Sal's Blog 4/8/2020

Wednesday Men’s Thought
We talked about what is courage in an earlier blog.  Being courageous…so anyone have a story or a testimony… A courageous moment in their lives…a time when they were courageous…
Courage is the ability to do something brave out of a motivation of the heart.
  • What’s the opposite of Brave? Coward…afraid…timid…scared…lily livered
  • What is bravery? 
Bravery is courageous behavior or character which is morally excellent and firm
A similar word would be valor…the definition of valor
determination in facing great danger…great courage in the face of danger
  • So…what is fearlessness….is it a lack of fear?
Fearlessness (without fear; bold or brave; intrepid) Firmly resolved or set in purpose against fear…
Set in purpose against fear
We see that in 1st Samuel 10 The people want a king and have rejected God as their Lord…God chooses Saul…Samuel tells Saul what’s going to happen and Saul is afraid and tries to hide…verse 6 tells us
6 “Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy with them and be changed into another man.
And so it happens…keep that idea in your mind as we read these next few verses…
Let’s look up -1 Samuel 17:4-11
4 Then a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
5 He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was clothed with scale-armor which weighed five thousand shekels of bronze.
6 He also had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders.
7 The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron; his shield-carrier also walked before him.
8 He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel and said to them, “Why do you come out to draw up in battle array? Am I not the Philistine and you servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.
 9 “If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us.”
10 Again the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together.”
11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
Wow…
Giant guy 9 feet 6 inches tall… his armor weighs 78 pounds and the head of his spear weighs 18 pounds
He said you beat me we serve you…I beat you; you serve us…
  • Anyone ever faced unbeatable odds? Gone against something way bigger than you? 
So Saul leading up to this moment had many military victories…chosen by God to be king…
Saul conducted military campaigns against the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Aram Rehob and the kings of Zobah, the Philistines, and the Amalekites…The bible says that “wherever he turned, he was victorious”.
In the second year of his reign, King Saul, his son Jonathan, and a small force of a few thousand Israelite soldiers defeated a massive Philistine force of 3,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and more than 30,000 infantries in the pass of Michmash.
That’s quite a resume of wins…against big armies…big odds…
He seemed fearless and brave…
And so, in 1 Samuel 17:16 it says…
16 The Philistine came forward morning and evening for forty days and took his stand.
  • He is calling out Israel …why are they so afraid? Why is Saul so afraid?
  • They have a history that says wherever he turned he was victorious…what happened?
1 Samuel 16:14 tells us
14 Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him.
15 Saul’s servants then said to him, “Behold now, an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you.
1 Samuel 17:26
26 Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?
32 David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail on account of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
Fearlessness and bravery come from God. 
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