Dr. Michael Youssef begins this episode of Leading the Way with a challenge about doing things for God's glory. What are you doing with God's blessings and successes that He's given you? What are you doing with them? Do you see them?
Do you perceive them? Do you use them as of the Lord, through the Lord, and for the Lord's glory? Or do you keep on hoarding them and accumulating them? And say, one day I'm going to serve the Lord. One day I'm going to do great things.
One day, and that day may never come. Welcome to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youset. Today, encouragement from his series, David. Portrait of a champion.
You'll be reminded to carefully choose whether you'll use your gifts for God or to please others or self.
Now, helping you better understand that choice, here is Dr. Michael Youssef with today's Leading the Way Audio. In the day When genuine Friendships. Are there In the day when loyalties are thin. In a day Or commitment is often conditional.
In a day when relationships seem to be built on what am I going to get out of this. instead of what can I give into this. In such a day as our day, The story of David and Jonathan. their friendship, their loyalty to one another. It's truly refreshing.
I'm reminded of how many years ago Sir Walter Scott was the leading literary figure in the British Empire. It was said of Sir Walter Scott, That no one could write like he could. But then it wasn't Many years later, The work of Lord Byron began to appear. and the greatness of Lord Byron's work was immediately evident. All those who have read it began to Give it all the acolytes.
Right after that, There was an anonymous Critic. who began to write In a London newspaper. About the work of Lord Byron. The anonymous critic declared. that in the presence of these brilliant works of poetic genius, Scott could no longer be considered.
The leading poet of England. Think how you would feel. If you're Walter Scott, But it was some time later it was discovered that the unnamed reviewer and the unnamed critic was no other than Sir Walter Scott himself. This rare and magnanimous spirit was evident in Jonathan's life. Jonathan was King Saul's eldest son.
Jonathan was King Saul's heir to the throne. Jonathan was Israel's future king. Jonathan was the Crown Prince. Yet when Jonathan saw God's hand upon David, He submitted to him. When Jonathan recognized the anointing of God upon David.
He committed himself to him. When Jonathan Because of his deep Spiritual sensitivity. He humbled himself before God's anointed. And we saw in the very first message the first characteristic of a champion, namely, Availability Above ability. And availability is not sitting on your blessed assurance and saying, well, God one day is going to use me.
That's not what I meant by that. But it is ready. To do whatever God gives you at a given moment to do all the time. Secondly, we saw. How a champion's faith conquers fear.
And today, we're going to see how God's champion is courageous. 1 Samuel 18.
Now, please listen carefully as you're turning to your Bibles. It would have been easy for this newly proclaimed national hero. To get cocky. It would have been easy for him to be arrogant and feel arrogant. It would have been easy for him to feel contemptuous.
It would have been easy for him to declare himself to be the Come back, kid. But none of that happened with David. Because his trust was in the Lord of hosts, because he had the anointing of the Spirit of God. And God therefore gave him favor not only in the eyes of Jonathan, but also in the masses. On the other hand, Saul was mad with jealousy.
He was blinded with jealousy. He was angered with jealousy, and he wanted to kill David. But God raises people To serve his purpose in your life, just as he raised people to serve his purpose in David's life. You know, this is one of the hardest lessons for Christians to learn. I don't know why.
That the God who calls you to a task. is the very God who's going to equip you to do that task. He is the very God who is going to use inconceivable people, inconceivable events, inconceivable circumstances in order to fulfill His purpose in your life. In Genesis 39, 21, it was the Lord who gave Joseph favor in the eye of the prison keeper. In Exodus 3, 21, it was the Lord who gave the Israelite favor in the eyes of the Egyptians.
In Esther 5, 2, it was the Lord who gave her favor in the eyes of the king. And David's courage did not turn into contempt. Why? Because he knew that the Lord is his shepherd. And therefore He does not want.
What a contrast. This is for Something I've read this week about The number of people who commit suicide at the height of their success. I have read recently about multi-millionaire George Vanderbilt. He jumped out of a hotel window and took his own life. Lester Hunter, who was governor of Wyoming twice just before elected to be a U.S.
Senator, took his own life. And of course, actress Marilyn Monroe and Ernest Hemingway and Tony Lazari, just to name a few. They became disenchanted, they became discontented with their worldly success and they took their own life. In 1966, about one year before he died, the brilliant physicist Robert Oppenheimer. Said these words, he said, I am complete failure.
Think about it, this man headed up the Los Alamos project that ultimately produced the atomic bomb and then he became the head of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. Yet looking back at all his achievements, He sees them as meaningless. In fact, when Oppenheimer were asked About his achievements, he would say the following words. He said, They leave on the tongue. Only the taste of ashes.
And David's success was a great success. Why? Because his success was of the Lord, through the Lord, and to the Lord's glory. Let me ask you this. What are you doing with God's blessings and successes that He's given you?
What are you doing with them? What are you doing with them? Do you see them? Do you perceive them? Do you use them as of the Lord, through the Lord, and for the Lord's glory?
Or do you keep on hoarding them and accumulating them and hoarding them and accumulating them? And say, one day I'm going to serve the Lord. One day I'm going to do great things. One day, and that day may never come. It would have been easy for David to get Enamored with Prince Jonathan's recognition of his success, but he didn't.
In fact, look at verse 4. It says, Jonathan took off the robe that was on him. With the armor. And he gave them to David. Do you know what that means for a prince to take off his armor, to take off his robe?
taking off the rope, that is the insignia of his life in the palace as a prince. In taking off his armor, that was the insignia of his life as a warrior. There's his profession. In taking off His robe, he took off whatever privileges and whatever rights that he has as a prince in the palace. and gave them to God's anointed.
And when Jonathan gave David his sword and he gave him his bow. That were the weapons that represented his responsibility as second only to the king. Not only that. But the Bible said Prince Jonathan also gave David his belt.
Now That is the most prized possession of a warrior. A belt was only worn by a rich warrior because in the belt he put his money and he put his jewelry, he put his treasures. But that too he took and gave to David. What represents his wealth? Please hear me right.
I don't Care how much you tell me that you love the Lord if you do not share your possessions with the Lord.
Now, if you don't give back to God from the blessings which He has given you, all the sanctimonious talk in the world won't cut it. David is going to face some tough times down the road. But at least for now he is riding the wave of popularity. Every Paul in the nation We're showing That if David runs for office, He's going to get 90% of the vote. You couldn't get more popular than that.
Because not only did Prince Jonathan gave him allegiance and gave him loyalty, the masses did the same thing. They were excited about what happened. Israel was in such low morale. That after David slaying Goliath, He became a national hero. By that I mean that his face was plastered on every cereal box.
His face was plastered on every billboard and every train station and every bus. David T shirt manufacturers couldn't even keep them on stock. David baseball caps, man, they were selling like hotcakes. How does King Saul feel about this? He really gets ticked off.
That's an understatement. he becomes blinded with jealousy.
So, what does he do? He keeps David in the palace so he can keep him under the thumb. And one day King Saul and David and all the other warriors were coming back from the valley of Eli where the battle took place. back to Gibeon, which is a trip of about fifteen miles. And on the way back, you would think.
That when you move away from the scene of the victory, when you move away from the scene, of the battle. And people do not know. They may not have heard. They may have got confluded information. They may have gotten their information mixed up.
But to everybody's surprise, As they walked there, they discovered that some women got together and wrote a song and composed it. And they were singing it. And guess what? That song was hitting... the top of every chart in the nation.
Every AM and FM station was constantly playing that song, and it goes something like this: I won't hurt your ears and sing it. I'll tell you what it says. I don't know how they sang it, but Saul has slain his thousands, but David has tens of thousands. Every little town they come through, they see a long line of people all lining up to buy the C D's of that song. That's what they were doing.
They were all lining up to get the song. Saul gets madder by the minute. And by the time they get to the second town, And then all the way home. They found the souvenirs, the t-shirts, the caps, the slogans. All printed out.
David did it. I was there when David did it. David has my vote. And then there was this one. Don't blame me.
I voted for David.
Well, to add insult to injury. All the toy companies began to manufacture a David doll. Slaying Goliath. And women were fighting to get in line to get at least one doll for Christmas for their kids.
Now David's slingshots. We're going at a premium if you can buy them. And this is all only on the way home. All the video games in the world. Converted.
to David killing Goliath and the kids were playing it. What I'm trying to do, hard as I'm finding it, is I'm going to tell you that he was a national hero.
So much so that twice in chapter 18 you see Saul throwing his spear in an effort to pin David to the wall and kill him. And twice David Ducks And God saves you. But instead of being grateful and thankful, To God. This young man saved the nation. Saul was blinded with jealousy and he wanted to kill him.
And here it is, you can see it so clearly. Fear got worse. And now has blinded soul with insane jealousy. That he wanted to kill David. The one who saved the nation.
The one who probably is the hope of the future. But that didn't matter to us all. The contrast between the ups of the women's songs. and the downs of a jealous king. A contrast between the popularity of yesterday and the dodging of the bullets of today.
But that's true to life, you know. One day You are riding high and the next you may not be able to get out of bed. One day you're on top of your proverbial world. And the next you are in the dumps of that same world. One of the great Puritans of yaster years said the following words.
Build not your nest in any earthly tree, For the whole forest is doomed to destruction. People can praise you one day and damn you the next. People can lift you up one day and then they cast you away the next. People can flatter you with words one day and then they will knife you with deeds the next. People can say Hosanna one day and then crucify the next.
You can't rely on public opinion. When you want to serve the living God, please hear me right. It is only when you have set your heart and mind on things above that you will find people's praise and people's criticism to be of equal value. It is only when your heart and my heart are set on honoring God first, serving God first, putting God first, pleasing God first, putting the will of God first. That people's view of you with a it is up or down, wouldn't make any difference.
Saul could not take all of this success of David.
So you want to kill him? But even so. David's courage, Never. turned into contempt.
Well, Saul couldn't get rid of David. He tried twice, tried to kill him. He couldn't do it. But what would he do? He devised a two-pronged plan.
Saul sits down and said, Okay, I can get him with my own spear. I'm going to get somebody else to do the dirty work for me, and that's the first plan. He said, I'll send him out in the middle of the Philistines so that the Philistines will kill him.
So he said, David, you remember I told you you'll marry my eldest daughter if you kill Goliath, okay? Go up there and get me a hundred Philistines. What do you think? that a hundred would take care of this young man. David comes back with 200.
Every time he sends him into danger, David comes back as a champion. And his courage. Never give way to contempt. God gave David courage. He gave him wisdom.
and he gave him protection. You say, how come? is the secret verse, verse twelve. And Saul was afraid of David. Because the Lord was with him and departed from Saul.
David never once attempted to take things into his own hands and take over the kingdom. Popular as he was, song or no song, that didn't make any difference for him. He was going to wait for God's timing. Never once. tried to force God's hand.
He was contented to wait, for God's timing. When you walk righteously before God, The wicked. are afraid of you. They really are. Say what they may.
They are afraid of you. When you walk righteously before God, Even those who do not fear God. They're gonna sit up and take notice.
Well, that didn't work out. Every time David goes out to get a hundred Philistines, he get 200.
So Saul puts in the second plan in motion. He renegs on giving him his first daughter in marriage. What is he trying to do? That was the prize for defeating Goliath. But in reneging, he was hoping to cause David to fall into mutiny.
to fall into rebellion. And then he will have a legitimate excuse for killing him. But instead of this, do you know what David did? He said, Who am I? to become the king's son-in-law.
Who am I? The Bible said God resists the proud. But he gives grace to the humble. Jesus said, Learn from me. for I am meek And not in heart.
It is a temptation of all of our hearts. to take things into our own hands. It is the temptation of all of our hearts. That we want Things to be settled our way. It is the temptation of all of our hearts.
That we be in a driver's seat. It is the temptation of all of our hearts. So be in control. It is the temptation of all of our hearts. Not to wait.
For God's timing. Yet falling in that temptation, does not honor the God. Who knows you by name? Who said that every single hair on your head is counted for, not one of them is going to fall without his permission. How much more is your job, your life, your family's life, your children, your spouse?
How much more God cares about these things? Oh, yes. You can make the clock strike before the hour. by putting your hand there. But was strike wrong?
Oh yes, you can. Tear open A rosebud. before it's time. But you're marred its beauty. Even so, We may spoil the many gifts and the blessings that God has prepared for us.
Because of our haste. But if we patiently Obey God. Wait for God. Wait upon God. God's plan.
is always Perfect. Therefore waiting on God. is never a waste of time. Working diligently. Why are we waiting for his timing?
is honoring to him. Dr. Michael Yusap, encouraging you to serve God diligently. honoring him with all of your life. You're listening to Leading the Way heard on the radio, online, through technologies like the Leading the Way app.
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