Welcome to War: Living with Intentional Faith
Jim Clements · Tidal Church Moncton · June 22, 2025
Jim Clements looks at David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, with Ephesians 5 and Matthew 28, to show that faith must be lived on purpose every day. He calls believers to face their giants, trust God, and make disciples.
Topics: Faith, Fear & Anxiety, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:00] One of the things in life that I feel with our faith is we have to be intentional about it. And I'm just, so you know a little bit about me, I'm a risk taker. I'm competitive. I've learned as I've gotten older to tame that competitiveness. So it doesn't come outward, but it's full throttle on the inside. Just so you know, if we're ever engaged in any kind of competition, I'm pretty competitive. And so we were on vacation at a place called Tiger Paw in Belize a number of years ago. And I had to figure out because I had this like healthy fear of heights. And so on this trip we found that we were gonna go cave tubing. I was like, I can do cave tubing, absolutely, that'd be fun.
[0:48] Then I found I had to jump in off this 25 foot cliff in order to get into the river to go through the caves in the mountains. And so I was like, okay, I can do this. Like, I can overcome it if I come up with an intentional plan of what I'm going to do. And so on the 30 minute hike back through the jungle, I came up with a plan. I'm gonna send Gisèle first. And then I said, alright, this is the plan, Gisèle, you're gonna go first. 'Cause we're watching the people go up and the guy said, you're gonna go one at a time, hand me your tube and jump in. I'm like, if I've gotta stop, there is no way I'm jumping. And so I said, I'm gonna give you my tube. You're gonna walk up ahead of me, give him both tubes, tell 'em what the plan is and we're good.
[1:37] So she went, 'cause the other part was the guy goes, well, you can always go down this side path and it goes to the water. Like, we usually take people that are scared or got physical challenges or old. And I'm like, that ain't happening. I can overcome, like, no way. Like, no one's watching me walk down that path. So she gets up there, gives them the two tubes, I can see him looking at me and he goes, and I'm going, we're good like that. And she jumps in. She's a great swimmer. Most Newfoundlanders are not great swimmers even though we grew up on an island. That's why so many of us stay on it. And so she jumps in, throws a tube in, he looks at me and goes, come on up. And I walked up and I just went boom, right off the edge.
[2:23] A little while later I hit water and I was happy. And it's a long swim to the surface after you've jumped 25 feet in the water. I was thinking it was like a four foot swimming pool, right? Just go, I'm at the top again. That wasn't the case. I get up, I get on my tube and I'm like, okay, I survived this. This is now where the risk and the competitive person in me comes in because I had an intentional plan of how I was gonna get in the river. But my intentional plan for me was I was gonna make it all about me and let the guy go with the people so I could just do whatever I wanted to do. As I went through the caves, I knew enough I had to turn on my headlamp when we went in through the bottom of a mountain. But I didn't have an intentional plan for what was about to happen probably 30 or 40 minutes later.
[3:13] And as I'm coming in through, got my headlamp on, I can see the group exiting the cave off in the distance and I'm still in it in the dark. My headlamp on, there's rapids. I'm like, oh, it's gonna be cool. I love rapids. Right? And as I approached the rapids, they took me into the rock face of this cave and I went in backwards and when I hit the rock cave, it flipped me off the tube. The current took me up underneath the rocks underwater and the tube followed me and now had me pinned up against the rocks with all the current pushing against me. Well, you know the end of the story 'cause I'm standing here. But as I struggled, remember, I'm not a strong swimmer.
[3:59] As I struggled to get out from underneath that, I thought I was gonna die. I really did. And I pushed and I pushed and I tried to push on that tube and I could not get it to move. And then I did the only thing I could do and I prayed and I said, God, I know I wasn't following the rules. I know I was doing my own thing, but if there's any way I can not die here today, that would be a good thing. And I pushed and pushed that tube and it moved and I came out of there like a buoy in the water and I was never so happy. But see, I wasn't following my leader. He had information that would've been beneficial to me to have an intentional plan in my walk, in my floating.
[4:51] I mean, like, we need to follow God to be intentional in our life for the walk because what he told everybody that was in the group, when you hit the rapids, make sure you go into the rocks feet first and then when your feet hit, absorb it and then push yourself outta the rapids. Yeah, that would've been good information to have, right? So often we go through life and we think we have an intentional plan, but we don't. And it's in those moments when we don't have an intentional plan for our faith or how we're living out our faith, we think everything's going good and we're fine, that we get flipped or we get in a tough spot. It's the moments that we don't expect when we're not paying attention intentionally to what God is directing in our life that we get into trouble.
[5:44] God knows the way and He knows the truth. And we have to be intentional about our faith because God is intentional with us. Intentional faith isn't just about showing up here on Sunday either. It's not. It's not about you when you come here on Sunday. If this is all you're doing, this is not intentional faith. This is you taking care of you, coming to experience the service to glorify God. But what are the other aspects of your life? What about the times and the moments that you really need a community that you've intentionally invested into, that it's invested into you, in that faith community? On Friday, I was thankful for the faith community that I had.
[6:30] Gisèle and I had a situation happen and it, you know, it wasn't life threatening like me pinned on the rock water, but it was enough to cause a lot of anxiety that we didn't know where to turn to. But we turned to people in our faith community who in return reached back and loved and helped us navigate through it to take care of what we needed to take care of. And the day ended well, ended late, but ended well. And I'll save the details of that story for another message somewhere that I can use. But are you intentional in your faith? Are you intentional in your faith with other people? So if you're existing just on earth, just living out each day trying to figure out what's the, what can you get out of it? What are your passions, what are your desires, what are your earthly things that you want to get outta life, that you want to experience, that you want to have?
[7:22] That's about you. Then what happens when you get in a battle and you look around and the only person standing there is you? Because I'm gonna tell you now, and you've heard me say this before, the enemy has an intentional plan. The enemy has an intentional plan to take you out. He has an intentional plan to take out your family. He has an intentional plan to take out your friends. He has an intentional plan to take out your coworkers. He has an intentional plan. Do you have an intentional plan in your faith that's not gonna allow that to happen? We are in a spiritual battle whether you want to admit that or not. And so officially, I wanna welcome you to war because we can no longer be passive in our faith.
[8:08] We can no longer just show up on Sunday and think everything's gonna be good Monday through Saturday. It has to be an intentionality that we're walking through in our faith in every aspect that we have. The problem is when you're at war, you don't accidentally win a war. You have to battle it with intentionality because you can drift just like I did on that too. I drifted into something that was dangerous that I had no idea, 'cause I wasn't following the leader and I was being unintentional in what I was doing. You win by being intentional. Intentionality needs to happen in all areas of our life. Being intentional about our faith isn't just like, okay, I'll be intentional here.
[8:56] Okay, not there, maybe sometimes. Oh, definitely not there. Being intentional about our faith walk and our relationship with Jesus Christ has to be the primary thing that everything in our life gets filtered through, put through, and that we live through in all aspects. It can't just be like we're on a lazy river floating through, enjoying our time in the sunlight. Everything is rosy and good and the water feels nice, 'cause there's people's lives at stake. We have to make deliberate choices, intentional choices that are God-honoring and God-directed in our faith.
[9:45] We just can't keep going through the motions passively. If you want to know how the Scripture says that we should live our lives, what's the instructions we get? Ephesians 5. "So be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but live like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do." We have to live intentionally. Let's take a look at a story that most of you are familiar with, David and Goliath, and how David was intentional in his encounter with Goliath. David, see, he didn't just like stumble onto the battlefield.
[10:34] David was intentional about his actions and who he was, like. He was intentional because his dad asked him to take food and supplies to the front lines where his brothers and other soldiers were, and David knew that when his dad asked, that he was honoring his dad and honoring his brothers. He was following through in the faith and obedience that he was intentionally living, his intentional identity, or sometimes we'll call it purpose, intentionality with it. He was the youngest in the family. That's what he had to do. He wasn't on the front lines, but he did know, as part of his identity, that he was part of God's chosen people and that the God that he served, he trusted wholeheartedly.
[11:24] So David arrives on the scene. When he gets there, his brothers and others start asking him all kinds of questions. They make fun of him for being there and all that, and then David finds out what's going on. And David, it says in 1 Samuel 17, we'll start in verse 26. David asks the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills the Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of God?" David hears Goliath's challenge. He's living his faith intentionally out. He knows what's happening in the cowering of Israel's army, but he wants to live out his faith intentionally because nobody mocks God.
[12:18] See, as followers of Christ, as followers of the faith that we have, nobody gets to mock God, nobody gets to mock our faith. Nobody gets to mock the lives that we live. We get the pushback on that if we're truly living in intentional faith and not just showing up. We get the pushback on that. I had a situation that happened not long ago, and I was sitting at an event, a table of about eight or 10 people at the event, and they begin to say, well, the Bible can be written by anybody, like they can change it anytime they want and adjust it to what's happening in culture and society and just make it more relevant to adjust to all the things that are happening.
[13:07] Very, and I've told you this, and very few times in my life, like my body physically, I don't know if you've ever experienced it, physically became very warm, and I could feel it move through my body to the point that I knew my two ears were as red as could be. Like, I didn't need a mirror, I didn't wanna touch them. I was just like, I know they can see them, and I begin to tell them how wrong they were. I begin to tell them how wrong they were. Table got silent, questions got asked eventually, and I said, "You couldn't be further from the truth and you couldn't be further from God, but I can tell you how to find your way there." We live our faith with intentionality in every spot.
[13:55] We don't shy away from those moments. We don't go, "Oh, that's really uncomfortable," or "I'm at this event that somebody's having." It's not about what's happening in earthly or human stance. If you're called to follow God, that's all the time. Just so you know, that's not sometimes, that's not pick and choose times. David was not intimidated, he was offended, he was offended in his intentional faith and how he was leading it. He wanted to be intentional to God and defending God. We pick it up in 32, verse 32. David says to Saul, "No one lose heart on account of this Philistine. Your servant will go and fight him."
[14:42] Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him. You are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth." But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When the lion and the bear came and carried off the sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it, and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it, and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of the Philistine." David was intentional about what he was gonna do.
[15:29] David was intentional, first of all, for respecting authority, number one, in Saul. David said what he would do, Saul said what he said, and David was very respectful. He's thinking this out all the way through. He's also very intentional about serving and always being ready to step in. That's why he tells us about the bear and the lion, and he's making sure that they know what is happening. David is intentional about stepping into something that is bigger than himself. Intentional living doesn't mean you're reckless or arrogant. It means that you're moving in alignment with God and what God has for you and what God is calling you to do to help others to discover Him. Being intentional is knowing who you serve with your life and your time.
[16:18] Let's keep going to verse 40. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, and he put 'em in his pouch of his shepherd's bag, and with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine. David picked up five stones, five smooth stones. Have you ever thought, like, why five smooth stones? Why five? If he trusted God and God was gonna deliver the giant, wouldn't it only take one stone? Like, how much did he trust God or didn't trust God? We don't really know. If you can use a lot of people think, if you read in 2 Samuel, you can read that there's like four other giants that David and his people eventually kill. One of them had six toes on each feet and six fingers on each hand, like some big dudes, and they eventually die too.
[17:04] Maybe he thought they would come charging at them and he just wanted to be ready. We don't know. Maybe it was because once he killed Goliath, he thought the Philistine army would come charging towards him and he'd need those other stones to defend himself to get back to his army. We don't know, but what we do know is this, is that that account of the Scripture is so detailed that the person who is giving us it in the writing is close enough to count the stones when he picks them up. See, too often we treat our Bible as a book of stories. It's not a book of stories, it's a historical document that has been validated with the details and the people that have written without error that we live and breathe as part of our guiding.
[17:59] It is not just a book of stories, and having detail like this in it means that person was so close. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. He took five and put 'em in his pouch. They weren't back with the army. Looking at it, David was intentional and planned in this in verse 48, as the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David, this is my favorite part. I love this about David. Like, David, there's times he's just like, he's my hero. David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet them. See, David wasn't afraid. David was intentional. He's like, I'm not waiting for him to come to me.
[18:44] I've taken the bear, I've taken the lion. If you look back through history of the bears and the lions that were in Israel at the time, they're extinct now. The ones that were there when they stood on their hind feet, the bear or the lion, the average one was about seven feet tall. So see, David's been prepping for this. That Philistine doesn't frighten him one bit. He knows that God has been intentionally preparing. God is intentional. He has exposed him to these situations, and now he is gonna be intentional about defending God and defending his faith and defending the people that He's chosen. David is intentional. He runs confidently to defend God and defend the people of Israel.
[19:32] What is it you do in those situations? What is it? When you're faced with something like that, do you just kind of bleed into the background? Do you try to find a way out, or there's an exit over here, or I can just say, Hey, I got another appointment, or you just sit quietly and do nothing? When we have an intentional faith, it's active. It's not passive. It's on the offense, not on the defense. What does intentional faith look like now? It looks like you could be serving now in a number of ways in ministry. You could say, well, I'm gonna serve. I'm gonna do something now. I don't know what I'm gonna do as it goes on, but I'm gonna be ready like David. David was intentional. I'm gonna live my life fully out and have my faith be that primary filter and decision maker and all the things that I do. The giants in my life that I've been running from, I'm gonna run at because I can trust God.
[20:25] It's not waiting until you feel ready. It's being active and not passive with your faith. What are your giants that you fear, what are the things that have been pushing you back or holding you back from being, becoming intentional with your faith? It's been letting you sit in the lazy river and just let the drift and the current take you. We'll pick up the Scripture in verse 51. David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine's sword and drew it from its sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines and saw their hero was dead, they turned and ran again.
[21:15] It's crazy when you read through and you think about the word intentional, if you haven't, our word for the years of church is intentional. We have to be intentional in our faith, intentional in everything we do. David was intentional even in this part, 'cause if I'm like the Philistines and I'm standing back and I saw this guy winding a sling and he hit, and, okay, maybe it got Goliath in the eye and he down, he went, and I'm watching from a distance and I'm kind of like, maybe he is gonna get up. Well, wait, now there's something happening. Oh, he's definitely not getting up 'cause that dude is holding his head in the air. David is intentional to show God's win. He pulls out the enemy's own thing that was gonna kill him and slices his head off and then holds it for the Philistines to see.
[22:05] This is victory. How often, when God shows up for us in those situations and we have been intentional, maybe we haven't been intentional in our faith, do we give Him the credit? There's time I, okay, I'll share one part of Friday. The help that I needed was very specific, 'cause I don't wanna give the whole thing away. It's gonna come up somewhere else. I'm gonna guarantee you that, but it took a specific tool that when I called this person, they just happened to be making it and go, let me finish it and I'll be there.
[22:50] That's God. God gets the glory for that, not me, not the individual making it. God knew what was gonna happen. God. God didn't care about what happened, but God knew how I would feel. God cares about how you feel. God doesn't want you to be stressed. God doesn't want you to be frustrated. He cares about the little thing, like the tire blows up in your car. He doesn't care about the tire on your car, but He cares about you and how that makes you feel, and He'll put people in your path, but we gotta live out our life intentionally. David is intentional in showing God's win. When God shows up for you, make sure you give Him the credit and make sure you hold up whatever it is that He gave you the victory, and let others know this is because of God, okay?
[23:46] It's gonna get funnier. Now, talking about cutting heads off and everything, see if you can follow me. You wanna walk by faith, be intentional to be unintentional by being intentional about other things. How's that? Is that confusing enough? Now, you still with me? If you want room for God to move in your life, you have to intentionally leave space in your life for God to move. If you want spontaneous joy of the Lord to show up, then you have to be intentional about leaving space in your schedule to experience the joy of the Lord. If you want faith moments, incredible moments that God is working in your life, then you intentionally lead to pursue obedience of following Him in all aspects of your life.
[24:42] Intentionally leaves space in your life, intentionality plans margin in your schedule, and intentionality is pursues obedience with God. You don't wake up one morning and all of a sudden go, "Oh, I feel like I have a deep prayer life." No, you intentionally plan when you're gonna pray. You intentionally pick the spot, the day, the time, the resources, and then you intentionally eliminate all the noise, distractions, and everything else you have, and then you go, "Oh, I got a deep prayer life." But you intentionally planned it because you want to have an intentional faith. You don't accidentally just fall into those things.
[25:30] So the question becomes, in your faith, like, are you living here on earth and going through all the experiences that you have here for you and so when you get to the end it'll be you or you go in and walking through your faith in every aspect of your life, knowing that God has a plan and I'm faithfully following the plan that He has and lays out before me so that I can be with Him in eternity? Are we living out that intentionally? That's great, but that's not enough. Summary. Summer, you're mad at me right now, and that's okay.
[26:20] Being disciples is not enough. If you're trying to become a disciple to make other disciples, that's the intentionality. It's not enough for us just to become disciples ourself. God didn't say, "Go and try your best." He said, "Go and tell others and teach them." Matthew 28. Then the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
[27:15] And surely I am with you always, till the end of the age." We can't make disciples accidentally. We have to be intentional about the people in our circle of influence, whether that's in our small group, whether that's in our workplace, whether that's in our neighborhood, whether that's in a recreational group we're in. We have to be intentional about discipling people to become disciples. As we become disciples, our call is to make disciples, not to sit back and just watch life pass us by. John Wesley says it pretty laser focused, not vague at all, spiritually, it's pretty laser focused. He says, "Do all the good you can by all the means you can and all the ways you can and all the places you can at all the times you can to all the people you can as long as ever you can."
[28:10] We are called to make disciples, but I also know that some of us are facing giants and we're trying to battle 'em ourselves. What is the giant that you're battling with? Is it the fear of failure? Is it broken relationships? Is it somebody's offended you? Is it worry about a job? Is it worry about... How do you... I don't know how to serve. I don't want to serve. How do I figure out how to serve? How do I become part of this? How do I become part of that? How do I grow my faith? How do I read my Bible? What? I don't wanna tell anybody. I don't know how to read my Bible. I don't wanna tell anybody I know how to pray. What's the fear that's holding you back? What's the Goliath that's holding you back?
[28:56] You gotta take a David mindset. David, "The Lord who rescued me will rescue me again." You won't fight very well if you decide not to fight at all, and we are in a battle, an intentional battle, and 70 minutes here on Sunday, 90 minutes, two hours in your small group, to serving one of the ministries here is not going to do it completely. Your faith has to be lived out as the primary driver of everything in your life.
[29:46] Every word, every phrase, every action, every relationship. And sometimes we'll even say, "Well, that's good enough. I'm gonna strive for this to be good. That looks really good," but we serve a great God who has a great plan, an intentional plan, who has a great kingdom in heaven for all of us to spend eternity. The enemy of great is good, and we can't settle for good. We can't keep living accidentally. We have to start living intentionally when it comes to our faith.
[30:32] We've gotta run towards the battle. We gotta pick up whatever the stone is that's gonna kill the giant that's been holding us back, and we can't have any fear, and being intentional means being available of making those spaces in our lives, so all comes out and people see our faith instead of us hiding it. This right now is a, what I would call, a line in the sand moment for us as a church, for us that attend and call this our church home, that maybe you've been living unintentionally, you've just been kind of in that lazy river, enjoying it, what's going on?
[31:20] But maybe there's been a giant that's been holding you back and you don't know what to do. Well, the first thing is, you gotta give it to God, and you've gotta reach out and have others that are in the faith family surround you and help you conquer that giant. It's not good enough to let it keep screaming at you because it's mocking God, and God's got great plans for you. God is not only intentional for each one of you, He'll do it again and again and again. You just gotta trust Him. As we sing this next song, all up along the front here, our rocks, and there's, there's some eyes left, Scrabble eyes.
[32:12] If maybe your struggle is being intentional, you can take that. I like reminders. You can take one of those and say, "I'm gonna put it somewhere to remind me to be intentional in my faith." Or maybe there's a giant you gotta slay. I'm gonna encourage you to come and get one of these rocks and keep it in a spot and just say, "Not today. My giant's gonna die because I serve a great God." I'll also say this: it is easy to make up excuses not to come forward. There's like no trap doors up here. There's no electrical runs through the carpet that frightens you. No one's gonna think bad things or all that kind of stuff. Do not let the enemy continue to push you back.
[32:59] If you want your faith to be intentional And you want to slay the giants that are in your life, then when we start this song, whether you're in the balcony or down here on the lower level, come and get a rock to slay the giant you're struggling with, or to get an eye to remind you to be intentional about it. God has great plans for all of you, for me included, and I want to serve Him intentionally in my faith. Please stand and we'll pray. Father, we thank You for Your love. We thank You that You are intentional with us, that You have shown us how great You are, that Your intentionality with us as we walk in our faith is the trust we put into You.
[33:57] Father, help us to become disciples who make disciples. Help us to be the one that just reaches into others' lives so they come closer and closer to You. In Jesus' name, everybody said, You're not alive in your faith just to survive. It's not about survival. Your faith is about revival, and that's what God wants for all of us.