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!
• If we do know that we are in a battle, we will not prepare for it and we will lose.
• No matter what you are doing in life, to be successful, you need to know your surroundings!
• SLIDE #7
• The third aspect of being successful is…
III. Seek guidance from the right source.
• As we live life, we will always need to have guidance along the way. The question is where will you go to seek guidance?
• The place you go for guidance will have a major impact on how you fare in life. Honestly, this is a trap we fall into a lot when we were teenagers, we would ask our teenage friends to help give is guidance from their vast wealth of experience.
• If you are having marriage issues, would you be better going to someone who knows how to keep a relationship afloat?
• Do you want to get financial advice from someone who cannot even balance their own checkbook?
• Who does David go to when he needs guidance?
• SLIDE #8
• 2 Samuel 5:19 (ESV) David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” And the Lord said to David, “Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand.”
• David asks the Lord what to do. David did not rely on his own thinking; he wanted to know what God wanted him to do.
• This makes a lot of sense when you think about it, who knows more than God?
• We need to seek our counsel from God. Too many times we go off what we know, what we think, what we feel instead of what God says.
• David KNEW and trusted that God had his back so he KNEW he could rely on what God would tell him to do.
• Who do you trust? To whom do your go to?
• SLIDE #9
• Proverbs 3:5-6(ESV) 5Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
• This is a 100% promise, 100% of the time! Most all of the mistakes I have made in my life is when I failed to seek God’s counsel.
• SLIDE #10
• Sometimes the hard part is not ASKING but it is DOING what is told to you.
IV. Follow the best plan.
• It is one thing to ask God what to do, but it is another thing to follow what He tells you to do.
• Sometimes what God wants us to do does not make sense to us. Things like forgiving those who do not deserve it, or loving our enemy just to name a few.
• We have instances throughout the Bible where God has told someone to do something that made no sense, but God came through.
• Marching around Jericho for seven days, and without lifting a weapon, seeing the city walls cave in and then have God give them the city!
• David followed God’s plan and won, but in verse 22-25, the Philistines were back for more and David goes to God again.
• SLIDE #11 REF A EM
• 2 Samuel 5:22-25 (ESV) And the Philistines came up yet again and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim. REF A EM And when David inquired of the Lord, he said, “You shall not go up; go around to their rear, and come against them opposite the balsam trees. And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then rouse yourself, for then the Lord has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.” And David did as the Lord commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba to Gezer.
• David follows the best plan, it was the plan the Lord gave him. Had David decided to do it his own way, David’s army would have been routed!
• When God gives you a plan, you MUST follow it if you want to have success!
• There have been countless times where I have not heeded God’s counsel and I have always paid a price for it.
• The best plan for everything in your life is God’s plan!
• I want to finish up with a final thought that is not directly in this passage.
• SLIDE #12
• In order to enjoy success, we need to…
V. Have the proper definition of success.
• In our opening video clip the character was struggling with defining success.
• If we are going to be truly successful we need to know how to define it.
• Is your life successful if you have a nice house, cars and money in the bank?
• Is your life successful if you have achieved great heights in the workplace or if you have been able to obtain a position of high power?
• Success will elude us as long as we cannot properly define it.
• I want to go to a passage in the book of Ecclesiastes which was written by one of David’s sons, King Solomon.
• Solomon in his own right was great, he had the means and power to do ANYTHING he wanted to do.
• Solomon pretty much did do ANYTHING he wanted. After doing everything, he concludes his book of Ecclesiastes with this verse.
• SLIDE #13
• Ecclesiastes 12:13(ESV) 13The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
CONCLUSION
• This goes back to priorities, once we understand what life is REALLY about, then we can strive to live life successfully.
• EVERY one of us can live life successfully in Christ, this is a pressure point that we do not have to sweat when we understand that Jesus will not let us fall if we will walk with him.
• Power, prestige, money, possessions, achievement. None will have meaning without Jesus as being the center of our life.
• You can have all the above and you will be a failure without Christ!
