The Day David Became a Man | Living for the Cause of Christ | Marcus Mecum | 7 Hills Church

1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 11. Let's look at it. Everybody say, when. When. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when, everybody say when. When. So I wanna just look at this verse and say, every person needs to have, or needs to catch their second when. Not W-I-N-D, but W-H-E-N, and what does it say? That when I became a man, I put away childish things. I like to say that the Old Testament's the dictionary of the New Testament, and every now and then, you wanna take a scripture like this and say, well, what does it look like to be a man? The Bible speaks of King David, that he was a man, everybody say a man. A man. He was a man after God's own heart. I believe that's what a man is, somebody that is after God's heart. And when you look at David's life, the question is, when did he become this kind of man? I'm not implying that there wasn't a process, I'm not saying that there weren't multiple moments, but I want us to look at the day that I believe David becomes a man.

Something about this day changes his life forever. And so let's look at 1 Samuel 17, verse 24. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, they fled from him, speaking of Goliath, they fled from him because they were dreadfully afraid. So the men of Israel said, have you seen this man who has come up, surely he has come up to defy Israel. And it shall be that the man who kills him, the king will enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter. His father's house will be exempt from taxes. And David spoke to the men who stood by him saying, what shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and who takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him in this manner saying, this will be done for the man who kills him. In other words, just the same things we just read. He'll be given great riches, the king's daughter's hand in marriage, and he'll be exempt from taxes. So they're repeating that to David. And as David is asking this question, his oldest brother hears him and in anger says to David, why did you come down here? Who have you left these few sheep with in the wilderness? I know the pride, I know the insolence in your heart. For you have come down to watch or to see the battle. And David said, what have I done now?

Is there not a cause? When you look at the life of David, it's not hard to see that for the most part, his early years were lived in the shadows. He's constantly overlooked in the family. He's the low man on the totem pole. He's resented by his brothers. He's resented by his father. He's misunderstood, forgotten, left out in the cold. He's not the last one to get picked. He never gets picked. He is invisible, he is ignored. And so like anyone that faces that kind of dysfunction in a family, he's going to struggle with rejection issues, abandonment issues, self-worth issues. He's probably even gonna begin to think at some point after he's been pushed aside, pushed back, pushed down for so long, he's probably even gonna begin to believe that maybe what they're saying about me is accurate. Maybe I am a nothing, maybe I am a nobody. I want you to watch this because the two groups of people that we're looking at here could not be further from they're just absolutely opposite in every way. You got David's brothers who are in the spotlight. He's not included in their clique. He's not included in their club. He's always pushed into jobs that no one else wants to do. There's no thank you. There's no job well done.

There's no pat on the back. There's no accolades. They seem to look at David and believe that he doesn't have much to offer or much to give. Where everyone else is in the spotlight, David watches this and he watches his brothers. And in many ways they become bigger than life to him. He hears about one brother's military accomplishments. Another brother is spotlighted for his stature and his good looks. Another brother is spotlighted for his likability. Another is spotlighted for his brilliant mind. And David is just over here in the shadows. But yet God's working in his life. God's up to something. I think it's important that we remember that throughout scripture, when God wants to find greatness, he does not go looking in the spotlight. God is famous for going and looking in the shadows. He watches the rejected. He watches the abandoned. He watches the forgotten and the neglected. And so if you're not in the spotlight today, I just wanna say you should be grateful because God does his best work in the shadows. The shadows are a gift to you. I hope today that many of you are here saying, I don't relate to this part of the message. Life has been really good to you and you've been given a lot of blessings.

And I appreciate that. But I just wanna say for all of you that feel like maybe God's taken you on the scenic route, you're like, man, how long is it gonna take for me to get there? If you'll just slow down and enjoy the beauty of it, it's so much better than flying down the fast lane and that Ferrari and everybody's heads turning. There's just something beautiful about the way that God takes us through the shadows as he develops us. So in this story, he finally gets this opportunity to see his first battle. He's taking his brothers their lunch. As he's on his way, he passes the stream, grabs the five smooth stones. And he's curious about this battle. He's curious about what's going on. He sees Goliath threatening Israel and he's watching his brothers. These brothers that I believe he had always seen as bigger than life. He began to believe the height of how special they were and what standout human beings they were and how they had the advantage. And so when he's watching them hide in fear, he wants to know what's going on. Why are you so intimidated? Why are you so afraid? He's trying to get to the bottom of to him. How is it?

I mean, I've always believed that you were what you believed you were and what everyone else believed you were. I've never seen you in this light. And just out of curiosity, he's wanting to know what is it about this guy that makes you think you can't take him? What is it about this guy that's got you living intimidated? And as he's asking his brothers, one of them responds and says, who do you think you are? You know that you're just that shadow level, nobody. What's going on with those sheep, those few sheep? You need to go back to where you belong. You need to go back to thinking small, living small, being small. Everyone knows that's who you are. You have no business here. You just come to watch. You've just come to sit back and spectate what's going on. And anytime you decide to move forward, whenever you decide I'm trying to catch my second wind, I'm gonna move out of being a child, thinking like a child, acting like a child, reasoning like a child. And I want to become a man and put away those childish things. One of the things you'll face is those snapshot people, those people that take a snapshot of you in the shadows.

They take a snapshot of you in your biggest failure, in your severest attack, in your lowest moment. They take a snapshot of you. And every time you try to push your way out of that, they just want to pull out that snapshot and remind you of that point in your life when you were in that defeated place, when you were in that down place. One of the things you have to overcome in catching your second wind is those snapshots in your life. You were down on your luck at your lowest point. Maybe you were in a place where it was a great failure and someone took that snapshot and then they went behind the scenes and they developed in the dark room of their own. their opinions of you, their estimation of your value or your potential. And so now here you are in a place like this, defined by the divorce, defined by the addiction, defined by the depression, defined by that moment of defeat. And David is there in this moment, facing whether or not he was going to step into that second wind in his life, whether he was gonna catch the second wind. And the truth is the wind almost gets knocked out of him, hearing their thoughts, hearing them remind him of where he came from. But this is the day that David becomes a man. This is the day David catches his second wind.

This is the day David says, I'm gonna put childish things away. And he does it with this one question. And this is the question I wanna ask every man. And by the way, every woman can get something out of this too. He asked the question, is there not a cause? He doesn't ask it. The Bible is clear that he repeats it. Goes to one, is there not a cause? Goes to another, is there not a cause? Goes to another, is there not a cause? It's an interesting question that you should ask yourself. David hears Goliath threatening the children of Israel. And I don't think he's getting angry or stirred up or riled up over the fact that they're coming against us, that he's coming against Israel. I don't even think that he's getting worked up over the fact that maybe this giant is threatening him or his family. I think what caught David by surprise was that he's calling out David's God. In the moment David heard this, he asked the question, is there not a cause? And you quickly begin to notice the difference between a boy and a man. Everyone else is saying, what's in it for me? They're going back and forth. I think the king said, there's no taxes. I wonder what that's worth.

I wonder what tax bracket I'm in. I'm wondering what kind of advantage that will be. Someone else says, well, you get his daughter. I wonder how cute she is. Does anybody got her Instagram page? Would you pull her up? Can we, is there a better one than that? Is there a, can we get a full body shot? I mean, if I'm gonna put my life on the line, she better be a smoke show. Someone else says, do you get great riches? I mean, what are we talking about? Great, I mean, great depends on who you're talking to. Are we talking thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions? If I'm gonna put it all on the line, what are we talking about? Well, you marry his daughter, you get to move into the palace, you get to marry into royalty. On and on, their motivation was what's in it for me. It wasn't about the Lord's battle. It wasn't about the Lord's work. It was what's in it for me. Initially, King Saul would have given the speech that every king gives, the speech of valor. You gotta do it for valor. Duty, this is our duty. Let's do it for country. Let's do it for God.

But no one was taking that speech. So then he introduces the other things. Well, what about no taxes? No takers. What about a chance with my daughter? No takers. What about royalty? No takers. What about great riches? No takers. And none of this could motivate them because when they're looking at what was being offered, it wasn't enough. They're saying what's in it for me and the risk when they analyzed it and what was being offered was not enough for them to make that kind of a jump. In marriage, you're gonna have some Goliaths. And if you have that first win, that's when I was a child, I acted like a child. I thought like if the attitude is what's in it for me, you're on a one-way street to the divorce court. In your job, in life, with God, in church, that attitude, what's in it for me is when I was a child. That's my dump truck. That's my G.I. Joe. That's my Barbie doll. It's what's in it for me. I hope that you make good decisions. I hope that you have the favor of God on your life.

And I hope that you experience great rewards. And the Bible says that God maketh that and he adds no sorrow to it. But the question is, is your first response what's in it for me? If so, you are on your way to a bitter life. Everyone out there's asking what's in it for me. But David steps out of the shadow with a completely different question. And that is, is there not a cause? And that's the day David became a man. That's the day he caught his second wind where he said, I'm gonna put away the childish things and I'm gonna recognize life is about more than what's in it for me. There is a cause to live for and a God to die for, if need be. There's nothing more important for a man than having a cause. There's a generation that is crippled by misguided motives, hidden agendas. Every streamer out there that you see, their shirt's off, they're this tough, they're this, they got this many girls stacked, they're this, and that's what a man looks like. That's being a man. No, that's being a child. That's what's in it for me. Acting like a child, thinking like you. David, when God said, you're a man

after my own heart was 17 years old, which lets us know that being a boy or a man has nothing to do with your age. You can be 80 years old and still be a boy. I've pastored them. And I've pastored 17 year olds that said, I don't care about none of that, I want the cause. You know, God can cleanse your spirit from a what's in it for me attitude. He does it in the shadows, the hard places, the hidden places, the ignored places, the rejected places. It's where you learn the lesson, I may not have the spotlight, I may not have this or that, I may not have all the things, but I have a plan, I may not have all the things, but I found God in the shadows and I'll fight if need be to give him glory and I'll risk it all to give him glory because I know that he is the greatest reward I can have in life and that is my cause. When you look at David, it's such an interesting thing, he never gets, he goes out there, he faces Goliath. We know the story, he defeats and kills the giant, but he never gets the rewards that he was promised. Ultimately, he gets none of it. He was told that he would, he was promised that he would,

we see that he never got the king's daughter after Goliath. Eventually, he would defeat the 300 Philistines and get her, but he didn't even get a keeper long, she left him for somebody else, she wasn't really much of a catch anyway. He didn't get the palace for long, he was ran out with a spear. Living in caves, he didn't get the riches because all of his buddies are bankrupt, in debt friends. The bottom line is David did not step up on that battlefield saying, what's in it for me? He stepped into that battlefield saying, is there not a cause? And the bottom line is, you've got to do everything you do for the glory and the honor of God. You've got to have that so clear, the Bible says, seek the first, the king. Then all these things, the things are over here, it's just kind of like whatever, but you can have all that, but you can't have what's first. What's most important, that's the cause, that's the thing I live for, that's the thing I give my life for, that's the thing I die for. If you could write an epitaph on David's tombstone, it would be a man, a man, a man after God's heart, a man with a cause, a man who said, if the stuff comes, that's one thing. But I'm one thing is for sure. Put me taking care of my dad's sheep, put me in the battlefield, put me in a cave, wherever you put me, my life is focused on.

I know that God is there in the shadows. I abide under the shadow of the almighty. So I just want to say, if you're in the shadows, look for God. That's where you find him. That's where you find the cause. Romans two and verse 19, Paul gives Timothy, the young Timothy as the exception, but he says all others seek their own and not the things which are of Jesus Christ. You know what Paul is saying, all these others, they're just a child, but Timothy, he's a young man, but he's got it. He recognizes the thing that I pursue the most is the cause of Jesus Christ. It's interesting to me that we all have the boy in us. The boy never leaves you, right? The boy and his toys. It never really leaves, but you got to keep that boy in check. You can't let that boy take over. It don't wear well when you're 40 and still acting like a boy. Come on. We all know that the midlife crisis, you get by the convertible, right? You got your shirt down, you got your little gold chain. They don't wear well. At some point, the boy has to become a man. And that for David was the day he said, is there not a cause and everyone else was wrapped up in what they got out of it or what they would lose. But David said, I know there's a cause. I'm not going to stand here and watch Goliath take this nation and take families. Years ago, I've told this story before, and it's a sad story. It's a story I hate. It's a story I wish I didn't even have. And there's a lot of good stories that I could tell right beside this. I was very young as a pastor and a very successful man in the church wanted to meet with me.

And so I said, sure. And he picked me up and drove me around. He showed me all of his property, hundreds of acres everywhere, showed me his houses, showed me his businesses. This is where I started and this is what it is now. Showed me all kinds of different businesses that he had invested in. And I'm just sitting there like, wow, this is amazing. This is great. Thank you so much for telling me your story. And we get right outside of the old children's wing there in the Florence location. And he says to me, preacher, how big are you trying to make this church? And I was just taken by surprise. I mean, I just saw all this bigness. And I was like, excuse me, what are you talking about? This isn't Tulsa. This isn't Dallas. We don't want those big churches around here. And I'm in my mind thinking this is just coming out of the mouth of the person that's showing me all they've done. And I said, I guess I've never really thought about it. I guess I've just always thought, what does God want? If God wants us to have a hundred people, then we'll be faithful with a hundred. If we're just supposed to have a few sheep on the backside of it, if that's how it's up, then we'll give everything we got to that cause. But if God wants it to be hundreds, if God wants, I mean, at some point we got to ask ourselves about souls. At some point we have to ask ourselves about the lost. At some point we have to ask ourself about eternity. At some point we can't be measuring based upon some random number and we got to be thinking the Bible says wide is the road that leads to destruction.

Somebody's got to reach, somebody's got to love young people, somebody's got to share the love of God with the, somebody's got, I'm not saying that it's any more than a few but somebody has to do it. Well, not surprisingly, that was the last conversation I had with that man. Years later, years and years later, this is just maybe 18, 19 years later, he comes hobbling in, he'd gotten incredibly sick. At one point was a big old man, intimidating man, just one of those people you just knew. But now he had shrunk, whole body weak, cane in his hand. We sent pastors to go spend time with him as he's on his deathbed, asking him, how are things going? Are you okay with God? And this was his statement. I know I win because the man who dies with the most toys wins. He never caught his second wind. The boy never became a man, he never put away childish things. And we have to remember men that everything that we see, everything that we're pursuing in this life, it's all breaking down right now. All of it right now, the Bible says, at some point it's gonna rust away, it's gonna be eaten up in some way. You know what God told Jonah?

He said, Jonah, there's a worm in all of it. Remember, he comes out of the belly of the whale, finally shows up on the shore of Nineveh, preaches a masterful sermon, and revival breaks out in that great city of Nineveh. He steps up, he catches it, there's a cause, I'm done doing it my way, I'm done running, I'm done saying what's in it for me, I get it, I understand what life's about, so be it, I'm gonna live for revival, I'm gonna live for the lost, I'm gonna live for seeing God do something great for my life. But then the boy comes back up, and he goes and sits on a mountain waiting for God to destroy the very people he's just preached to. 39 days and 23 hours he's waiting. During this time, a huge vine grows up over where Jonah's sitting. That vine provides shade for him, foods for him, it covers him. And he gets so comfortable in this place. He finally just settles in, man, I think that this is what life's about. Got my pina colada in my hand, just enjoying life. And at his most comfortable point, the Bible says God allows a worm to start eating away what he trusted in. If we're living for anything else

other than the cause of Jesus Christ, and living a life that honors and glorifies Him in all we do in all areas, I just wanna say there's a worm in me. There's a worm in that. It's of no value. The only thing that will ever lead to you becoming more than just a child is having a cause. Saying, God, I wanna live for a cause. I wanna live for a cause. The best thing I can do for my babies is have a cause greater than me. The greatest thing I can do, the greatest thing I can do for this church, you know how easy it would be for me to slip back and find an old little vine at this point in the game and just relax under it. But there's a worm in that. Acts 20 and verse 24, none of these things move me, neither do I count myself. Paul was saying, I've caught my second wind. I've been set free from what's in it for me. I feel that. William Wallace anointing, that Braveheart thing. I'm 51, I don't care no more. I wanna see men get a cause. I wanna see men find something besides what's in it for me. I want every father and dad, future father that's here

to catch their second wind. And that's when you become a man, you put away the childish things. You see, there's two Goliaths that David dealt with here. The first one's invisible. It was the what's in it for me giant. But until you deal with that one, you'll never face whatever giant is on the outside. It could be the giant of addiction. It could be the giant of a childhood went wrong, gone wrong. It could be, you name the Goliaths out there. But my question is, they're not a cause. A man after God's own heart. Why don't you put your hand on your heart? A man, a man after God's own heart. Am I building my thingdom? Am I thinking the man who dies with the most toys wins? Or am I saying, if I gave every breath of my life to the cause of Jesus Christ, I don't care if it means I lost in everybody else's eyes. I know I've lived for what matters most. Am I living for my thingdom or His kingdom? Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus.