The Apostle Paul once wrote that “All the promises of god are Yes & Amen in Jesus.” (2 Cor. 1:20). Yet it is undeniable that sometimes God seems to look us straight in the eye and tell us, “No, my child.” The challenge for us is discerning what the difference is between our desires and God’s promises. This message from King David’s life walks us through what it is like to receive a flat denial from God. David asked for something that made sense. It was spiritual. He wanted to honor the Lord by doing something for Him…and God told David NO. Can we embrace God’s No’s in faith? Will we praise him when He denies us? Have we matured to celebrate His wisdom when He declines the thing we desire? David’s life helps us to see how God saying No is sometimes the gateway to greatness and glory.
Dancing King
January 29, 2020 • Jeff Lyle
As David moved forward in leading Israel as their king, he discerned it was time to bring the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem. For decades it had been sitting in places where it was no longer an instrument in the national worship of the God of Israel. After seeking to move the ark without consulting God, disaster struck, and a man named Uzza was killed for putting his hand on the holy ark. David referenced the Law and learned how to properly transport the ark. In this message, we see the unbridled joy of David as he dances in the presence of God. We also see the nasty heart of someone who despised his public displays of worship. This message calls us to unapologetic displays of enthusiastic worship of God, while also warning us about the dangers of judging those who engage their spirit, emotions and bodies as they magnify the God who loves and leads them.
The Harvest From The Waiting Season
January 15, 2020 • Jeff Lyle
You have likely never met a person that can honestly say that they delight in waiting. While it is true that, as we mature, we learn to patiently wait, nobody truly enjoys waiting for something they desire. We have an impulse in our soul that prefers to immediately receive what we long for. Part of becoming a deep follower of Jesus is learning how to cooperate with His practice of making us wait. King David’s life was marked by long, deep and sometimes painful years of waiting on God to bring to pass His plan for David’s life. In this message, we witness David’s breakthrough that was two decades in the making. That’s right: David waited twenty years for one day. Yet, when that particular day finally found David, he was so glad to reap the harvest of all those years of patiently waiting upon the Lord. We should expect the same in our own lives. Are you and I willing to wait as long as God determines for Him to bring to pass His plans for us?
MANHOOD: Strength & Humility
January 8, 2020 • Jeff Lyle
Very few people in the Bible captivate us as powerfully as David. His story is one of an underdog who became an overcomer. His stunning heart for God is not so spiritual that we are kept ignorant of his raw passions and public failures. In the end, David's story offers us much about what it means to be a man of faith. Our culture is confused about the issue of masculinity. The Church does not seem to always offer clarity about being male and living as a son of God. This season in David's life offers us a platform for growth in seeing both masculine strength and humility as part of what it means to be a man who follows Jesus. May God impact our hearts and minds to reframe what we believe masculinity truly is. It is not toxic to be fully, unashamedly male. It is nothing to apologize for. What every man needs is a touch from God that imparts him the identity which God has reserved for him.
Untying An Impossible Knot
December 18, 2019 • Jeff Lyle
As David’s long stint as a backslidden believer continues, he is about to find out what it means for us to reap what we sow. This short, painful scene in David’s life was a turning point that would bring him face to face with the consequences of living outside of the will of God and beneath his destiny. When we make decisions that do not honor the Lord, there will be consequences. Sometimes those consequences are intense. How do we respond when our sins catch up with us? Do we run further from God, or do we have enough assurance of His committed love to turn to Him in our moment of deep need? David was about to temporarily lose everything he treasured. Even his own life was hanging in the balance. How he responds to the dire situation he had created can instruct us in how to turn to God when we have failed. David’s bad decisions had created an impossible knot for himself, his men and all of their families. God was going to prove that He knows how to untie impossible knots.
What Backsliding Looks Like
December 4, 2019 • Jeff Lyle
God declared David to be a man that had a heart like His own. David is famous for being the man after God's own heart. What an amazing description given to David by his God. Yet, we must never forget that the man after God's own heart was still a man. David, like all of us, possessed a sinful nature. This heroic man committed some very famous sins during his life and marred his testimony with some fleshly actions. Not as famous was the period of time where David spent living in fear and manipulation as he sought to preserve his life from King Saul. This message focuses on a sixteen-month season when David was operating according to his own wisdom and placed the lives of all who were following him in great peril. Motivated by fear, David compromised his commitment to live by faith and began living in a way that was mired in falsehood. God loved David too much to allow him to prosper in this season of backslidings, so we see Him go after this son who was feeling right while he was living wrong.
Two Jerks & A Jewel
November 20, 2019 • Jeff Lyle
The differences between men and women are far more than any of us are able to number. God made males and females to be distinct from one another. This important determination from God is seen in human anatomy, personality and the different ways that men and women tend to lean in our natural instincts. Fewer places in the Bible put on a clearer display of the differences between men and women than the part of David’s life where he meets the woman who would become his future wife. Sadly, for David, he is presented with all of his flaws in this portion of his story. Abigail, on the other hand, is revealed to us as a powerful woman, fell of grace and wisdom. David and Abigail are not alone in this account. The largest, darkest and coldest shadow is cast upon them both by a man named Nabal, Abigail’s first husband. Take note of how these two men at their worst are contrasted by the Holy Spirit with this woman who is at her best. May we all, male and female, learn from both the excellent and powerful examples from all three of these lives.
Sending Your Enemy Back Home
November 13, 2019 • Jeff Lyle
One of the most challenging things that Christians deal with is how to respond to the attacks of those who choose to treat us as their enemies. If we do not fight back at all, we become doormats. If we fight back in the wrong manner, we forfeit the covering of God and may end up making a difficult situation much worse. Jesus commands us to turn the other cheek, but does that mean we passively tolerate mistreatment, abuse or lies? What exactly does it mean to leave all vengeance to the Lord? In this season from David’s life on the run, we are impacted by several important Kingdom principles that all appear in one tense scene. David has an opportunity to wipe out an enemy who is clearly wicked. It seems like God is giving Saul into David’s hands to defeat. People encourage David to aggressively put an end to the fight, but David’s heart is not so sure it is the right thing to do. From David’s actions, we find ourselves instructed on how to submit to human authorities, how to show honor to those who may not deserve it, and how to rest in trusting God with His perfect timing to bring a holy end to our battles with others. In the end, we learn how to send our enemy back home.
Light In The Cave
November 10, 2019 • Jeff Lyle
One of the most undesirable aspects of the Christian life is facing the reality that God's intentional kindness towards His children sometimes manifests itself through His disciplining of us. Yes, God is not unilaterally committed to our continual comfort and personal pleasure. To the degree that He intends to grow us and use us, He must break us. Frequently, the Father takes us through seasons wherein we are stretched, tested and proven. In these seasons, life can feel somewhat like a dark cave to us. For David, this season involved a literal cave that became his temporary home for longer than he would have liked. In the midst of losing all of the comforts in his life, God took David through a prolonged season of decrease wherein he was being trained to look to God alone for comfort, hope and security. It was during his cave-season that David received the bright light of learning to trust deeply in the faithfulness of God when the rest of his life seemed to oppose him.
Nothing Left To Lean On
November 6, 2019 • Jeff Lyle
To truly embrace and experience all of what God has created you for, one element is essential: the recognition that God is now and forever will be everything to us. All our lesser loyalties and potential things upon which we might trust must either be renounced by us or removed from us so that we recognize that our lives are completely dependent upon God alone. While God commands us to love and appreciate all that He places in our lives, He forbids that we ever give our full trust to these things. David would be a great source of glory for God, but he would first need to learn what it meant to stand utterly alone, with nothing to lean on but God Himself. There was a season wherein everything else was removed from David, leaving him with absolutely nothing left to lean on.
Insecurity's Thumbprint
October 30, 2019 • Jeff Lyle
If you live long enough and keep your eyes open, you will be able to discern repeated patterns within the Kingdom of God. One of these cycles of how God works is seen in His exalting one person while simultaneously reducing another person. None of us is a permanent fixture in our generation. The young get old, the old die and, while that is happening, newborns are entering the cycle to ensure that there is always someone whom God may use for His glory. In this passage, we have this cycle undeniably placed before us as God’s hand remains upon David for blessing, while that same helping hand is removed from King Saul. What does it look like to be promoted in the Kingdom by God? Are you positioned for this type of touch from God upon your own life? This part of David’s story also serves as an opportunity for us to see if there is any danger of us living in the prison of our own insecurities when God promotes others around us. Envy and jealousy are open doors to the demonic realm, and we have the calling to keep our own hearts free and clear of these powerful emotions. As God continues in our generation to elevate some and reduce others, we have decisions to make about how we are positioning ourselves under His hand. Will the fingerprints of God mark us for blessing, or will the thumbprint of insecurity mark our lives?
No More Hand-Me-Down Armor
October 27, 2019 • Jeff Lyle
There are unforeseen moments in life that will define our entire storyline. Many times, we did not see them coming when we awoke on the day that they occurred. God’s providence sets up encounters, events and opportunities that will mark us forever. How we respond to those moments is crucial. Most of the time, how we respond is determined by everything we have believed, envisioned, and committed ourselves to prior to that moment arriving. David was about to face the giant in the valley. If he was going to emerge victorious, there were several obstacles he would need to overcome. David needed to be covered in the armor of God, trusting that the Lord was going to bring him a humanly impossible breakthrough. A different type of armor was offered to him. If David trusted in human resources for the victory, his moment could implode. If he would wear the armor that God provided, the giant would fall. This message walks us through a familiar story from an uncommon point of view. The armor we wear in our defining moments will likely determine the storyline of our life.
The God Of Your Battles
October 23, 2019 • Jeff Lyle
The life of a believer is described in countless ways throughout the bible. One of the metaphors that is repeatedly used all throughout Scripture is the picture of life being a battle. Yes, all believers are living out their days on a battlefield. While there are innumerable forces that actively oppose us, God has declared us to be victorious overcomers in the midst of it all. King David’s life is, perhaps, one of the clearest examples of how we must prepare for war, look to God for wisdom and strength, fight bravely as we rely upon Him, and endure all hostility and opposition until victory is secured. David was a perpetual warrior. We are also to consider ourselves to be the same. In this message, we hear the words of David as He reveals so much of what he was taught by God throughout the years of endless battles with military foes, individuals who wrongly resisted him and even painful opposition from those whom he loved. In the end, David learned something that we also must learn: our Heavenly Father is faithful to prove Himself to be the God of our battles.
Recognizing Winds Of Change
October 16, 2019 • Jeff Lyle
Never forget that God has a plan. We also need to remember that He is constantly working to bring that plan to fulfillment. God was done with Saul as the King of Israel, and He had already chosen Saul's replacement. David was presently anointed and awaiting his future elevation to the throne of Israel. Before that occurred, there was a process that God had initiated that must first be completed. David's slaying of Goliath was a huge piece of that process. What does it look like when the winds of God's providence begin to blow? When it is time for things to move within God's wise plans, His people need to exercise sharp discernment to recognize what He is accomplishing. In a very discouraging situation, God would providentially move to bring about one of the most glorious events in the young life of the boy who would become a king. David would be slaying a giant. Looking back now, we can clearly recognize the winds of change which were being unleashed in Israel by God.
Great Treasures Through Small Measures
October 2, 2019 • Jeff Lyle
Many people wonder, "Just how do I walk in my God-appointed destiny?" The answer for each of us is that we walk in destiny one faithful step at a time. David has been anointed as the future King of Israel by Samuel. David is a teenager whose current job is protecting sheep from predators. Positionally, he is the low man on the totem pole in his family. Yet, when it comes to David's destiny, there is nobody positioned higher in all of Israel. How would David ever make it from the lowly shepherd's field to the throne of Israel? This message reveals how our impossibilities are God's opportunities. God called David to be a king, and He would see to it that David eventually arrived at the appointed place. From this season in David's life, we learn the immeasurable value of treating small opportunities as if they were the most important. Sometimes the greatest treasures come to us in the smallest measures. If we are faithful in the least, we will eventually be faithful in the greatest.
