Dealing With Success Series

INTRODUCTION

• MOVIE CLIP

• SLIDE #1

• One of the pressure points of life deals with the whole issue of success.

• The drive to succeed in life can be strong and it can be at times a bit elusive.

• I think that most people want to be successful in life.

• How many of us want to be a failure or how many of us want to have our children fail at life.

• Some people have a very high drive to succeed. Others have allowed past failures to take them off track.

• There are many paths that people take as they strive for success in life.

• As we have been looking at the life of David, we can see that he had a lot of success early in his life. David seemed to take it all in stride.

• We are going to look at 2 Samuel 5 today in order to gain some insights to how we can drive down the path of success.

• DO you want to REALLY succeed in life? Let us examine the path that David follows.

• Our first observation concerning the path to success from 2 Samuel 5 is…

• SLIDE #2

SERMON

I. Pick the right partner.

• As we have been examining the life of David over the last few weeks we have seen that David experienced a great deal of success at a very early age.

• What was the biggest key to his early successes? It was the fact that David had a partnership, or better yet a relationship with God.

• SLIDE #3

• After David took the throne as King of Israel and after he took the stronghold of Zion, look at what verse 10 says.

• 2 Samuel 5:10 (ESV) And David became greater and greater, for the LORD, the God of hosts, was with him.

• David was successful because of God!

• When you look at the life of David, you will see that David made a decision very early on in life as to whom he was going to partner with. We really do not know why he made the decision he made.

• It does not seem as if his brothers had the same commitment to God as David did.

• David’s success sprung forth from his dedication and relationship with God.

• If you want to succeed in life, you too will choose the right partner. Jesus needs to be the one you choose to partner up with.

• If you decide you are going to live life without Jesus, if you choose to partner with yourself, then you will not be successful in life.

• Who you choose to partner with is a choice only you can make.

• As Joshua’s life was near its’ end, Joshua tells the Israelites that they had to make a choice.

• SLIDE #4

• Joshua 24:14-15(ESV) 14“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

• Who are you going to partner with; your choice will determine the course of your life.

• SLIDE #5

II. Know your surroundings.

• If you are going to be successful in the things you do in life, you need to know your surroundings; you need to know what is going on around you.

• One of the keys to David’s success is that he knew the landscape; he knew what was going on around him.

• Let’s look at verse 17-18

• SLIDE #6

• 2 Samuel 5:17-18 (ESV) When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. But David heard of it and went down to the stronghold. 18 Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim. REF A EM

• David always seemed to be in tune with what was going on around him. David was a master organizer and leader and anyone who is successful in life knows what is going on in the environment in which they operate.

• There were many occasion when because of David’s understanding of what was going on around him that his life was saved and he was successful.

• Part of our success in life will come from knowing that there is a spiritual battle going on all around us and that we need to be aware of the fact that the enemy is out to try to capture our souls as well as the souls of our loved ones!