Saul And David: Great Men Of Faith! (Part 3 Of 3)

Title: Saul and David: Great Men Of Faith!

Text: I Sam 17:1-58

Pray!!!

Review from last 2 sermons

- Too develop a heart after one must learn from the character of David.

- In the first sermon I talked about how God prepared David’s life or fighting bears and lions to face Goliath.

- There are 3 points we discussed in this sermon and they are:

1. God uses our past and present circumstances for future glory

2. God directs our steps

3. God uses our life to bless others

- In sermon 2 we discussed why it’s important to be willing to enter a valley experience.

- A lot of the times Christians run from trials because of the difficulty and uneasiness, but David was willing to go where Goliath was and faced him head on.

- Why did David do that? For 3 reasons, and it’s these same 3 reasons we should also follow to further develop in our heart after God.

1. David wanted to defend God’s honor

2. David wanted to defeat the enemy

3. David desired to grow or advance in his walk with God.

- And now for today’s sermon on developing a heart after God entitled: Saul and David, Great Men of Faith.

- Read I Sam 17:11, 25-27, 33-37

Introduction:

- When we read these passages of scripture from our text we see some different ways of thinking.

- We see what Saul was influenced by and what influenced David.

- Saul was motivated by fear, people and selfish ambition.

- Saul was a person that didn’t like to fail and lived a life of trying to accomplish his goals on his own strength.

- Dismayed in verse 11 means disappointed, troubled, sad, in tears, offended, and wounded.

- Saul was not just fearful of the enemy but was disappointed or sad with tears that he could do nothing to overcome him.

- Saul was a great man of faith but not in God, rather in himself and his abilities.

- David had a different way of thinking that was influenced by God.

- Was David fearful? Maybe nervous.

- But his fear would not stop him from obeying the Lord and doing His will.

- Was Jesus nervous in the Garden, maybe.

- But it did not stop Him from doing the Lord’s work.

- There will be times when the man or woman of God will have feeling of uneasiness or discomfort, but we still need to follow through with the will of God for our lives.

- In verse 25-27 we see David is asking the same question over and over again.

- Why would he do that? Did he not hear them the first time? Did he not understand what they were saying?

- I believe David was not concerned with what he would receive for defeating the enemy, but rather how to restore God’s glory to the nation of Israel.

- David was not motivated by Michael Saul’s daughter or money, or being exempt from taxes for life, but rather he was motivated by restoring God’s glory to a hurtful, dismayed, fearful nation.

- Does that motivate us today? Or does the things of the world motivate the church to action today?

- What motivates you to stand up against same sex marriage?

- The loss of rights from the government to the church? The fact that people could be sued and labeled as hateful?

- Or does opposing same sex marriage move us to action because God is against it?

- David was moved to action against Goliath not for material reasons but because the nation of Israel needed a fresh move of God and the enemy had it’s time long enough.

- David believed God was on his side and the situations in life from the past would be no different then facing Goliath.

- David had confident that if God came through before He will come through again.

- Do we believe that?

- Do we believe that God will not abandon us in our of need?

- Saul thought so, he saw many miracles from God in the area of deliverance, but because he was trusting in his own abilities and not God, Goliath was too big. (I Sam 11:1-15)

- Saul started out great, but when the transfer of authority, from Samuel to Saul came about in chapter 12, that’s when Saul changed and become a person that wondered away from God.

- Saul couldn’t handle power, and some people can’t handle that position.

- David could handle being in a position of authority because he had a heart after God.

- If there is something in us that thrives for power and recognition, that’s not from God.

- David was humble and when confronted with sin, didn’t lash out and use his position but rather repented and turned to God.