Pastor Bailey Medley
Today our message is called "Most Likely To" and we're going to be looking at an individual in scripture that arguably was least likely to succeed, but God ended up using him to reshape perspectives on potential.
1 Samuel 16:6-13 (NLT)
- Potential is not determined by our current position, but rather based on His promise.
- Because we have the benefit of knowing the full story today - we know what is coming, but I imagine David very much was feeling about his life, the way we do ours - like reading a book for the first time. Taking it page by page.
- Here we aren't surprised by the fact that David is anointed. But I imagine he very much was.
Samuel 16:7 (NLT)
- God sees David, even when he isn't in the room - and invites him in. God sees David and sees potential, but also invites him into His purpose.
- We treat potential like it's a limited resource. Like it's a competition for a senior superlative - we want to be the one to win it. To be seen as being ahead and heaven forbid behind.
POSITIONS MAY BE LIMITED, POTENTIAL IS NOT A RESOURCE THAT NEEDS TO BE RATIONED OR RESERVED
Your worthiness and capacity to be used in the Kingdom of God at work here and now has nothing to do with your capabilities or being ahead-but rather has everything to do with the God in whose image you were created.
POTENTIAL ISN'T THE DESTINATION - IT'S JUST A PART OF THE PROCESS
So often we think of this being a big part of his story - when we think of David - this is the one in our back pocket. I was even talking to one of my brothers about today and he asked what we would be talking about. I said David and his response was "Like David and Goliath?”
1 Samuel 17:34–40 (NLT)
- I think a lot of us would understand him taking the “this is not the job description” approach. But he leaned into the potential, not because he thought “I got this,“ but because of God‘s faithfulness in his life. He walked out to cross that valley, knowing that the people didn’t believe he could do it – because they said so to his face!
"It's easier to listen to what other people say than what God has already spoken over us."
1 Samuel 17:12-15 (NLT)
- We read of Goliath tormenting an army of men, including the siblings of strength and stature. And yet David arrives humbly without any fanfare. He is again described simply, as the youngest son of Jesse and as a shepherd of his father's flocks. David shuttled back and forth between Jesse's flocks and the battlefront to carry supplies and messages.
- He is meant to be king - ruling over God's people, and yet we find him watching over sheep. He is meant to command a kingdom and yet we find him as a messenger and a biblical door dasher to his brothers. He is meant to be anointed to have potential, and yet he seems to have taken a step backward and it seems wasted.
OUR CURRENT POSITION DOESN'T DISQUALIFY US FROM HIS PROMISE/POTENTIAL - IT MIGHT JUST BE IN INVITATION TO PREPARATION.
And I like to think that David - being the beginning of "the man after God's own heart" - knew this because he didn't discount the field. He is intentional with the things that don't seem "royal", and God uses the experience to be a part of leading him toward his potential.
But we must remember there is no
- Experiencing solace from beautiful music without intentional practice.
- There is no leading a nation without first understanding how to guide a flock.
- There is no defeating Goliath for the Living God without first taking on a bear for the sake of a lamb.
- There is no stepping into what God has for the throne without being faithful in the field.
We remember David not because of his early potential but because of his faithfulness in the process.
We are called to embody the same thing.
YOUR POTENTIAL IS NOT LIMITED TO WHERE YOU ARE NOW or even where you can picture yourself being, BUT RATHER BASED ON HIS PROMISE and WHERE He is calling you to be.
