"Heads-Up" Part 7

“HEADS-UP” Part 7 -RISE UP

(The relationship between Properly Remembering and Confidence) When we testify in the “Court of Law” we are asked to promise “To tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God”. This is the same thing that I am asking you to do today about your PAST. Ask God to help you to properly remember your past, because doing so will give you the proper confidence in God TODAY that you need to face the challenges in your life. Last week we talked about the importance of continually looking at things in our lives to be able to see what neccesary changes need to be made. The THERMOMETER evaluates the state of things. Adjusting the THERMOSTAT makes the necessary changes needed. This week we will look at where we get our strength or confidence to make the Thermostat changes that need to be made. The answer to where we should look for Confidence is looking to the Lord and what he has done through you and others in the PAST. Q: What contributes to confidence? Many people have a lot of different answers to that question. The angle that I want to go today is looking at the relationship between Properly Remembering and Confidence. I want to talk about David today and where his confidence came to defeat Goliath. Before we get to David let’s look at the Relationship between Confidence and our Memory. CONFIDENCE AND THE BLESSING OF PROPERLY REMEMBERING THE “PAST” We can gain confidence from EVERYTHING that has happened in the PAST. FACTS ABOUT THE PAST: Everyone has had successes in the PAST. Everyone has had failures in the PAST. How we remember the PAST (Successes & Failures) will have an effect on our PRESENT. It will play a large part in the level of our Confidence TODAY. God will use your PAST to help you to deal with your PRESENT, through your successes as well as your failures. I wonder if your past failure or successes help or hurt you Today in the present??? The key is to REMEMBER and INTERPRET them PROPERLY. A Look at David An example of God using PAST Successes. 1. David and his PAST slingshot success. 1 Samuel 17 David and Goliath Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah. 2 Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. 3 The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them. 4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. [about 9’-9”] 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekel [about 125lbs] ; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. [about 15lbs] His shield bearer went ahead of him. 8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, [We have be successful in the PAST] and are you not the servants of Saul? [Aren’t you supposed to be successful] Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9 IF he is able to fight and kill me, [Goliath uses the word, “IF” because as far as he is concerned, based upon his PAST “Successes”, there isn’t a man that can defeat him. Remember, as Goliath certainly did, that he was; (v.4) = A champion … His height was nine feet nine inches tall.” we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, [“which you won’t” Goliath believed] you will become our subjects and serve us.” Don’t you love a movie where the one who thought to be invincible, got defeated? (Make sure that it is not you) 10 Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” 11 On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. [Based on Goliath’s PAST reputation and Successes] When you interact with others, how much do you let your past failures or their past successes psych you out or intimidate you? It happens every day with sports. How many teams have lost big games simply because they were playing LAST YEAR’S champions? The truth is that the champions were champions LAST YEAR. The truth may be that you lost to them LAST YEAR, but that was LAST YEAR (the Past), not THIS YEAR (the Present). “Remembering” is an interesting thing. We can learn from the Court of Law. When we are going to testify, we are sworn in and asked that we promise to; “Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God.” It would be great if we would treat our memory the same way, but we usually don’t. We too often have what people call “Selective Memory”. We don’t always believe the truth about things in our PAST. DON’T OVERESTIMATE PAST SUCCESSES (Like Goliath did) I know people who greatly overestimate the PAST (Some to their advantage, and some to their disadvantage) It is not true that once a champion always a champion. Goliath did not understand that because he was confident in something other that God. DON’T UNDERESTIMATE PAST SUCCESSES BECAUSE GOD CAN BUILD ON THEM (Like he did with David) The slingshot which he used for enemies of the sheep, was now used against Goliath, the enemy of Israel (the sheep of God). Remembering properly will help you to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. 12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was very old. 13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. 16 For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand. 17 Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18 Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. 19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.” 20 Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. 21 Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. 22 David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. 23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. 24 Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear. 25 Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel.The king [SAUL] will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter [Jonathan’s sister]in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.” 26 David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.” 28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger [And what “other” emotions???] at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? [Questions] I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.” [Accusations] Q: In your PAST, Who has Questioned you and Accused you of things that are not true? Q: How does that Effect you present? 29 “Now [This was not the first time his big brother challenged him] what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” 30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him. 32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” 33 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.” King Saul did NOT Properly Remember the PAST. Saul Forgot that: God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. [Saul had the same Sunday School Lessons from the Old Testament that you and I did, yet he did not remember that lesson on that day,] He also forgot that God Delivered Israel from Pharoah through Moses. [Who had no war or fighting experience either. He was actually a shepherd just like David] He forgot that God caused the walls of Jericho to fall down. He forgot that God was God, the same Gods that Goliath was mocking. Q: What have you forgotten about God when you are “certain” that something will not work out in your life? Q: What have you not properly remembered about what God has done in your life in the PAST? 34 BUT [David remembered who God was.] David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised [Godless]Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued mefrom the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” GOD WHO DID IT THEN, WILL DO IT AGAIN. DAVID REMEMBERED 1. Things about God. [Deliverer] 2. Things about his past experiences. [Skill with a slingshot] Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.” 38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. Q: Do you know people that SAY but they don’t DO? Saul wanted to put on David what did not work for Himself. That is crazy. David should have said right then and there, if it didn’t work for you Saul, what makes you think that it will work for me? No thank you. I will take your blessing of “Go, and the Lord be with you” though, because He is who I am having confidence in. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. 40 Then he took HIS staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with HIS sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. [The problem] Of all of the things that people think contribute to confidence like; Power, Money, Brains, Wisdom, Body-Image Confidence, Career Confidence, Who you know Confidence, etc. The key and most important one is Approaching your challenges with God [“The Lord be with you”] and with the Skills that he has prepared you with. Q: What is your slingshot and how has it served you well in the past? “May the God of peace, who through the blood [our forgiveness] of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd [To shepherd us though our challenges] of the sheep[us], EQUIP you with everything good [That we need to face our Goliath challenges] for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. -Hebrews 13:20-21 41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42 He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. 43 He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!” 45 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” 48 As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. 50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. 51 David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. ADD “REMEMBERING THE FUTURE” TO THE CONFIDENCE THAT COMES FROM PROPERLY “REMEMBERING THE PAST” AND YOU WILL BE PREPARED TO DEAL WITH ANYTHING THAT COMES YOUR WAY. Jesus has fully and freely forgiven you of all of your sins. That assures you of heaven. Note: While we may lose some battles, we do not lose the war. We are not fighting FOR victory, We are fighting FROM Victory. [We have already won] This is yet another opportunity for us to “Be Jesus to others". Pastor Dave Word of Life Church 17525 W. Bell Rd. Surprise, AZ 85374