Evans I Am David

10 Lessons in Greatness from Israel's Most Famous King
1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-1-951227-23-4
Verlag: Gateway Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten

HAVE YOU HEARD GOD'S CALLING TO GREATNESS? HAS THE ENEMY TRIED TO STEER YOU AWAY FROM HIS VOICE? Greatness is carved into every person's DNA. You may be unsure about your calling, or you may think that your failures have disqualified you from God's plan. King David was a world-renowned ruler-hand-picked by God Himself-yet he made many mistakes. Still, this man understood his divine call to greatness, and you can too. In this book with included study guide, Jimmy Evans shares 10 important lessons from the life of King David. You will learn how to: • RECOGNIZE GOD'S CALLING ON YOUR LIFE • DISCOVER THE STEPPING STONES TO GREATNESS • AVOID DETOURS AND DISTRACTIONS • REDIRECT YOUR PATH AFTER MISTAKES • HELP OTHERS DISCOVER THEIR DIVINE CALLINGS GREATNESS IS NOT BEING PERFECT. IT'S BEING WILLING TO USE YOUR GIFTS FOR GOD.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Evans, Jimmy

Leseproben

Lesson 1

JOIN THE BATTLE

OVER DECADES AS a pastor and counselor, I have encountered people from many different walks of life. Despite their economic or cultural differences, all of them had a hunger and a capacity for greatness. Wanting greatness and achieving it, however, are two very different matters. Societal forces work to suppress our desires for greatness, and Satan does his best to crush them. Even so, our hearts cry out for something more.

How can you discover your calling to greatness? How can you find the satisfaction of real achievement? I will tell you that until you do, you will experience persistent frustration. I want to help you move from simply having a desire for greatness to actually fulfilling that inborn drive God gave you. Here is the first lesson, and it begins with this simple truth about greatness: You won’t discover your true greatness until you find it on the battlefield. And this truth has no exceptions.

You won’t discover your true greatness until you find it on the battlefield.

From the fall of humanity until the present day, every person ever born was wired for war. I don’t necessarily mean for violence, but I do mean all of us must battle and struggle. On the battlefield, we fulfill our calling and find greatness. Away from the battlefield, we find only frustration and failure, and then we forget who we are.

No person ever experienced the heights and depths of this fundamental truth more than Israel’s King David. David’s character, internal motives, and personal qualities didn’t manifest themselves when the cameras started rolling. David wasn’t an opportunist who waited for his moment when the crowds might be watching. No, greatness emerged in young David’s life when only God was watching him herd his father’s sheep. David became a warrior long before he went to war. He risked his life fighting the bear and the lion because he believed the price of even one lamb’s life was too high. He applied that same thinking when King Saul questioned him before David confronted the giant Goliath:

Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.… The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine (1 Samuel 17:34–37).

Yes, the stuff David was made of emerged long before he was in the public eye. He had chosen the battlefield even as he tended sheep. And when seasoned soldiers trembled and fell back in fear before Goliath, the champion who stepped forward was a young shepherd boy who had learned to trust God in anonymity while facing lions and bears.

THE STUFF HEROES ARE MADE OF

Some battles seem small and others large, yet David became a great warrior on the battlefield long ago as a young shepherd. He refused to be robbed by lions or bears because under God he had made a covenant to care for his father’s property. In the same way, David trusted the Lord to keep His covenant. When David faced the uncircumcised Philistine giant who had openly challenged God’s covenant nation, he knew the God of Israel would help him to prevail. David had the stuff real heroes are made of.

David had the stuff real heroes are made of.

Our culture today crowns heroes who help us enjoy our leisure time—movie stars, music idols, and standout athletes. But in David’s time, the battlefield was the arena for selecting heroes. A shepherd boy who brought down the enemy’s champion and delivered a nation had the crowds buzzing. The song of his victory over Goliath and the Philistines was the pop hit of the day. People danced in the streets to the catchy lyrics of “Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands” (1 Samuel 18:7 TLB).

The greatest years of David’s life were those spent on the battlefield striking down the enemies of God. Today, we must recognize that not all the conflicts we face as warriors are taking place on the military front, but there are battles taking place on every front of our lives. In fact, the great Battle of the Ages is raging right now all around us. The biggest battle we face is for the lives and souls of our children, our spouses, our neighbors, and our friends. A Philistine giant is a small enemy in comparison. Our performance in that battle determines our true greatness because as we engage our enemy on the front, we then become truly great in God’s eyes.

After the defeat of Goliath, David became greater and greater, and Israel’s greatness grew as well. Do you still want greatness? If so, it’s in the battle where you will reach your highest accomplishments. Your greatest successes will come through serving Jesus Christ and warring against the devil, not just for your own life but also for the lives of others. Without exception, the greatest years of your life will be those you spend on the battlefield serving the Lord.

MADE FOR THE BATTLEFIELD,
NOT THE ROOFTOP

David’s best years happened when he guarded what God had given him to protect and took back what the enemy had stolen. Nevertheless, even David was not always faithful. On one spring day, he made the fateful decision not to go into battle. It led to the worst choice of his life.

It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem (2 Samuel 11:1).

On that particular day, David slid out of bed and took a stroll on the roof of his palace. He peered over the side to the houses below, and something caught his eye. A short distance away, a woman was bathing on her own rooftop. David likely recognized her since she was the spouse of one of his most trusted warriors. The biblical text says she was “very beautiful to behold” (2 Samuel 11:2). If only the story ended there, but sadly, it does not.

David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child” (2 Samuel 11:3–5).

If this is the first time you have read this story, let it sink in for a minute. Israel’s greatest king had a not-so-great moment. However, this story of David and Bathsheba doesn’t really begin with David leering at another man’s wife over the palace roof. On the contrary, it starts with David’s uncharacteristic choice to stay home from the battle. This passage says it was “the time when kings go out to battle.” David was a king, yet David was not going to battle. Something very wrong was happening. He was not a feeble old man. David was still young enough to participate actively in warfare, and his expected role was to lead his soldiers into battle. Yet he stayed home. David retired from battle.

The implications of this decision stretched far beyond the obvious complications of an adulterous affair and an unexpected pregnancy. David’s decision to stay home instead of engaging in battle marked the beginning of the end of greatness in his kingship and his life. From this point on, his story is filled with dysfunction and destruction for both himself and his family.

URIAH, FAITHFUL IN BATTLE

David followed up his initial bad decision with more bad decisions. Once he discovered Bathsheba’s pregnancy, he panicked and tried to cover up the affair. Desperately hoping to make it appear that her husband, Uriah, was the father of the baby, David summoned the soldier from the battlefront and enticed him to go home to sleep with his wife (see 2 Samuel 11:6–8). If he could accomplish this ruse, David reasoned that no one would be the wiser.

This plan, however, came with one fatal flaw in reasoning: Uriah knew where he belonged. Uriah would not consent to having intimate relations with his wife while his fellow soldiers were still sleeping on the battlefield. David discovered Uriah’s refusal and asked him why he had slept on the palace porch instead of returning home to his wife. Uriah answered him with a question: “How can I sleep with my wife and enjoy the benefits of my home when my fellow soldiers are on the battlefield?” (see verse 11). The unspoken implications of this question were far-reaching. How could David enjoy the comforts of his home, let alone the comforts of another man’s wife, while his men were fighting and dying in battle?

Uriah proved himself a man of honor. His commitment to duty forced David’s hand; the king would attempt another ploy to cover up his crime. So David arranged to party with Uriah, thinking that what Uriah would not do sober, he might...