Rely on God

This week we conclude our series on Being Holy. We havelooked at how we show God our appreciation for him. We have also seen some of the actions we should take to show that we have become closer to God and that we are in the process of getting to know him better each and every day.

This weekwe end this series by looking at what can happen when we are willing to rely on God. Our scripture comes from 1 Samuel 17:32-49. The words will be on the screen.

32 And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. 36 Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”

38 Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, 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. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.

41 And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43 And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” 45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lordof hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lordsaves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

48 When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.

Please pray with me…

Last weekwe ended our scripture with David being anointed by Samuel to become the next king and that the Holy Spirit came upon him. What we also were told was that Saul was still the king during that time.

He is stillking now. He finds himself and the rest of the Jewish nation in a precarious situation. They are in a situation in which the Philistine’s are on one mountain range and the Israelites are on another with a valley in the middle.

A very strong, very tall Philistine named Goliath goes into the valley and challenges the people of Israel. He states “Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.”

David, theman Samuel anointed, had three brothers who were amongst the soldiers. He is asked by his father to deliver food to his brothers. David walks into this situation. The soldiers are afraid while David is willing to fight because he believes that God will be on his side.

One way that we show that we are willing to rely on God is not focus on the odds of success but believe that through God all things are possible. We can often get so wrapped up in the world and believe what is before us is impossible.

It is often truethat what we see may have been impossible for us. We may be correct that we don’t have the skill set or the correct personality to accomplish what God desires for us to do. But with God along with us, with the Holy Spirit guiding us, when we are willing to rely on God, all things become possible.

We show that we are willing to rely on God when we choose to listen and respond to what God tells us and believe that it is possible. We can recognize from scripture that it is OK to question God.

We have Mary the mother of Jesus, being told that she is going to have a child which she knows is impossible and she asks God how. We can ask how. We can ask when, but eventually we have to be willing to step out of our comfort zone and move in the direction that God has called us.

This will often mean that we will have to overcome our fears. Our first reading has the disciples not trusting Jesus and deciding that their only way to survive the storm that they are in is to wake him up. They are basically telling their Rabbi, “you got us into this mess, get us out of it.”

Did you catch that in the reading. A storm is taking place around them. Water is spilling into the boat, and we have Jesus taking a nap. Jesus is relying on his father. He knows that his time has not yet come. He knows that everything is going to be fine.

The disciplesdo not feel the same sense of security that Jesus does. They do not believe that all is fine. They believe that if Jesus doesn’t do something quick that they are going to die. Therefore, one of them wakes up Jesus.

Jesus immediately calms the storm and then calls out the disciples for their lack of faith. He isbasically saying “do you not believe that God will protect you when you are my disciples.” He wants them to be able to rely on God even if he is not there.

I know what you are thinking, that is great that Jesus believes that the disciples should have trusted in God but because of their lack of faith they had to wake Jesus from his much-needed nap.

But what about all those times that things do not work out. What about the Christian that died in the car wreck. That drowned trying to save a child. That everyoneprayed for and they still died. Are you saying they didn’t have enough faith to live? Are you saying that we don’t have enough faith?

It is truethat things don’t always work out as we would desire. It is true that sometimes bad things happen to good people. I wish that I could take away the pain and offer you a reason why that is the case. But all I can do is say to you that despite what has happened God is still there for us.

We have to still manage despite the horrific things that have happened find a way to rely on God. We need to believe that God is with us despite what life’s circumstances may tell us. We can look towards the Old Testament Joseph as someone to show us what that looks like.

Joseph was left for dead by his brothers before he was eventually sold into slavery. He ended up at the household of a Roman soldier until the soldier’s wife says Joseph attacked her and he ended up in prison.

He meets a guy in prison and with God’s help he interprets the man’s dream. The man promises to remember Joseph, but it takes three years before he finally does. Joseph isset free and interprets the dream of the Pharaoh about an upcoming drought.

Joseph endsup being in charge of food distribution which is when he meets his brothers and ends up having them move to Egypt along with his father so that they could survive. Joseph, despite all the bad that happened to him, credited God with saving his family.

He could have given up on God and life at any of the times that these events were taking place. He could have said enough is enough and quit following God. But despite his hardships he continued to rely on God in what he did and said.

Is it alwaysgoing to be easy? no. Is it worth it? I believe yes. God wants to walk the journey with us. God wants us to rely on him and trust him enough to be willing to let go and let God. We need to make the decision that we are going to rely on God no matter what.

Now, backto our story. David tells Saul he is willing to fight but Saul sees the impossibility instead of the possibility. Saul looks at David not as a child of God who is trusting God but as this young kid who is in over his head.

It is at this point that David lays out his credentials. He points out that he has taken on lions, and bears. He should have also lost those fights, but he came away victorious. He is saying to Saul God has prepared me for this moment.

Part of relying on God is believing that God has given us the gifts and has prepared for us to do what he desires for us to do. David looks at what he has done in his past for preparation and sees them as gifts from God.

Each of us has a past. Each of us has things that we have done that are preparing us for what God desires for us to do. We have a God that loves us too much to ask for us to go and do something that he has not prepared us to do.

David has the faith to believe that God will use the knowledge and tools that he has given him to allow for him to defeat his foe. He believes that through God all things are possible no matter how difficult the situation may seem. We have the same God. He has prepared the way for you.

He has prepared the way for us as a church. This is my last Sunday. Pastor Tom will be here in a couple weeks to lead this church the way God has prepared him to do. We need to rely on God to believe that God has given Pastor Tom and each of us the gifts to help Kirkersville to become the church that God desires for it to be.

We have to believe that it is not about me, it is about we. It is not about what I want to do it is what God wants us individually and as a church to do with his help. We are to rely on God just like David is relying on God.

We have Saul finally relenting. I mean what choice did he really have, no one else was willing to fight the Phillistine including Saul himself. Saul has his armor with him. We know this because he offers it to David. But David realizes that it doesn’t fit and takes it off.

We may have people that are trying to help us that become a hinderance for us. You have convinced them that what you are doing is from God. They say OK go, but take this with you in order to help you.

David knowsthat isn’t going to work. He takes his sling, some stones, no armor and goes down into the valley to face Goliath. We have Jesus having his disciples do the same when he sent them out to be his representative.

He told them to bring the basics and leave the rest. They were to trust that God would take care of them. They were to believe that God would not leave them or forget about them during their time serving him.

The scriptureends with David being victorious. He tells the Philistines exactly what is going to happen. He also gives credit to the one who deserves the credit. He says “I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand.”

The last way that we show we are relying on God is by giving credit to the one who deserves it. There will be some that may want to give us credit. We may in our own ego want to take credit. We show that we have become holier, more connected to God, when we are willing to give God the credit.

Our scripture shows us that relying on God when we have the faith to believe that through God all things are possible. We believe that God has given us the gifts to prepare us to do what he desires for us to do. And we praise God and give credit to God for what he has done. Let us decide that we are going to rely on God.