Soldier or Shepherd

You're not supposed to be embedded in the trends.

You're supposed to be a trendsetter. Jonathan Evans reminds us that believers are called to follow God's wisdom, not the world's ways. If some people don't understand your approach, it's because those people don't share your calling. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Some battles in life can't be won with strength.

The path to victory is only found through faith. Today, Pastor Jonathan Evans reveals that reading Goliath is really a story about David and Saul using Goliath as a prop. Goliath is only a prop to the story because if you read the rest of 1 Samuel, you're going to see a tension between David and Saul. And here that tension is inaugurated with Goliath as this prop because really what God is going to show in this story is what he would do with an unknown kid that he would not do with a well-known king. Really what God is going to show is what he can do with the kid who has faith that he would not do with the king who operates in fear.

Really he's displaying what I will do with less when less is dependent upon me that I won't do with more when more is independent from me. You see, he's going to show today what he will do with a shepherd that he will not do with a soldier. You see, today, Saul is signing his resignation and David is applying for his job. He's in an interview process because God has already called David and anointed David and checked his resume of his heart, but in this interview process, God wants to see his approach to a giant.

I want to use you to protect my sheep. I want to see how you approach the problems in life different from the king that I've removed the anointing from. So I'm going to build this tension between David and Saul using Goliath as a prop for David's promotion. See, many of us think the giants that we're facing in our life is the story. The story is not about you and your trial. The story is not about you and your problem.

The story is not about you and the thing that you're going through. That's the enemy's trick to make Goliath center stage. Goliath is not center stage. It's just God calling you to the interview room and giving you a challenge to face so that the interviewer can see how the interviewee faces the challenge. I want to see what your approach is so that after I've called you, I can promote you.

What's your promotion? 1 Samuel 10 23 says, Saul is head and shoulders taller than every other man in Israel. So you're talking about a king with stature. You're talking about a king with size.

A king who comes in and his presence makes you look. And he comes in and he's talking to David and this kid is talking to a king and the king is telling the kid how to fight his battles. The king is saying, let me give you the king's bronze helmet.

You should feel good about that. And he gives David the bronze helmet that's coming from the king. And then the king says, let me give you the king's armor and he takes his armor and he places it on David.

What an honor to be given the king's armor to be ready for battle. And David tried to walk in it and couldn't walk in it. David tested it and it didn't work out for him. And David had the spiritual temperament of a king, even though he was a kid. And he looked at Saul and said, that's not my armor. He basically said, and all of us need to remember this, I cannot conquer what God has called me to conquer wearing somebody else's calling. When you understand that, think about the spiritual temperament of David to not let the size of his giant make him put on a character or conduct that's not his size. If many of us as Christians even had a little bit of David's temperament, that my challenge will not move me from my Christianity. That I'm not going to take a step back on what God has called me to do and be simply because I have challenges or simply because my emotions are connected to the challenges that I have.

David is steadfast in this moment to be a kid in the king's courts and to say, this may be good for you, but it's not good for me. If our young people can recognize that you're not supposed to be embedded in the trends, you're supposed to be a trendsetter. God has not called you to be like everybody else in common or you can get what everybody else does that's common.

In fact, I have called you 1 Peter 2 says you are a peculiar person, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. We don't go out there like everybody else. We don't go through life like everybody else. We don't approach marriage like everybody else. We don't approach parenting like everybody else.

go to school like everybody else. We don't go through loss like everybody else. We don't do forgiveness like everybody else. We don't take vengeance like everybody else. We ain't like everybody else. And David understood this.

I see what everybody else is doing. Everybody else is wearing armor, but I have a different calling. And some of us need to understand if some people don't understand your approach, it's because those people don't share your calling. They're not on the same page with what God has called you to do and be. So this story is not really about Goliath. It's about the perspective that David brings to him.

The Bible says in Romans 8, if God is for you, then who can be against you? Jonathan, you stick with your training. Thanks be to God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who gives you victory over sin and death. Stick with your training. Be steadfast, unmovable, always abound. It will not go in vain. Stick with your training that I am a finisher. I will complete the work that I started in you, boys.

Stick with your training. And I realize what many of us need to continue to realize is that I don't have to put on fear. I can keep on faith. I don't have to put on doubt. I can keep on belief. I don't have to put on hate. I can keep on peace.

I don't have to put on those things that the enemy wants to try to give us to get us to change for what we're going through. So Saul is just giving him something common, but he doesn't even believe in him with the advice he's given. And evidently, he's not using it himself.

Have you ever had somebody give you advice that they themselves won't use? See, you thought he was given the king's armor. No, it was a garage sale because he didn't plan on using it. Saul's advice was that you pay heavy infantry with heavy infantry. Notice, well, if he going to have a bronze helmet, certainly you should. If Goliath is going to have shackled armor, certainly you should. If Goliath is going to have a spear with a long blade, then certainly you should have a sword. The way that you fight, that's common, David. You got to understand this.

Look around. The way that you're supposed to fight is you use heavy infantry against heavy infantry. This is not Saul offering David the armor of God. This is not the armor of God.

This is the armor of natural thinking that he tells you. The way that you're supposed to do it is you're supposed to combat what's coming at you with the same tools that it's coming at you with. So if you want to beat the enemy, David, certainly you should use his tools.

Y'all missed that. If you want to overcome the enemy, shouldn't you use the enemy's tools to do it? He's trying to get David to fight with the same tools that Goliath uses to beat Goliath with them. The enemy is a champion with those tools. You can't use cheating and lying and deceit. You can't use death.

He's a champion with those tools. He said heavy infantry for heavy infantry. You know what that means?

Practically. If you ain't going to talk, I'm not going to talk. If you're going to disrespect me, I'm going to disrespect you. If you're going to come at me this way, I'm going to come at you that way. I ain't going to let nobody do that to me.

You got me messed up. See, you like that, don't you? See, many of y'all are like, yeah, that's how I do it. What's common to man is to combat the way it comes at me, I'm going to come at it. And if David puts on Saul's armor, you would be missing a Davidic kingdom. This was a decision for his destiny that he would stand tall on it and say, I'm not going to remove my training. I'm going to remove this trial with my training. Jonathan will have more for us on how we respond to our trials when he continues our message in just a moment. First though, I wanted to remind you about the Alternatives Current Resource Offer. For a limited time, we're making all 10 full-length messages from Pastor Jonathan Evans' Survivor Audio Collection available in their entirety on downloadable MP3s as well as on either CD or USB stick. In these messages, you'll discover that the God we serve fights our battles alongside us.

And although we face moments when we feel we can't carry on, God continues to equip and grow our faith in Him as we learn to release our pain, our discouragement, and our blessings to Him. We'd like to send you the complete Survivor Audio series as our thank-you gift when you make a donation toward the ministry of the alternative. And if you do it right away, as an added bonus, we'll include a copy of Dr. Tony Evans' daily devotional book called Life Under God. This popular resource will challenge, encourage, and inspire you each day to live your life in harmony with God's will. Visit us today at tonyevans.org or give us a phone call at 1-800-800-3222, make your contribution, and let us send you the Life Under God devotional book as well as the complete Survivor Audio series.

Again, that's 1-800-800-3222 or online at tonyevans.org. We'll get back to the second part of our message with Jonathan Evans right after this. They preserve for us the Hebrew Bible and shed light on the teaching of Jesus and the major contributors to the New Testament. The scrolls open a vivid window into the life and beliefs of the Jewish people during the time of Jesus. You will understand the Bible and Jesus and Christian origins better than you ever have before. Take your first step as an honorary amateur archaeologist. Dive into the Dead Sea Scrolls with special guest lecturer Dr. Craig Evans. Discover this and other fascinating biblical studies at tonyevanstraining.org. Explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere. A lot of us have a decision to make with what you're going through and what you're facing on who you're going to be.

Because you've been called, but God is watching your approach. And David put on Saul's armor for a second. He thought about it. And he tried to walk. And you know what that big man's armor felt like to a little, ruddy kid? Heavy.

He was no longer nimble. Now he was confined to the heavy nature of a common response. It feels right to go heavy infantry for heavy infantry until you get in there and you realize you're just making your circumstance heavier. A lot of us are making our marriages heavier. We're making the job heavier. We're making the anxiety heavier. We're going deeper in to the heaviness we feel because our approach is common and not peculiar. That God says, give me the burden. David had the spiritual temperament to understand, to make the decision. I know how I feel.

I know how big the giant is. I know how everybody else operates, but I've been trained as a shepherd and I'm not going to step outside of my training just because there is a major trial. Listen to me, the hardest time to be a Christian is in a crisis.

But if you stick to your training and your calling, that's when giants start falling. Think about the spiritual temperament of this kid that we need to catch. To be able to look and say, I choose shepherd, not soldier. The experience of God comes through you allowing him to work through you. 1 Peter 3 9 says, do not return evil for evil or insult for insult. Instead, give a blessing so that you might inherit a blessing. So if you want to inherit a blessing, you give a blessing even when you're under insult. You give a blessing even when you're experiencing evil. You do the exact opposite of what's common to man. And when you do the exact opposite of what's common to man, you get to experience that exact opposite of what's common to man. You see, many of us are missing our blessing because we want to be insult for insult. We want to put on the clothes of our enemy and fight it because it makes us feel better.

And we're missing out on what is an inheritance to us. Many of you are at the crossroads with what you're going through right now and you're trying to decide on your approach. You're trying to decide on if you're going to let the challenge knock you off kilter or if you're going to meet the challenge steady. David took a sling. He grabbed five stones. He approached the Philistine. The sling was like a long leather strap, like a whip with a cup at the end. They would use the sling as a way to protect and preserve their sheep as they were leading the sheep. And the same tool he used to keep the sheep in order is the same tool he used to knock down giants. He didn't switch his tools. The same tool he used over here was the same tool he was using over here. And shepherds, once they saw a lion or a bear coming against their sheep, they would put a rock in the cup.

They would wield it and throw that rock. And shepherds of old can throw a rock on a line a hundred yards and hit their targets. So he was perfect accuracy. He had already been trained in. Perfect accuracy.

And I mean not kind of, sort of. He hit Goliath between the eyes. Perfect accuracy. So he would keep his sheep in order with the sling and then he would turn the accuracy he would use to keep them right as the accuracy he would use to knock down giants. So this giant, Goliath, had been fee-fi-fo-fumming and everybody been running every single day. There was nobody in all of Israel who could fight him.

Are you with me? Not one person in all of Israel could do anything about this giant. But this shepherd boy took the tool he used for the sheep and he turned it on this giant and was able to use the same tool he used for the sheep against this giant while everybody else who had swords couldn't do nothing for themselves. So all of the soldiers were reliant on the coming of a shepherd who would come with perfect accuracy. And this shepherd would come with perfect accuracy. Are you still with me?

And be able to knock down a giant that no one else could knock down. I'm going somewhere. That's why I'm repeating myself so many times is because I'm going somewhere. You've got to understand that over all time there has been a giant called Satan Sinning Death.

And he's been fee-fi-fo-fumming and everybody's been running because nobody could knock him down. But enter the son of David. The son of David came in and Psalms 23 says, the Lord is my I shall not want. So this shepherd comes on the scene and the shepherd picks up a sling of the new covenant.

And that is the thing that is going to protect the sheep. Now, one of his boys, Peter, came up to him and said, I forbid you, Lord. And Matthew 16, don't do it this way. And Jesus looked at Peter and said, get thee behind me, Satan, because you have natural eyes and I'm not going to change my clothes.

I'm a shepherd. So he took the sling of the new covenant and he picked up a smooth stone called righteousness. And with the accuracy that he had for the sheep is the same accuracy he had for the giant. He wielded the sling of the new covenant with the stone of righteousness in it. And he hit Satan right between the eyes.

But let me tell you, Satan got brothers. So he took that same sling and picked up grace and hit Satan's brother death right between the eyes. He took that same sling and picked up forgiveness and hit Satan's brother sin right between the eyes. He took that same sling and picked up mercy and hit Satan's brother condemnation right between the eyes. He took that same sling and picked up love and hit Satan's brother guilt and shame right between the eyes. He was a shepherd for the sheep and he was a shepherd for the giant.

Either way, he didn't change tools to knock that boy down. Now, if we are his sheep and he has protected us, why wouldn't we use those same tools for our giant? Jesus is saying, I'm not asking you to do anything that I myself has not already done. I've already come as a shepherd.

I've already won as a shepherd and my sheep should follow the shepherd so they can win too. That's how you get it done. The Word of God has us doing it differently. As I close, I want to let you know it's different for us. That's why the Bible says a gentle response turns away wrath. It's different for us. That's why the Bible tells you to love your enemy.

Well, that sounds very uncommon. Well, it's just a lot different for us. That's why the goal of Christianity starts, yes, with loving Jesus. But the real ones will even love Judas.

It's different for us. And the hardest thing you'll ever do is remain Christian in a crisis. But that's how you win. You take the slingshot of the new covenant that you're in. You take all of those smooth stones and you live by those stones. You use them to remember.

You use them to go forward. And when you do that and stick to your calling, you'll be shocked as every man in Israel is shocked. These giants just keep falling. Pastor Jonathan Evans, with an encouraging word on trusting God and moving forward in the face of life's challenges. This message from Jonathan was entitled Soldier or Shepherd. And if you'd like to hear the full-length version, including material we didn't have time to present on the broadcast today, you can find out more when you visit our website at tonyevans.org. And while you're there, don't miss your chance to get Dr. Tony Evans' Life Under God 365-Day Devotional Book, along with all 10 full-length messages from Jonathan's recent audio series, Survivor. These resources are our gift to you when you support this ministry with a financial contribution, helping us continue bringing God's Word your way each day. Just visit tonyevans.org to make your request. You'll find the details for this special offer right on the homepage. Or call 1-800-800-3222. Our resource team is ready to assist you any time of the day or night.

That's 1-800-800-3222. The past can shape us, teach us, and even strengthen us. But if we're not careful, it can also hold us back from God's promises. On Monday, Pastor Jonathan Evans challenges us to make a crucial decision. Will we stay stuck in our past, or will we step into God's place for our future? Be sure to join us for that.