Oakwood Church
A Passionate Pursuit - 1 Samuel 17
Locations & Times
Oakwood Community Church
11209 Casey Rd, Tampa, FL 33618, USA
Sunday 8:00 AM
A passion is a willingness to suffer for what you love.
2 Corinthians 5:14
“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all…”
“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all…”
A passion is a conviction that leads to compulsion no matter the persecution.
1. Determine your passion
2. Defend your passion
2. Defend your passion
Determine Your Passion
• Your passion is determined by your story.
1 Samuel 16:1
“Fill your horn with oil (which would be for anointing a new king), and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”
• Your passion is determined by your story.
1 Samuel 16:1
“Fill your horn with oil (which would be for anointing a new king), and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”
1 Samuel 16:7
“Do not look on his appearance, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
“Do not look on his appearance, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
Determine Your Passion
• Your passion will drive your priorities.
• Your passion will drive your priorities.
1 Samuel 17:23-24
“As David talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard them. All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid.”
“As David talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard them. All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid.”
1 Samuel 17:26
“For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
1 Samuel 17:32
“Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
“For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
1 Samuel 17:32
“Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
Determine Your Passion
• Your passion must align with God’s passion.
• Your passion must align with God’s passion.
1 Samuel 17:46
“This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head…that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.”
“This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head…that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.”
Once you determine what your God-centered passion is, aim to spend the rest of your life defending that passion.
1 Samuel 17:36-37
“Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”
“Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Defend Your Passion
• Depend on God’s strength, not your own.
• Depend on God’s strength, not your own.
1 Samuel 17:45
“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”
“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”
Isaiah 48:9-11
“For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”
“For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”
“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. . . The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”
~ C.S. Lewis
~ C.S. Lewis
When God’s passion becomes our passion, we can trust that God will fight for us.
Defend Your Passion
• Trust that God will fight for His passions.
Habakkuk 2:14
“…to fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”
• Trust that God will fight for His passions.
Habakkuk 2:14
“…to fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”
In many ways, the entire story of David and Goliath is a picture of Jesus’ battle against sin at the cross.