Christine Caine - Fine Tune Your Hearing
You and I are in a world where we are bombarded with so much negativity, so much chaos, so much fear. You can't turn on the news without there being another war, another famine, another injustice, without there being some other terrorist attack, and we can hear the same news, we can be bombarded with the same message. What you hear, you cannot control, but what you listen to, you can, and what you listen to will end up determining your destiny.
Just because you hear something doesn't mean you actually have to listen to it. There are so many noises around us, voices of fear, hate, gossip and negativity. We have to learn how to tune out the noises around us, and instead, fill our hearts with truth and faith. It is the key to living a life of joy, peace and hope, and that's what I want to talk to you about today. I'm so excited that you've tuned in. I'm Christine Caine, and I have a personal mission to equip and empower people like you to connect with your God-given purpose and potential. I'm so glad that you're joining us today. Let's dive right in.
Hi, everyone. I'm so fired up that you're here today. I'm so glad that you've tuned in today. I know that God has a word for you. And literally, today's word, I am so pumped up, fired up and ready to go because I know that this word has the potential to change your life, literally. I don't know that anything has impacted me more than what I'm about to teach you today. We live in a world where are just so many messages. And you wake up in the morning, most people, unfortunately today, first thing we do is kind of like pick up our phone. And so you are bombarded with messages non-stop.
As for me, I've learned to turn off my ringer and I have turned off all notifications on my phone, because you could be sitting somewhere and the phone just beeps, beeps, beeps all the time. Because what we have is advertisers, and people, and friends are just bombarding us. There are thousands and thousands of messages that we get every day, either through the television screen or through our phones, or just on billboards, or in society in general. And sometimes it's really hard to discern what is worth knowing and what's not worth knowing. And so in this series of messages, I want us to learn to discern what is worth knowing, and what isn't worth knowing, because if you listened to the wrong voices in your life, you actually can end up not fulfilling your God given purpose and your God given, your God given purpose or your God given destiny.
The messages that we listen to actually help to frame our thinking, and the way we think helps to frame the way we act. If you don't think right, you're not gonna act right. And if you listen to the wrong message, then you're gonna think the wrong thoughts, and you're gonna act in the wrong way. So I want you to turn with me today to the scripture. We're gonna go to first Samuel 17. I love this scripture. I think you're gonna be very familiar with it. The Bible says, now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And they were gathered at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socah and Azekah in Ephes-Dammim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them.
So I want you to get this picture. The Philistines are on this side, the Israelites are on this side, there's a valley in between them, and we're getting ready for war. And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion, that's like a giant, a champion named Goliath of Gath, who's height was six cubits and a span. Okay, so just so you get an idea of six cubits and a span, because unless you are as old as he his, you don't even know what that means. Well, neither did i. I am roughly five foot, I like to say two inches tall, but my daughters wanna say no mom, it's closer to five foot one. I know I look like a giant on that TV screen right now. I know I really do, but I'm about five foot one in heels, and so, this dude, Goliath, is over nine foot tall. So he is almost me again. And so that is like a really, really tall dude. That's all I'm saying, okay, so he had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was 5.000 shekels of bronze.
Now of course, we don't use these measurements anymore, so you go Chris, how heavy was that? That's like really heavy. That's all I'm saying. And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron. And his shield-bearer went before him. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants, and serve us". And the Philistine said, "I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together".
When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. I want you to catch this. It's not when they saw a nine foot giant that they started to freak out. When they heard the words of this Philistine, the Bible says they were greatly afraid, and greatly dismayed. I mean, this story gets even better. Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul, the man was already old and advanced in years. Okay, you know I think it's very insensitive in the Bible that they actually want us to know that he was already old, and advanced in years, as if the dude didn't feel bad enough as it was. But anyway, the three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle.
And the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. Magical how our names are different. Maybe you're called Shammah, watching this today, okay. You tuned into the right day. David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul. But David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. For 40 days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening. So you've gotta understand, for 40 days, every morning, this nine foot giant turns up and begins to speak over the Israelite army, you are losers, who do you think you are? I am a giant of Gath, well, I dare one of you, come out and take me on, I dare one of you, come and fight me. 40 days, morning and night, he would come out and do this.
And Jesse said to David his son, "Take for your brothers an Ephahe of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp of your brothers. And also take these ten cheeses". This makes me so happy. I'm wondering whether feta cheese was in here, but I want you to know, cheese is in the Bible, cheese will be served at the marriage supper of the lamb. And don't worry about all these people that go it's got too much fat. It's in the Bible, so it's sanctified, right there. "And take also these ten cheese to the commander of their thousand. See if your brothers are well, and bring some token from them".
So basically, David is looking after all the sheep. He's the youngest son. Over here, his father said I want you to take lunch. I want you to take some lunch to the Israelite army, take it to your brothers. Now if this was in Australia, just so that you know, basically the lunch would've been Vegemite and cheese sandwiches. And you know Vegemite really is a yeast black paste, and what I love about it is that when American students come to Australia for Bible college, we pretend that you're supposed to eat it really thick, so we give them a really thick slab, like you would peanut butter and jelly in America. And you should see their face change color, and they get green when they eat this. And so he basically was the lunch boy.
So this little guy, the youngest brother of eight, he's faithfully serving his father, looking after the sheep, and there's a battle going on, there's a war going on, between the Philistine army, the Israelite army, there's a valley between them, and now the father says I need you to go and take lunch to them. Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions and went, as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry. And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brother. And so it goes on and says as he talked with them, behold, the champion of the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up and out of the ranks of the Philistine and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him.
So I want you to understand that he's been speaking these words 40 days and 40 nights. He'd been speaking them to the Israelite army, and the Bible has told us already that they were greatly dismayed, they were greatly afraid, so these word paralyzed and crippled an entire army. Now, a little boy turns up and he's holding the lunch for his brothers, he leaves the lunch with the keepers and he goes out to greet his brothers. He's expecting to be in the middle of the war, and the Bible says the giant comes back out, he begins again to taunt them with the same words. He begins to speak fear, he begins to speak oppression over them.
They both heard exactly the same thing. But I'm going to show you from scripture how you can hear exactly what everyone else is hearing, but what you hear isn't gonna determine your destiny. What you listen to will. And so what happened was an entire army listened to the words of the giant, and they were paralyzed and crippled by fear. David did not listen to him. He heard the same words, but he listened, and I'm gonna show you in a moment, to what God had said, and because he chose to listen to the right voice, he was able to act in the right way.
So you and I are in a world where we are bombarded with so much negativity, so much chaos, so much fear, you can't turn on the news without there being another war, another famine, another injustice, without there being some other terrorist attack, and we can hear the same news. We can be bombarded with the same message. What you hear, you cannot control, but what you listen to, you can. And what you listen to, will end up determining your destiny. And if you and I are going to be able to navigate the chaos of the times in which we live, if you and I are gonna be able to navigate the craziness of the voices that we are hearing, then we have to make a decision that we're gonna listen to the right voice. Because what you listen to will determine your destiny.
And so we have to filter what we listen to. It is crucial because if we're gonna rise up and fulfill the promise of God in our generation, for our generation, in our own life, then we have to have very selective hearing. We have to selectively choose what we're going to listen to. So we go on, and all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. So they've gone from seeing him earlier on, and they weren't afraid, but they listened to him. So now when they listened to that wrong voice, 40 days, 40 nights, morning and night, the listening had so impacted them, that now when they saw him, they ran away. See when you listen to something for long enough, and you allow it to shape you, eventually you won't even need to listen to it anymore, you just see something, it'll trigger a flee response in you.
So it's absolutely critical that we listen to the right voices. And the men of Israel said, "Have you see this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel, and the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter". This bartering system, I don't even know what to do. You know, I come from a Greek system and I remember, you know, someone would come over and go here's, you know, a cow and three cucumbers, and a tomato, can I have your daughter? Like it's like I'm sorry girls, it's just like, the nature of a patriarchal society, we've gone way beyond that, let me just say. And so, "Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give his daughter, and make his father's house free in Israel".
And David said to the men who stood by him, "What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine". It does beg the question, how did he know? But anyway. "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine". I'm getting there, you see I got stuck on that point. This is what has happened right now. "That he should defy the armies of the living God". And the people answered him in the same way, "So it shall be done to him who kills him".
So here we get to our really interesting twist in this battle. David turns around, and while everybody else is fleeing, everybody else is freaking out because they saw this uncircumcised Philistine. David turns around, he goes who is he? Who is this man that he should defy the armies of the living God. He instantly takes the battle to the place where it should be. We are here because God sent us to have victory. I don't know what you're all freaking out about, just because you see this big Goliath, David says that God is already promised us victory. We are the armies of the living God. So we don't need to run from the battle, we run to the battle because greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world.
I do not know what you are confronting today. But some of you have run away in fear. Because you have confronted a situation, maybe it's a conflict in a relationship. Maybe it's a situation in your workplace. Maybe you've heard a negative report from the doctor. Maybe you didn't get the results you thought you were going to get at school. And what it has done, it has caused your heart to be full of fear, full of trepidation, and instead of running to the battle and saying I can be victorious, I can overcome, there is something on the other side of this obstacle, something on the other side of this mountain, something on the other side of this hill. What you've done is believed the lie of the enemy.
So you've seen a negative report, and you've run from the battle rather than running to the battle. But I wanna tell you today that greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. And all the promises of God are in Christ Jesus, yes and amen, if God said it, he will do it. You don't have to run from it, you can go to it, in Jesus name, God will give you victory in the name of Jesus. He will give you victory. So the Bible goes on and says, no Eliab, his eldest brother heard when he spoke to them. And Eliab's anger was kindled against David. Now you've gotta understand, this is big brother syndRome. So the little brother's come with his lunch, and the big brother is probably embarrassed, because David has seen his big brother, who probably was his hero, hiding and cowering, and running away.
So look what he says to him, he says, "Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheeps in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle". I know your presumption, and the evil of your heart. You see what will happen is, a negative voice will always come and question your motives, when you're coming to do good. And the Bible tells us that David was a man after God's own heart. So we know that David didn't have evil in his heart. And what will happen is the naysayers and people that are already running away in fear will come and question your heart, they will question your motives, they'll tweet something out to you on social media to try to kind of question what's going on, because they want you to be paralyzed and crippled, just like they are.
In fact Eliab was totally wrong, because David is a man after God's own heart. He's not a man that's got an evil heart. And so don't add too much weight to what the naysayers say to you. And so a lot of us people will say you know Christine, why don't you answer the naysayers on social media? I'm going number one, I don't even know them, why am I gonna answer someone that does not know me, someone that didn't even have the courage and the strength and the tenacity to make it, if they seriously were questioning something, why don't they come and talk to me, and find out my heart. It's amazing with the advent of social media, everyone's got an opinion, and feels that it's necessary that they share it with everybody.
And so, what happens is oftentimes we will do contrary things to what scripture says. Scripture doesn't say go and gossip and slander everybody. It says go and see that person face to face. Well, here he is, questioning him. And then he goes on, and David said, this is typical little brother, "What have I done now"? I love that, can you imagine how many fights these dudes must have had at home? "What have I done now? Was it not but a word"? And he turned away from his toward another, and spoke in the same way, and the people answered him as before. When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him".
I mean, this is the little brother now, going to the king. Why are all these guys running away? Why should anyone's heart fail because of this giant? Do you know how many of our hearts fail because of the things that we hear? Some of us, we need to stop scrolling through social media. Because you were happy before you got online. You were happy before you read that report. You were happy before you walked into that meeting. You were happy before you walked around those people. So many of us, we get into situations and if we're honest, we know before we even walk in, that we are gonna be depressed after the end of this. And they're just, you know, some people that you just know, they are just full of negativity. They are just full of fear. You go in and you're full of faith, you get around them and bang.
You know what? Some of you need to begin to change your friendship circles. Some of you need to begin to change the people that you're hanging out with, the people that are speaking into your life. I could say there's probably nothing that I guard more in my life than the voices that I listen to. Who I follow on social media, the kind of conversations that I'm following. One of the saddest thing that's happened in our generation is that you can just watch other people's conversations online. And you're watching conversations, and to conversation digitally, that you actually shouldn't be. Because if you weren't you wouldn't know certain things. And can I tell you, sometimes it's better not to know. I have become a firm believer that ignorance is bliss.
I really, really have in certain things. Because there was a time I wouldn't have known they were having their conversation, so I wouldn't be depressed that I was left out of that conversation. Because I wouldn't have known it was happening. And so what I've discovered is it's just safer to read your own feed, don't read other people's feeds. It a whole lot better for your soul realm. A lot of the anxiety that we feel, a lot of the angst that we feel, is because we're looking at a lotta things we shouldn't be looking at. We're listening to a lot of things that we should not be listening to. And if you could just keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, if you could just keep your eyes fixed in your own lane, you would stop a lot of the anxiety that you're feeling in your life.
There are certain news I just won't watch. I am stunned at the amount of people, I walk into their lounger and that news is just on, and it's the same news on an endless cycle. I'm like could you actually come up with something else? Do you mean to tell me there is nothing more important happening on planet earth, than what kind of shoes she's wearing? Like really? Like really. There are people dying, there are people that need help, and that is all, or which latest celebrity is wearing what color this season? Like really. And we just keep that thing going. We just keep that thing going, and it's on the same old news cycle, and we do not understand that you are framing your thoughts with what you are listening to.
What we listen to will determine our destiny. There are some voices you need to silence in your life. There are some people that you need to stop following. There are some friends that you need to change. You need to be feeding yourself with the right voices. People that are gonna encourage you. People that are gonna speak to your purpose. People that are gonna speak to your destiny. You are the boss of you.
I remember like Sophia would come down the stairs when she was very young, and she's like mommy, you are not the boss of me. I'm like oh yes I am, oh yes i... But it used to make me laugh. And I would say no, Sophia, you are... Mommy right now is, but I want you to know Sophia, you are the boss of you. You are the boss of what you listen to. You are the boss of what you say, they didn't make you say that. They didn't make you do that. You wanna teach people responsibility, so you have the responsibility for what you listen to. 40 days and 40 nights, the Israelite army listened to a giant come down and basically, for 40 days and 40 nights say you are a loser. I'm bigger than you, I'm better than... You know those bullies at school, that's who he was.
And that's what happens like any of us that is a parent, I mean your heart just breaks when your kid comes home and tells you about this bully in school and I mean you wanna go and lay hands on them in the name of Jesus. You wanna bless them in Jesus name. But the truth is, you know, you know, the damage that words can have over people's lives. You know that myth, it's a myth that little rhyme, sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. That's not true. Sometimes the names that you're called, the labels that you are given, can shape your entire life.
So you have to choose what you are going to listen to, because what you are gonna listen to is gonna shape what you think, which is gonna shape how you act, because it shapes every aspect of your life, through this series, you don't wanna miss one episode. Because in this series, we are going to learn how to control what we listen to, which is gonna help to shape our destiny. We wanna listen to the truth of the word of God, and not the lies that are screaming at us day in and day out, in Jesus name.