That's real manly stuff isn't it aye? Trouble is men get the tough stuff and don't get the tender bit to go with it. They might get the very strong but don't get the sensitive side, but both of them are part of the nature of God and both of them are aspects of what made David a great man of God. You have a think, remember that verse I shared with you, except you become as a child? You have a look at it a chapter away when David starts to enter the city and what he did, he began to dance like a kid. He's leaping, whirling, dancing. That is sensitive, vulnerable. People looking at him - his wife looked at him, despised him, she was barren. He just said I do this for the Lord. He said I'm not worried about what you think - I've just got to be passionate before Him. I did itto Him - and so he was extremely expressive and sensitive to the Holy Spirit, yet at the same time he was incredibly strong and could rise up as a warrior and was never defeated in a battle.
So for this year for you to break through, don't just look at David having a story of breaking through. He broke through as a result of little breakthroughs a long way earlier in his life. You see when everyone else was doing what they were doing, he was there and he was praying strongly and he was worshipping strongly and he was being sensitive to the Holy Ghost. He had first of all a lion. Now I don't think I've ever been by a lion's cage at any time. I'm very glad that there are bars. When I went beside one of the cages one of the things started to roar at me so I walked along and it followed me along, you know - I'll go back this way here. It followed me along again; went this way and it followed me along again. I thought you want to eat me don't you? So grrrr - you know, but I thought I'm glad that it's got bars there - but can you imagine being attacked by a real lion? Now that's quite something to be able to kill a lion when you don't have much weaponry. You've got a sling - a sling can really do it but that's still a bit of a thing. I don't think I'd be wanting to throw a stone at a lion. Think about that now. So what was in David? There was just this something developed in him caring for the sheep, something developed in looking after something for someone else, this whole strength in God. He said God helped him deal with the lion and then God helped him deal with a bear. Now have you ever thought of trying to kill a bear? That's not an easy thing to kill either, but he did it. So when he faced these Philistines he had a track record of years of battle sport, so last year - have a think back about last year. What battles did you face? How did you do? Did you develop strength? Did you break through? Did you develop sensitivity - or did you wimp out a bit on the way and turn away from it and just live and accommodate it? It'll cost you something to accommodate the Philistines.
When the Gibionites were accommodating to the Philistines they said yeah, yeah, we'll make a covenant with you. We'll give you peace but we'll poke your right eye out - meaning they could never be a man of war and hold the shield and fight. Imagine you've lost your right eye, got the shield over covering your left eye - not going to see too much for battle would you? So think about that. This is the year to break out in different ways, to increase your personal influence so that requires internal changes, shifts in the heart. It requires external changes in connecting with people and determining that I will engage people so I can extend the kingdom of God. It doesn't mean you go and talk about Jesus to every person you meet. It means you go and represent Jesus to every person you meet. It means you intentionally start to look at reaching towards people with a heart to see them come into the kingdom. Wow, what a great thing that would be. What a great thing that would be that if this year every one of us broke through some limitation. Perhaps it's financial, perhaps it's attitude, perhaps it's in your skills. Whatever it is, make a decision that I will become strong. I'll become sensitive and I'm going to put a plan in place to develop both of those.