Transcription
What is your biggest fear? Anybody? A fear of spiders? Come on, yaar. Me? Oh, she's just like them at all. Anybody? What about a heights? Heights? Yeah, flying airplanes. My parents had the privilege of flying home during a and landing in Belfast International during Storm Gareth this week, and I think their prayer life is at a higher level than it has ever been. And people have other fears. Avia phobia is actually flying. Some people's biggest fear is this loss of phobia. And what's the way they always say to get over a public speaking fear? Picture the audience. I never do that. Okay, like, God is not going to help me here. I just want to be honest. I would be rushing to the bathroom. Yeah. Um, I used to have a fear of wasps. I mean, back then, people used to make fun of me. If a wasp got anywhere near me or in the car, I would literally pull over the car and run. But I've got a bit tougher. And I, I think since I've come to hope, I've had to develop a thick skin, and nothing scares me much. But eight years before we were married, when I was still a happy bachelor, we went, Mia and for my friends went to a Californian road trip. But we also spent a few days in Vegas evangelizing the people with the gospel, because they need Jesus too. Um, they, of one of the guys she's with us. I'm not gonna be among their service because this is the one going online. But day, he's a big guy, football player, 6'4", big, strapping lad. When we got to the hotel, the Stratosphere in Vegas, which is the one with the big tower on day, and all was fine. She gave us our key cards, and we went to get into the elevator. We were on the 16th floor, and he started up the stairs. And we said, that's Colin below. We said, "Colin, where are you going?" And he said, "I don't do elevators." And we said, "But the 16th, 16 stories." Like, he said, "I don't care. Don't do elevators." And for the next three or four days, every time he had to go up and down to our room, the big girls, boys, he took the stairs. But I just use that sometimes you can never know actually from external appearances what people are afraid of. Here's some other phobias that I came across, maybe less common ones. Anybody? I wonder have Panther a phobia, fear of your mother-in-law? I have lucano phobia, fear of vegetables. I don't eat vegetables. Yeah, yeah. I hope none of you have this. A beautiful be a, fear of washing or bathing. Um, if you have somebody beside you who has a fear, feel free just to move slowly away. I, I do think I have this one. Cutter truffle be a, fear of mirrors. I never look in a mirror. And I'll come on here is gonna hit. And we definitely don't have this one. Jealous will be a, fear of laughing. That's good that we don't have this. Hylia phobia. Don't have this one either. Fear of the sun. Tirana phobia, fear of being tickled by feathers. Anybody want to confess? I just don't like the adult, full stop. Papa phobia. Hey, where I grew up, they had their sphere of the Pope. Um, some fellas here have this one. And if your girlfriend's beside you, she can give you an eye commitment phobia, avoidance of long-term relationships. And familia phobia is actually fear of sermons. And rather phobia is fear of ministers. I made that last one up. But we all have things that cause us fear. And sometimes they're small fears, like insects or wasps. I hear those little kind of crusty insects, they freak me out a bit. Or sometimes it's big fear. Sometimes it's consuming fear. Sometimes it's overwhelming fear. Sometimes it's fears that can actually control us, paralyze us, and actually inhibit us from being the men and women God wants us to be. And in this story, we have seen an army who are consumed by fear, who are paralyzed into poverty by fear. And they're God's people, their Israel. And yet for 40 days and 40 nights, they have watched this other army called the Philistines taunt them. And one guy in particular, the mass of brass, Goliath, the the giant, the human weapon of mass destruction. For 40 days and 40 nights, he has come out and taunted God's people and called them to send somebody to fight him. And they all run off terrified. For forty days and forty nights, eerie times, almost six weeks. And the thing is this, there are some battles that you have to fight. There are some things that are not going to go away. Yes, there are some things you can walk away from. When we have talked about that, that you pick your battles carefully, that not every battle is yours. I'm actually when you fight battles that God never intended you to fight, you end up exhausted, empty, and weary. But there are some battles that you're called to fight and that you can't walk away from. And that the longer you put it off, the more actually the fear starts to control and consume you. Because for 40 days, they had been listening to his voice. And every day, his voice seemed lighter, and every day his stature seemed a little bigger. And we saw there last week that David arrives in the scene. David didn't go to start a fight. David just went to deliver sandwiches. David was going in obedience to his father. His three brothers were down on the battle line, and his dad says, "Will you go on?" David, even though he had been anointed king, he still was willing to do the ordinary and the everyday and the mundane. And he goes down to the battle line, and he was sent there to bring sandwiches. He was sent there with one purpose, but God had a greater purpose. He was sent to be the delivery boy for sandwiches, and yet God wanted him to be the deliverer of his people. And sometimes God has you in a place for a different reason than you think. And we said this last week, do you think you're just in your job? You think you're just in your family? You think you're just working on a shop? You think you're just in your time? You think you're just in in your family situation where God actually has you there for a greater purpose? And as you are fearful in the small things and the everyday and the ordinary and then the mundane, God shows up. God rarely announces big moments in advance. They just happen. And every day of fearfulness because big fear from our small faithfulness is big to God. Faithfulness is more important and fruitful to God. See, we live in a world that's obsessed by film and reality TV, and everybody wants to be fearless. Okay, magazine, social media. God doesn't give a rep about that stuff. What he cares about is small faithfulness, everyday ordinary obedience, just doing what he has asked you to do. And and and so David shows up. And we saw that he starts asking people because he's hearing the taunts from Goliath. He starts asking people, "Well, what will be done for the man who takes this guy on?" He's looking around at this army and he's wondering why they're all dressed and ready for battle, but none of them are fighting. And he said, "Well, what'll happen?" And they say, "Well, actually, Saul has promised three things: great wealth, exemption from taxes, and his daughter in marriage, which started the good-looking one." Okay, might be worthwhile. And so, and so he begins to consider stepping up. But the first giant he has to fight before he fights Goliath is the giant of criticism. Because Eliab, his older brother, the one who assumed he would be anointed king, he immediately tears into his wee brother. And he starts to attack him, starts to attack his job as a shepherd. But then he starts to attack his heart. And there's one thing having what you do be an attack, that's another thing when people start to attack your heart, when they start to attack your motives. And and the thing that Eliab attacked was his heart. He said, "Your heart is deceitful." And the thing that God loved most about David was his heart. "You're a man after my own heart." And very often, the place the enemy will go after in your life is the place God loves most because he knows that that's where you're gonna be most effective. Why would the enemy attack you in somewhere that actually you're not gonna be effective at all? You're not going to make a difference? But the place that God loves most is the place that he wants to use most. And sometimes I actually focus, realize looking at where I'm being attacked as a good sign of where God wants to use me. Actually analyzing where the enemy, our enemy, is strategizing his attack is actually a really good where. Sometimes I've gone, "Actually, where's the place that God wants me to be most effective?" And so he receives this harsh, brutal criticism from his brother. And one of the things I didn't say last week is this: those transition moments in your life, those significant moments of change, because this was a significant, evidence was a significant moment. He didn't go there to fight a battle, he just went to deliver bread. But this was going to be the turning point. Nothing from this day forward in his life would ever be the same again. And those transition moments in our lives reveal relationships. Transition reveals relationships. It doesn't just show you your relationships, it actually reveals your relationships. And here's what I mean: is that that that David probably had an okay relationship with his brothers before them. But actually, when he stepped up, when he grew, when he became more than just the way brother, I'm the failed looking after the sheep, they couldn't handle it, and they wanted nothing to do with him. And there are some people who like a past version of you. Some people who like who you were five years ago, when you were cool right every night and getting drunk with them, or when you were talking like them, or when you were acting like them, or when you were gossiping like them. They're like that version of you. They just don't like the new version of you. And they keep trying to relate to the old version of you when you have changed. And actually, here's what I have to say I've discovered is that not everybody can go with you on the journey. There's some people who have gone this far, but they can't go the rest of the way. And that's okay. There are some people in your life who you thought you would grow old with and do life with and spend a, you know, you'd have matching sweatshirts and go on holidays together forever, that suddenly you find yourself growing apart from. And sometimes that's okay because you have changed and they haven't. And they're still really okay to you as you were, but you're actually now somebody else. And actually, if you're pursuing God, so people don't go on the journey with you. I was listening to Paul Scanlon. I was dying this week at a Leadership Conference in Boston. Paul Scanlon, he started a abundant life church and brought for a church of two or three thousand people in Bradford when he started it and started to turn a very inward-looking church around. In 1999, there were 600 people in the church, and 300 left. Like, I would go home depressed. Like, that's a bad day. You know what I mean? Like, half your church leaves. And I asked him, I said, "Paul, what was going on inside you? Like, how did you deal with that? Because we're all human, and we feel things. And when people walk away from you, people who you love and you thought you would." I said, "Paul, what was going on inside you?" And he says, "Yes, at heart." He says, "I used to have a lot of, you know, real sort of nights where I'd just lie in bed and struggle to think of three." Then he said, "I realized this, that I am a driver and a boss, and God has given me a destination. And people get on the bus, and people get off the bus. And every time somebody gets off a bus, a bus driver doesn't cry. He just realizes somebody has got off. What does that make more room for somebody else to get on?" And if God has given you a vision for your life, a vision for your future, you've got to recognize that some people will have the heart for that. Some people just will not take the journey with you. And that's okay. Don't have a breakdown every time somebody leaves your life. I have had people in my life who I thought I would grow old with and do life forever. They were literally like a brother to me, and I haven't spoken to them in years. And that's okay. I don't set engrave over it. I don't sit and lament over it. I just go, you know, well, God took us in different directions, and that's okay. And they're doing their thing, and I'm doing mine. But as long as you're pursuing the place and the path and the direction God has for you, realize that some people just will not be able to go with you. Paul Scanlon also said this to me the other day. He said, "People walked away from Jesus." And he was pretty cool. Like, people walked away from Jesus. We read that time and time again. People just walked away from him. And there was nothing wrong with them. And so just be aware that there's people who can't go all the way. There's people who'd go part of the journey with you. But because they've gone part of the journey, it doesn't mean they have to go the whole journey. And so many people get turned back at the giant of criticism because criticism affects us deeply. I don't care how confident or high-brow, high-boasting criticism gets us at the core of who we are. When we're misunderstood, when we're criticized, when our motives are questioned, and a lot of us are too preoccupied with what people will think or with what people will say. And that's why we don't do what we know God is calling us to do. You, a lot of us care more about what people think about us than what God thinks about us. We would never say that, I'd lie, but in our hearts, we fear man and woman more than we fear God. And sometimes we fear people who we don't even care about, who are who don't care about us. And yet we are controlled by the opinions of others. Maybe in your work, maybe in your family, whatever sphere you're in, their voice is more important than God's voice. And their voice is keeping you content and constricted when God has called you to more. Stop living your life being controlled by the opinion of people. Hey, God has not actually called to have that voice in your life. And I love what David did. He didn't run off in a huff. He didn't stop home to Dad. He didn't get his stone in a sling and strike Eliab. Doing he just turned away. Some of us need to learn to turn. Some of us need to learn to turn. That actually every time somebody criticizes us, so every time somebody says something to us, we don't need to get into a fight. We just need to learn to turn. And he just turned because he realized that the battle wasn't against his brother. The battle was against Goliath. And some of us need to do with healer chef Taylor stuff said, "Shake it off, just shake it off." Because the hearers are gonna hit here, to here, to hit here, and you just need to shake it off. Because if you carry that stuff into your future, it will weigh you down. Walk away. Not every battle is your battle. Not every cause is your cause. Don't weigh into fights out of nothing. The day with you and that God has never called you to fight. But then there's other times when you don't go looking for a fight, but God puts a battle in front of you. And that's what we're gonna see here. So Saul, David starts asking what's gonna happen. Saul over here is a ton. He's desperate. And and so David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart. On account of this Philistine," verse 32, "Your servant will go and fight him." Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him. You are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth." / David can't get a break. He's just had his brother tear him to shreds. He turns away, goes to Saul. You're trying to do the right thing. Because very often criticism will come even if you're trying to do the right thing. He goes to Saul. Saul, I think I can do this. And so looks at him and says basically two things: "You're not able. You're only. You're not experienced enough. You're not old enough. You're not ready enough. You're not prepared enough. You're not gifted enough. You're not, you're not, you're not." And starts telling him what he is not, starts speaking discouragement and fear and negativity over him. You know, I'm not saying that we should have lived in this bubble. You know, wait, we're kind of taught these days that you tell your children that they can be anything they want in life. You can do anything. I think, let's just be honest. Like, I was never going to be a basketball player. You know, five foot nine and three-quarters was not going to happen. Like, they can't do everything. Like our little boy Elijah, bless him, like he is gifted in many things, but he's not that athletic. Like he won sports, they three races, somehow that kid managed to come last in all three, and he still thinks he's like a gazelle or a cheetah. Like that's confidence for you right there. And we affirm that, but really, we know he's not going to be an athlete. But you know what we do see? We see that he's got brilliance. In P1, he was reading P3 books. We see that he loves the Lord. We see that he's sensitive to things. We see that he's got emotional intelligence. We see that he's so creative. He loves drawing and making things. We see that he's a wee fighter. He loves getting boxing gloves on and punching the line and out of me. He loves, he's a wee man. He loves getting a penknife and sharpening a stick. And that's the stuff I want to focus on. I don't want to tell him he can do anything and everything. I want to tell him, these are the things you agree about. This is where I want you to grow. This is what God has for you. Because God made him a certain way. And we're gonna see that a little bit more in a minute. But here's the thing, some of you are good at things. So if you have been called and gifted and equipped by God to do things, but you're not doing them because people in authority spoke stuff over you and limited you, whether it be parents, pastors, bosses, they said, "You cannot do this. You're not able." And it has created a glass ceiling. Actually, you can't do it. Like Saul said, "You can't do it." I think he may have been wrong there. Spoiler alert for next, next time. But I think he might have been wrong. He was placed on a ceiling on David that God had never placed on David. Because God had put something inside David that Saul could not see. And some of you need to push through those words that have been spoken over you that have limited you and constricted you and contained you and made you smaller than God ever created you to be. But look at David's response. Verse 30, "But David said to Saul, 'Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, I struck it, and I rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it, and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them because he has defied the armies of the Living God.' The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, who will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you." Again, doesn't he ever doesn't get emotional and storm off when he's discouraged by Saul? Remember, this guy's a teenager, right? Now, how do teenagers respond? They go into the room, they slam the door, and they put in headphones and they thump about for a while. David doesn't do that. He doesn't throw a hissy fit. He doesn't go back to Jesse and complain about his bad brothers or the bad king. He looks at the king, and then yesterday, and where he looks? He looks at his past. And David looks back at his past and he says, "You know what? I have never fought a giant like this, but I have fought a lot. And I have fought a bear, and I've grabbed him by the hair, and I've beaten him with a stick, and I've beaten 11 days out of them. And you know what? I know he's not a giant. I know they're not a giant, but they're not that different." And some of us need to reach into our past and grab it into our present to give us faith and confidence to fight the future. You see, in church, we always said, "Forget the former things. Do you not dwell in the past? You know, put the past behind you." And that's okay in one sense. There's times when we need to go into our past to remember how God was faithful back there. And if he was faithful back there, we can take our faithfulness into the future. Because victories are transferable. The battles are different. The giants are different. The obstacles are different. The opposition's are different. The problems are different. But the God is the same. And they're not that different. And some of us forget what we have been through when we're going through what we're going through. Like everyone in this room has been through hard stuff. You just need to have left a few years. Every person I'm looking at in this room has been through hard stuff. You've had loss, deep loss, heart grief, if it people leave your life, you've been betrayed, you've been hurt, you've been lied about, you've been fired, you've been bankrupt, you've been broke, you've nearly been on the street, you've had children who are rebellious, you have had horrendous, you've had disease, you've had cancer, you've had all sorts of stuff. But you know what? You are still here. And yet we forget that because sometimes we're so future-focused that we forget what we have been through. And the God who brought us through that thing five years ago when we thought we would never get through, when we didn't want to get out of our beds with depression, when we were so dying and so discouraged and so low, the God who brought us through that five years ago is that God. He will bring us through what we're facing right now because he is the same God. Our circumstances change, our problems change, but God never changes. And sometimes we need to recall and remember and go back and grab those things from the past and put them in front of us and write them down and go, "God, who brought me through that, will bring me through this." And the Old Testament, they used to set up what they call stones of remembrance. Whenever God gave them a victory, whenever he did something great, whenever he parted a river or a sea, he, they set up a stone of remembrance. And whenever anybody asked past, they would say, "That stone reminds us that God did a miracle." We maybe don't need to set up big rocks in our garden, but maybe we just need a journal. Maybe we just need to write things down. Maybe we need to put something on our wall. Maybe we need a poster on our mirror that reminds us that the God who has been faithful, he has never failed us. He has never led a stone. Yes, it seemed like he had. It seemed like he had forgotten about us. It seemed like he had failed us. It seemed like he wasn't in our prayers. It seemed like we were never going to get through it. And yet, here you are. And if you're here today, and as a testimony to you, the resilience of you, and the greatness of God. And that's what David does. He reaches back, pulls into his present the fierce future. And some of you need to do that. Some of you need to go, "I've been through this or have been through something similar before, and he hasn't failed me, and he's not going to fail me." No, I heard a story about two elderly couples who were enjoying friendly conversation. And one of the men asked the other, "Fred, I was at the memory clinic you went to last month, I'd standing." Fred replied, "They taught us all the little psychological techniques for remembering things. It made a huge difference for me." "That's great," said his friend. "What was the name of that clinic?" Fred went blank, and he thought and thought and couldn't remember. Then a smile broke across his face, and he asked, "What do you call that flower with a long stem and thorns?" "You mean a rose?" "Yes, that's it." And he turned to his wife and said, "Rose, what was the name of that memory clinic we went to last month?" Some of us have selective spiritual amnesia. We remember things God wants us to forget, and we recall things and we forget things he wants us to recall. We remember the things that we should forget, and we play them over in our minds, and God says, "Move on from that." And we forget the things we need to recall. We forget the things we need to remember. Different battles, different problems. See him? God. Look at what he says. He says, "The Lord, he says, the loving God." David is conscious that it is not his skill, it is not his engineering, it is not his bravery, but it is Yahweh, the loving God. Because if it was down to him, he may or may not win. But if it's God plus David, that's the majority. And his mind is a God-saturated mind. Well, everybody else has a Goliath-saturated mind. Because his mind is filled with the worship of God and the Word of God. You know, this is the biggest challenge he's had to face, but it's not that much bigger. I mean, a lamb and a bear are pretty big. And sometimes you can look at something and it can feel much bigger than anything. But bracket that, it's not that much bigger. It's not that much bigger than the worst thing you have been through. And sometimes we need to actually see things as they are through the eyes of faith, not through the eyes of fear. And victories are transferable. What I mean is this, that the victory God gives you there, you can carry into the present or the future. Victories are transferable. Steven Furtick, I like he says this, "The key to confidence is making a connection between your last victory and your next battle." The key to confidence is making a connection between your last victory and your next battle. And here's what I mean by this. Years ago, when when I first started doing this, when I first heard the end, my friend Barney Ford, he's a minister from Portadown here. And when I were chatting about preaching and and just we're calming nerves and just, you know, whether you get nervous or not. And we said, well, we, you know, it's not nervousness so much as, but we're never casual about it, as you can probably tell. And and we thought, steers, we were a, we were a bit green and fairly new at this. And and we both said the same thing. We said, "Well, if we do feel those nerves, here's what we do. We remind ourselves of one or two things. We remind ourselves God has called us to this. We didn't volunteer." And then we remind ourselves of the other times we've been nervous, and he's come through for us. And if he came through first, then he'll come through first today. It might not be amazing, but he'll come through for us as long as after on the prep, as long as I've done the work, he'll come through. Because you know what? He who has been fearful will be fearful. What have you been through? And I do mean that as a rhetorical question. I want you to think about the worst thing you've been through, not to depress you today, but I actually say to you, "Well done. Well done that you've held on through that. Well done that God has put her that you've allowed God to put a resilience in you." You, you, you know, on Freddie, my friend was out our house, my friend who lost her husband three months ago to cancer, my friend with her three little girls was sitting around our table, and she was declaring the faithfulness of God. And not in a trite way, not in a way we go, "I think she's not dealing with it." You know, the way sometimes she feels like a veneer. It was a really honest way. And I just, I saw the faithfulness of God in her life in a way. And you know why that's there? It's because of her history with God. See, we all have a history with God. We all have a history with God. Our history with God is longer for some people, and shorter for some people, but we all have a history with God. And here's the thing, that your history with God isn't a public history. It's a private history. Your history with God is behind closed doors. Because here's what I want to say next, public victories will always be preceded by private victories. David fought the lion and the bear and the sheep failed when it was just him. But he was going to fight Goliath on the battlefield when there was a crowd there. And you will not win the public victories in your life unless you learn how to fight the private battles. And there's so many people who we've seen in our society who seem to have it all, who seem to have great power and authority and prestige, and yet we watch them fall because they had a public facade, but a private failure. They had never dealt with their private world. And you know what? You can never be sustained in any success in your life if you allow your public world to become bigger than your private world. But you are, or you're not. I care about who you are when you're at home, when you're in your bedroom, when you're on your knees, when you're with your wife, when you're with your husband, when you're with your kids, when you're with your friends. That's who I care about, not the filtered G on Instagram. And you will never have public victories before private devotion. You see, David had spent years in isolation as an unknown shepherd. He wasn't even invited to his own party when Samuel came to anoint the king. He was underappreciated, undervalued, and yet, and not pleased, God was preparing him. See, most people today want to be discovered. They don't want to be developed. Remember back in the day, old photographs? Like we've got these things, and I wear, we just take photographs, and they're there. Remember when you had to get them developed? Where did the development take place? What was the room called? The darkroom. And if the door was opened on the darkroom, they were ruined. Some of us need space in the darkroom to be developed. Some of us aren't developed properly because it's all right there, and there's nothing taking place back there. And God says, "I don't actually really care that much who you are in public. Because if you deal with the private stuff, if you deal with the stuff behind the scenes, what you present in public, you won't have to worry about." Some people are exhausted trying to put on a facade. And the fears, and we live in a culture which is the second fact because we've seen it with politicians, and we've seen with religious leaders, and we've seen it with some of the Me Too thing, and people in power and prestige, and people we trusted, and the facade has come down. And people trust nobody these days. And you know what the world needs to see? It doesn't need to see perfect Christians. It just needs to see real Christians. It needs to see authentic Christians. It needs to see transparent Christians. It needs to see Christians who might not have it all together, but they know they don't have it all together, and they're well-intentioned, and that they don't have it together, but they just say, "This is who I am." But you're trained in the private place to make sure your heart is right with God before you present a public facade. David had worshiped and warred in private so that he could war and win in public. They said that integrity is who you are when no one is looking. Integrity is who you are when your wife has gone to bed at night, and you're sitting on your phone. Integrity is who you are when you're at work, and you could just change the figures or that little bit on your expenses. Integrity is who you are when you're texting that person from your past who you really shouldn't be texting. Integrity is who you are when you treat people who have nothing that they can offer you, and how you treat them either with respect or derision. David had spent so much time alone with God that no battle intimidated him. Remember on duty McCourt, my friend, he used to be the pastor of CFC years ago. He had a friend who worked in one of the big posh car showrooms. And butcher, and his fan brought him down there was an open day. And that the Maseratis and all these amazing cars, all right in the showroom. And they went for a walk around the back, and there was this huge building at the back. And my friend Andrew said to his friend, "What's that?" He said, "That's the service center." And he discovered this, the service center was three times bigger than the showroom. Some of us are really great at the showroom, but behind the scenes in the service center, we're a mess. And God would say to us, "Deal with the private stuff, and you won't have to worry about the public stuff." This thing was nothing for David because of his private world, because of the time he had spent with God. Today is St. Patrick's Day. And you know, it's one of those things that sometimes some people shower from no traditions and pop likes folks since a tray like this is pre-Reformation. Okay, he was just a Christian. But Patrick was brought to Ireland. He was kidnapped and brought kind of as a slave. And when he was brought here, he had been brought up with a mother who taught him about God and taught him about Jesus, and he had rebelled and he'd lived a wild life. When he came here, you know what he ended up doing? He was a shepherd. Coincidence? I'm not sure. He was a shepherd. And he said this, he says, "Well, he found himself at rock bottom, and everything was taken away from him, and he began to recall the faith his mom had taught him. He began to remember the words his mom had spoken to him." And these are his own words. These are the words of St. Patrick. "After I arrived in Ireland, I find I find myself pastoring flocks daily and I pray a number of times each day. More and more the love and fear of God came to me, and faith grew, and my spirit was exercised until I was praying up to a hundred times a day, and then the night nearly so often, so that I would even remain in the woods in the morning in the snow, frost, and rain, working to pray before first light. Maybe that's why Ireland was transformed. Not because he was a great preacher, not because he was eloquent, but because he was a man who had spent time on his knees in the secret place, developing a history with God." I'm a final point today, and this is as far as we're gonna get. Don't wear Saul's armor. Verses 30 at the 40. And Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. He even fought, even fastened on his sword over his tunic, and tried walking around because he was not used to them. "I cannot go on these," he said. "This is all because I'm not used to them." So he took them off. Manny took a staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the part of his shepherd's bag, and with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine. So Saul is the king. Who's the person you're going to protect most in the army? The king. His armor is gonna be the best. It's gonna be the thickest. It's gonna be the heaviest. But remember what we also learned about Saul. Tall. Saul. It's gonna be the biggest. And so he says to David, "David, okay, if you're determined to go and fight this big, big oaf, wear my armor. Put on my armor." And so David puts it on, and it's ridiculous, and he's walking around, and it's way too big for him. I remember when I, when I was going to have a wedding years ago, there was a per-student, and then a suit of my own. So I borrowed one from a friend, Richard Irwin. The problem was, Richard's 6'4", and I went to this wedding, and I looked stupid. Like, I looked ridiculous. You know, the jacket was down to here, the trousers were like tripping me up. And this is kind of how David looked. He's walking around in Saul's armor, and it looks ridiculous. It just doesn't work. It's too big, it's too heavy, and it's tripping him up. But here's what Saul's doing. Saul is trying to make David do things the way Saul would do them, even though he wasn't doing them. They try to make you do something the way they would do it, but they're not doing it. He was trying to make David copy him, wear my armor, look like me, do it my way. But the problem was this, Saul's armor was made for Saul, not for David. Saul's armor fitted Saul perfectly, but it was never going to fit David. And my point is simply this, that God has given you certain gifts, certain abilities, certain talents, certain skills, certain passions, certain dreams, certain desires, certain burdens that are completely unique to you. There's nobody else God has made just like you. You are an original. And for some of you, that's more obvious than others. There's nobody like you. But don't become a cheap imitation of somebody else. Because the Bible says in Psalm 139 that he took great care in making you. He made you together in your mother's womb. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are made by the hands of a careful creator. He formed you just the way. So don't try to be anyone else. Yes, it's good to learn from other people. Yes, it's good to admire other people. But don't try to copy them because you're not them, and you will end up being a cheap imitation of them, not an original of yourself. The way my generation does things is different to the way my parents and grandparents' generation does things. And the way our latest generation does things will be different than mine. And I can't try and enforce upon him or upon them the way I do things, and vice versa. The culture we live in today is different than the culture that many of you grew up with. The challenges are different. The giants are different. We didn't have these things when I was a kid. These things have changed everything. And they're not us, not going back, folks. And so this is something we need to confront and deal with that our parents never had to deal with, but our kids at seven years older fly through these things and wisdom through the games of computers. And that would give us a headache. We're not living in 1974, anyone, folks. The way churches done has to change. You know, a lot of churches are still on the cutting edge of the 18th century, and they wonder why they scratch their heads and they can't figure out why nobody's showing up on a Sunday. Because everybody drives around the country less than the organ music and canticles. I was a joke. Nobody does. But they call it demographics. That's what we were told in Dublin by the minister half a mile down the road from us. He said, "Nobody's coming to my church anymore because of demographics." I said, "Well," he said, "demographics all the Church of Ireland people have moved away from the area." He said, "What about Europe?" Yes, I said, "We're struggling to find her into 50 men." But you know what he was saying? He said, "All the Church of Ireland people have moved away from this area." As if that's the only people that God has called us to go after. You see, we can make excuses for why things aren't working. But maybe we're trying to sell cassette tapes in an MP3 age. Maybe we're trying to open extra vision and in that flexi age, I'm wondering why it's not working. Things have changed. We need to change with them. And the way we do things here will not be the way they were done two years ago, even as you've probably realized. And the way we do things two years from now will not be the way they're done. No, because the world is moving faster than ever. And if we don't keep up with it, but in a godly way, with the convictions and stuff that we have, we are going to be left behind. Because most of the church in this country is left behind. And that is why they're being turned into restaurants, mosques, and carpet warehouses. I predicted in the Republic of Ireland, 50% of churches are going to close in the next 10 years. And that's a good thing because they're dead already. When you have a dead church, that points to a dead Jesus. And I just pray that God raises up new churches and new leaders to go in and take over those buildings. You know, there's black churches all over the Republic that are thriving and full of life. There's Pentecostal churches in every little town and village that are thriving and full of life. I would love to see them move into some of those old buildings and pray new life into those dead bones. And so, as we honor the past, and yes, there's nothing wrong with being respectful, but we do not live in the past. We do not put on Saul's armor because it does not fit us. And I want to say to you that you do not have to meet the expectations of everybody around you. God made you to be you. And they might think you need to fit into their small or you need to do this or you need to do that or you need to be like this or when you grew up, you need to do this or this, because that's what respectful people too. And in your heart, you want to be something different. Follow what God has called you to do. The effort knows what gifts and abilities he has. And one of these is this, he can take a better leather and a stone, and he's a really good shot with it. That's not that exciting. It's not that impressive. But you know what it'll do you? And that's what he uses. He knows his strengths and he knows his weaknesses, and he plays to his strengths. And I want to say to you, play your strengths. It used to be people would say, "Be a jack-of-all-trades." You know, learn everything. This is not the day. This is the day of specialization. And I say this to young people all the time, find out one thing you're good at and focus 100% of your time on it, and you'll never be without a job. I try to make it something that a machine can't replace. She, see her like I tell them, try to be something that a machine in five years can't replace. But focus on developing the gifts God has given you. You know, everyone in this church has a part to play, or a body with different parts, and God has pulled us together so that we can all play our part. And I'm not going to be like you, and you're not going to be like me. But as we work together with our own unique gifts, talents, and abilities, God's kingdom will be extended. And so, and David's day, wearing the king's armor should have been a huge honor, but it was actually going to be more dangerous for David. It was indeed for him. Saul wasn't being nasty. Saul was trying to be helpful. And there's people, they will try to put things on you, and they're not being nasty or harmful, they're trying to be.
helpful, but they just don't fit you. Do you ever find someone who has a cause that they're passionate about, and they believe that every other person they meet should have the same passion for it? Vegans. I don't know why that came into my head. How do you know someone's a vegan? They tell you within three seconds. Maybe we should put the first one in the podcast this week.
But you ever get that? What I want to say to you is, just because somebody else is partial to read something doesn't mean you have to be passionate about it. Like, there's people in this room who are evangelists, and we should all evangelize, okay? So don't get me wrong. But as people who are evangelists, they are called to, like, like the bad 99 ice cream, and the person's on their knees, send the sinner's prayer, you know what I mean? But they believe that all of us should be out there right now talking Rowan DST, it's talking everybody about Jesus.
There's people here really into the pure and social action, and they believe that we should all live an ox farm close for the rest of our lives and give everything to the pure and your. I admire that and ask you to give the pure and ask you to evangelize, but your passion is not going to be their passion, and your pot and theirs isn't gonna be yours. So don't let them put their armor on you, and don't you put yours on them. But as we work together with their passion and your passion, we get a complete body. It works beautifully.
Some Christians get caught up in moral issues and causes, and you know what happens? That cause and supper piercing Christ in their lives. I've seen it. Should it be on the abortion or on D camera or whatever that is? They get caught up in it for the right reasons, but then that cause actually replaces Christ, and that's what they live for is the cause and not Christ.
Do you even realize that this was not about him? This was not about his passion. This was about the kingdom. This was about God. This was about the honor and glory of Yahweh. It wasn't just his little pet Heshy. And that's really what it comes down to in the end. That's about the power of God. It's about the name of God. It's about the glory of God. It's all about God.
And David might not have had much, but he had history with God, and he realized that that it wasn't him against Goliath. It was David plus God against Goliath. So how could he lose? And it's not just you against your problem. It's she plus God. And if God is for you, who can be against you?
No, that wasn't object story just to keep it, you know, the Irish typically of always had a very sort of superstitious supernatural side to them. And so when Patrick arrived in Ireland, paganism was the dominant religion. The Druids were the priests, if you like, and they were seen as having supernatural magical powers, which caused great fear among the general population.
Patrick never tried to persuade people against believing in the supernatural because he knew that wouldn't happen. Rather, he confronted head-on the magic and all cultism of the Druids were clear by proclaiming and demonstrating that the power of Christ was greater. And from the very start, as well as preaching the good news about Jesus, Patrick and his team prayed for healing, they cast out demons, and they performed signs and wonders.
And one historian has written this: If Christianity had come to Ireland only with theological doctrines, the hope of a mortal life, and ethical issues, with our Americans mysteries and rites, it could never have worried the Celtic heart. In other words, effort had just been preaching without a demonstration of power, Patrick would have filled. And yet that's what much of the church has been trying to do for centuries.
And Paul said this in first Corinthians. He said, "My message and my preaching were not just a wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power." And as Patrick preached on, as he proclaimed on us, he showed, and as he demonstrated the Gospel message, the reverence that the Irish once held for their old idols was replaced by a hatred towards these demons.
As you can imagine, the Druids didn't take this very well, and throughout his life, Patrick faced a lot of opposition. He wrote this: "Dearly, I expected murder, fraud, or captivity, but I fear none of these things because of the promises of heaven. I have cast myself into the hands of Almighty God, who rules everywhere."
And there's many stories from his life of confrontations between the power of God and the power of darkness. And one of them, a druid invoked demons and brought a dark fog over the land. Patrick said to the druid, "Cause the fog to disperse," but he wasn't he able to do it. Patrick prayed, gave his blessing, and suddenly the fog cleared and the sun shone, and through the prayers of Patrick, flames of fire consumed the druid. This is like Old Testament stuff.
The king summoned his kinds of the king of Ireland, some of his council, and said, "It is better for me to believe than to die," and he believed, as did many others. All day. And on one occasion, Patrick became aware, and this is my last thing, I'm gonna pray this prayer. Patrick became aware of an ambush had been set to kill him. He was almost waited at the king's court to preach the gospel to the king, and he became aware that there was an ambush on the road on the way to the king's court, and there were people we happened to kill him.
So as they marched, they chanted what later has become known as Saint Patrick's breastplate. And I'm gonna pray in a second, but the story goes that the Druids laying hiding, ready to kill, but they didn't see Patrick and his man. Instead, all they saw was a gentle doe followed by twenty forms. Saint Patrick and his man were seized, and what legend has it that Saint Patrick drove the data or drove the snakes out of Ireland.
I think this next represent the demons was hard to see it and show up as a snake. I think that means that evil spirits were driven out of Ireland and replaced with the Holy Spirit. And that's the kind of Christianity that's gonna win this long North on-site hard border, soft border in the 21st century. It's not just a Christian D F words. It's not just a nice Christian D. That's not just a wishy-washy Christianity. It's got to have power.
Our faith is a supernatural faith because our God is a supernatural God. Under God, to God, the supernatural, as in supernatural, it's natural, it's ordinary. And I pray that we would become a naturally supernatural people. Really stand with me.