Brave Men S1E8: Six Attributes You Must Have

I was stunned the other day when I read this stat, 80,000 people a year, just in the United States alone, die of misdiagnosed illnesses. Wow, 80,000 people every year. Now for most of us, for you and I, the issue in our lives is not the misdiagnosis of the problem. We know our problems, time with a family, porn addiction, unwise personal management, anger, the issue is not misdiagnosis, the issue is we haven't prescribed the right solution. It's Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole, wisdom and courage for the journey. Brave Men starts now. Hi, welcome to Brave Men, this is Paul Cole. Today we're going to talk about this. What are the six attributes of David when he fought Goliath? I'll give a little backstory that in a moment. What are the six attributes of David that caused him to be able to win a victory that changed the future of his nation and his own personal life? They were attributes he had in him that caused the fight to be successful. In fact, I believe it was over before David even showed up because he had it in him. They are the six things that you and I must have in order for us to win victory over obstacles. What the issue is when we talk about misdiagnosing things, too often what happens is we know the problem but we don't prescribe the right solution. The right solution doesn't start externally, it starts internally. It starts with our core values, our character, those things that inside us that become the expression of us on the outside. So core core values. We talk a lot about that with Christian men's network. I have the great privilege of stewarding that ministry, we're in 137 countries. Our goal is to defeat fatherlessness and in child abuse. We are human justice mission focused on defeating fatherlessness and in child abuse. We do that by mentoring men, raising up strong men who build strong families and strong churches. I believe the church is the hope of the world. The power of God through a local church changes everything. But it starts with you and me and our inner character. King David, great famous king. We find his life all through the mid part of the first half of the Old Testament and Samuel and other books around there. But in chapter 17 of first Samuel, you read this story about David as a young man coming up against a giant named Goliath. The giant had literally stopped the entire army of Israel. Thousands of fighting meant thousands of proven hardened warriors had stopped them. They couldn't go anywhere. They were stuck. David shows up. But as somebody needs to do something and he looked around like, well, it's probably not you. But we don't know who it is. We're just waiting for somebody to show up. David says, no, no, it's me. And it says that he ran into the battle. It says he went after it. And there's such a thing about David at this point. If you read this in chapter 17 of first Samuel, you think, my goodness, this is ridiculous. This young man, next to all these warriors, and he said, no, I can take this guy. And he does, and he kills Goliath. It really ends at that point is the end of Saul's reign. Now it goes on for a while and Saul gets jealous of David, tries to kill him. A number of things go on. It's a fascinating story. It's all true. It all actually happened. These aren't just fables or myths. And David, this young man, King David, that reigned about 1,500 years before Jesus Christ was born, had some things in his life that caused him to win this victory. All right? You ready? If you can, write these down or at least listen to them with enough attenuation and attention that it focuses into your mind. And I'll try to reinforce it for you. Here's the six things. First of all, David was called of God. In the Bible, we read that Samuel, who's a prophet, is really upset. And his kingdom is going down to tubes with Saul as the head of it. And he was the guy who had anointed him, prayed over him and just, oh, man, God, I made a mistake. And he's just absolutely wiped out. And this guy is a major prophet, big time guy. He's the Billy Graham of this world. And so he's frustrated. And God said to him, hey, don't worry, I found a man after my own heart. I have found a man after my own heart. Now if you look at the word of God chronologically and look at the life of David, this happened before he was anointed, which happened when he was in his, just about turn 13, latter part of his 12th year. So if we look at this, we see that David is most likely somewhere around nine years old. He's the youngest of eight boys. And at nine, God says to Samuel, hey, I found a man after my own heart. And what David did in Ephesians chapter two, verse 10 says this about you. It says that you're his masterpiece that you were created for good works. So this is, this is a word for you and I. And so take this, you're called. So David embraced his calling. He was passionate, he was devoted, he was present, his, his eyes were open. He was human, he totally, totally messed up. John 15, 16, it says this. And this is the beauty of Jesus speaking to you and me. He says this. He didn't choose me. I chose you. I pointed you to go and produce lasting fruit so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for using my name. See, we didn't choose the mission. The mission chose us. Second Corinthians 520 says we are called to be Christ's ambassadors of reconciliation. That means bringing people back to Christ life as it should be you didn't choose, choose me. I chose you. So the first thing that David did when he showed up and he's 16, 17 years old and he's going to face Goliath is he embraces his calling because I was made for this. You know, you were made for this. Secondly, he was anointed. Now he had skills that doesn't mean we don't work on our talent. You know, character is more important than talent, but, but talent is what the Bible says that puts us in front of great man. It says, a man's gifts will make room for him. And so your talent has to be worked on just as your character does. So he had skills. He knew how to use a slingshot, he knew how to throw the rock, do that stuff, but really what happened was the presence of the Holy Spirit took his skills into another dimension. He worked on his gifts, but the anointing magnified the skill. The anointing of God will magnify your ability to write screenplays, to do business deals. The anointing of God will magnify your skills. As a manager, as a business person, as a home in your home, in everything that you do, the presence of God will magnify the gift that you have worked on, whether it's being a keyboard player, IT person, whatever it is, the presence of Almighty God. John 14, 12, Jesus said, the things I've done might disciples will do. That means the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, that same spirit that Jesus used to cast out demons lives in you as a follower of Christ. So he's anointed. A number three is this, he had courage. Courage isn't the absence of fear, but it's running into the battle anyway. It's the result of embraced destiny, hey, I'm supposed to be here. Courage is first moral, in other words, it's inner, it's inside you, and then it becomes outer. In other words, it becomes physical, first it's moral, then physical. We know that that men who have a moral core or more quickly courageous than those who don't in times of trouble or tragedy or whatever it may be. So courage, we've got to have courage. And there's a book actually, if you go on cmn.man, Christian men's network.man, cmn.man. It stands for Christian men's network, Christian men's network.com, or cmn.man. I like the shorter ones. And if you go on here, there's a book called Courage written by my father, Dr. Ed Cole, that is fantastic. In fact, we're doing the audio book, should be out fairly soon. Courage, not the absence of fear, but running into the battle anyway. And then here's the next thing, the fourth thing, he was a maximized man. Also maximized man, a maximized man is a man whose mature, maturity, maturity is making the right choice, even when the emotions or context of the moment would cause you to do something different. That is maturity. He was a maximized man. Here's why I watch this. It wasn't his fight. It wasn't even his fight. He had nothing to do with it. He wasn't even in the army. He showed up with biscuits for his brothers, but he accepted Goliath as his own battle. That is a man. It was a maximized man. It was Saul's fight. It was Jonathan's fight, but he was there and he was a warrior. I don't care where you end up, but when you end up in the middle of something, you accept responsibility because you're a warrior. That's what warriors do. You protect people, help people, enlarge people. Might not be your fight, but if you're there, be a maximized man. Fifth, he was focused. He had a mission. I love what he said. If you read it, he said this, he said, this day, I will kill this giant. In other words, he had a mission. He said, let's go kill this pagan. Come on. He said that. He said, what is this? I'm circumcised, Philistine against God. Let's go kill the pagan. He was focused. Remember, focus isn't about greater intensity. It's about greater intentionality. We put a whole section on focusing your life in the book, Just the Bartender, the story of Nehemiah. How he focused his life, focus isn't about greater intensity. It's about greater intentionality. It's about cutting things off that don't belong. Listen, you've got giants in your world. You've got things you need to fight obstacles. Focus on them. Don't waste time. Get it done. And then the last thing that David did is he got involved. He was in the fight. He didn't just say, hey, we're going to do this. Let me think about it for a few weeks or let me come back to it. We got in the fight. I love the Scottish proverb that my great friend, Lauren Tabet gave me from Calgary. He said this. He said, here's the Scottish proverb. If there's no blood on your guilt, you're just a dancer. I love that. Your sword is a weapon. See, you are the man. You are the one who has to stand and kill Goliath. Where are Goliaths coming into our culture, into your neighborhood, into your family, into your community, and you're the man. You're the one who has to run and co-goliath. The world needs you to rise up as a mighty man, a man of war, a warrior of faithful man. And you have the power of God in you. Run to the battle. Go after it. Be like David. Be a man of courage. Be a man who knows he's called. Be a man who embraces his destiny. Be a man who's anointed. Be a maximized man. Focused on your mission and get in the fight. You are that man. Thank you for being with me, for brave man. This is Paul Cole. You can find the things that we're connected to. A lot of tools and great inspiration, information, and revelation at Paul Lewis Cole. Com. P-A-U-L-L-O-U-I-S-C-O-L-E dot com. And then also Achieve Lab, A-C-H-I-E-V-E-L-A-B dot org, Achieve Lab dot org, massive hundreds of hours of videos and tools to help enlarge your life, to make you the success, you desire to be, to crush the masculine journey. Hey, I love you. I believe in us. I believe in Jesus, and I love my wife. You've just experienced brave man with Paul Lewis Cole. Paul is president of the Global Fatherhood Initiative. Connect with Paul Light. Braveman.man. That's Braveman. Docman.