Then one day they came through a town and the townspeople were dancing and singing. A lady sang that Saul killed thousands, but David kills ten thousands. This took Saul to the wrong side of the tracks. He suddenly knew that David was getting very strong. He knew he would have to watch out.

I think in his mind, he was not afraid of David as the absence of God’s presence in his own life. We can all look at Saul and think, man this dude is cracked. You can tell God is with him. You know the drill. What are you thinking? But in hindsight it is easy to make this determination. I mean over 2000 years pass by and we can look at these years passing here and make the bold determination. But I bet if we were to look into our own lives we would be able to see Saul in us. We would see where we sabotage those around us, those we love, because of our own blinders.

Know this, that you may be a Saul today. But you also may be a David.

Slaying the giant in our lives

Samuel 17 is one of the most told stories in Sunday school classrooms across America, and maybe around the world. The familiar narrative describes how a young boy, minding his own business, was asked to take some food to his brothers on the battle field. He leaves his humble post, tending the sheep, to make the delivery. He gets there and suddenly realizes that he must do something else. He has no idea what he is about to step into. Just moments before cresting that last hill to meet his brothers, I am sure he already had his day planned out. He was going to drop off the grinds and head back to the sheep, maybe play a little music, maybe sing a bit. You know, praise God a bit. But no, this was not the plan at all. He needed to save the world first.

Though this may seem like he did just that. If you look at the story, you will see that God was with David when he met Goliath. He says specifically that God will deliver his head to me. Something interesting about the story that I never picked up on before was this. The author spends a tremendous amount of time getting the stage set for the challenge. He goes into great detail how well Goliath was clad, he had massive armor, his sword, his sheer size was easily twice the size of David. He gives a description how David was presented with some pretty awesome new tools as well. But David declined. He said why would I use tools that I am not familiar with, I will just use a couple stones and a little sling I have on me. The amount of time that the author spends on setting up the dual ends in an anticlimactic way. He slings a stone, kills Goliath, and cuts off his head with the man’s own sword. That’s it. That is serious business, but I do not think that was the point.

God was in control and He was to be glorified that day.

Let’s go back to David when he was headed to his brothers. He always had his sling on his person. He was prepared. He did not go empty handed. Though God would give him the victory and he trusted God intrinsically, he was still prepared. This is my focus for today. Just because God is with us, does not give us a pass to be less prepared for the task at hand. It still takes courage. It still takes what no other normal man would consider a fair fight. I must ask this question: What are you doing today that is a God-sized fight? What are you doing today that is so big that without utter dependency on God, you would fail?

This is the essence of our faith. What if you were required to do something like this? Are you prepared to call on the name of God and command victory? Are you prepared? Now we may think that it was David’s skill with a sling that helped him in this fight. But if you were to ask David, I bet he would have a different answer. I bet he would tell you that His God, who controls everything was the sole reason for his victory. I really believe he was prepared physically and his abilities were great, but his intimacy with God was far greater. He was ready in another way.

If we really believe that God is who He claims to be, why do we live like we do?

Do you have eyes to see?

I always like the way God leads people in the old testament. Samuel knows the Lord has rejected Saul. He mourns for this. Why does he mourn? Was it because he poured his life into Saul, maybe spent the last 40 years coaching him? I don’t know. But in any case, he get’s the ole spanish elbow – he’s out.

So now they have to go through the exercise of finding out which son of Jesse that God wants. Now this is interesting to me. Why? God is very specific when he directs someone to do something. So why would he not just tell Samuel to go and get David, Jesse’s son?

I think there is a very specific reason for this. You have Samuel coming into town, he comes in peace. Jesse comes with his sons and Samuel takes a look at each one specifically. Now David was not there, he was discounted. When Samuel tells Jesse that the Lord has not found favor with any of his sons, and asks him if there are any other? David is presented and he is the one.

In this story, you have many people involved. You have a narrative developing about how God works. You have people in every case that can be obedient or disobedient. And the likely subject is most likely the least likely.

This is the point of my inquiry this morning.

Our values can get in the way with kingdom values. We choose the tall handsome warrior, and God chooses the boy who can play for an audience of sheep. How does this pertain to us today? Does God still use people to accomplish His will? Is he still guiding and directing? Who are his loyal subjects, apt to follow him when a rational discourse is not available? Who is looking for the young lyre player, forgotten in the field? I still think this is common today.

How do we develop kingdom eyes in our current world? I think we have several clues in the Bible that can help with the inquiry. However, I think it is helpful to look at Jesus’ life to see it more clearly. Things are never as they appear. (see the parables)

Say you are in want. So you ask God to take care of your needs right. But instead of giving you what you want, you suddenly are presented with an opportunity to give of yourself. You are presented with something that means that you will have to give what you cannot afford to give. Does this sound like a logical step? Would you actually consider giving what little you have to another when you need so much? This is the type of thing I am talking about. Our selfish motivation and personal lordship over our lives would determine that this opportunity is not from God. In fact it is from the enemy. We would be praying for a way to let the person down easy as not to hurt their feelings that we could not help them at this time. But when we lose our desire for self preservation and look to God for his hand to cover us, this is where the magic happens.

I have seen it so many times in my life. Faith is not something we muster, it grows like a plant when it is fed. We see God’s hand in hindsight. We can discern his will in hindsight. But can we see him now? Can we see him in the future? I think we can, but we need to understand the character of God. We need to understand what to be looking for.

So David goes into Saul’s service. Saul is pleased with him and requests that he say in his service as an armor bearer. So the transition that Samuel feared would end badly, the Lord has positioned where Saul is happy to have David right next to him. (another example)

Do you have this type of thing happening around you today? Do you see the hand of God in hindsight? Look for clues today. See if you can see His hand today? Look for ways to encourage another. Opportunity is all over the place when we see with His eyes.

Lord, let us all see with kingdom eyes today, allow faith to grow in our hearts, and may we walk in obedience to the prompting of your Spirit in us.

There are 2 paths you can go by, but in the long run, there still time to change the road your on.

Have you ever taken a step back in your life and just reflect? It is always a common practice at the beginning of the year for everyone. Most people will do this and make some over-arching decree in an attempt to remedy the situation, so they will not face the issue next year. The new year’s resolution is normally a good idea. The intentions are typically good and it starts off good. But I would say that almost 100% of the resolutions are never kept. Why is this?

I have given it some thought. It is just an opinion, but I think it has something to do with our fears. The easily identified fruit on the end of the vine came from a complex root system, was fed by outside nutrients, came up through a massive trunk, through tons of branches, through scores of leaves, and ultimately produced itself for your observation. So one sees the belly fat and says, “I need to lose some weight this year. So it was easy to recognize the fat, but what is not so easy to see is your current emotional state, the level of stress, the turmoil of circumstances in your life, the changes in your job, your family relationships, and things like this. Is it possible that simply trying to change behavioristics is a shallow attempt to make deeper life changes?

I have always had problems with New Year’s resolutions because it seems that all the sudden everyone on the planet is not content with the way their life is going and they want to make a change. It just seems kind of silly. It is really setting you up for failure because it is being produced by outside stimuli (or can be), and really doesn’t line up with the way you really think of yourself.

You live the way you do because it lines up with the way you view the world and it really is you. You can try to cast blame on people, places and things, but the reason you live this way is because you want to and in some ways have to live this way.

If you want to make a change in your life, think for a minute, why are you considering this change? Are you seriously willing to challenge the way you view your world? Are you ready to make a core change? This is really the issue. Resolutions fail because 1) people do not really understand how deep of a change they are taking on, and 2) they really like who they are and the way they view the world and really do not want to change.

So how does this apply to the title? Actually we have been talking about it already. Many people are making decisions with the way the live. They are not making a conscious decision to be fat. It is a byproduct of a series of life choices that produce the well insulated body. In a resolution, we may be attempting to remedy the past, or make changes that will benefit us in the future, but we really need to be concerned with today. I am making this change because it reflects who I am today. I am making conscious decisions today because I am pleased with who I am and the way I am living today.

Here is an example. Tom goes on a diet on Jan 1 to lose 40 pounds. He is not happy with his weight and wants to trim down. He is on a track to lose weight for what he will look like in the future. He is willing to sacrifice today for the sake of tomorrow. This attempt may work, but he also may abandon the journey because it is not consistent with the way Tom feels about the present. You see the present if fighting with the possibility of the future. But this possibility has very little experience. It is really brand new on the job compared to this well seasoned present that has a lot of experience and bearing on the subject.