Serving God Without Limits

Text: 1 Samuel 13:13-14

13  And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever.

14  But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.

Saul was the first King of Israel, he had all the physical features of a great man. The Bible says that Saul stood head and shoulders above everyone else in Israel.

Saul was self-willed, though. He was more concerned with what people thought about him than he was with what God thought about him.

Don't ever look to people to validate you and give you the right to do what God has told you to do.

Whenever Saul was confronted, he always used "the people" as an excuse for his disobedience.

Don't ever let people stop you from obeying God. People WILL try to stop you, because they don't know how to accept anything that's different.

Let people talk, but you be who YOU are. Don't ever bow to the opinions of people.

It doesn't matter if you are Pentecostal, Baptist, or whatever you are, if you're not leading a life that's pleasing to God, there's a problem.

Saul was limited by other people's opinions about him. Young people, don't live that way! We need to teach our kids to have standards.

You have to learn to live without limits, stop letting other people determine what you're supposed to do, wear, say, how you are supposed to act and feel.

1.  You must get your identity from God.

a.   When Samuel showed up at David's house, he looked at David and he looked at Saul, and said surely this got to be the one. God said, oh no, he's not the one. Man looketh on outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart.

             i.        If God was looking on the outward appearance, Saul would have been the man. But his heart wasn't right.

            ii.        When David stepped in, God said anoint him, he is the one. Arise immediately and anoint him the King of Israel.

b.   Don't try to get your identity from anyone else. You have to get it from God.

             i.        David didn't allow anything to stop him from serving God.

c.   1 Samuel 16:18  Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him.

             i.        Here we have a man who is comfortable in his relationship with God.

d.   Many times we put our talents above our relationship with God. Many times it is your relationship with God that helps you define your talent.

             i.        When you allow your relationship with God to determine where you are gonna go, nothing can take you out of His will.

e.   People will often try to place labels on you, but you cannot allow that to happen. Labels control.

f.    Do I believe in Fundamentalism? No. I don't believe in no other kind of isms either. I am a child of God and student of His Word, plus nothing minus nothing.

             i.        When you start allowing people to label you, it puts you in a box.

g.   I have to live a life in obedience to God more than I do to anything else. When God tells you to do something,  you better do it, regardless of what anyone else has to say about it.

h.   When you walk with God it really gives you liberty - not liberty to sin, but liberty to do what He wants you to do.

i.     Don't ever let nothing control you. Don't ever march to the beat of someone else's drum. You march to the beat of the drum that God has put inside of you, and you allow THAT to be your measuring stick.

2.  Identify yourself with God.

a.   When you allow other people to give you an identity, you begin to identify with those people rather than identifying with God.

b.   If someone says, who's side are you one? Respond "I am on God's side, and no one else.

c.   What troubles the enemy is the things that God has put inside of you. If you ever learn how to mine the treasures God has put inside of you, the enemy knows he will never be able to trip you up.

d.   When you serve God, you must continue to serve and do what God says regardless of opposition. Many times people will try to stop you, because they were too afraid to step out of the boat and do what you are trying to do.

             i.        Your action could bring their conviction because they wish they could be free enough to do what God tells them to do.

e.   The only way you can get away from mediocrity is if you are willing to be different. The battle is spiritual, not physical, but it can affect you physically.

f.    Why wasn't David afraid, when there were soldiers in the army, trained to fight and scared to death?

g.   There are so many Christians that are really, truly afraid to stand the way God wants them to stand. Not that they don't know, but they're scared.

h.   Is God greater than your Goliath? Do you act as if He is?

i.     It's one thing to know something to be a fact, but another thing entirely to know something from experience.

j.    Have you truly experience the power of God in your life to show you that He is bigger than anything against you?

             i.        Our problem is we forget what God has already delivered us from, and because we keep forgetting, we get into other situations and think God can't deliver me from this one.

k.   Sometimes you got to be willing or able to pull the past experiences from the past and bring them into the future. Say, "If God delivered me then, He is still able to do it now!"

l.     When a Goliath comes into our life, we can either be like the soldiers who stood there afraid to move, or we can be like David and face the Goliath.

3.  Don't try to be identical to no one else.

a.   You know why God created you the way He did? Because there is only one you.

b.   The only thing that I can do is be like me.  I have to be the best "me" that I can be, even if it means I'm not like "them." I cannot try to be identical to no one else.

c.   Apostle Paul said I'm not Peter, I'm not John, by the grace of God, I am what I am.

d.   It's time for the church to be honest. We cannot go with someone else's stuff.

e.   1 Samuel 17:38

38  And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.

39  And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.

             i.    David said if God could deliver me from the lions, He can sure deliver me from this man.

            ii.    You have to TAKE IT OFF! If the label doesn't fit, take it off.

f.        I'm thankful that I'm in a church that doesn't try to make me something I'm not.

g.        I'm not here to try to impress people. What you see is what you get.

h.        A lot of churches, service is like a sporting event. They go, dance and shout, and when it's over, it's over. They go back home, and nothing has changed.

 i.        David couldn't use Saul's armor, because it wasn't proven. "Proven" means tested through past experiences. Your "stuff" has been proven through your past experiences and battles.

j.        Real ministry is born through adversity and struggle.

k.        Our problem comes when we care more about what people feel than we do about pleasing God. We have to teach our young people not to be like that.

 l.        In our text: When David showed up, Goliath was in full battle gear. Goliath was "ready" and David showed up with a sling and four smooth stones that he took out of the brook.

m.        1 Samuel 14:42  And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.

             i.        You must trust the process and the God of the process more than what people say.

            ii.        In verse 43, Goliath says, in so many words, you are coming to me like a little kid playing with sticks and swords.

n.        David said you come to me with a sword and a shield, but I come to you in the name of the Lord. I don't need a sword of shield, God will take care of me.

o.        David threw the stone at Goliath, and God guided that stone into the only place where it would kill him.

p.        A lot of the stuff that you went through in the past is for now. Because when the giant starts rearing its head, you can say I'm gonna use "this" from back in my process.

q.        Stop trying to use somebody else's stuff. Go back in the name of Jesus and use what He has given you, and you will be victorious.

r.        You couldn't be me if you tried, and I couldn't be you, but we just need to be who we are together, and we will get the job done.

4.  Romans 8:31-39

31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Battle is raging, but it's okay, because God is bigger than anything that can come against you.