Reigning As King In Youth Awareness Of Purpose by Dr. Paul Enenche: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

1 Samuel 17:29

A mango tree does not become a mango tree once it is grown, it was a mango tree from the root; it does not start as an orange tree and then switch. Who a person becomes as an adult is who they already were from childhood through adolescence into youth. As young as David was when he arrived at the battle line where his own older brothers stood, he already knew what needed to be done.

Awareness of Purpose

1 Samuel 17:17-32

David was sent by his father simply to bring food to his brothers at the battlefront and check on them. When he arrived and heard Goliath defying the armies of the living God while every man of Israel fled, he did not ask whether someone else would deal with it, he asked, "What shall be done to this man that kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" His own brother Eliab was angry and accused him of pride, asking who he had left "those few sheep" with just to come and watch a battle. David did not argue with the insult; he simply turned to someone else and asked the same question, until it reached Saul himself, and Saul sent for him.

Take Responsibility for What Is Under Your Watch

1 Samuel 16:11

When Samuel came to anoint a king and asked if there were more sons, Jesse said only the youngest remained, out keeping the sheep; Samuel said they would not sit down until he was sent for. It did not matter that David's older brothers had never gone out to tend the flock themselves; David had an understanding of his purpose, and once he was there, he was not willing to let anything go wrong under his watch. That same instinct, taking responsibility whether or not anyone else does, carried directly into how he responded when he saw the armies of God being defied.

Awareness Produces Boldness

1 Samuel 17:34-37

When Saul doubted him because of his youth, David pointed to what he had already survived: a lion and a bear that came for a lamb out of the flock, both pursued and killed with his bare hands. Awareness of what he was responsible for gave him the boldness to face both threats. David knew that God depended on him and therefore would not let him be crushed; a person with a purpose too great to waste is not an easily wastable material, and does not have to calculate the odds before acting.

Never See Yourself as Too Young to Act

Never see yourself as too young to take responsibility. As a seven year old girl, with no grown man in the house because her father was away and no one to fix a blown light bulb, one response was simply to stack two chairs, climb up, work out how the old pin style bulb came loose, and fix it herself with her younger sister holding the bench steady. "Who fixed the light?" "I did. You don't have a boy and there's no grown man in the house, so I decided to do it for you." That mindset, that even if no one else on earth is going to do what needs to be done, I will do it, is what later shows up as someone unwilling to sit back and watch a spiritual battle go unanswered either.

Stay Ahead, Not Level

When people are seated, stand; when people are standing, walk; when people are walking, run, because that is what keeps a person ahead of the crowd around them. David's excellence in one area was remembered in an entirely different one: the same musical skill that had calmed Saul's torment was what people recalled the moment the question arose over who could face Goliath, when Saul asked, "Whose son is this stripling?" and was told it was the same David who used to play and sing for him.