The amount of fear you have in your life reveals something very important about you. It reveals how close you are to the Lord. On this episode, I'm talking about David and Goliath, and I'm gonna draw five key insights from this, and a bonus one that I think is the most important.

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This is Cutting Edge Faith the show that brings you the truth behind the headlines and equips you to live out your faith. In the cultural chaos of today, god is on the move right now through people just like you, you were created for influence and impact. Let's take your faith to the next level. Learn more at ryanshoweredcom. And now here's your host, dr Ryan S Howard.

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The story of David and Goliath is told in 1 Samuel, chapter 17. And 1 Samuel 17, verse 26, quotes David saying For who is this uncircumcised Philistine? That he should defy the armies of the living God? Well, those are pretty sharp words, and he didn't have much tolerance for this person who was standing against what God was working to accomplish through the army of Israel. Well, let's get into these insights. The first one is that David came after the fight had started. So this battle is going on, and David was off doing something else, and he came to the battle late to the game. But the thing is, his timing was perfect, and so the insight here is that we may not have been in the fight yet there's a lot of crazy things going on in the culture today in battles for our children but it's not too late. It is not too late for you to step up your game and to get engaged. God has a calling on your life, and today's the day for you to step it up to the next level Now. The second insight is that David's own brothers were angry with him. They actually accused him of just wanting to come and watch the battle, and they said that's why he was there. Well, perhaps David's courage clashed with their fear. You see, very often what we suppress in ourselves, when it's expressed in others, it can annoy us, it can make us angry, even jealous, and so I believe this happened with David's brothers and David. But, you see, david did not allow the anger of his family members or anybody else around him, anybody who was against him, to deter him from what God had called him to do and what God had prepared him to do. Number three is that David used what he had. You see, king Saul tried to give him instruments of war, these sword and armor and a shield, but they didn't fit him. They were too big, it was clunky, and he just stuck with the instruments that he had. He stuck with what was in his hand. And so the question is what's in your hand, what is in front of you, in your immediate sphere of influence, that you can use to advance God's kingdom and to represent his interests wherever you are? Now, the fourth insight is that David was absolutely disgusted by the taunting of Israel from Goliath. He had righteous indignation you hear these words for this uncircumcised Philistine. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? That he should taunt the armies of the living God? You see, that righteous indignation, that just anger, and that passion to stand up for what God gave him to stand up for. And we need to do the same. There is so much going on today just taunting God, taunting the reality, taunting truth, and here we are, ho hum, let's just go do our little private thing. No, we need to be standing up and standing strong Now.

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The fifth one is that the men of Israel fled and they were afraid. They were afraid. Now, this is a quote from Tony Evans that says your level of fear can reveal your closeness to God In general. The more you are afraid, the farther you are from God. The less you are afraid, the closer you are to God. You see, 1 John 4, 18 says perfect love drives out fear. We need to become more convinced and have a bigger faith in the sovereignty of God, a bigger trust in the sovereignty of God. He is sovereign over everything, that little situation in your work, in your family, in the culture, whatever it is. But we need to be close with him so that we can play our part. We don't need to be overwhelmed by the craziness going on in culture today, but we need to take our position. God will be with you. God was with David. God was with Joseph. God was with Shadrach, meshach and Abinago. God was with Daniel. God was with Esther. God was with Elijah. God was with Noah. Go through Hebrews 11. You can see the Hall of Faith, what they did, by faith because God, because God, not because they were awesome and they did everything perfect, but because God, because they had faith in the Lord and what he could do, and we need to do the same.

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Speaking of fear, that brings us to the bonus insight that we want to talk about, and I think this is the most important, and it is that David stood alone in his convictions. He was not influenced by others, as I mentioned. You see, he had a righteous indignation. He had a passion to stand up to do what was right. He had a conviction and he was not influenced by any of the army that was around him that were running in fear. That's right. He, a young man, stood on his own. He was not influenced by those around him who were afraid. He stood his ground. He looked around, he saw that he was alone in his convictions and he decided to do something about the situation.

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My friend, we need to do something about the situation today. We have so much going on and we can start by being close with the Lord and go from the inside out. So we take care of ourselves, we take care of our household, we can take care of our work, we can take care of our community and culture. Whatever God is calling you to do, but it starts with you being close with him and getting him engaged in the details of your own life. He wants to be engaged even in the little list of things, and he's not leaving us alone. And I want to wrap up with this final thought. There's one thing that is for certain If God has allowed a Goliath in your life, well he has put a David in you. So will you join me and seek the Lord to make sure that we are close with him in doing what he has called us to do, standing strong on those convictions and not being concerned even if we're standing alone? Thanks for joining, god bless, and we'll see you in the next episode.