It's great when God enlarges us! It's always good to be enlarged, and we're in a season now where God is enlarging us. Enlargement has two forms: it's external - you grow, things change, things increase, things get bigger... Business grows, your influence grows, you get promoted. Those are external things, but external enlargement is always preceded by internal change. Right now, whether you're young or old, God is calling you to be willing to change on the inside.
We've been looking at the seasons in David's life, on the theme the Making of a King, and I want to look at an incident in David's life, and talk about “courage to continue”.
Acts 13:22 – “I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all of My will.”
The first characteristic that made David the man he was, he had a heart that longed to know God intimately. God - what do You like? What do You delight in? What is in Your heart? What are the things that You think about? He pursued God! He was a man of intimacy with God - a man who pursued God; and if David could do it, then we can do it too.
David, when he had time alone, when he was just a young person up to the age of 17, established a track record of reaching out and connecting with God. He made the pursuit of God his personal priority.
The pursuit of God will carry you through to your destiny. There is nothing you can learn at school that will take you to your God-given destiny. The only way that you can reach your God-given destiny is if you connect with the one who created you - develop intimacy with Him. Intimacy takes time. Its time spent praying, pouring your heart out, and reading the word. It's not found in a meeting; it's found at home alone, and then when you come into a meeting, you find already, before anyone else has even started, your heart is arising to connect with God.
You've practiced it, and when you practice engaging the presence of God at home, it becomes like a track built into your inner man. It becomes easier and easier to just lock in and engage the presence of God. But if you've never made it a habit, to pour out your heart, and begin to learn how to reach into the heart of God - if you never do that when you're young, then it gets more difficult as you get older. David, when he was a young man pursued God.
The second thing He said is: I know David - he's a man after My heart, who will do My will. David was a man who not only sought what God wanted, he was also happy to do what God wants.
Acts 13:36 – “David, after he'd served his own generation, by the will of God, fell asleep”.
Not only was David a man who was passionate to know God intimately, he didn't just spend a lot of time praying. He was a man who influenced, and changed, a nation. It says: he served his generation. Every generation, including this one, is looking for a man or a woman who will get to know God, and then fulfil what God says to do.
Now that could be that you reach your friends for Christ, or start something that helps to gather them up, that touches people's lives. Every one of us has a unique way of expressing the will of God in this generation, but the key thing is that we do it.
Hebrews 6:12 – “Don't become sluggish or lazy, but imitate those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.”
Don't become a slacker! He's writing to Christians. It's possible to become a slacker. That's good advice - don't become a slacker! A slacker is a person who is lazy. They're waiting for someone else to do it all.