Grace Haven Church

0:00 I want to continue with the series, What's Your Advantage, part five,

0:08 and I want to title today called, A Godly Perspective.

0:12 I believe all of us in life, we need to have a godly perspective.

0:18 And so I'm going to read from 1 Samuel chapter 13, and I'm going to summarize the first chapter and then I'll talk in more detail from chapter 14.

0:25 And it's basically this, Saul becomes king of Israel.

0:30 And this is in the time when Israel has, basically, God is their king,

0:38 and they decide to go to God, well, we want our own king, we want a flesh and blood king, we want a tangible, a king that we can see, a king that we can touch, a king that we can bow down and worship and God's saying, well listen, I'm your king, aren't I a good enough king?

0:53 And this is the kind of tension that's going on, and they're like, no, no, we know you're our king, but we want another king.

0:59 And so basically, the story unfolds where Saul becomes the first king of Israel.

1:04 And the Bible decries him as tall and handsome and mighty and strong, and he's everything, I guess, a picture of a king, you know, dignified and majestic.

1:13 And he was, you know, and he was well respected.

1:15 So he had the countenance of a king.

1:17 He had the outward appearance, I guess, that every woman, and I think sometimes in life, to be honest, if we're not careful is this, we can find ourselves going for the outward and not really paying value to the inward.

1:28 But we can go for the outward appearance and really not really care about the internals.

1:34 Well, she's got the right chin.

1:35 She's got the right nose.

1:36 She's got the right figure.

1:38 She's got the right posture.

1:39 She's got the right weight.

1:40 She's got the right eyes.

1:41 She's got the right hair.

1:43 And this is what sometimes the narrative for some of us in the 21st century, we can get caught up in, well, I'm going to change that so they can be happy.

1:51 I'm going to change that so I can get a job or I'm going to adjust this because then they will accept me.

1:56 And it can become very unhealthy very quickly if we live our whole lives by just the external.

2:05 Your advantage in life is simply this, a godly perspective.

2:11 Your advantage in life is simply what is it that no one else is willing to do that you're willing to do?

2:16 Well, if no one else is going to bring a godly perspective, what happens if you bring a godly perspective?

2:21 It just may become your advantage.

2:27 And so we have a scenario going on here where we have a king on the outward.

2:31 But he's not a king on the inside.

2:36 You can have someone who's good looking on the outside, but they're completely ugly on the inside.

2:43 And we know this and we're close to this and we've seen this and we remind ourselves of this time and time again, but we do fall into the temptation of choosing the outward appearance

2:54 and really ignoring the internal character of someone.

2:59 You can go a long way if you've got the right looks.

3:04 But God doesn't want you just to have the wrong looks and a great heart.

3:07 He wants you to be good on the outside as well as the inside.

3:12 But you've got to be careful as to who defines what's good on the outside.

3:17 Who really gets to decide who's beautiful and who's not.

3:21 And so here we have an incredible story.

3:23 Saul becomes king at the age of 30.

3:28 He basically selects 3 ,000 of the elite soldiers of the army of Israel at that time.

3:34 So he picks special forces, 3 ,000 of these military, hardcore soldiers.

3:41 His son takes a lead of basically 1 ,000 of them and he oversees 2 ,000.

3:47 And what happens is his son, Jonathan.

3:49 So Saul's got a son called Jonathan.

3:50 And Jonathan, again, he's an extraordinary man and you get to hear a lot of him in the Bible around these particular books of the Bible and he's incredible.

4:00 But he literally takes these soldiers and he confronts the enemy.

4:04 The enemy at this time was the Philistines.

4:07 And these were a people group that were always warring in conflict with Israel.

4:12 And so we have this tension going on where you've got one people group hating the other people group.

4:18 That's not so ancient because we still see that today.

4:21 And so we have the best of Israel and then we have this enemy that is being really annoying and really working against God's people.

4:30 And so what does Jonathan do?

4:32 He does something that I believe is hopeful for all of us.

4:35 He takes on a garrison of the enemy and he defeats them.

4:40 If I can say it this way, it's like a little win

4:45 in a big war.

4:49 I think for all of us in this room, we've got to accept that sometimes when we want to move forward in life that we will get a little win, but you've got to remember it's in a big war.

4:58 And so what does he do?

4:59 He gets a little win in a big war and the word gets out.

5:06 Jonathan has beat the Philistines.

5:09 And so basically it inflames everything.

5:13 And so it's a little bit like this.

5:15 It's like, you know, there's like a garrison, which is not as big as an army, but it's a garrison.

5:21 He defeats the small.

5:22 It's the small win and he creates an absolutely monstrous war.

5:29 In other words, the war was big, but the war just got bigger.

5:31 And sometimes what we do is we pick a fight with something and instead of getting better, it gets worse.

5:39 And we're almost like, well, why did you do that?

5:41 Why did you say that?

5:42 It would have been better if you just said nothing and just pull back and don't pick a fight.

5:47 It's like some people today, they want to pick a fight with human trafficking, the greatest crime on planet today, way past arms, way past drugs.

5:55 And yet there's people in this generation that want to pick a fight with human trafficking because they believe it's wrong.

6:00 And it is, but you've got to understand what happened to this small victory.

6:10 It escalated into a horrendous war.

6:15 And I'm just trying to say today in this story that you can glean for your own life because sometimes you get a small victory and then you don't realize it's actually leading into a big war.

6:25 You can make a decision that's actually for your well-being and suddenly it leads you into persecution and opposition.

6:34 You can make a decision, you know, simply as this, I'm just going to go to church.

6:37 That's where I want to be.

6:39 And all hell breaks loose in your immediate family and friends.

6:44 You could be going to school and saying, hey, I've just made Jesus the Lord of my life.

6:48 I want to live for God and go back to school.

6:50 And suddenly you've gone back to a war, bullying and persecution and people writing unkind things about you and nicknames.

6:57 And it can be absolutely.

6:59 I think one of the greatest war zones on planet Earth today is the school.

7:03 It's horrendous for children when they're going through school, especially if people are picking on you and going against you.

7:09 But this can work at every avenue of life.

7:11 So I want you to stay with me on this journey because there's so much for us, I believe, when it comes to our advantage in life.

7:18 You've got to understand a godly perspective is your advantage.

7:23 In other words, can you see it the way God sees it?

7:28 Can you see this horrendous war that's about to mount is actually going to be a greatest opportunity for you to see the faithfulness of God.

7:39 See, what we do is we position ourselves away from challenges and what do we find is that God's trying to position us to face the challenges.

7:49 In a European culture, what do we do?

7:52 We tend to play passive cards more than we do proactive cards.

7:57 Anyone is trying to build a company, you're always finding the frustration of recruiting people that are go-getters, not people that are just looking for a good pay packet and do nothing.

8:08 So what I'm trying to say is there's so much wisdom in here because we have a king, we have soldiers, we have a war, we have a small victory.

8:17 And then what happens is it escalates to the point where the army of the Philistines grows bigger and bigger and bigger to the point, literally this is what it says, the Philistines respond with building an even bigger army, 3 ,000 chariots, 6 ,000 horsemen, and thousands and thousands of warriors, as many as the grains of sand on the sea.

8:39 Someone say, goodness gracious, that's a big army.

8:49 And when the Israeli army heard about this, they ran away into caves and some even ran away to other regions.

8:58 And I want you to understand this, that you may get a small victory in life but what happens is if you see adversity come from it and you see opposition come from it, if you see resistance come from it, it's gone from now it was a small conversation to now it's actually everybody in the school knows about it.

9:16 And you may have a small thing going on, a small victory, but this is what's going on is that it escalated to the point where the threat become even bigger.

9:28 And I want you to try and find this in your own life.

9:31 What is it that you've decided to do that was a small victory, but it actually turned up to everything's working against you.

9:38 And what we tend to do is like the men of Israelis, we ran to caves and we run into hiding, we run to other countries, we run away from our problems instead of running at our problems.

9:49 We run away from the challenges instead of being positioned to face our challenges.

9:56 And I want you to understand that your advantage in life is having a godly perspective.

10:03 See, Jonathan had a godly perspective and we're going to read the next chapter, chapter 14, because he tells you what his perspective is that can help all of us even in the 21st century when we face challenges or even to the point of things that become like a monstrous war towards us.

10:23 And so we find that they run to the caves, they run to the regions, they run away to the point there's only 600 men left.

10:33 There's only 600 men left.

10:36 In other words, they're now disadvantaged.

10:39 And God is trying to help us in the 21st century, Hillsong Berlin, to realize that God is the one that can take disadvantaged people and turn it into an advantage.

10:49 And he's about to do that in this story.

10:53 It gets worse.

10:54 The Philistines basically remove all the blacksmiths in the country.

11:00 Blacksmiths were key to not just putting footwear on the horses, but blacksmiths were key to forging swords and weapons.

11:11 And so there's no blacksmith, there's no swords, and if there's no blacksmith, there's no arrows and there's no spears.

11:17 And sometimes that's what we see happening and it still happens in today.

11:21 It's still the tactics of sometimes countries,

11:26 embargoes, sanctions.

11:30 It's always a way of undermining a country, undermining a people or causing hardship or causing, and this is what's happening here.

11:37 God's people are going through hardship.

11:38 I don't know if you can understand this right now, but we've been here 10 years.

11:42 We own nothing as a church.

11:43 We don't own any buildings.

11:45 We're always renting and we never own.

11:47 We have to change that story.

11:50 In this country, Israel, they have no blacksmiths because the enemy has removed all the blacksmiths.

11:55 He's taken away their ability to arm themselves.

11:58 He's taken away their ability to build strength into what they're about.

12:02 Now you can understand from a geopolitical, you can understand this from today's world.

12:08 There's so many tactics that are similar to the ancient world, to what we do today.

12:12 All I'm trying to say is that as a community, we may look like we're disadvantaged because we own nothing, but God is trying to say, hey, you might look disadvantaged right now, but if you'll stay with me, a godly perspective, I will turn your disadvantage into an advantage.

12:28 And that means I do believe that property will come after us, not just us going after property.

12:34 Can anyone say amen?

12:36 And so this story is about building faith, not building negativity.

12:42 It's about perspective.

12:44 And so what we find here is, is that there's no blacksmiths, which means that the army of God, literally the Israeli army, they have to go to war with simply farmer's tools.

12:59 Being chased after with a pickaxe, a pick or whatever you call it, a fork.

13:07 Farming tools.

13:10 Imagine there's a mighty army, more than the sand on the seashore,

13:17 6 ,000 horsemen, 3 ,000 chariots, and you've got yourself a nice little farmer's pick fork.

13:24 Come on, I'll take you all on.

13:32 It's not really, I mean, I'm sure they were laughing.

13:35 Look at that idiot with his pick fork.

13:38 And I think sometimes when you look at the church today, in our country and in this city, I'm sure there's people that laugh and go,

13:48 if you're going to have an advantage in life, you need to have a godly perspective.

13:52 And I think this is not just for this story, this is for all stories.

13:57 And so we find them going into this situation.

13:59 So let's go into chapter 14, Samuel, 1 Samuel 14.

14:03 A day or so later, Jonathan said to his young bodyguard, come on, let us cross to the valley, to the garrison of the Philistines.

14:11 But he didn't tell his father where he was going.

14:15 Verse two, Saul and his 600 men were camped around the pomegranate tree.

14:19 No one realized that Jonathan had gone to reach the Philistine garrison.

14:23 Jonathan had to go over a narrow passage in the rocks between two rocky crags.

14:29 Let's go across to the Philistine army, Jonathan said, to his armor-bearer.

14:34 Perhaps the Lord will do a miracle for us.

14:36 And listen to this next part.

14:38 This is called a godly perspective.

14:40 Listen to what Jonathan says.

14:42 Perhaps the Lord will do a miracle for us.

14:44 For it makes no difference to him

14:49 how many enemy troops there are.

14:53 It makes no difference to God how many enemy troops there are.

15:00 It makes no difference to God how many negative health reports the doctors have given you.

15:07 It makes no difference to God how many setbacks and job interviews that you have had.

15:16 It makes no difference to God.

15:19 Listen to the godly perspective.

15:24 You can't get a visa.

15:26 They don't want people from your country here.

15:30 It makes no difference to God on how big or how small the army is.

15:37 In other words, if you can lean into the Word of God, there's no faith without the Word of God, people.

15:41 There's no faith without the Word of God.

15:43 Don't be just someone who reads it and then like a devotional and doesn't build faith into your heart.

15:48 How do you know you're reading the Word of God rightly?

15:50 It's their faith.

15:52 When you read the Word, you put it down and go, I'm going to change the world.

15:55 I don't know about you, but if you're reading the Bible the wrong way, there's no faith.

16:00 If you're reading it the right way, there's faith.

16:03 I read this and I'm like, come on with my pick fork.

16:11 No, he'll get upset.

16:24 But you've got to build faith into your heart.

16:26 The Word of God will build faith into your heart.

16:29 You'll get a godly perspective when you read the Word.

16:31 So if you don't have a godly perspective, I guarantee your head's not in the Word.

16:36 So this is what I'm trying to encourage you with today as we're trying to bring this to a close.

16:39 Listen to what it says.

16:40 For it makes no difference to him.

16:42 It makes no difference to God how many enemy troops.

16:45 So the more the number of troops, the Israelite people, they were looking at the external.

16:50 And so they ran to the caves and they ran away from the problem instead of looking at the problem.

16:57 And I want you to understand, that's why we're building a church.

17:00 That's why we're the house of God.

17:01 That's why we're the people of faith.

17:03 We're not here to hide.

17:04 We're here to run towards whatever it is that's getting in the way.

17:08 I'm not running at people, but if there's a lie out there that's keeping people from freedom, then I'm gonna go after that lie.

17:19 If human trafficking is a real enemy in the world, then we need to be going after things.

17:24 And I understand that there's a supply because there's a demand.

17:27 Well, I understand that.

17:29 I'm not a stupid person, but I understand.

17:31 We've got to also realize this that we're not just working with flesh and blood.

17:35 We're working from spiritual forces.

17:37 We're working with the army of God.

17:38 We're working with prayer.

17:40 We're working with the wisdom of God.

17:41 We have a godly perspective.

17:43 What I see is not what I see.

17:47 It's the spirit behind the spirit.

17:50 You don't attack people, but you do understand that people can give themselves to a different spirit.

17:59 And I think you need to know the difference between this.

18:03 So it makes no difference to God how many enemy troops.

18:07 So what does he do?

18:08 He goes into action.

18:09 Yes, the young armor bearer replied, do whatever you think best.

18:13 I am with you completely, heart and soul.

18:17 All right, then this is what we'll do.

18:19 Jonathan told them.

18:20 Then he says, when they see us, if they say, stay where you are or we'll kill you, and then we will stop and wait for them.

18:30 But if they say, come up and fight, then we will do just that.

18:33 For it will be God's signal that will help us to defeat them.

18:40 When the Philistines saw them coming, they shouted, look, the Israelites are crawling out of their little holes.

18:49 And then they shouted to Jonathan, come up here and we'll show you how to fight.

18:54 Come on, climb right up here.

18:56 So Jonathan said to his armor bearer, for the law will help us defeat them.

18:59 So they climb up, up the rock, on their hands and knees.

19:03 It was an easy place to get to, but they determined to do it anyway.

19:06 And the Philistines fell back as Jonathan and his armor bearer killed them from the right and the left, about 20 men in all.

19:12 And their bodies were scattered all over, about an acre of land.

19:17 Suddenly panic broke out through the entire Philistine army and even among the raiders.

19:24 And just then there was a great earthquake increasing the terror.

19:31 Saul had a look out look post and they reported a strange sight.

19:36 They reported a strange sight.

19:39 I mean, I can just imagine Francie and the team on Alexander Platts someone reporting a strange sight.

19:48 These people singing these funny songs in the middle of Alexander Platts.

19:53 Anyway, I'm just trying to use my imagination.

19:56 And it says this, it said they reported a strange sight.

19:59 The vast arm of the Philistines began to melt away in all directions.

20:03 The enemy was melting away in all directions.

20:06 Find out who isn't here, Saul ordered.

20:09 And when they checked, Jonathan and his armor bearer had gone.

20:12 And then Saul and his 600 men rushed out to battle.

20:17 It's amazing how 600 people can get inspired by just two people.

20:21 A school can be changed by just two kids, one kid.

20:26 A city can be changed by just a small group of people.

20:35 So the 600 men with Saul, they ran out and they found the Philistines killing each other.

20:41 So they weren't even fighting.

20:42 The Philistines were killing each other.

20:45 They turned on each other.

20:46 And that's what the enemy does.

20:48 He tries to bring confusion to you, but you refuse confusion.

20:51 Confusion comes back on him.

20:52 He becomes confused.

20:54 Why was I even trying to confuse you?

20:56 I'm confused.

20:57 That's what God does.

20:58 He doesn't get you confused.

21:00 He brings clarity.

21:01 He brings strength.

21:02 He brings opportunity.

21:03 The enemy will bring confusion.

21:06 But the very thing he uses to confuse you, it turns back on him and he becomes confused.

21:12 Oh, I picked the wrong one there.

21:13 Oh, I picked the wrong one.

21:14 I thought this one was weak, but he's not.

21:16 He's strong.

21:17 Oh, I picked this one over here.

21:18 That's a gossip, but they're not.

21:19 They've changed their ways.

21:20 They're not gossiping anymore.

21:22 They're actually choosing what they speak wisely.

21:24 Oh, I'm telling you, if you want to bring confusion to the enemy, just don't let him confuse you.

21:32 Well, I don't know how this bad thing can happen to me.

21:35 I was just singing in church and I was giving offerings and I was nodding when Mark said yes and I was clapping when Mark said clap.

21:43 And I was being a nice little Christian doing all the nice things the pastor wanted me to do.

21:46 Why is this bad thing happening to me?

21:51 I'm being a bit stupid, but you understand what I'm trying to say is we think sometimes when challenges come our way, we must have missed it.

21:58 I must have done something wrong.

22:00 Well, just because challenge come your way doesn't mean you've been an idiot.

22:03 It doesn't mean you've done anything wrong.

22:05 And this is what it says.

22:06 It says the 600 got involved.

22:08 The enemy started fighting themselves.

22:12 Confusion everywhere.

22:13 And now the Hebrews that had been drafted into the Philistine army, they revolted and joined the Israeli army.

22:19 So we got people who were playing in this team.

22:21 Now they're joining this team.

22:23 In other words, they left this church.

22:24 Now they're kind of going to this church and now they're coming back to this church.

22:28 I don't know.

22:28 Use your imagination people somewhere.

22:30 I mean, I don't know, but people who were pretty much in the wrong place found themselves coming back to the right place.

22:38 Maybe they were over here in confusion and feeling bad about the decisions they made.

22:42 But I'm telling you, everyone makes some crazy decisions in life.

22:45 We just got to realize, you know what?

22:47 I know where it's better.

22:48 I'm coming back.

22:49 I'm coming back.

22:50 I'm coming home.

22:51 I'm going to stay because this is my family.

22:53 This is my tribe.

22:54 This is where I belong.

22:57 It's not a Colombian tribe.

22:59 It's a kingdom tribe.

23:01 It's not a German tribe.

23:02 It's a kingdom tribe.

23:05 And God's kingdom has all the diversity of the kingdoms.

23:13 And the Philistine army revolted They were drafted.

23:19 And when it came to their opportunity, they went back to where they rightfully belonged.

23:24 And I tell you, I love this.

23:25 He says, so 600 joined the two.

23:29 The army started fighting each other.

23:31 Even the guys that were drafted into the Philistine army, they ran away and joined the Israeli army.

23:36 And this is what it says, even those that went hiding in the mountains.

23:43 Finally, even the men hiding in the hills joined the chase when they saw that the Philistines were running away.

23:52 So the Lord saved Israel that day.

23:57 I don't know about you, but the Bible is full of thousands of thousands of faith building stories.

24:05 And it's not just a story.

24:06 It really happened.

24:09 And I want you to understand that this today is about a godly perspective.

24:13 If you're hearing me today and going, where's he going?

24:15 Where's he going?

24:16 It's because you don't see a godly perspective.

24:19 You're trying to understand this with human intellect.

24:23 You're trying to understand this through a position that does not see all.

24:28 A godly perspective sees all.

24:32 I always say to our guys in our church, good leaders are not just focused, but they're broad.

24:38 You can be focused and not broad.

24:40 And you can be broad and not focused.

24:42 If you really want to do something and help people, you've got to be both at the same time.

24:46 You've got to focus on the project and you've got to be broad.

24:49 And what does this project, what's the biggest story of this project?

24:51 You've got to be focused on your job and you've got to be able to put it in a, what is this job all about anyway?

24:56 And what we do is we get focused and we're not broad or we just get broad and we don't get focused.

25:02 And I want you to know that good leadership in the house of God is both.

25:06 You've got to be broad and focused.

25:09 And so what is it that we're going to take out of this today?

25:12 Let faith arise.

25:14 A godly perspective.

25:15 What is it you're facing right now where you literally need to see it the way God sees it?

25:20 Does God see what you're facing right now is going to take you out?

25:23 I doubt it.

25:24 God will see it as an opportunity to grow you, to stretch you, to enlarge you.

25:28 He's going to take you through it.

25:30 He's going to take you onwards.

25:31 He's going to take you upwards.

25:32 You're not going out.

25:33 You're going up.

25:34 You're not going backwards.

25:36 You're going forwards.

25:37 Is there any godly perspective in the house of God?

25:40 I mean, surely God's people have got a godly perspective.

25:47 A godly perspective.

25:48 Your advantage in life is that you have a godly perspective.

What's Your Advantage Pt. 6 - A Godly Perspective.

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