Steven Furtick - Strings and Slings (05/17/2017)
Pastor Steven Furtick continues the "Sticks and Stones" series from 1 Samuel 16, focusing on ability as the second key word in David's journey to face Goliath. God anointed David, but David developed his gift through diligence, excellence, uniqueness, and experience. The sermon emphasizes that God deposits gifts in us, but we must grow them diligently, pursue excellence for God's glory, embrace our unique contradictions, and trust God to stack every experience toward our purpose. David's harp-playing prepared him for kingship and battle—proving that faithfulness in small things positions us for greater things.
Introduction – Week Two of Sticks and Stones
Well, I'm excited to preach to you today, the second week in this series of sermons called Sticks and Stones. Last week I talked to you about a word. The word was anointing.
I tried to get you to understand that you are anointed to accomplish your assignment, whatever that may be. You've got work to do. That's why God left you here.
If you didn't have work to do, you'd be gone by now. So the proof that you're not done is that you're not dead. And if you have a pulse, you still have a purpose.
So we talked about how, in the Scriptures, God sent Samuel the prophet to anoint David to be the king of Israel.
We said that for five weeks we're going to study together about this epic battle in the Scriptures. It's so well known that I feel a little self-conscious preaching about it.
But it's the battle of David and Goliath. Most of us know that Goliath goes down.
But it was a few months ago that I was reading a book about David and Goliath and began to study the story again. And some really valuable lessons began to emerge from the text.
And we're looking at them one by one. Last week our word was anointing.
I like to give a word each week when I'm doing a series like this that builds on itself so it will be easy for you to remember.
So you'll have this sermon readily accessible when you need it. Because usually you don't fight the battles against the Devil in church.
The Devil ain't stupid. He ain't going to fight you in here with all your brothers and sisters and cousins and everybody. So he'll get you when you're alone.
And you need to have all of the artillery where you can get to it. And so we're looking, we're unpacking five different things in the Scripture that from this just one little story about one person named David and a battle that he fought against Goliath.
And this week we want to talk about, in week two, we want to talk about ability. And that's the word that I want to focus on for this week.
I want to talk about ability.
Key Statement – God Expects Growth in Our Gifts
I want to read a Scripture now from 1 Samuel, chapter 16. I was a little late coming out to worship today because I was watching on the screen at Lake Norman, and my wife was doing the welcome.
And she was looking kind of good, so I kind of couldn't walk away. So what's up, Holly? I sent her out there to check on things.
Now, at all of our locations today, I want us to think about a statement. As you prepare to hear God's word now, I want you to think about this statement.
God expects me to grow in my gifts. God expects me to grow in my gifts.
Reading 1 Samuel 16:13-23 – David's Harp Ministry to Saul
I want to read you about 10 or 11 verses of Scripture, 1 Samuel, chapter 16, verse 13.
This will give us a continuation from what we preached last week, and it will launch us into what we want to talk about this week, ability.
The Scripture says that Samuel, verse 13, 1 Samuel, chapter 16. Samuel the prophet took the horn of oil and anointed David in the presence of his brothers.
And from that day on, the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. And Samuel then went to Ramah.
Now, we talked about how just because God gives you a greater anointing doesn't mean that he's automatically going to change your assignment.
And so now we're going to pick up on the next stage of David's life in verse 14.
The Scripture says that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul. Saul was the current king, and he's about to be replaced, but he doesn't know it yet.
He's about to be impeached by God. There will be no preliminary hearing. There will be no press conference. You're just gone.
When God decides you're gone, you're gone. So, the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul because he was very disobedient.
He was very wicked. He was very manipulative. And an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.
Now, for all of you Bible students who want to understand how an evil spirit could be from the Lord, I'll let you study that on your own this week for homework, or you can ask your campus pastor.
They'll be glad to explain all to you about how an evil spirit from the Lord could torment somebody.
Most scholars do believe that a better translation would be that God allowed an evil spirit to run its course in Saul's mind because he was already giving himself over to paranoia, already giving himself over to disobedience.
So, God just… Usually, the Devil doesn't have to attack you. He just has to keep you going on the same course you were already on because we can sabotage ourselves pretty well.
So, we won't unpack that all theologically, but that's the basics of it.
Verse 15. The Scripture says that because Saul was in this predicament, his attendants said to him… So, his staff… They're having a meeting, and they're noticing that he's acting kind of funny and he's even more erratic, and he's always kind of edgy, but it's obvious that he's going down.
And so, they said to Saul… They have a meeting with Saul, and they said, See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you.
Let our Lord command his servants here to search for someone… Somebody say, Job search. Job search.
Okay. So, search for someone who can play the liar, and he will play when the evil spirit comes on you and you'll feel better.
So, Saul said to his attendants, Find someone who plays well and bring him to me.
And one of the servants answered, Well, I've seen this guy, son of Jesse of Bethlehem, who knows how to play the liar.
A liar is a harp, by the way. And I love it here how they're talking about David, but they don't say his name.
And again, we see this point emphasized that even if people don't know your name, God knows where to find you when he wants to use you for something that he put inside of you.
So, they said, I've seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the liar.
They didn't know who David was yet, but they had seen what he could do. And so they said… I met this guy.
He's bad on the harp. This cat can throw down on the harp.
It says, he is a brave man and a warrior. They're giving his resume.
He speaks well and is a fine-looking man, and the Lord is with him.
Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, send me your son David, who is with the sheep.
And so he was doing something lowly, but God had a calling on his life.
I'm getting all distracted just reading this thing, y'all. I need to finish reading it so I can start my sermon.
But it says, send me your son David, who is with the sheep.
So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine, and a young goat, and sent them with his son David to Saul.
And David came to Saul and entered his service, and Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers.
Then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.
And whenever the Spirit from God came on Saul, David would take up his lyre and play. The relief would come to Saul.
He would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.
So where is Goliath? Well, he's in chapter 17.
So, in chapter 17, we're about to see David do this great, almost miraculous, certainly heroic feat that will catapult him into national recognition, continuing the trajectory of his life to be the greatest king that Israel ever knew.
But before we get to that part, the Scripture wants to tell us something about David's background.
There's always a background behind everybody's blessing. As one person said one time, you always see the glory, but you don't know the story behind the glory.
Four Keys to Growing Your Gift
In the little bit of time we have remaining here today, I want to talk about four things that emerged from this text as we study it.
Some of them are implied and some of them are very obvious, but I want to talk about just four things about growing your gift.
Ask your neighbor real quick. Say, are you growing in your gift? Are you growing in your gift?
Because from time to time we'll see somebody who is very good at what they do, and often we'll say about a person like this, man, they're so gifted.
You ever met somebody and the gift is just dripping off of them? Like, man, it's just like coming out their nostrils.
They can't get enough Kleenex to catch all the giftedness that's coming out, just dripping with an anointing. Dripping.
Maybe it's not necessarily in even an athletic environment or a musical environment where we tend to see people who are just so gifted, just people who are maybe so good in meetings with their words, and they can convince somebody to do anything, and there is a gift in them.
I've noticed something about the term gift. It's a little bit problematic, because when we say that someone has a gift, often what we assume is that because they have a gift, they never have to work to prepare that gift.
We see KD dunk, but we don't necessarily see him on the squat rack, because nobody wants to see the squat rack.
We all want to see what happens in the finals. Here's one thing that's very deceiving about someone who has a gift.
You can be so overwhelmed and mesmerized by the gift that you underestimate the grind that it took that person to be able to operate in the gift they have.
That's why I wanted to preach. I didn't just want to go, okay, David killed Goliath, because I wanted you to see that before David ever killed Goliath, there was a gift at work that David had to work on developing in order to be in a position where he could be strategically maneuvered by God to be able to do what God called him to do.
So here's what I wanted you to know. God has anointed you to accomplish your assignment, but just because God put a deposit in you doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to come out of you.
In order for the deposit that God put in you to come out of you and make a difference in the world around you, you've got to develop what God has deposited.
So here it is. Here's the word. First word. Diligence. Diligence.
How many hours did David have to practice his harp in order to be good enough that when the king needs a personal musician, you're the first person they think of?
How many lessons did David sit through? Because we know he was a teenager at this point in his life.
How many times did he have to drag his harp? This is a harp, y'all. This isn't like an acoustic guitar and you can carry it back and forth.
You can't load it up in mom's SUV. How many miles did he lug his harp across the countryside of Bethlehem in order to be the best harpist?
When they called for him, he was ready. So, you see the gift when it's in full operation, but you don't see the grind it took to get the gift ready.
In this room, there are a lot of people who have a deposit that God has put inside of you that has never been developed.
If you don't develop the deposit that God put inside of you through diligence, you'll never experience the destiny that God prepared for you before you were ever born.
See, we have to put this out there, because a lot of people want the benefit of the gift without the burden of diligence.
I remember when my father-in-law first got a motorcycle. I said, man, let me have that. He said, you can have it, and you can have the payments.
No, no, no. I don't want the payments. I just want the product.
See, be very careful when you envy somebody else's gift. Because when you get a gift, it doesn't come as a finished product.
It comes with payments. In fact, I'll say it another way. God gives each of us gifts, things that he deposits inside of us.
But the gifts that God gives should come with a warning. And here's what it should say. Some assembly required.
Come on, talk to me, somebody. Because, you know, the gift comes in all these different pieces, and the gift doesn't look like a bicycle when you open it out of the box.
It just looks like metal. It just looks like parts. It just looks like bolts. It just looks like stuff.
So if you ever see somebody functioning in a gift, you can bet on two things. One, God gave it to them.
And number two, they put it together. Because if God's going to give you something, he'll give you everything you need, but he'll expect you to put it together through the process of diligence.
So God has anointed you. That's the deposit, the Spirit of God. Like Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, verse 14, he said, Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you.
Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. So there are two realities here.
One, you've got a gift. You didn't earn it. You don't even know how you're good at that.
You don't even know why people think you're funny. You don't even know why people like to tell you their problems.
You don't even know why people love to be over at your home. You don't even know why you have this gift of hospitality.
But guess what? The gift of hospitality still means you have to put something in the oven.
The gift of hospitality still comes with mops and brooms. So if you're going to have a gift, you have to put it together.
I don't know why I'm hollering on my first point, but I feel it. Maybe it's because I'm alarmed at the number of Christians who expect the product without the payments.
The story is told about this pastor. He went out and bought himself kind of a farm, a ranch.
Well, when he bought it, he didn't realize what he was getting himself into. He decided to go fix up his land that he had bought.
He got out there, and he realized, man, this thing is a money pit. There are gopher holes and tumbleweed and broken windows.
So every Saturday on his day off, he'd be out there working his farm, you know, fire up the tractor and other stuff you do on the farm.
I never lived on a farm, but he worked real hard. So he worked like this for years.
It took him a few years to get the place right. After he finally got it right, and he worked so hard… I mean, this guy worked so hard.
One of his neighbors stopped by for a visit, just a neighborly visit. We'll call the neighbor. We'll call him Farmer Brown.
Farmer Brown came over and said, Well, preacher…. He kind of nodded approvingly, looking over the land.
He said, Looks like some good work you and God have done out here together.
And the preacher said, Well, thank you, Farmer Brown, but I have to tell you, you should have seen the place when God had it all to himself.
Touch somebody next to you and say, Work your field. Work your field.
Because, see, the treasure is hidden in the field, and the gift is hidden in your humanity.
And if you're ever going to step into your destiny, you're going to have to dig deep.
We have a habit as Christians of reaching up high, trying to get God to do stuff.
When God says, Actually, I put what I put down in you, and if you want it to come out, you're going to have to dig for it.
Look, my sermons don't just come to me. Do you think they show up on the back of a truck?
You have to dig to have something to say to people, especially if you're going to preach every six days to the same people over and over again.
You have to dig for it. You have to be diligent about it.
You have to do what Paul told Timothy. He said, Study to show yourself approved a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.
If you're going to flow this year and if you're going to grow this year, you're going to have to dig this year through diligence this year.
God puts it in you, but you have to work it out. Touch three people. Tell them, Work it out.
Work it out. Work it out. That's called diligence.
So I must develop what God has deposited. Are you growing in your gift, or have you become stagnant?
Are you sharpening your skills, or are you chopping at the tree, wondering why it won't fall because you forgot how to sharpen your axe?
Did you read anything this year to make you better at what you're called to do?
Did you meet with anybody this year and say, "Teach me how you think, because I see where you are, and you're farther along than where I am."
See, it requires diligence. David didn't get called to play the harp because he loved God.
He got called to play the harp because he was good at playing the harp.
It's amazing how many times we'll give God something that's no good.
Let me show you this in the Scripture, because this kind of blew my mind when I was reading it.
When you think of David, you think of a man after God's own heart, and the reason God chose David is because he loved him, and all of that is very true.
I want you to notice when they were putting up flyers on the telephone Poles for harpist wanted for Saul.
Look at it. In verse 16, they say, "Let our Lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play."
Not who can pray. I'm about to mess with your religious little beliefs right now, so just hang on.
Verse 17, So Saul said to his attendants, "Find someone who plays well."
Not someone who prays well. Someone who plays well.
Not someone who loves God. In fact, look at it.
In verse 18, part B, they start listing off all the things he's good at.
He can play the liar. He's brave. He's a warrior.
He speaks well, fine-looking, and the Lord is with him.
But that's the last thing they mention. It's the most important thing about David, but it's the last thing people see.
So how did they see that the Lord was with them? Because he was excellent at what he did, because God made him capable.
Excellence – Giving God Our Best
My second word is excellence. How do you grow in your gift? Maximize your potential.
Flow in all the things God has planned for you. Well, it's going to take diligence, and it's going to take a commitment to excellence.
A preacher told me one time when I was first getting started, I said, what do I need to know about ministry?
He said, just love God and preach the Word. No. That's a good start.
But you have to do more than love God and just preach the Word. I mean, yeah, you're never going to not preach the Word, but let me tell you something.
You better know something about the Word you're preaching if you're going to stand up and preach it.
How many of you want to show up and hear a sermon the preacher didn't study for? How many of you want that?
Well, I just love God. We have a lot of people that sing in church that ought not be singing.
Yeah, but they love God. Well, they can love him in the seat on the fourth row.
Just because they love God doesn't mean they need to be on the stage with the microphone.
God likes good stuff. Well, as long as our heart's in the right place…
It didn't say David got the job because his heart was in the right place.
He got the job because his hands were excellent at what he'd been assigned to do.
What we've got sometimes is a lot of Christians who want to separate spirituality from skill.
It's not important that I'm good at what I do just as long as I love God.
Well, I'm doing it for the right reasons. Well, why don't you do it with skill and excellence and for the right reasons?
Why don't you get so good… This is a vision for somebody in your business this year.
Why don't you run your business with such excellence that you don't even have to put a cross on your logo or a fish by the name of your company, but the way you do it will show the people you serve that there's something different about you because you serve with excellence.
I was talking to somebody the other day about sports. This person is a very accomplished athlete.
I was asking what certain shoes I should buy one of my kids for a sport that they wanted to play.
Then my friend said, Don't buy them any nice shoes yet, because you don't want your kids to be those kids.
I said, What kids? He said, The kids who have all the gear but no game.
Make sure that your kids have some game before you get them the gear.
They don't need Nike ID custom cleats if they don't have no game.
So send your kids out there in some hand-me-downs so your kids can get the game and then the gear.
I'm afraid, church, that in the world today often what they see when they look at us is a lot of believers who have all the gear but no game.
In other words, we have a lot of talk, but we don't quite walk it.
I'm afraid sometimes what they see is that we claim it's for God, but it's no good.
Let me tell you something. If it's for God, it ought to be good.
If you fix cars for God, you ought to fix them on time and at a reasonable rate.
If you're an accountant and you love God, you ought to do your job with accuracy, because if it's for God, it ought to be good.
Hey, God is good, and if he's good, I want to offer him something that's worthy of his goodness.
I'm not talking about perfectionism. I'm talking about excellence.
Perfectionism is when you need to be the best. I have to be the best.
That's rooted in a competitive spirit, which does not come from God.
But excellence doesn't say, I have to be the best. It says, I want to bring God my best.
I want to bring God my best. Excellence.
Are you excellent at what you do? Students?
Don't be inviting your friends to Elevation Church, and you have a D in chemistry, because you're lazy.
Why do they need a God in their life that can't even help you from flunking out of your sophomore year of high school?
Oh, it's getting kind of rough in here now. I feel like I need to back this down a little bit.
It's true. It's true. Excellence.
Excellence. Look at it. In Psalm 90, I believe verse 17, the psalmist is praying, and he says, May the favor of the Lord our God rests on us.
Now that's what we want. The favor of God rests on us. Sounds pretty passive.
But then he says, Establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, again, establish the work of our hands.
All I'm saying is, if you're going to ask God to build something in your life, at least give him good lumber to build with.
If you're going to ask God to build something in your life, give him something to work with.
I love this quote from the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther. I just came across it the other day.
He's talking about excellence. Nobody was more theologically adept than Martin Luther.
If anybody was about the glory of God, it would have been Martin Luther.
I want you to listen to what he said about excellence. He said, The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays, not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps, but because God loves clean floors.
Can I get an amen from a nephri? The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.
God is interested in excellence.
Now, the next time the sun comes up and you're awake to see it, I want you to give God a grade.
How did he do? I mean, he could have set the universe up to run any way he wants, but have you ever noticed how the whole universe shouts of the excellence of our God?
One psalmist said, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic! One translation says, Excellent is your name in all the earth.
And if the excellent God lives inside of you, what would he desire to produce through you? Excellence.
Excellence is not enough for us to just claim that we're living for God.
We're supposed to grow in our gift so we can show the glory of God, the goodness of God, the excellence of our God, to declare the praises of our God.
How great is our God, and how will the world ever know how great he is if his people don't do what they're called to do with an excellent spirit?
I could preach about this another 30 minutes, but I have to get to my third word, which is uniqueness.
Uniqueness – God Works Through Our Contradictions
I don't know if you noticed this, but the Scripture points out something here in verse 18 that to me seems contradictory on the surface.
Look at it. When they're describing David and they're talking about what he's good at, they say, he knows how to play the lyre, which is the harp.
Look at the next thing they say. He is a brave man and a warrior.
Okay, so stop. Harpist warrior. Did you ever watch Sesame Street?
They used to have a song that said, one of these things is not like the other. Come on.
When's the last time you've ever seen somebody, man, that dude looks tough. You think you could take that guy? Nah, dude.
I don't think I could at all. And you know what else I heard about him? He plays a mean harp.
When have you ever? No, come on. We're tracking David's trajectory, and we're trying to see how God got him ready for what he was anointed to do.
We see here a convergence of two abilities that don't seem to go together, but both of these things would be needed for David to be in position to fulfill his purpose.
You've got to understand that it is at the intersection of your idiosyncrasies that your destiny will often make itself clear.
Those things that don't seem to go together, those things about you that don't seem to make sense, because all of us are walking contradictions.
But here's good news. Your calling will often become clear because of your contradictions.
I didn't say in spite of them, but because of them. Check it out.
The reason David had the courage to approach Saul and ask him if he could fight Goliath in chapter 17 was because he had been playing harp for him in his bedroom.
Saul's job replacement was sitting in his bedroom, singing him to sleep, and he didn't even know it.
But if David was just a warrior, he never would have had access to Saul.
If he was just a harpist, he would have got killed on the battlefield.
You can't sing Goliath to sleep. No, you need a sling for that, but how many know that God will give you everything you need for every situation you face?
So if you need a harp, he'll give you a harp. If you need a sling, he'll give you a sling.
But you've got to learn how to work out of your uniqueness.
Touch your neighbor and tell them, you're weird. But God works through weirdness.
God works through your weirdness. God works through the stuff that doesn't seem to go together.
A couple of weeks ago, my brother-in-law was over at our house, and he was in the kitchen making a sandwich.
I want to show you a picture of his sandwich. I took a picture because, to me, it was so remarkable.
Here's the sandwich. Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Indeed, that is a Turkey and jelly sandwich. Come on.
That's terrible. How many agree Turkey and jelly doesn't belong between two pieces of bread touching one another?
I like Turkey. I like jelly. But don't put them together and call them a sandwich. It's not a sandwich. It's an abomination.
I told him so. I said, that's disgusting. He said, no, I like them together.
I think sometimes God looks at things sometimes that we think don't go together, and God says, you know what?
I like Turkey with jelly because my thoughts aren't your thoughts and my ways aren't your ways.
I made you weird in a wonderful way. Here's the way one scripture says it.
I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Fearfully and wonderfully made.
That means there's some stuff about me that's strange, but guess what? God made me strange.
See, God put the Turkey with the jelly. God gave me that experience and that experience because he couldn't give me just the same old experiences that everybody else has because there's something he wants me to do that only I can do.
God had to make me a harpist and a warrior. God had to make me a little bit insecure over here, so I would rely on his strength over there.
The thing that makes me weird to you makes me wonderful to God because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
See, what God will do in your life if you'll let him… He'll take the Turkey and the jelly, and he'll take your upbringing and your current situation, and he'll take the thing you went to school for that you thought you were going to use in your career and the thing you're really doing to get a paycheck.
If you'll follow him and trust him, and be diligent where he put you, and serve him with excellence where he put you, and trust in the uniqueness of how he made you…
You know, the Scripture says that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
So God will take the conflicts and make them work together to complete your calling.
I'm speaking to somebody today who's conflicted. You've never made sense to yourself.
You can't reconcile this with that. You can't reconcile what you've been through with where God said he was going to take you, but I want to announce you're a harvest and a warrior.
Nothing is wasted in God's economy. He's making something out of what you went through.
He's bringing it together with what you're going through, and he's going to put it all together. It's all good. It's all good.
That's why God made you weird. You ever wondered why you were weird? You just found out.
God needed a harpist in chapter 16 that would know how to handle his business in chapter 17, so you had to be both.
That's how somebody said you had to be both. You had to be both.
You couldn't fit in. You couldn't fit in. It wasn't possible, because you were custom-tailored for something, so you couldn't be off the rack.
You had to be made to measure. You had to be fearfully and wonderfully made.
Uniqueness.
Experience – God Stacks Every Season
Let's review. Diligence. Are you diligent? Are you developing what God has deposited inside of you?
Excellence. Are you giving God the best gift?
One theologian who wrote a book on prayer said, What you are is God's gift to you.
What you become is your gift to God. Excellence.
If it's for God, it ought to be good. If it's for God, we ought to work hard at it.
If it's for God, it ought to matter to us. If it's for God, we ought to do it better than somebody who's doing it without God.
Christian music ought not suck. It ought to have a beat. It ought to feel If it's still good, it ought to sound right.
If it's for God, it ought to be good. But it all comes down to… Did I say uniqueness?
Oh, you knew that one. Uniqueness. You're weird. We got that.
You don't need a reminder. But it all comes down to experience.
It says that for some undisclosed period of time, David, verse 21, entered Saul's service, and Saul liked him very much.
If you know the rest of the story about David, that sentence in itself is a little funny.
This is chapter 16, and Saul likes David because he can play well and he's a warrior.
By chapter 19, Saul is going to be throwing Spears at David trying to kill him because the people are praising David more than Saul.
I just threw that in there for free to let you know that sometimes the very thing that makes you great is the thing that will also get you in trouble.
Sometimes the thing that makes you gifted is also the thing that will get you killed.
So don't be surprised when trouble comes because of your gift. Don't be surprised if when you sing for somebody, sometimes they applaud and sometimes they throw something.
It says that Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers.
Again, this is all part of God's strategy to get David in position to fulfill his purpose.
Look, and then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.
I want you to understand that God will arrange every experience in your life to serve his purpose, if you will embrace it.
He will arrange every experience in your life to serve his person, his purpose, if you'll embrace it.
Every experience. The good ones, the bad ones, happy or sad, the stuff that seems meaningless, the long hours that seem unrewarded.
If you'll offer your gifts to God and say, God, I'm serving you, not people, then God knows how to weave all of those experiences together to serve his purpose.
But God can only work through what you're willing to work on.
We just want God to work through us, and we want him to bypass the burden of the process.
But he can only work through what you work on, and he stacks those experiences.
What experiences is God trying to stack in your life to bring you to the crossroads of your calling this day?
Will you cooperate in your calling?
You know, when we were planning this series, I didn't know that we would be preaching this sermon about the harpist on the same weekend that the new worship album would come out.
It's kind of a cool tie-in. If you think about it a little bit, it's kind of neat.
God is funny, so God will just sometimes put a little coincidence in your life just to make you smile if you look for it.
But I thought, man, that's cool, preaching about the harpist, and David's a harpist, and we're releasing this music.
It's just a little thing, but, you know, it was kind of cool to me, apparently just to me.
And looking at your faces, you don't care. But, you know, as I close this sermon, I wanted to show you an illustration of one of our musicians, Lance.
Let me get back there. So this is Lance. I want you to meet Lance real quick.
Lance has a few fans. I want you to meet him because he's our musical director at the church.
And that means he has the job of… He plays guitar at our Blakeney location, and he stands over here, and he directs all the bands at all the other locations.
So, like when I come up and sing a song at the end of the sermon, I usually don't tell them what song it's going to be because God usually doesn't tell me.
So we plan everything to a point, but then there's certain stuff that's just spontaneous.
So he has this microphone, but he can't sing. He can play, but he can't sing.
So what he'll do is he'll talk all the bands through what they need to play.
And every single band at every location has to be playing the same thing. That's a big job.
How many agree that's a big job? Well, what's cool, what I love about Lance is how he got here.
Now he's on the stage rocking skinny jeans like nobody's business, but now isn't where it started.
You see the gift, but you don't see the grind.
So I was talking to Lance because he can play every instrument on the stage. That's how he's able to direct every instrument on the stage.
And I was talking to him. I said, hey, I said, how did you get so good at guitar?
That's the instrument that I try to play, but I can't play it like him.
And he was trying to show me a few things one day. I asked him to show me a few things.
I said, how did you get so good at guitar? He said, you know what, pastor?
When I moved here, because he moved here with his wife, London, who's one of our worship leaders, he said, I could barely play guitar.
I was a bass player and a drummer, not a guitarist.
My mom was a piano teacher, but I was basic on the guitar.
When I came to Elevation, I wanted to be a part of the worship ministry, but they had no slots open for bassists and drummers.
They only had slots for guitar players. The worship leaders told me, hey, Lance, we'll let you know if a spot opens up for bass or drums, but you're not cutting it on guitar enough to be one of our main guitar players.
He said something inside of him when he heard that. I said, oh, no. No, I'm called to be up there.
I'm going to be up there. He said he locked himself in his room for about six months.
I said, define lock yourself in the room. He said about 14 to 18 hours a day.
I verified this with his wife because that sounded like a little bit of a stretch to me, but she said it was scary how focused he became.
She said for six months that's all he would do. He would eat in his room, just nothing but guitar, because if a guitar opening is what they have, then a guitarist I shall become, because I'm called to do that.
He said one of the turning points after he emerged from that cocoon and came back to play guitar one time, one of our worship leaders looked at him and said, you know, you've become one of our best guitar players, and he got a spot as a guitar player, but then he was faithful as a guitar player enough to where when the opportunity came up for him to get to direct the whole thing, guess what?
He was ready. He was ready. He was ready to use his gift because of the grind.
What's so interesting about it is he doesn't just play guitar now. Now he uses every experience that he had.
You know it would have been easy for him to think, well, why in the world did I start playing bass when I was eight if they don't even need a bass player?
What's the point in that? It would have been easy to give up right there.
It would have been easy for him to think, why in the world do I play drums if God was going to call me somewhere where I can't even use my gift?
That's why a lot of people quit. I can't even use my gift. Nobody sees my gift.
But then some people have the kind of spirit that says, I'm going to lock myself in the room.
I'm going to lock myself into this situation, and I'm going to get good at every experience God gives me.
I'm going to look for the potential in it. So, watch this.
Lance, when he's eight years old, he starts off on the bass, right? He's a bass player.
I thought we'd get him to play a little bass today just so you can hear him play bass, because he doesn't play bass anymore, but he started out on the bass.
So, play the bass for the people, Lance. Lay down the groove, man.
That sounds pretty good, right? That sounds pretty good. And now so we got that.
We got that. That's kind of like the foundation.
But remember, he grew up in the home of a piano teacher, so he also knows how to play that.
Now, that's an experience God gave him that, at the time, he probably didn't know there was much, too.
But God's stacking stuff, see? God's stacking stuff.
As a little boy, he didn't know why he was growing up in the home of a piano teacher, but God had to stack stuff, see?
God had to stack stuff. Now let's go to the drums, because that was his instrument when he was 11 years old.
When he was 11, he started playing the drums, never knowing at the time what was coming.
But see, God's just stacking stuff. God's just stacking stuff.
Just stacking skills. Just layering stuff. Just stacking stuff.
And now God says, now that we got all that foundation, now that we've got all those skills stacked, I need to bring you over here and put you in position, David, because you were faithful over here and faithful over there and diligent on the drums.
Now I can put you in a position where you can lead the whole thing, because I prepared you for what I was preparing for you.
And now God says, I'm going to bring people all around you. I'm going to assimilate people with their gifts, and I'm going to put you into a community where you can express your gift.
And when it all comes together, come on, it sounds like this, because God says, I'm stacking stuff in your life.
I'm stacking stuff. It's not accidental and it's not haphazard, but if you'll trust me back there, I'll bless you over here.
Come on, make some noise for the purpose of God.