When in doubt, have faith!

Intro

If you’re sitting here today, you either fall into one of two camps:

(1) you are ELATED that your candidate was just elected to be the next president of the United States of America ...

…or

(2 You are feeling DISAPPOINTED, let down and you’re trying to cope with a brand new reality that has been thrust upon you.

Either way…let me remind you of a few simple facts:

Life will go on. The sun will still rise each morning and the sun will still set each evening. I don’t mean to trivialize what’s happened, but at the end of the day, I promise you…life will go on.

There may be a new man sitting in the oval office, but the same God is in control of it all. He is the One who places men in seats of power. He raises them up to power to fulfill his purposes and plans for us.

Our kingdom is not found in this world. It is neither liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat- rather it is the Kingdom of God. It is fully just, completely righteous, and totally under the control and authority of King Jesus.

This is the time for the church of Jesus Christ to start acting like followers of Jesus.

Refuse to criticize people who think differently than you

Resist the urge to demonize the opposition.

Try your best not to spiritualize your political beliefs. There are good Christians on both sides of the political spectrum. You may not be able to understand their ideology, but it is not your job to judge them. Your job is to love them irregardless.

The time for division has passed....

This is a time for reconciliation.

This is a time for healing.

This is a time to display the Agape love of Christ and to begin the hard work of repairing and building bridges back into the hearts and minds of people who think and believe differently than we do.

Scripture tells us that a house divided against itself is guaranteed to fall, so if it is in your power, please begin repairing the damage that has been done in your relationships over the past few months during this heated political season.

Become a peace maker snd a bridge builder. Refuse to reduce the value of a person to his or her political beliefs or party affiliation.

Every person you see is a soul that was created in the image of our Savior. Each one is precious in His sight - each one was worth the shedding of His blood on the cross of Calvary.

Start treating everyone you meet as a potential members of the family of God. Love them. Show them compassion. Extend grace to them. Speak words of eternal life over them and watch as the dividing walls which have been erected to divide us begin to crumble…

Don’t seek to change people’s political beliefs, rather seek to liberate your neighbors, your social media feed, your friends and perhaps, even our own family members with the freedom that comes from knowing and serving Jesus Christ.

As believers our allegiance is not to any man, or to any particular political party or even to the ideal of democracy - our allegiance is to Jesus Christ and His eternal kingdom.

Our duty is to lay our lives down for Him, to pick up our cross and conduct ourselves in a manner that is pleasing to Him.

Our duty is to love our neighbor as we love ourself and to shine the light of Christ into a dark and hopeless world.

It’s time to take that same passion we felt for politics and channel that into our relationship with Jesus...

It time to take that same boldness and zeal we used to defend our political beliefs and channel that into a boldness and zeal to share the love of Christ to those who don’t know Him.

It’s time to take the same blocks of time we allowed to be occupied by political pundits and news reports and invest that time now towards scipture reading and prayer so that the presence and power of God can be made manifest in our lives.

**If the church could learn to maneuver through this season of change with Christ at the center of what we say and do, I truly believe that we would see a movement of God’s Spirit and power breakout in ways we can’t even imagine! We would see REVIVAL take place before our very eyes and we would see the Kingdom of God advance against the dark forces at work in the world all around us.

If the church would live as if our only hope, our only chance of survival was based in the grace and help of Christ, it would revolutionize the way we live our lives on a daily basis.

I want is to take a moment and say a prayer for our country. PRAY!!!!!

Alright…now we can move on to what we’re actually here to do…which is to dig in to the Word fo God and find out what He wants to speak to each of us today…So if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel, chapter 14.

WHEN IN DOUBT…HAVE FAITH

Let me set the stage for you...

Israel is fighting against the Philistine army. They just won a small squirmush, but their victory was short lived as it resulted in the Philistines calling in more troops to fight. Before long, Israel was completely surrounded on every side.

- Saul’s army of 3,000 was no match for the Philistines. They had 3,000 chariots, 6,000 charioteers and as many warriors as the grains of sand on the seashore!

- To make matters even worse, Isael’s weapons were not adequate for the battle at hand. The Philistine’s controlled iron in those days, and charged ridiculous prices for weapons such as swords and spears. As a result, only two members of their entire Israelite army even had a sword or spear - and they belonged to King Saul and his son Jonathan.

And just when they thought it couldn’t get any worse…the Israelite army began to run and hide. Verse 6 of chapter 13 states, “The men of Israel saw what a tight spot they were in; and because they were hard pressed by the enemy, they tried to hide in caves, thickets, rocks, holes and cisterns. Some of them even crossed the Jordan river and escaped into the land of Gad and Gilead.”

When Saul counted the men who remained to fight, he found that his army of 3,000 men had been reduced to just 600 men!

This was not a good situation to say the least…and so for the next several days, nothing happened. They simply waited for the inevitable to take place.

Saul became sullen

The soldiers became demoralized

All hope in the camp seemed to be lost

This was a dark moment for the children of God.

But not everyone was content to just sit idly by.

Not everyone was okay to just resign themselves to the inevitable defeat that awaited them at the hands of their enemy.

Not everyone was okay to sit and do nothing.

Sauls’ son, Jonathan, came up with a daring plan but kept it hidden from his father and the rest of the army.

Application:

When life doesn’t turn out the way we expect it to, it is easy to drift off into complacency.

it Is easy to resign ourselves to our fate, after all, what can we really do to change our circumstances.

We’ve all been in that place at one time or another --- where the cards just didn’t fall in our favor and we found ourselves on the short end of the stick.

Perhaps you are there right now…Perhaps you’re stuck in a moment that you feel powerless to get out of…and it might even be something that’s side0lined you for years...

The enemy loves to attack us in time like this..

He loves to make us feel worthless

He loves to fill our minds with defeatist thinking

Until we reach the point of utter despair.

Perhaps you’ve been there.

Life didn’t turn out the way you thought it would

Your dreams seemed to die, your hopes seemed to crash

your confidence seemed to dissipate

and all you could do was just sit there and watch it happen.

Feeling powerless, defenseless and without any direction of where you should turn

Without any forward motion, its easy for apathy and discouragement to set the course for our lives.

This is the position Saul found himself in.

He was out numbered

Out maneuvered

Out weaponised

To put it bluntly - he was also sheer out of options…or so he and his army thought

As they sat and waited for the inevitable to take place, Saul’s son, Jonathan, came up with a daring plan to bring defeat to the enemy.

v1 “One day Jonathan said to his armor bearer, ‘Come on, let’s go over to where the Philistines have their outpost.’

v6 “Let’s go across the to the outpost of those pagans, “ Jonathan said to his armor bearer. “Perhaps the Lord will help us, for nothing can hinder the Lord. He can win a battle whether he has many warriors or only a few.”

A few things I want to point out about Jonathan:

He refused to be content with what was happening around him.

He may have found himself outnumbered, and outwitted, yet he refused to resign himself to defeat.

I love his bravado and his mindset that refused to be defeated.

I wonder what would happen if the children of God stopped allowing the enemy to convince them that they can’t win. That they can’t prosper. That they can’t evangelize thier friends and neighbors. That they can’t make a difference in this world…

I wonder what would happen if we simply refused to be defeated by the enemy regardless of the sheer Hell he brings against us?

Now some of you are much more positively minded than the rest

Its easier for you to see the light at the end of the tunnel

Its easier for you to find hope in difficult moments

but for the rest of us, it can be a real battle!

But what would happen if we could tap in to our inner-warrior and refuse to be defeated by whatever scenario the enemy has painted for our lives?

—>There are far too many believers who are stuck in ruts

—>there are far too many believers who don’t know what they are going to do about the situaitons they find themselves in

—>They have lost hope, they have lost sight of even the possibility of victory. And as such their lives, their destinies and their purposes have been sidelined by the snares and traps of the enemy.

If that’s you, this morning, I want to encourage you through the example of Jonathan - you do NOT have to just sit there and take it. You can fight back against the enemy through your faith!

2. His Hope wasn’t in his abilities - it was in His God!

Notice where Jonathan’s hope was found. It was found in God alone!

“Nothing can hinder the Lord…He can wind a battle whether he was many warriors or only a few.”

Jonathan’s strength was that he looked to God, instead of to His own strength and power for help

This is key! You might indeed not be strong enough to handle what has happened to you, but God still is!

Your help, your deliverance, your victory does not depend on what you can do - rather it depends on the victory God has already won on your behalf through Christ!

Jonathan realized that there was more to the battle than what could be seen by the naked eye.

At it’s essence, this was a spiritual battle - this was God’s battle to fight…not His own.

I want to speak to that defeated place in your life today. I want to declare over your bruised ego, your fractured heart and your shattered dreams - DEFEAT IS NOT THE END FOR YOU! DESPAIR IS NOT THE END FOR YOU. GOD HAS VICTORY IN STORE FOR YOUR LIFE AND YOUR FUTURE

“for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope!!!

Did you hear that? God has a FUTURE and HOPE for that future in store for your life. This moment doesn’t define you. This setback is not your permanenrt address - there are greater things coming that you cannot even fathom or

They key is not to sit and take it, but to declare God’s ultimate victory in spite of what you see and what you feel.

3. Note Jonathan’s core belief - “nothing can hinder the Lord.”

DO you believe that this morning?

Are you living as if you believe that this morning?

If scirpture is true when it says, “NOTHING IS TOO DIFFICULT FOR GOD” then that should be all we need to hear in the midst of life’s battles.

The battle may be too difficult for you, but it is not too difficult for God!

Put the onus on Him!

Decalre your utter dependence and reliance on his strength and power to deliver you.

Recite in your prayer journal and speak it out over you life today…NOTHING CAN HINDER THE LORD or His PLANS FOR MY LIFE!

Oh how we need to recapture the simplicity of faith like this. To have such confidence in the Lord that we refuse to cave in to fear

Look at verse 7 “”Do what you think is best,” the armor bearer replied. “I’m with you completely whatever you decide.”

EVERYONE NEEDS AN ARMOR BEARER LIKE JONATHAN!

Everyone needs someone in their corner

Everyone needs someone who will support them in the moment they need support the most.

We all need to feel the support and the love fo

4. Jonathan was willing to sacrifice his comfort in order to help bring about the victory.

v4 “To reach the Philistine outpost, Jonathan had to go down between two rocky cliffs that were called Bozez and Senah. The cliff on the north was in from of Micmash and the one on the south was in front of Geba.”

Not only di he have to climb down the cliff, but he also had to climb up over the other side

He had to put his faith into practical action

He had to place himself in a position that could use to bring victory

You can’t stand still and expect God to do everyhting for you.

There are still step you need to take

There are difficult meanuevers that we must be willing to take in order to position ourselves to be

V 8 “All right then” Jonathan told him. “we will cross over and let them see us. If they say to us ‘stay where you are or we’ll kill you’ then we will stop and not go up to them. But if they say’ come on up and fight’ then we will go up. That will be our sign that he will help us defeat them.”