You're never to young

intro

How is school going so far for all of y’all? what has been your least favorite class? like is it history or math or Biology or English. mine was always math like I could never do math it was always one of my biggest difficulties for some reason I could never understand it. But another struggle i had was sharing the Gospel with my friends when i was in middle school I always said “I am to young I can do that when i’m older” and stuff like “ I don’t know enough to share the Bible” but the thing is that it didn’t stop there once high school came i was even more worried that someone would ask me a question I didn’t know the answer to and I wouldn’t be able to help them understand it one time in particular that comes to mind I was with one of my friends in first period and he was one of my best friends and I wasn’t sure on his religious beliefs but i was worried that it would ruin our friendship and he would possibly ask question I didn’t know and so I ended up sitting there all school year telling myself that this week isn’t a good week to share it or I will tomorrow or I’ll do it at the end of the school year or whatever but I kept on making excuses on why not to share the Gospel and I’ll tell you this much i think about it almost every day on what I would do different. But it all stimed from back in middle school when i told myself i’m too young I don’t know enough and all these other excuses back in middle school. And I don’t want you to do the same thing I did and start out in Middle School creating the habit of saying the things I said such as “I am to young I can do that when i’m older” and stuff like “ I don’t know enough to share the Bible” because that is one of my biggest regrets

it is so avoidable just by having confidence in God and his ability to use you. which is what David had when he was getting ready to face Goliath

Confidence

confidence, it’s around October so this is kinda relevant how many of you like scary movies or haunted houses. So I love to think I like Scary Movies and Haunted houses so when that time comes to go to Haunted Houses I am usually very confident leading up to it like the day before i’ll say stuff like Let’s do the one where they can grab you when you walk through it’ll be awesome I have so much confidence that the Haunted house won’t bother me but as soon as we get there I coward out of that idea as soon as we get there I lose confidence so fast when it comes down to the Haunted house all my confidence in myself goes away and no one can talk me into doing the “scarier” one. but the thing about David is that He doesn’t lose confidence in God the way I lose confidence in myself So we are going to start in ch 17 V 33 this is Saul talking to David “You can’t go fight this Philistine. You’re just a youth, and he’s been a warrior since he was young.” Sometimes you are going to have people who want to tell you that you can’t do it and people who try and convince you that You’re to young or sometimes it could even be yourself that gets in your own head and makes you think that you can’t do it. but if we skip down a couple of verses we see where Davids mind is and where he gets his confidence from. before we get to V 37 just to fill in what happened between V 33 and 37 1 Samuel 17 34-36. David tells Saul how he has fought off bears and lions when they would take his sheep and how he would strike them down and how he would grab it by it’s fur and kill it which is pretty crazy that he has the strength to kill a bear and lion with his bare hands. But anyway then he says that Goliath would be no different because he has defied the armies of God which defied just means to annoy or taunt so David is saying that Goliath has taunted the armies of the living God. In V 37 Then David said, “The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Right here shows us the amount of confidence David has in God he is not even worried about how big Goliath is he is comparing him to a bear and a lion and trusting that God will deliver him from this giant Goliath. David has so much confidence in God that without hesitation he was willing to go to war and Davids love for God was shown here because he was mocking the Israelites which are God’s people and he loved and trusted God so much he would go and fight Goliath despite him being the youngest of his brothers and being a “small” (compared to Saul and Goliath) person. But one of the key ways that David keeps his confidence in God is his remembrance of God in the past and how he has Delivered him from the lion and the bear. For us we don’t go out and fight off bears so what would our remembrance look like one of the biggest remembrances that come to my mind to help me remember who God is was him sending his son to die on the cross for my sins and your sins and so that we can have a relationship with the Lord. For you it may be something that you were going through that God led you through or just remembering how loving and caring God is and how forgiving he is but that is something I want to point out to you is the way David kept his confidence in God is remembering what all God had done for him and how God protected Him so when your having issues keeping confidence in God just remember what He has done for you and what He will do.

But from that confidence you have to start depending on God

Dependents

back to my Haunted House story, once we get in the haunted house and I decided I’m not doing the “scarier one” I am in the middle of the group before I would say i’m going to be in front i’ll be the leader and then once we get in there I chicken out and make Steven lead the way and I stay in the middle in other words you could say I depend on Steven to be the front guy so I don’t have to. and that is the same thing as depending on God it starts at the moment of salvation by understanding that we bring absolutely nothing to the table we need to depend on God to lead the way it is only by the mercies of God that we can even go to Him in prayer we can read and understand the Bible. Only through God we can do these things we do every day. Jesus is the only way for us to get to heaven and we have to have a dependence that Jesus can do that for us that Jesus can lead the way for us. and that is just part of salvation. to visit back to my story in the beginning about how I was too scared to share the Gospel in middle school here in Matthew 10 18-20 it gives me confidence to depend on God in moments when I think I might not be able to or times I think that I am facing alone this verse reminds me to depend on God and he will deliver me and that God has my back. But in Matthew 10 18-20 it says You will even be brought before governors and kings because of me, to bear witness to them and to the Gentiles. 19 But when they hand you over, don’t worry about how or what you are to speak. For you will be given what to say at that hour, 20 because it isn’t you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father is speaking through you” I want to focus on V 20 real quick this should give us the confidence to depend on God His word tells us it isn’t us speaking but the Holy Spirit the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is going to be the one talking not us. This verse reminds us that we are not the one speaking when we share the Gospel it is the Holy Spirit not me not you because we can’t do it by our selves it is impossible but that doesn’t matter because God will give us what we need to say when we go out and share the Gospel we just have to be willing to do it we have to have a dependence on God just like David does in 1 Samuel 17:45 “David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with a sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Armies, the God of the ranks of Israel—you have defied him.” David is depending on God in that moment David isn’t saying that he can do it Davids not being full of himself he has recently been anointed future king so it would make sense if he was full of himself but he isn’t he is saying that it is the Lord that will defeat him David knows where his power is and who he can depend on. which Davids response to Goliath shows the difference in the battle strategy. The Philistine also known as Goliath is depending or relying on his earthly weapons such as his Sword, spear, and javelin. But David fights in the name of the Lord and the authority of the LORD and we know the outcome of the battle but I do like taking a second and looking at the two differences in fighting styles one relies on earthly things while the other relies or in other words depends on God.

David keeps depending on God and gives him Glory

Glory

throughout the whole story of David being anointed and him facing Goliath we see him giving the glory to God not himself. It is never David is going to do this David never says I alone am going to defeat you but it is always The Lord has delivered me from the the Lion the Lord has Delivered me from the Bear the Lord will defeat this giant he keeps on giving the glory to God and not himself. *start to calm down* For us today though we need to realize that the Lord is the one who gives me victory not myself we cannot save ourselves but only the Lord if you are keeping your confidence in yourself and You are depending on Yourself to get us to Heaven then you are in for a rude awakening when you realize that you will fall short every time because it is only the Lord who gives you victory not you the last verse I wanna point out is 1 Samuel 17:47 “and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s. He will hand you over to us.” right before David goes into one of the most impact full wars ever in my opinion this battle was in 1022 BC and we still talk about it so i’d say it is a pretty impact full war to still remember it this long but before he goes into it he gives all the glory to the Lord he tells Goliath that the battle is the Lord. It’s not by worldly weapons but by the Lord David will win the battle and he untimely gives all the glory to God and not to himself.

Closing

I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes

so tonight we see David have confidence in God by remembering all the things God did for him and had dependence on God because he knew he could trust him. So tonight if you know your not depending on God or if you don’t have confidence in the Lord and you want to talk more about how you can do that there are parents all around that they would love to have that conversation with you and to help you through that. But maybe your here tonight and you don’t know the Lord that David had confidence in or David was depending on and you would like to know more any adult in this building would love to have that talk with you. The savior that that died on that cross for you he wants that relationship with you he wants to show you his love and compassion and I pray that if you don’t know Him that tonight you will get to know him personally because it is amazing to know THE Lord and THE Savior Jesus Christ. He came and he died for you He knew you would do every sin you would ever do and He still died for you so he could have that relationship with him and so if you are here tonight and have not accepted his gift for eternal life I pray that tonight you will have that conversation with an adult that you trust.

*Pray*