Sometimes you got to lose some style and just share some heart

Text: 2 Samuel 3:1 Now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David: but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker.

1.   Today we will take a physical struggle between the two kings, and bring it over into the spiritual, as a struggle between two natures.

a.   Every one that calls himself a child of God has two natures, the natural and the spiritual. These two natures are totally contrary to each other.

b.   Let's compare the struggle between Saul and David to our struggle.

c.   Saul would represent your inner struggle, and David will represent us. We all have a "Saul" in us.

d.   1 Samuel 17:49-51

49  And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.

50  So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.

51  Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.

             i.        Goliath represents the things that died right after we got saved, things that God just took away, smoking, drinking, fornicating.

            ii.        Many times we look at the big things we used to do, as the things we need to put to death. Goliath was killed, and the people, including David, rejoiced. They were happy. Remember when you first got saved, and you rejoiced that God would save a wretch like you?

e.   As you begin to grow, you realize that the external things were not the most detrimental, while the church often focuses on the things that you do outwardly. But the enemy is working on something even more detrimental.

             i.    Sometimes you can stop doing something without changing your mentality, so then the very things that drove you to bad things is still going on inside of you, while you are worrying about the external stuff.

2.   Saul was the one thing that David had a connection with. Many times it is the struggle within you that you are connected with.

a.   The things you struggle with most are the things that you have an emotional connection to.

             i.        David was not emotionally connected to Goliath, so when Goliath was killed, David could rejoiced.

            ii.        Sometimes we find out that the Goliaths in our lives are just coping mechanisms. There's nothing to it.

          iii.        Saul was someone David was emotionally attached to. Saul tried to kill David many times. Your greatest enemy is the one that becomes a part of you.

1.   It's the enemy in-a-me that's the worst enemy of them all. That enemy makes you feel strong, independent, and sometimes even invincible. The bad thing about these things, it is what they are connected to that makes them dangerous.

          iv.        David was not just attached to Saul, he was also attached to some things that were attached to Saul's son and daughters. These things can become things that define us, and we start saying things like "That's who I am" but you only say that because the things you are attached to have given you an identity all your life.

b.   Even after David was anointed, he still had to deal with Saul. Just because you are saved, doesn't mean you won't struggle with the things that's inside of you. In fact, sometimes the struggle gets worse, because now you recognize it.

             i.        Even if you try to pretend that you don't, you still know that you're there.

c.   David was anointed, but Saul sat on the throne. We are a group of people that are anointed, but we still have to deal with the "Saul" that keeps popping his head up. Doesn't mean you're not anointed, but Saul keeps rearing his head up, there's a part of you that's still out of whack.

             i.        Sometimes your anointing has to take a back seat to your struggle.

d.   Hebrews 10:36  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

             i.        Patience equals endurance. It's not the will of God for us to run, but when God begins to touch that part of you that you don't want anybody to touch, the first thing you want to do is run.

            ii.        There is no part of you that God won't touch, and you don't even have to come to church for God to touch it. "Where shall I go to flee thy presence?"

          iii.        No matter where you go, you can't outrun God, and you definitely can't run from yourself.

3.   It almost make you feel like you're dying when God begins to deal with you. But it's not you that's dying, there is something inside of you that God is putting to death.

a.   Saul didn't just die. Goliath died, and a lot of times, we think that our real enemy is the one we were able to kill real fast. But our real enemy is the one you look at when you look in the mirror, what is inside of you.

             i.        "Saul", pride, arrogance, independence, attitude, and even fear.

            ii.        Fear wraps itself up in so many things. Fear and pride goes together. The Bible says "Perfect love casts out fear.

b.   Saul represents your heart, that inner part of your being that nobody knows, that you don't share with everybody, even that inner part of you that you don't share with anybody.

             i.        God will break down any door that you build in your spirit.

c.   Saul is your heart, the things that you feel make you who you are. That's why God confronts it. Because the thing that should make you who you are is the grace of God in your hearts.

d.   God has a way of changing you, even sometimes when you don't want to change. Although you know that this part of you threatens to kill everything that's good inside of you, that if you continue to be that way, it will kill everything that's good inside of you, you remain loyal to it.

4.   Only God can bring deliverance from the Sauls in our life. There are some things that only God can kill.

a.   God will bring situations across our path, to make us trust Him enough to deal with those areas in our life.

b.   When we learn how to trust Him, we learn to say, like Job, "Thou He slay me, yet I trust Him."

c.   2 Samuel 1:17 And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son:

             i.        David cried over the death of Saul, even though Saul was trying to kill him. We can always tell the issues that are closest to our hearts, because those issues make us mourn, make us weep.

d.   What we must understand is as long as our "Saul" sits on the throne of our life, we will never be the person that God wants us to be.

e.   You cannot be what you need to be until what you used to be is dead. We mourn when God touches that part of us that we never allowed anyone else to touch.

             i.        David never mourned Goliath, he rejoiced when Goliath was gone, but he mourned when Saul was gone. We become dependent on those things that attach themselves to us, and then we cry when they're gone.

f.    After the Saul is taken away, you become a person after God's heart. We call that the breaking process.

g.   The Bible says that you have need of patience, that after you have suffered awhile, you will receive the promise. You have need of patience, because patience is endurance.

h.   When the Saul is dead, you will begin to understand some things. Once you come back from that, you will be much different and better.

i.     When it all boils down, your dependence upon people that causes you to get upset and hurt whenever somebody doesn't do what you think they should do. There comes a time when you begin to lose that dependence, and you will love out of a pure heart, and not based on performance, but totally based on the love that God has for you.

j.    Never, never stand in the name of anybody but Jesus. Ask God to help you, to not seek their approval, so that you may stand for one person, so that even if people treat you bad, you can still trust Him, regardless of what anybody else says.

             i.        Sometimes the people you love the most are the ones who will hurt you the most. This is why you have to learn to draw nigh to God, and no put your stock in people. The Bible says cursed is the man who puts his trust in man.

5.   1 Peter 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

a.   Make you perfect, perfect means mature.

             i.        After you suffer awhile, it makes you mature, because suffering causes the "Saul" to be killed.

b.   Stablish means not yielding easily under pressure.

             i.        That's one thing that happens when you mature, you are not moved or shaken easily, you are resolute and constant, even when everything around you is boiling over.

c.   Strengthen means make or become stronger.

             i.        Why do they become stronger? Because they have learned to depend on Christ. God said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee for My strength is made perfect in your weakness." Paul said "If I glory in anything, I glory in my infirmities, for when I am weak, then He is strong."

d.   Settle means to stop moving and stay in one place.

             i.        If this is what I must be, I'm gonna stand like a tree. I will stand because God told me to.

            ii.        It means come to rest, to become more stable or composed. That goes back to strengthen, stop fluctuating or changing.

There are things that happen because there is a part of you that God wants to crucify. Paul said I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but the life that I now live, I live to the glory of God." This is why the enemy tries to stop you before you ever get there.