Discipled to Serve Part 2
Discipled to Serve • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
What’s in Your Sling
What’s in Your Sling
I. 1 Samuel 17:39
and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off.
a. Do what you do best and delegate the rest. You may be good at many things or you may perceive that you are good at nothing. David had a sling that God had taught him to use. And in that sling he had stones appointed by God. With a prophetic anointing and appointed stones given by the God of all Creation, in absolute trust and obedience to the God he had consecrated his whole heart to, how could he fail. God has anointed and appointed you for a sovereign purpose and has given you gifts to fulfill that purpose. The problem is you either:
i. Cannot recognize it (As Jesse did David).
ii. You are lazy and unwilling to pay the price to use it and be effective for God with it.
iii. You have emotional and mental baggage that discourages you and steals your confidence to use it.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
a. This is the year of the Lord’s favor and opportunity (AUTHORITATIVE PERMISSION) to those who favor the Lord. This is the year for God to act (ACTIVE PARTICIPATION) on behalf of those who act on the behalf of the Lord. It is God’s year to act for the advancement of His Kingdom and the manifestation of His glory to His people. God did not give everyone else a purpose and gifts and leave you out or overlooked you. Each of us have a place in the Body of Christ and each are given a diversity of gifts and callings according to a diverse measure of faith and one is as important and intended by God as another.
b. If you are unwilling to recognize that God has and is preparing you for such a time as this; if you are unwilling to step up and do what He has given you as an opportunity, then He will find another as Mordecai told Esther.
For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
c. Stop disqualifying yourself by your measure of success or failure.
for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;
d. Your heart will lie to you about you. God is greater! Everyone deals with irrational fears. But you have to know how to cast your cares on the Lord.
e. Vertigo is defined as a sense of moving forward while feeling whirled around, dizzy and in a confused state of mind. This is the way some people go through life. This is how I would define some people spirituality. Vertigo throws your balance off, causes your vision to be blurred, slurred speech, hard of hearing, and unclear thoughts. Internal vertigo of the heart does the same thing to your spiritual purpose, direction and identity in Christ and causes you to feel disconnected, isolated, alone, and useless in the Body of Christ. It robes you of the power of the sling God has placed in your hand. If you have spiritual vertigo, the Holy Spirit has just what you need. If you have moral vertigo, the Word of God can give you a straight path.
III. Some use the excuse of humility as a reason they do nothing for Christ. True Biblical humility is to agree with being what God has made you to be. To disagree with it and say you are not what God is making you, is to walk in false humility and deny the authority of God in your life. Biblical authority is not authority until it is used and used properly for the purposes and intentions of God in your life.
a. Example: A man assumes responsibility of a farm that is in complete disarray and barren. He begins to work the land, enrich the soil, and take care of its health and development while asking for God’s favor. Eventually, the land began to produce fruit and flourish. Another man approached the farmer in the field and said, “Wow look what God has done!” The farmer replied, “Yeah, but you should have seen it when God had it all by Himself.”
b. Philippines 2:5-9 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
IV. We need to be like the Sons of Issachar.
Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command.
After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, and he lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.
Stand up in the midst of confusion and distress and take the stone and sling God has placed in your hand and slay the giants and dare to be and accomplish something great for God. What is that sling and stone?
a. It is the life in Christ that God has called you to. It is moral and spiritual authority, accountability, and responsibility. (Assumed Authority; Delegated or Assigned Authority; Sovereign Authority; False Authority)
b. It is the knowledge, understanding and application of the Word of God in your life.
c. It is the relationships, leadership, and discipleship that God has set before you.
d. It is the vision, the needs, and the opportunities to serve that God has empowered you with through divine sovereignty.
Is your sling empty? Do not stand motionless, frozen in the Kingdom of God with a sling in your hand but nothing in it. God can only work with what you give Him to work with. If your spiritual sling shot is empty then there is nothing to launch at the enemy. You have nothing to fight with if you have not appropriated the right spiritual ammo. Some people are throwing spiritual biscuits at the enemy. If you don’t know what to do with the sling then pick up some spiritual rocks and throw them at the enemy instead of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Seek God for your stones and let God show you how to use the weapons of spiritual warfare in your life.