Sermon notes from Tuesday Night Experiece at CFNI!

Courage...what keeps us from having courage? Fear. The problem is that so many of us are bound up by fear. A lot of times it is the fear of what others will think or do. Courage beings when you come to the point where you just don't care! So, #1) You have to figure out who you are. When King Saul told David that he could not fight because he was only a boy, he replied saying " Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from it's mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by it's 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 delivered me from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you." (1 Samuel 17:34-37) David knew who he was! He knew that if he could take down the lion and the bear, then surely with the help of the Lord he could take down Goliath. What's the "bear" or "lion" in your life? Don't dance with the bear or flirt with the lion... take them down in the name of Jesus! #2) Know who you are not! Verses 38 and 39 tell us that King Saul tried to dress David in his own tunic and armor, but David said he could not go out in them because he was not used to them. David knew who he was not! It is time to shed the armor of trying to be someone else! #3)When you go to battle the enemy says "Be Frightened, Be Scared!" but God says "Be Courageous!" Who will you listen to? Know that when you stand up to the enemy, he will despise you for it. (vs. 40-44) #4) Recognize the presence of God in your life as David did. After Goliath tried to intimidate him David replied to him. It says beginning in vs. 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. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 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." That is a very powerful verse passage! Do you recognize God's presence in your life? When is it that you yell out for someone? When they are far away, right? So why then do we sometimes yell out for God? Usually it is because those are the times when we feel God isn't near, but He is! Praise the Lord! We just need to recognize His presence and all it takes is a whisper to tell him "God I need you." And He will be there in your time of need. It is through Him and Him alone that we can find the strength and the courage to do what needs to be done even when we are afraid. If you don't recognize His presence and you feel that God is distant, you need to take a look at the 3 Ts. Time, Talk, and Thoughts. What do you invest most of your time in? What do you talk about the most? What are your thoughts about? Are they about God or something else? Whatever you put the 3 Ts toward will begin to grow. So instead of feeding something else, take time for God. Talk about Him to others and what He is doing in your life, and think about Him through out the day. Then you will begin to recognize His presence! #5) vs. 48- "As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him." David was probably a little scared, but he did not let that stop him from doing what needed to be done! It is okay to have fear as long as the fear doesn't hold you back. Instead, run to the battle line and deal with it! The rest of chapter 17 tells us of the great victory the army of Israel had that day over the Philistine army after David killed Goliath. With only a sling and a stone, David struck him to the ground, went over and drew Goliath's sword, killed him, and cut off his head just as he said he would. And so the final point is this...#6) When we do as the Lord has called us to do, allowing Him to work through us H will give us the courage we need to overcome. He will take whatever it is that the enemy intended to use to harm you or to scare you, and He will use it for a victory in your life! It's time for the giants in our lives to die! It's time for fear to loose it's place in our lives! Time to be courageous! Wow! I have never gotten so much from this story! Thanks to Pastor Tom Elmore for a great sermon at the Tuesday Night Experience at Christ for the Nations. Check in next week for my sermon notes!