Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Pastor Ed has us pause to consider how faithful we are to the Lord where He has us.

Pastor Ed Taylor: You're uniquely created. Remember Jeremiah was told, "before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations." If Jeremiah tried to be anything other than a prophet to the nations, he would have been disobedient. God made him a prophet.

As hard as it was, those of you that know, Jeremiah had a hard ministry. From most church planting magazines and websites and blogs, they would look at Jeremiah's ministry and consider him an absolute failure because he didn't see one convert throughout his whole ministry. Not one! Except that they would be measuring ministry by the wrong metrics. That's a big word in the church today: metrics, and all the measurements and how many people are in the seats, and how big is your sanctuary, and how big is your budget. Listen, how faithful are you to God?

Guest (Male): Hi there, again. Welcome to Abounding Grace. In thinking back to our Sunday school days, there were certain biblical stories our teachers would key in on, like Jonah being swallowed by the great fish, Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, Noah and the flood, and certainly David and Goliath topped the list.

Here on today's broadcast, Pastor Ed Taylor will highlight this timeless story of David and Goliath, which underscores the greatness and faithfulness of God and the importance of keeping the right perspective. Each of us will face giants in our own lives. It's important to know how to handle it with faith, keeping our eyes in the right place. Here's Pastor Ed in 1 Samuel chapter 17.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Many times, like the children of Israel, we're overwhelmed by our enemies. They're big, they're imposing, they're defying, they're threatening. And if we look and listen for too long—imagine, fortunately, many of us don't go this long when we face the enemies in our lives, all sorts of enemies. Enemies of selfishness, enemies of people, enemies of situations.

I mean, when I think of enemies, don't just think of a person. Think of things that are a threat to your spiritual growth. Think of things that stumble you. Think of things that you might describe as you're addicted to and you'll never get out, or things that "well, that's always how I've been" or "that's how I was raised" or "that's where I come from." Think of enemies in a much broader perspective for this illustration that is illustrated by Goliath.

Many times when we are so overwhelmed by our enemies, we're so overcome by our problems that we lose true perspective. We don't see things clearly. Have you ever been there? Has anyone? Just one person. Has anyone ever been there? Are you there now? You don't need to answer that. Truly, that's a lot of our lives.

And fortunately, I don't know so much that we would spend 40 days overwhelmed by a problem or 40 days just totally focused on the problem, focused on the defiance, focused on the—man, that dude's nine feet tall and I'm five feet tall. What am I? I mean, I'm out-numbered, I'm out-gunned. Look at his spear. It's 25 pounds. He doesn't even have to hit me with it, just drop it on my head.

And there is the army behind them, and they're taunting and they're yelling for 40 days. For 40 days, the children of Israel were overcome by their enemy. And nothing even happened! They went into battle array, but nothing happened. It was just words. It was just words.

Remember in our study previously this last weekend, having to deal with hard words? How with hard words from the mouth of Jesus that were really words of love and invitation, they were words of saying, "come, abide in me, take of me, I'm your sole source, I'm here to strengthen and help." Words that were intended to draw people, they were hard to hear and hard to understand or really hard to accept.

And as a result, many of his disciples left him and followed him no more. It's the same thing happening with the children of Israel, except these words were not words of invitation. They were hard words to hear. When we lose perspective, fear so quickly grasps our heart and our minds. We're being set up for discouragement, for defeat, and ultimately destruction.

For David, he got it. In David's mind as he began to think of—and I don't know, none of us really have that. I mean, I can only think of that guy that used to wrestle alligators. That's all I can—I mean, who has a testimony of going to the zoo? "What'd you do?" "I went to the zoo, took care of a lion. Lion got loose at the zoo and they called me up and I just got him by his beard and slapped him on his—" I mean, who has that kind of testimony? Very few people do that.

But for David, God allowed these circumstances. How did he get them? By being faithful just taking care of the sheep. All of his other brothers didn't have that responsibility, he had that responsibility. And he was faithful with it. Why? Because he wanted to obey his dad. And what did he get as a result? He got to take down a bear and a lion for just this moment.

See what you're going through right now is preparing you for what's up ahead. You might just think "I'm just going to feed the sheep." Oh no, so much more than just taking care of sheep. You're learning how to be a shepherd, David. So much more than what you're learning, a much broader spiritual perspective of life.

And he could look back and think, "You know what? I see this guy, but I've taken on lions, dude, who's this? And I've taken on bears." And he's just a kiddo, just a ruddy little kid. So from God's past faithfulness in his life, he was able to develop the right perspective in front of Goliath.

Because if we were looking at this, if we were in the audience, I'm certain that many of us were sizing up the situation. And we look at big Goliath and all his deal, and you look at this little kid and you're like, "poor kid." What do you think? Five minutes? What do you think? Ten minutes?

But it wasn't poor kid. From God's perspective, it was poor Goliath. It wasn't "oh poor kid, you're all set up to be, poor kid King Saul sent you out." No, no, no. Poor Saul for being a coward because I believe God could have given the victory through King Saul.

He would have given the victory to any one of those men, one, that would stand up for righteousness. And you don't defy my God, and you don't defy the armies of Israel, and who are you, you uncircumcised, separated, God-hating man?

That's what little David—it's like "wow, that kid's got some gumption." No, he's got the right perspective. It wasn't David saying, "poor me, I'm facing such a giant of a man." No, it's "poor giant, he's facing such a giant of my eternal God." Perspective. It's so important.

Would you turn over to Psalm 73 for a moment with me? Psalm 73. Perspective is so important. In Psalm 73, we see an example of this perspective. In verse 1, it says, "Truly God is good to Israel, to such as pure in heart. But as for me, my feet almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there's no pains in their death, their strength is firm. They're not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men."

"Therefore pride serves as their necklace, violence covers them with a garment. Their eyes bulge with abundance. They have more than their heart could wish. They scoff"—verse 8—"and speak wickedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue walks through the earth. Therefore his people return here, the waters of a full cup are drained by them. And they say, how does God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly who are always at ease, they increase in riches."

Surely as he perceives all around him and he's envious and he's upset and they, you know, basically what the psalmist is saying, you know, people that hate God get away with everything. They just seem to have the easiest life, they have the most stuff and look at me. Look at me! And he's just making observations maybe you've made before.

Where you look at a difficult time in your life and you look around and go, "man, my neighbor, he doesn't love God at all, but look, he's just got the new car, the new boat, they're always smiling, they're always partying. What is it if I live for God? What's the difference does it make?" Well, it seems like the difference it makes is that if I live for God, I have a hard life and I have a difficult life and it's not fair, God.

Verse 13, that's really his conclusion, "Surely I've cleansed my heart in vain! I've washed my hands in innocence. For all day long I've been plagued and chastened every morning. If I had said, I will speak thus, behold I would have been untrue to the generation of your children. And when I thought of how to understand this, it was too painful for me."

That was the end result, that was his perspective just looking out. It sounds a lot like the Book of Ecclesiastes. Just looking at the reality of life and what's the point, and what's the use? That attitude of "man, when I wasn't saved things used to be easier and it seemed like to be less hard, and I just forget it, I've cleansed my heart in vain, it's all waste of time following God."

Maybe that's what the Lord—the word of the Lord is for you. You came here or you're listening right now, you're just like, "what's the use?" Well, you have the wrong perspective. You're looking at things wrong. Your eyes are in the wrong place.

How do I know that? Well, look at verse 17, "until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I understood their end." That's the right perspective. In the rest of the psalm goes on to describe the truth. I have in my Bible, I have the word "understood" underlined twice.

Where does understanding come by? By being in the sanctuary of the Lord. Don't think of that in some physical place in this building, I'm not referring to this room that we call the sanctuary. I'm speaking of that place of being with the Lord. That sanctuary, that place of safety. When you no longer rely upon what you see or what you feel or what appears.

Of course, if you saw Goliath, you would conclude that's a nine-foot man, that's a right conclusion. And you would conclude that he has hundreds of pounds of armor on him that weigh more than you do, that would be a right conclusion. You would listen to his words and go, "wow, he has a big mouth, he's very loud, his words scare me," that would be the right conclusion.

Those are all true statements, except when you piece them together and come to the conclusion "I have no chance," you're wrong. Why? You have the wrong perspective. Think of that in your own situations today. Think of that of the problems and the enemies of your life.

Which perspective are you looking—have you come into the sanctuary of the Lord so that you might understand? Have you sought the Lord so you might understand? Maybe you've sought the counsel of friends, they can't give you full understanding. And maybe you have looked at one of those books or you have flipped on a self-help channel and you find that that doesn't help you.

And maybe other people's stories are encouraging to you but that's someone else's faith and someone else's relationship. See, true understanding comes through your personal relationship. Like, you'll never get understanding if you don't have a relationship with God. It's only going to confuse you more.

You're just like "whoa, I don't know what to feel and I don't know what, and what am I supposed to do?" And for the very same feelings, as a born-again believer, the Bible says that your eyes that were blinded they now see. And your ears that didn't hear before, they now hear.

That what you weren't able to understand before, in God, that's where understanding comes. And there's an answer to what's on your heart today. There's understanding available to you. But I plead with you to have the right perspective. Problems seem to overwhelm us, but only because our perspective is different than what it really should be. "Until I went into the sanctuary of the Lord."

You see, the perspective is—makes all the difference. Verse 38 now. Saul clothed David with his armor and he put a bronze helmet on his head and he clothed him with a coat of mail. And David fastened his sword to his armor and he tried to walk for he had not tested them.

And David said to Saul, "I cannot walk with these for I have not tested them." So David took them off. This would be a great Bible study to talk to those of you that serve in ministry or have a desire to minister because it's beautiful, it's a beautiful picture.

It could be that Saul's a little embarrassed that he's not going into battle and he's sending a little kid to go fight his fights. So you know, if I'm going to send a little kid with—he has more courage than me, at least he can take my armor. Protect him, poor guy, maybe this armor will buy him another five minutes.

And David puts them on, I believe respectfully, but his Saul's armor didn't fit David. That's what this is saying here. It didn't fit! So it was laid aside. Because David couldn't go into battle poorly fitted. Now, of course, we could take this section of scripture and teach on spiritual warfare about the armor of God. You can't go into battle without the right spiritual armor.

And we can also take this section of scripture and teach it that when you go into ministry, you can't serve in ministry like someone else. You're not someone else. You can't wear their armor. You're not them! God has called you and uniquely gifted you to do what God has called you to accomplish.

So that when you compare yourself with other people, the Bible calls that foolish. It's not wise. You are who you are by the grace of God and that's something to celebrate, not be discouraged by. It's something to develop spiritually to grow in maturity, not to be upset because so-and-so is doing such and such and you're not.

It's not your armor. It's not your armor. Take it off and lay it aside. You're not that person. I often see this as a pastor where I watch men and women serve in the ministry trying to be someone else. And I think everyone goes through it, I certainly did.

I didn't know what God was—God was developing my own personality in my responsibility in ministry. I only had models to follow. I had great models to follow and I followed them. My Pastor Jeff is a great model to follow, my Pastor Chuck, great model to follow, Pastor Rudy who served with me, great—I had great models to follow.

But God wanted me to be me and to be satisfied. I would often teach a Bible study—and I guess sometimes I still do. And then I turn on the radio and hear Chuck Swindoll and I'll just shake my head. "Ed, you are horrible. You don't know how to divide"—he'll teach the same passage that I taught and I'm like, "oh man, oh, just hang it up and just play a DVD of Chuck Swindoll, man, and just be encouraged."

But you know what? I'm not Chuck Swindoll. I'll never be Chuck Swindoll. And over the years I don't want to be Chuck Swindoll. I'm happy for him, and I'm thankful for him. God used that brother in my life and he still does.

I think of the glorious outpouring of the Holy Spirit through Pastor Chuck in a being able to see a revival in Southern California and watching God do what he did. And I would sit there and just watch him. He could quote the Bible without ever opening on—he'd be sitting right here and just talking through the scriptures and I just—I'll sit through a Bible study for him and I'm just like, "oh, that, that man, Lord, if only I could be."

And the Lord would say, "but you're not. You're not. You are who you are." And the quicker you can grasp and appreciate who you are, you will set aside someone else's armor. Even if someone's tried to put it on you. The fortunate opportunity I have to serve with people here.

The men on staff, some of the men that have gone on to plant their own churches, they—they are, they—and serve in even other churches and go off in around the country. It's very—I'm very careful. I don't want them leaving trying to be me. I don't want them trying to be me here.

I want them to be who they are. That's where the diversity of the ministry comes from. That's where it's a beautiful thing of what God uses Pastor Aaron with his personalities there and Pastor Joel and Pastor Joel and Jason and Matt. The uniqueness of ministry with Michael down with the kids or Pastor Ian here leading in worship and all the—like we don't, we—we need to be who we are.

God has ordained that. He has made you who you are and we don't need a bunch of copycats because then you're really not who you are. And you're just trying to be like man. You don't want to be like man. Set the armor aside, let it—you know, don't try to copy someone. Be yourself.

Let God develop you, grow you. You're uniquely created. Remember Jeremiah was told, "before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations." If Jeremiah tried to be anything other than a prophet to the nations, he would have been disobedient. God made him a prophet.

As hard as it was, those of you that know, Jeremiah had a hard ministry. From most church planting magazines and websites and blogs, they would look at Jeremiah's ministry and consider him an absolute failure because he didn't see one convert throughout his whole ministry. Not one! Except that they would be measuring ministry by the wrong metrics.

That's a big word in the church today: metrics, and all the measurements and how many people are in the seats, and how big is your sanctuary, and how big is your budget. Listen, how faithful are you to God? Because that's the measurement that God is looking. Be faithful to the Lord.

And I tell pastors all the time, I tell them because this is something I had to grow through. When you look out in a sanctuary and you see empty chairs and you see a few people filling some chairs and the rest of them are empty, you are at a place of great decision.

Will you be faithful to the Lord and love the people that he's entrusted to you, or will you bellyache and whine and cry about the chairs that aren't filled? How you make that decision will say much about your ministry. Because if you lay the heavy on all the people that—"I can't believe, look around at the empty chairs. How dare you not invite someone to church, you bunch of"—you know, that's where all the—you beat the sheep.

And you know what? When you beat the Lord's sheep, he replaces you as shepherd. That's not what we're—we're supposed to care for the sheep. We're not supposed to count them and be all worried—unless, you know, I think there is a counting. I want to be careful there, there is a counting because if you have 100 and one goes away, you're supposed to leave the 99.

So there is a sense that you're taking care of the flock and you're knowing the state of the flock. But you're not counting them so that when you go to the next pastor's conference—I remember the first time somebody asked me, "Hey, what do you run, Ed?" I'm like, what, am I a bookie or—what do you mean, running numbers? Like, what does that mean? I didn't even know what it meant!

And the pastor's just like, "how many people come to your church?" And you know, whenever you hear of a pastor's conference and even as we're praying, aren't we? We're praying for this pastor's breakfast coming up. And when you're gathering with pastors, it can be one of the most discouraging times for pastors because discussions can become, you know, "how big's your church and how's it growing and what's this?"

And then maybe even some they're wanting to express what the Lord is doing and "look at this and look what God is doing" instead we have to be very careful just to encourage one another in the Lord and not to—you know, as you're praying, you know, today we were praying for the pastors on the list.

It was, "Hey pray that some of the questions on their hearts get answered." And sometimes some of those questions are "why isn't my church growing?" "What happened to the families that left?" "Why does the church that just started down the street seem to grow by thousands and I've been laboring?" You know, sometimes those are the questions.

"How can I improve in my teaching when I have to work for 40 or 50 hours a week in order to put food on the table for my family?" Questions like "how can I reach my city?" You know, pray that those questions will be answered, that they'll be answered from the Lord. And you can't wear someone else's armor.

You know, Paul is a hero of mine in the scriptures, but I won't be a Paul. I'm going to be an Ed. It's not going to be Pastor Chuck Swindoll, it's Pastor Ed. But I'm satisfied. And I want to see what God wants to do with a guy named Pastor Ed. I want to see it. I want to be it.

I want to walk in his wisdom. I don't want to be tripped up and hear some wonderful—and I do, I hear these messages and I'm just like, "man, they just—that was amazing! The Lord not only spoke to me but the way they put it together and that insight that they got there."

And instead of being bummed out, just celebrate of the faithfulness of God. It's just a celebration! God is doing a great work and he's using great men and he's using the body of Christ to reach the world. So here King Saul, he puts the armor on David and David being respectful, he puts it on and finds out, you know, this doesn't fit, I'm not going to be able to fight in King Saul's armor.

And we don't have time, we'll have to finish the chapter next time and we'll develop—we'll bring out some other great insights. I don't want to rush through them. It's much better to include a missions update. We can catch up with this next time.

But as we leave David here, we leave David in a—with the right perspective and he's not going to put armor on, is he? Those of you that read ahead, he's not going to face Goliath with armor. And you can read ahead to the rest of the chapter and just pray through it.

Maybe the Holy Spirit will speak to you the next time we're in 1 Samuel together, as maybe he'll speak to you long before I have anything. You know, when you learn anything in a Bible study, you know who taught it to you? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the teacher.

And the vessel or the mechanism for that is a pastor or a teacher that's been anointed and gifted by God. But whenever you and I learn something, whenever we grow in God's grace through Bible study, whenever you just pick up your Bible in the morning and your devos just bless you, you can give thanks to the Lord by giving him—giving you his Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth.

The Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth and teach you the things and bring to remembrance the things that you've been taught. The Holy Spirit will bring illumination to the scriptures where it once looked dark, but then by the Holy Spirit just going, "No, this is not only what it says, this is what it means."

And this not only is what it means, but it's what it means for you. That's a work of the Holy Spirit each and every single time. That's why you can depend upon the work of the Holy Spirit. You can ask God for wisdom, he'll give to you when you ask. And we don't need to go into battle with someone else's armor.

Even if they try to put it on us, just say "no thank you. No thank you. I'm going to go in the strength of the Lord. I'm going to pick up a few rocks because I know God has shown me in the past he's faithful. He's faithful to me right now. So whatever I'm walking into, I'm going to walk into with what?" Or with who? A faithful God.

And one of the things we're going to learn: the battle belongs to the Lord. That will be next time.

Guest (Male): What you heard today on Abounding Grace is part of Pastor Ed Taylor's series taken from 1 Samuel. You can hear it again online at aboundinggraceradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. We've also got an app that makes listening to Pastor Ed easy to do on your mobile device. Just search for the Calvary Church app in the App Store.

And we'd really like to hear from you. It's helpful to know how these studies are impacting your life, and that would be a real encouragement to Pastor Ed and the team. And if you're in need of prayer, please leave your requests as well. There's a place to contact us at aboundinggraceradio.com.

Abounding Grace is supported by listeners just like you, and we are grateful for those that come alongside us with either a one-time gift or ongoing support. We'd like to say thanks today for a gift of $25 or more by sending you The End Times in Chronological Order by Ron Rhodes.

How do Old Testament and New Testament prophecies fit together? Why can you trust a literal interpretation of the scriptures? These questions and more are answered in The End Times in Chronological Order. Call us at 877-30-GRACE or visit our e-store at calvaryco.store. And then come back next time when we'll continue our study of 1 Samuel with Pastor Ed. That's right here on Abounding Grace. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.