Sermon Catch-up Project: Soul Print Week 6 (The

Over the Summer I got very lax with the blog and even stopped uploading the messages I gave.  So over the next week or so I will be 'catching up' on the messages that I haven't shared.  I then hope to start blogging again regularly, but we will see.  This first message really should have uploaded a long time ago as it is the sixth and final message in a series based on Mark Batterson's book, 'Soul Print'.  Sorry it took so long for those of you (must be thousands, right?) that have been waiting.

Revelation 2:17 (NIV)

   ¹⁷ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.

2 Samuel 7:1-21(NIV)

 ¹ After the king was settled in his palace and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, ² he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”

 ³ Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you.”
 ⁴ But that night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying:
 ⁵ “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? ⁶ I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. ⁷ Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’
 ⁸ “Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. ⁹ I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. ¹⁰ And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning ¹¹ and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders^[a] over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.
   “‘The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: ¹² When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands.¹⁵ But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. ¹⁶ Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me^[b]; your throne will be established forever.’”
 ¹⁷ Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.

 ¹⁸ Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said:

   “Who am I, Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? ¹⁹ And as if this were not enough in your sight, Sovereign LORD, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant—and this decree, Sovereign LORD, is for a mere human!^[c]
 20 “What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Sovereign LORD. ²¹ For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant.

Prayer: God, we have gathered together to worship you and to seek you and to know you more.  As we come into your presence, help us see you, but also help us see who you have truly created us to be and who you are calling us to be today and tomorrow.  Guide us by your Spirit to leave a legacy, a legacy shaped by not what we have done but by what you have done through us.  Amen.

Today we finish our series based on the book ‘Soulprint’, working towards understanding who God has uniquely made us to be who we are and searching for the unique call and destiny that God has placed on our lives. Over the last two months we have looked at five pieces that help us get to understanding who God designed us and is calling us to be

First, we are who we are on purpose, for a purpose.  The secondly, to be ourselves we need a Holy Confidence in a God that is Holy, that loves us and that has planned nothing but the best for us.  This Holy confidence is trusting and leaning on God.  Third, we looked back at our lives and the ‘life symbols’ that help remind us that ‘the ultimate objective of every circumstance is to cultivate the character of Christ in us.

Then we talked about integrity and how its directly connected to our destiny.  God is less concerned with what we do than with who we are becoming in the process And God won’t get you where God wants you to go until you become who God wants you to be. 

We also talked about how God can use even the embarrassing moments of our lives to let us know who we are, who we aren’t and what God might be calling us to do.  Then, finally, we looked at sin and how our sins affect our ability to reach how we were called and created to be.  But we were reminded that it is not our mistakes or sins that define who we are but rather the person of Jesus Christ

All of that leads us to today and our final look at the Soulprints God has given each and every one of us.  Each of us has a unique destiny which only we can fulfill and each of us has been given our own combination of gifts, interests and abilities that fit perfectly with that destiny.

When we view our lives properly they are evidence of God’s providence.  But gaining the right perspective on who we are and what we were made for requires not just asking the ‘right’ questions, but also asking the right questions to the right person.

In our passage from 2 Samuel, David is asking the right question, ‘Who am I?’.  David is not only asking the right question, but he is addressing the right person – as the question is asked of God during prayer.  If David would have asked his father this question, he might have said he was simply a shepherd.  His brothers likely saw an delivery boy that brought them their meals on the battlefield.  Saul at first saw him as ‘only a boy’. 

None of these people had the vision for David’s life that God had.  None of them saw who David was designed and destined to become.  Self discovery begins with sitting in the presence of God and asking God – and no one else, not even yourself – to define you

Batterson says: The reason so many of us are strangers to ourselves is because we don’t sit before the Lord.  If you want to discover your destiny, you’ve got to spend time in the presence of God.  There is no alternative.  There is no substitute.  True self-discovery happens only in the presence of God.  It’s only when you seek God that you will find yourself

Let me say that again: It is only when you seek God that you will find yourself.  And if you try to find yourself in anything outside of a relationship with the one that designed and created you, it will lead to a case of mistaken identity.

I am an only child and when Jack was born, I quickly realized that our two boys were very different.  And as different people, with different personalities I began to understand – and am still working to understand – that I needed to interact differently and parent differently with each one of them.  I needed to love each one of them uniquely, because they are unique.  This is how God loves each of us – uniquely, as if there were only ever one of us – precisely because there is only and will only ever be one of us.  God’s love for you is unlike God’s love for anyone else ever.

And if you remember, that is where we began this journey to understand and discover our soulprints - with the fact that God has created us each to be unique, with no one else, ever just like us.  But, this isn’t a testimony to us, it is a testament to the God who created each of us.  

Our uniqueness is a gift from God.  It is also our gift back to God.  And it is our uniqueness that enables us to worship, serve and share about God unlike anyone else.  No one can worship God like you or for you.  And as we have talked about many times, worship isn’t just about what we do during this hour in this place every Sunday morning. 

The best and truest form of worship is becoming the best version of who God has created you to be.  Worship is more than a lifestyle.  Worship is a life.

In the passage we read a few minutes ago from the book of Revelation, we hear described a time when we will hear the Voice of God.  And we will hear God call us by a name that only God knows, a name we have never head, but a name we will know.  A name written on a white stone.  Our true name.  That name, somehow, will encapsulate all that we are and all that we have done. 

All the pain and all the joy.  All the hopes and fears.  Everything.  In that moment all of our lives will click into place and make sense because God will reveal who we really are – as God sees us. 

Our God-given name will capture the essence of who you are and it will include all that we will become in an eternity spent in the presence of God.  In that moment our Soulprint will be given its true name.  Names are an interesting thing.  And names carry meaning.  Names and nicknames, what we choose to call people, reveal thinks about how we view the people we are naming.  Nicknames especially reveal different aspects of people’s personalities.  Nicknames reveal what we see in the people we are naming.

We usually get our nicknames from others, but sometimes we ask to be called something because of how we want to be viewed.  We had this experience when we went for Charlie’s first parent teacher conference this past year.  We discovered that while at school he was asking to be called Charles.  I don’t think either Traci or I had ever called him by his full name. 

Over many discussions for the rest of the year we gathered that he was asking to be called Charles at school – actually just in his classroom – not because he liked it better than Charlie, but because he sensed that it was the more formal or serious name.  Charlie loves school, but he takes it very seriously and he deemed Charles more appropriate than Charlie for his school work.

What we want to be called and what others choose to call us tell us about how we want to be viewed and how others really see us.  Jesus often called people by names that meant something. 

He looked at Simon and saw Peter – the rock that he would build the church on.  He saw James and John as the ‘sons of thunder’ calling out in them the potential buried deep within their personalities. 

Similarly, when God looks at you, he sees the real you.  The you that He created you to become.  And in calling you your true name Jesus is calling us to live into the destinies that we were created for. 

Who are you?  How will you be remembered?  What is your legacy?

Ultimately, our destinies are determined by the choices we make – It is in our actions and our reactions that we live into the name that defines us.  That daunting idea is made wonderful by this fact: In Jesus Christ we are redeemed and made clean.  We are not defined by our bad choices or our mistakes –what we have done wrong.  Instead we are redefined by what Christ has done right. 

When we accept the grace of Christ we are defined by His righteousness, His perfection and His obedience.  That is both our destiny and God’s legacy. 

It is never too late to become who God has called and named you to be. 

Let this be the moment that you begin to live into that name, by entering into the presence of God and asking the question: Who am I? 

Then allow the Holy Spirit of God write the answer on your heart with the life you live. 

Amen.

Soulprint Week #4 - Embarrassing moments with God

Below is the message I shared with Good Shepherd last Sunday as we continued to work through the book Soulprint by Mark Batterson.  We looked specifically at how embarrassing or bad moments can help shape us and confirm who we are and who we aren't.  We also talk about being willing to be embarrassed for the 'right' reasons.  

2 Samuel 6:12-22

 ¹² Now King David was told, “The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. ¹³ When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. ¹⁴ Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the LORD with all his might, ¹⁵ while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.         ¹⁶ As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.                                        ¹⁷ They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD. ¹⁸ After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD Almighty. ¹⁹ Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.                                                                        ²⁰ When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”                                                                       ²¹ David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. ²² I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

Matthew 7:24-27

    ²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Today we continue our series based on the book ‘Soulprint’, working towards understanding who God has uniquely made us to be who we are and searching for the unique call and destiny that God has placed on our lives.

As we took a break in the series last week, with the wonderful Pentecost worship lead by our youth, as quick review of the first three weeks of our Soulprint series. 

First, we are who we are on purpose, for a purpose.  The secondly, to be ourselves we need a Holy Confidence in a God that is Holy, that loves us and that has planned nothing but the best for us.  This Holy confidence is trusting and leaning on God.  Third, we look back at our lives and we Keep ‘life symbols’ of the times that God has been especially present and active in our lives to help us remember: ‘the ultimate objective of every circumstance is to cultivate the character of Christ in us.            Then finally we talked about integrity and how its directly connected to our destiny.

God is less concerned with what we do than with who we are becoming in the process And God won’t get you where God wants you to go until you become who God wants you to be.  As we continue to think about talk about discovering exactly what God has uniquely designed us for – and how we can get there, we are going to spend a little time thinking about embarrassing and awkward moments in our lives.

Most of us, myself included work hard at avoiding any type of embarrassment or awkwardness – I think that is a perfectly natural reaction to those two emotions.  But Soulprint makes the suggestion that we need a little embarrassment and awkwardness because they help keep us humble – and humility is a key to fulfilling our destiny.

In fact, if we stay humble – and grounded in our dependence on God there is nothing God cannot do in us and through us. But back to those embarrassing moments – they tend to mark our lives and stick in our memories in unique and powerful ways.

Apart from keeping us humble and giving us reason to laugh at ourselves, the embarrassing moments in our lives can help us define and come to terms with who we are – and who we are not – Embarrassment often follows our attempts to be something we aren’t.

One of my most embarrassing moments in ministry came from a different source – not from trying to do something that I wasn’t good at or be something I wasn’t, but from the area of ministry that I thought I had the most gifts for.

This moment occurred about a week or two into my first job out of college.

I was one of two youth ministers at a large church in Pittsburgh that I had interned at while I was finishing school.

Even though I knew many of the youth, my fellow youth minister and the church, there were still lots of things I was nervous about.

Speaking to the youth group, though, wasn’t one of those things.  Honestly, preaching and speaking has always been something I was good at: from my first speech, to the PA state senate as a 4^th grader to public speaking in high school, to my times as a youth leader and camp counselor in college.  It just always came naturally to me and my talks always seemed well received. 

Add to that the fact that the other youth minister I was working with really wasn’t very gifted when it came to speaking – so I felt like I would look pretty good in comparison. 

Looking back, I am astonished at how unprepared I was – but I remember back then thinking I had it all under control and maybe even ahead of the game

I had a title and a theme for the talk, which was to be the first of a series: ‘The facts of Life’ (The fact that I was using a sitcom that none of the youth had been alive to watch should have been a tipoff that this wasn’t going to go well, but I digress .  .. )

Anyway, the time for youth group came, kids showed up and eventually it was time for me to get up and give my talk.  I got up with my notes – which were, as I recall, very rough in nature – and, well I can’t really explain what happened except to say that it didn’t go well.

In fact it went horribly – and as I was up there I knew it wasn’t going well.  It went so badly that two things happened:

First, at one point in the talk, as I could feel my face getting redder and redder, I seriously contemplated just leaving and never coming back.  Second, after youth group was over, the other youth minister (the one that wasn’t a very gifted speaker) said to me, in what I think was intended to be a gentle way that ‘maybe we might need to work on our talks’

That was, without a doubt a terrible, and horrible experience.  There is no question embarrassing moments are horrible.  But they can also be wonderful.  They are wonderful because few things are as freeing as being embarrassed.  Embarrassment frees us from the burden of pretense.  And in a way is a part of dying to self so that we can allow Christ to live in us.

My embarrassment was the result of poor planning and preparation, and while it served a purpose in making me humble and helping me rely on God instead of myself, it was totally avoidable.

There are times, however, if we are following God’s call for our lives when we will have to make a choice.  When we will have to decide if we are going to let fear of embarrassment get between us and God. 

We might be too embarrassed to share our faith, walk away from a sinful situation or confront a friend that is making hurtful choices.  But embarrassment that comes from doing what is right is holy embarrassment and it’s the foundation of a life open to being used by God.   If we are following God’s call there will be times when embarrassment is the only way we can remain faithful to God and true to yourself.   Will we choice embarrassment or hypocrisy, embarrassment or sin?

It is a choice that David makes in our scripture reading this morning.  David made a choice to rejoice in the Lord and represent his joy by dancing at the city gates as he came triumphantly into the capital city as its victorious king, instead of accepting all the praise and honor the people were giving him.

David choose to risk embarrassment, the breaching of political protocol and even the contempt of his wife in order to demonstrate his thankfulness to God for what he had done in his life and the place to which God had brought him. 

Part of the embarrassment of what David did had to have come from the fact that he didn’t just dance – he disrobed first, stripping down, essentially to his underwear – and then danced.

This isn’t a minor detail, but rather a powerful statement of humility and submission to God.  The royal robes that David took off represent David’s identity and security as the king of Israel.  In a very real way those robes represented David’s authority.  But David didn’t find either his security or identity in his status as king.  David found his true identity and true security as a worshipper of the almighty God.  Disrobing was a symbol of his humility – stripped down, naked and humble before God.  Disrobing also was a signal of his dependence on God. 

David didn’t find his identity and security as the king of the Israelites, or through anything else that he was or that he did, rather David found his security and identity in the King of kings a& the Lord of lords.  For us to truly find our soulprints – who we are meant to be and what we were created to do – we have to first be stripped of the things we find our identity in and the things we find our security in. 

For me, I had to lose confidence in my own abilities as a public speaker and a preacher before I could open myself up to be used by God and to use my gifts through my preaching and speaking.

Discovering your soulprint, your purpose in life, your calling begins with finding your identity and security in Christ alone.

Disrobing means dying to self and that begins with identifying the things we find our identity and security in outside of our relationship with Christ.  And as David’s example shows us – we aren’t just talking about bad habits or ‘problems’.  God had made David king – but David knew he couldn’t let the gift – being made king – become more important than the One who gave it to us.

Our identity and security needs to be located in the person of the gift giver – Jesus Christ – not the gifts themselves.  Why?

Because, we need to remember the lesson we heard from Matthew a few minutes ago – what you build your foundation on matters.  Batterson says, and I think he is right, that God has ‘hardwired us for worship.  That, no matter what, we are going to worship something.  The question is simply who or what are we going to worship? 

Are we going to worship God with a capital G or the gods with a lowercase g, the god of you, what you can do, what you are. 

If we choose to worship our own lowercase g gods it will end in disappointment for you and anyone else that might worship you.  Our identity issues all stem from worshiping the wrong thing or the wrong person. 

When we build our identities on the things in your life or on ‘who you are as you do certain things.  It’s like building your house on the shifting sand.  You might base your identity on school and how you do at school – but you are going to graduate.  You might base your identity on your job – but you might lose it or you might need to find a different one and eventually you will retire.

You might base your identity on a relationship: a marriage, a close friendship, or between parent and child – but we all know too well that not all of those relationships will last and none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. 

All of those things: school, jobs and careers, marriage and other relationships are good things, gifts from God even.  But they are not the rock upon which to base your identity.  And you cannot find security in them.

When you graduate from school the student dies.  When you turn twenty the teenager dies.  When you get married, the single person dies.  When you retire, the vocation dies.   

Each of these ‘little deaths’ can cause an incredible crisis.  But if you base your identity on Christ, you avoid these crises altogether.  Your security – your foundation – is rooted in the steadfast love of the Lord that never ceases.  Your identity is found in the One who is the same yesterday, today and forever. 

Jesus Christ becomes your cornerstone.  With Jesus as your cornerstone you can find the courage to step out into whatever God has called you to – even if it brings with it embarrassment or awkwardness.

Because count on this: Doing the will of God almost is almost always accompanied by feelings of awkwardness, uneasiness, and unreadyness.   Like David – dancing in his underwear as he was supposed to be entering into the capital as the triumphant king – you might end up looking ‘crazy’ to the rest of the world.

But what if that embarrassment and awkwardness was the only thing standing between you and your destiny?  Would you be willing to embrace it? 

Take off your royal robes, lose the alter ego that is founded on anything but Jesus Christ and step into your destiny by risking embarrassment to live into the life God created you for.

Amen.

Soulprint Week #3 - The Crags of the Wild Goats

Below is the message I shared with Good Shepherd on Sunday.  It is the third in a six week series based on the life of David and the book Soulprint.  
The focus of this week's message really has been resonating with me, and sticking with me: simply, that in our search for purpose, meaning and fulfillment in life, in our journey to live into the call that God has placed on our lives nothing is more important than our integrity.  It is our integrity that opens the door of our lives for God to work most fully in and through them.  God Bless.


 1 Samuel 24 (NIV)

^1 [a]After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.”² So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.³ He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. ⁴ The men said, “This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said^[b] to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. ⁵ Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. ⁶ He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the LORD.” ⁷ With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way. ⁸ Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. ⁹ He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? ¹⁰ This day you have seen with your own eyes how the LORD delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the LORD’s anointed.’ ¹¹ See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. See that there is nothing in my hand to indicate that I am guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life. ¹² May the LORD judge between you and me. And may the LORD avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. ¹³ As the old saying goes, ‘From evildoers come evil deeds,’ so my hand will not touch you.  ¹⁴ “Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Who are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea? ¹⁵ May the LORD be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand.”  ¹⁶ When David finished saying this, Saul asked, “Is that your voice, David my son?” And he wept aloud. ¹⁷ “You are more righteous than I,” he said. “You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly. ¹⁸ You have just now told me about the good you did to me; the LORD delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me. ¹⁹ When a man finds his enemy, does he let him get away unharmed? May the LORD reward you well for the way you treated me today. ²⁰ I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands. ²¹ Now swear to me by the LORD that you will not kill off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father’s family.”  ²² So David gave his oath to Saul. Then Saul returned home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

Today we continue our series based on the book ‘Soulprint’, working towards understanding who God has uniquely made us to be who we are and searching for the unique call and destiny that God has placed on our lives.  A quick review of the last two weeks. 

First, we are who we are on purpose, for a purpose.  The secondly, to be ourselves we need a Holy Confidence in a God that is Holy, that loves us and that has planned nothing but the best for us.  This Holy confidence is trusting and leaning on God.

Moving forward in that Holy confidence, we first look back.  We Look back at where we have been in our lives can help us see the way that God has always been working in, around and through all of our lives.   We Keep mementos, reminders or ‘life symbols’ of the times that God has been especially present and active in our lives.  We carry these life symbols to help us remember that ‘the ultimate objective of every circumstance is to cultivate the character of Christ in us.

You would need many, many words to even begin to fully describe the character of Christ, but a good place to start might be with the word integrity.  Integrity is, as Batterson puts it, what the latter we climb up through our lives leans against.  Without integrity – he says – you cannot fulfill your destiny, because your integrity is your destiny.  Integrity is so important because it correctly highlights what is important. 

Batterson continues:

The goal is not accomplishing the dream god has given to you.  The dream is a secondary issue.  The primary issue is who you become in the process.  We fixate on what and when and where.  God’s primary concern is always who.  And He won’t get you where He wants you to go until you become who He wants you to be. 

Having integrity doesn’t just matter after you have been given a dream or destiny from God.   It is how that dream or destiny becomes clear.  It is only when we stop living for selfish purposes that the pressure comes off of us, we rely on the dream giver and destiny fulfiller, that our destiny can come into focus.

Before David could fulfill his destiny, he had to pass a supreme test of his integrity.  That test comes in the ‘crags of the wild goats.  A lot has happened in David’s life since we saw him last week defeating Goliath.  David’s favor with God and popularity with the people of Israel have grown substantially since God allowed him to defeat Goliath.   Every job or mission that David goes on for king Saul is an epic success.  But as David is being blessed by God and showing the power of his anointing by God – remember He has already been anointed by the prophet Samuel as the next king of Israel. – The anointing and the Spirit of God has left Saul.  The Lord’s anointing has gone from Saul because he lost his intergrity.

This is illustrated clearly in three ways.  First, that Saul stopped making alters to remember what God had done for him and the people of Israel and began making alters to himself.  Second, he became overwhelmed with jealousy against David – the song the people sang ‘Saul has killed his hundreds, but David has killed thousands’ didn’t help.  Finally, he broke his promise to his son (David’s best friend) and his daughter (now David’s wife) not to try and harm or kill him

So because of this David, along with a few handfuls of his most loyal men are on the run from Saul.  They are on the run for their lives.  And so it is that they are hiding in a cave amidst the crags of the wild goats. 

Can you imagine the scene: David and his men are hiding, silently in the cave and as they are hiding there – Saul enters into the very cave they are hiding in.  And, of course this is where the story takes a little turn for the strange (and funny), because Saul isn’t in the cave looking for David.  Instead he is there to, well, relieve himself.   David has so much time while Saul is – doing his business – that he is able to sneak up and cut off a piece of Saul’s robe.

But David’s men see this a chance to do much more and urge him to take this ‘golden opportunity’ to kill Saul – as certainly Saul would have done if the roles were reversed.  But David, knowing that it is wrong (and illegal) to kill the anointed King of Israel – even if you have been anointed to be the next king.   So David, repented in front of his men for even cutting off the piece of Saul’s robe and ordered them not to harm him.

David passed the test of integrity because he knew an opportunity isn’t really an opportunity if you have to compromise your integrity for it.  If you get something by compromising your integrity you are likely to have to keep compromising it to keep it – whatever it is.  The end never justifies the means from God’s prospective – remember, for God it is about who we are becoming not so much what we accomplish

Our goal as Christians is to become more and more like Christ, to be continually cultivating the mind and character of Christ within us.  Christ, who had unmatched and unquestioned integrity – but who’s life ended on one of the world’s most prominent and painful signs of failure – the cross.

David – just like Jesus – must have been tempted to take the easy way out – to compromise his integrity and his call from God.  It must have been incredibly tempting to take a short cut to the throne that God had anointed him for.  But if David had given in and killed Saul by stabbing him in the back, while he was relieving himself, he would have always been looking over his own shoulder.

That is what happens when you compromise your integrity. Instead of being able to focus all of your energy on looking ahead, you waste energy looking back, covering us where you have been.  Not killing Saul in the cave is a defining moment for David – maybe even more so than killing Goliath.  And, if you think about it, it may have been harder not to kill Saul than it was to kill Goliath.  Killing Goliath was an act of power – but not killing Saul was an act of willpower.  Willpower might be the purest or truest form of power we can have.

In the New Testament, in the original language, there is a distinction between made between two types of power.  Dunamis – the origin of our English word, Dynamite – is the ability to do things beyond your natural ability.  Exousia is the ability to not do things you have the ability to do.  There is no clearer example of this second type of power than the cross.  Scripture is explicitly clear on this point – in John 10 – Jesus says 4 different times that he is willingly laying down his life, using the word we translate as ‘authority’: I have the authority to lay it down and the authority to take it up again. That authority is that second kind of power, the willpower to not to that which you could do.

Ultimately it is not the power of what Jesus did that mattered most – his ability to heal, turn water into wine and multiply food for the hungry – but what he could have done and chose not to do.  Jesus could have, at any point right up until he ‘gave up his Spirit’ – that in itself phrased as an act of willpower – made the choice to abandon his suffering, call on the legions of angels and he would have been saved.   In the end the only thing really keeping Jesus on the cross was not a mighty empire, not scheming religious authorities, but the willpower of Jesus – the choice to love us enough to die for us.

Jesus knew the truth that you can’t fulfill your God given destiny with integrity and willpower.  God doesn’t ‘need us’ to do things on our own or take matters ‘into our own hands’.  God asks us to prove we are willing and able to wait on God’s timing and God’s plan.  God wants us to show that we have the integrity to do the right thing, even when no one is watching.

Two final points.  The first one is about who you want advocating with you.  In Soul print one of the points made is that when you compromise your conscience or integrity it is your own reputation at risk, but obeying God and living within the ‘guardrails of a conscience that is fine-tuned to the Holy Spirit and Holy Scripture, then it is God’s reputation that is at risk.’

And what that means is this: who do you want to rely on in the end – yourself or God.  Who do you want to Advocate for you, yourself or God?

When we submit our lives to God’s authority by living with integrity, then we come under the umbrella of God’s authority.  That ‘umbrella’ shelters us, provides us with a supernatural coving and it also takes all the pressure to succeed or achieve off of us. 

The second point I want to leave you with is the idea of control.  Batterson says that ‘we waste far too much emotional energy allowing others to control us in unhealthy and unholy ways.  How?  By treating them the way they treat us.  David showed integrity by refusing to go to Saul’s level.  He let God, not those around him, be the guide for his behavior

With the power of God’s Holy Spirit we can control ourselves.  Don’t lie because others lie.  Don’t gossip because they gossip.  Don’t cheat because they cheat.  Don’t get negative because they get negative.  Don’t downgrade your integrity to the level of the people around you. 

The lesson from David – and from so many others in the Bible (Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego among others) is that if you want to fulfill your destiny, don’t compromise your integrity.  And remember that it is often the little compromises that lead to major problems.

Integrity won’t stop us from difficult times – from facing giants, from the fiery furnace, from facing anger and jealousy from those around you.  But integrity – the choice to do what is right, even when no one is looking – will allow us to lean on God and rest under the umbrella of God’s protection. 

Integrity will also convict those around you and invite them into relationship with God.  Integrity stopped David from grabbing the crown of Israel by stabbing Saul in the back – but that integrity is why God eventually placed him on the throne.

Our integrity  - while not allowing us to cut corners or take short cuts – will never hinder the pursuit of our dreams and destinies.   Instead, without integrity, we will simply never get to the place or become the people God intends for us.

Amen.

No such thing as 'over-confident' in God

On Sunday I shared the second in a series of messages based on a book written by Mark Batterson.  The book called, Soul Print, is about claiming who God created you to be so that you can live into the life and destiny God has planned for you.  Below is the first message in the series.  I will be following with the second tomorrow.  I hope you are called into at least thinking about who God made you to be, and why God might have made you the way you are.  
Mark Batterson is a pastor in Washington, D.C. and is one of my favorite authors and communicators, here is a link to buy the book, if you are so inclined: here

1 Samuel 17:32-40 (NIV)

³² David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”³³ Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” ³⁴ But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, ³⁵ I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. ³⁶ Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. ³⁷ The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”  Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”  ³⁸ Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. ³⁹ David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.  “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off.⁴⁰ Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

Over the next several weeks we will be looking at the unique design that God has for each of our lives.  We will be doing this in part, through a book, called ‘Soul Print’ by Mark Batterson

As we think about, talk about and seek out what God might have planned for each of our lives we will consistently look the life of David for examples of important turning points or defining moments in his life.

As we look at those defining moments in David’s life, we will (hopefully at least) gain insight into the potential defining moments in our own lives.

But before we skip ahead to David’s story, or even our own, I want to share with you why I chose to share this book – and the ideas that came to me from it –

Mark Batterson is one of my favorite Christian authors.  I have heard him speak several times and something about the way that he is able to communicate the Word of God really speaks to me.

So, when I heard he had a new book coming out, I was pretty excited.  Then I saw the title, read the description and (to be honest) got a little less excited. 

The book sounded like a typical ‘self-help’ book with some Christian language thrown in for good measure.

That type of book simply doesn’t appeal to me. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I know that we all need help.  But I really believe that as long as we are talking about how we can ‘help ourselves’ we are looking to the wrong place for help. 

I think all of our big, important problems are, simply, beyond us.

But, as I really like Batterson’s work, I got the book anyway.  And I read the first page:

‘There has never been and never will be anyone else like you.  But that isn’t a testament to you.  It’s a testament to the God who created you.  You are unlike anyone who has ever lived.  But that uniqueness isn’t a virtue.  It’s a responsibility.  Uniqueness is God’s gift to you, and uniqueness is your gift to God.  You owe it to yourself to be yourself.  But more important, you owe it to the One who designed you and destined you.’

After making clear that this isn’t a ‘self-help’ book he continues: ‘So let me be blunt: you aren’t good enough or gifted enough to get where God wants you to go.  Not without His help.  But here is the good news: there is nothing God cannot do in you and through you I f you simply yield your life to Him.  All of it.  All of you.

This book is all about you, but it’s not about you at all.  The fact that there never has been and never will be anyone like you simply means that no one can worship God like you or for you.  You were created to worship God in a way that no one else can.  How?  By living a life no one else can – your life

And with that, the book had me.  It had be because I think it clearly communicates two seemingly opposing, but actually linked and complementary truths that we often miss today: We aren’t nearly as great – or capable – as we often think we are.  And there is nothing – really nothing, not anything – that is impossible for us when we have fully submitted our lives to God.

We have a unique and irreplaceable role to play in the story God is telling in the world and playing the role designed for us begins with understanding – or maybe better – discovering who we really are in God’s eyes and who God created us to be.

I mentioned the title of the book, Soul Print, that is a term I had never heard before and it is a term worth defining as we begin to seek out who we really are

A soulprint, like a fingerprint is a unique way of identifying who you are.  A fingerprint, however, is only skin deep.  A soulprint is a unique identifier that runs not skin deep, but soul deep.

Our soulprint is a hardwired identifier of our true identity and our true destiny or calling.

Our ultimate purpose or calling is central to understanding who we really are, because even though we move ‘forward’ in a progression through life – God works the other way around.  Our God always begins (in our hearts, in our minds and in our lives) with the end in mind.

God hasn’t called us to be anyone other than who we are – than who God created us to be. 

We are not ‘just’ anything – we are, each and every one of us, masterpieces of God’s hand.  To think of ourselves as anything other than that is to distort and devalue our true identity

Before David was King, and before he became mighty warrior, he was just the youngest brother in a big family.  A shepherd boy and nothing more. 

But that wasn’t who he was – that wasn’t David’s true identity or his true purpose.  David was a giant killer, a mighty warrior and a great king. 

Over the course of the next several weeks as we seek our own soulprint, we will look at 5 defining moments in David’s life that helped him discover his. 

The first of these, which came as he was preparing to face the giant Goliath, was in some ways the most important, as it paved the way for all that would come after it. 

David had a chance, as he went out to fight the mighty giant, to wear the kings own armor, and carry the king’s own sword.  The finest protection and the best weaponry available to anyone in the world at that time.  But they weren’t right for David, because simply, they weren’t his.  The sword and the armor were Saul’s and David wasn’t Saul.

Instead David took what he was used to, part of what defined who he was – the slingshot that he used daily to protect his father’s flock and grabbed 5 smooth stones and was ready to make history.

All because he was willing to take off Saul’s armor and be himself – exactly who God had called him to be. 

Today’s sermon is subtitled Holy Confidence.  Holy Confidence is not about being confident in what we can do our how well we can do it.  Holy Confidence, is about who we are confident in.  Our confidence becomes Holy only when it is placed on God.  Another word for this ‘Holy Confidence’ is trust.   Trusting in God, having the Holy Confidence that God is in control and we are not. 

Putting our trust or confidence in God is never more important than when we are waiting for something to happen or waiting for our life to start. 

No one ever tells us when ‘our moment’ is going to come.  David didn’t wake up the morning he defeated Goliath and know that that day was going to be the day that defined who he was and that set his life on a different course. 

And if David was anything like me – or like most of us.  I can imagine that he spent many of his days out in the fields tending his father’s sheep, waiting for his life to ‘really begin’.

But here is the great lesson for us.  It was the skills he learned as a shepherd (a slingshot is a shepherd’s tool, not a soldiers weapon) that prepared him for his big moment.  There is no skill, experience or event that is unredeemable or unusable in God’s eyes and in God’s plan.

Finding our true identity and true, God ordained destiny begins with the courage to take off Saul’s armor – or anything else that doesn’t belong on us or to us. 

The next step is letting go of the attempt to control our lives – even the timing of ‘when they will begin’ and having a Holy Confidence that God is intending what is best for us and loves us.

Amen.