Where To Find Your Opportunity

I want to show you something really quickly. This is a picture from our summer vacation a few weeks ago. It’s a picture of some family time we had. Yeah! That’s how it ended.

I don’t know. Can they see this on the campuses? That’s how it ended. That’s how it ended with Graham smiling, with everybody breathing, with Elijah making some questionable sign with his hands. Notice there is only one oar.

There were two when we set out and embarked on this family adventure, but it ends like this. Thankfully, for me, as I’ve already mentioned, I have a great wife who, when she saw us struggling on the kayak because, contrary to my knowledge, sandbars are temporary… They don’t just stay there.

The sandbar that is there one minute might be gone in 30 minutes. There is this thing called the tides. You’d think I would know this stuff.

You would think you would drag the kayak further than just the very edge of the sandbar before you walk all the way out to the middle of it to have a family memory. But thank God for my wife, because when she saw us struggling when the tide came in… How many know when God gives you a great wife when she sees you struggling she picks up the iPhone and records it? Check out this video she took from the shore. Holly Furtick: All right. There are the boys.

They paddled out to the sandbar, but the tide is coming in. Minutes away. Look at them floating. They don’t know. No minutes.

They’re not even worried about it. Oh! There’s Graham. He’s running. Abbey Furtick: He’s floating!

Holly: Wait. Yep. That’s Graham running. Abbey: How can they not be like that? They’re stuck!

Graham said it best. When we got back and we were telling everybody what had happened, he said, “That could have ended a whole lot different.” You obviously have the leisure of laughter because you know how it ends. “Well, Pastor, it’s pretty funny actually with the binoculars. You’re dry now.

You’re not dead.” It’s different when you know how it ends, but if the man on the jet ski hadn’t come by…this is what Graham said…it could have ended a whole lot different. If he wouldn’t have had southern hospitality to go get my kayak and bring it back to me with his jet ski… Look at somebody and say, “It could have ended a whole lot different.” How many of you know there are some things in your life that could have ended a whole lot different? That drunk driver swerved right into your lane, but some kind of angel just pulled that car back over.

It could have ended a whole lot different. Come on! You know I’m right about it. If you had got stopped by the police at the wrong time when you were in college, it could have ended a whole lot different. For some of us, it’s not that we never did anything wrong; we just didn’t get caught.

If we would have been at the wrong place at the wrong time, it could have ended a whole lot different.

Polish your halo if you want. I’m going to turn to the heathen section. This is where the heathen sit. Come on!

Stand up and testify. If it had not been for the Lord on my side… You’d better give him praise right now before he pulls up your church history. It could have ended a whole lot different. You know I’m right. Tell somebody, “You know that preacher is right.” It’s funny now. When I read David and Goliath as my text, there is some Bible nerd sitting out there or maybe watching online going, “Really? David and Goliath? All the stories in the Bible and you want to pick this one.

Oh, boy!

I already know this one. David kills Goliath. Goliath goes down every time you read it. I already know about the slingshot and the stone. He had five smooth stones, but he only needed one.

The giant came. He had a big heavy helmet. Jesse called David and said, ‘Take this bread down to your brothers. Check on them.’ David got down there, and Goliath was shouting, and David heard it, and David said, ‘You don’t want no smoke,,’ and David got his sling and threw a stone at the giant, and the giant went down.

I already know how this story ends.” Since you already know how it ends, let me suggest something to you. David never read 1 Samuel 17, verse 50. It’s different when you know how it ends. We can shout, but David was shaking, shaking in his sandals, holding a sling, trembling, and wondering how this ends, wondering, “Will this jet ski get my kayak?” I’m preaching to somebody today, and you have not read 1 Samuel 17:50 yet about the situation in your life, and you are still looking at a giant that is bigger than you, and since we know how David’s story ends, I want to spend just a few moments today thinking about how it could have ended, because it could have ended a whole lot different.

Had I gone to that one school and married that other girl, it could have ended a whole lot worse…for Holly. She could have missed the whole buffet. Now, think about it. If David makes some different decisions, the story ends a whole lot different.

God is writing your story right now for your family right now for this season of your life right now, and although we know that Goliath goes down, David has to do it in the face of uncertainty. Yet, no matter how many sermons you hear about David defeating Goliath, you must recognize there were three things David had to face before he even ever got to Goliath.

If any of these three things had gone differently, it could have been a whole lot different. If David had been a typical teenager when his father came and said… He’s only 17 when he kills Goliath, and if he had a response to Jesse’s instruction when Jesse said, “I want you to run these snacks down to your brothers,” if David had rolled his eyes… “God! Dad!

Seriously? I’m the future king, Dad!” Samuel has already anointed David.

He already knows he has a great future, but if David refuses to be faithful in his present because he’s too focused on his future, this story ends a whole lot different. How many of you have heard the story of David and Goliath?

Raise your hand. Yeah! I know. It’s even a sports analogy. People use it in the NBA and the NFL.

It’s an archetypal story. It’s so famous. It’s so wonderful. It’s so fun to preach. I bet I’ve preached it 50 times (at least 50 times) in this one church, but watch how the story could have gone.

It could have been a whole lot different. Jesse wakes David up one morning. He says, “I have a task for you. I want you to run this cheese and bread down to your brothers on the battle lines in the Valley of Elah fighting with Saul.” David wakes up slowly.

David rolls his eyes. David checks his phone. David posts on his Instagram story on the fake account (the one Jesse doesn’t follow). David puts it on Instagram. “God!

My dad makes me sick! This is ridiculous! I hate my parents! I hate my life!” David goes to the battle line, but he gets there 45 minutes late.

He gets there after Goliath came out to shout his usual defiance. He didn’t know Goliath was on the battle line. You don’t know what day God wants to use you.

You don’t know what conversation is going to turn things around. You don’t know what moment is going to be holy.

You don’t know when a bush is going to burst into flames and spontaneously combust with the presence of God and the direction for the next step of your life. You don’t know this, but if you don’t show up and do the ordinary with a good attitude, it could end a whole lot different. Do you really think they would have taught us this Bible story in Bible school and in Sunday school if the story went like this? Jesse woke up David.

David got up.

David went down to the battle lines with a bad attitude, dropped off the food, threw it at his brothers, and went back home. Yet, it could have ended like that. That could have been the very end of the story. It could have ended a whole… It could have ended with David feeling slighted because he was asked to do something that he deemed insignificant. “You know who I am!

Dad? Really? You’re asking me to be a delivery boy to take this food down to my brothers? Are you serious right now? God, Dad!

Okay.

I’ll go, but I’m not going to run to the battle lines, and I’m not going to have my eyes open for opportunity. Okay. I’ll go, but I don’t have to like it.” “Okay.

I’ll go to church, but I’m not lifting my hands. That’s what the weird people do. Okay. I’ll go, but we’re leaving early.

That parking lot gets crazy, and I want to be at the restaurant before the Methodist church lets out.

Okay.” It could have been a whole lot different. “I’m David. I’m not DoorDash. What do you think I am?

Uber Eats? I’m not dropping nothing off. My name is David. Say my name. David.

King David. Crowned David. Samuel put the oil on my head David.” It could have been a whole lot different if David had tripped over the ordinary. Here’s what I’m learning.

Opportunity presents itself as ordinary. There is not going to be, “I want to kill my Goliath. I want a great breakthrough in my life.” We use Goliath to mean anything, by the way, in church, if you’re new here. Goliath could mean anything.

It could mean we want a good parking space.

It could mean we want healing in our bodies. It could mean we want to stop eating so many chips. Goliath can mean almost anything. In this particular instance, it means anything that opposes the purpose of God.

He was standing against the people of God, opposing the purpose of God, defying the armies of the living God. That’s what Goliath was, and it usually won’t be physical. Before David ever got to the real battle he had to face the ordinary. There’s not going to be one conversation with your kids that is going to change their lives.

It is going to be picking them up and dropping them off and trying to get them to say more than three words to you at a time that is going to change their lives.

It’s three words on top of three words on top of three words on top of three words on top of three words. You are not going to take your son on one trip to Ireland and reenact Braveheart (or Scotland or wherever that overrated movie happened), and he’s going to come back shouting, “Freedom!” He’s a warrior now for Jesus Christ. It’s not going to be one trip when he turns 16. It’s going to be many trips.

It’s going to be many back and forth and back and forth. David went back and forth and back and forth.

We know how the story ends. David didn’t. He didn’t even know there was a giant in the Valley of Elah (not when he set out that day).

If he refuses to do the ordinary, it could have been a whole lot different. What a boring story this would have been! David’s dad said, “Go.” David went and did it with a bad attitude, came home, and slept for eight hours. It could have been a whole lot different if David had been typical.

Then, he gets there. He does the ordinary. This is amazing. The Bible said he ran to the battle lines. He left his things with the keeper of supplies.

He’s very responsible. He runs to the battle lines. He’s there in position with the attitude to see the opportunity. When he hears Goliath shouting… If David goes down like most of us go around and just got through his day, he’s not going to be in the frame of mind to seize the opportunity.

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