Talk

Don’t Listen to Everything You Hear

Christine Caine

January 3, 2025

Kicking off Passion 2025, Christine Caine centers on the importance of knowing our identity in Christ and being rooted in the Word of God. There is a temptation for this generation to look to social media and compare ourselves to others, but Christine urges us to put on our noise cancelling headphones to drown out the voices around us so that we can more clearly hear the voice of God above all else.

Key Takeaway

We have to change our spiritual frequency—tuning out the voices around us, and amplifying the voice of God above all else.

Every day, we are inundated with thousands of voices trying to tell us not only what we should be doing but who we should be. The thing is that there is only one voice that has the authority to give us those kinds of instructions, God's voice. So, as we move through life, here are five fundamental truths we should remember in order to make sure we are tuning in to the voice of God and ignoring all others who are striving to thwart our God-given purpose and identity.

1. The enemy's voice can be paralyzing if we listen to it.

Turn to 1 Samuel 17.

When Saul and all Israel heard these words from the Philistine, they lost their courage and were terrified.

1 Samuel 17:11

The Israelites were terrified by Goliath, who had not attacked them except with his words, yet the army was crippled, paralyzed, and immobilized.

while he was speaking with them the Philistine from Gath came forward from the Philistine battle line and shouted his usual words, which David heard.

1 Samuel 17:23

David heard the same words that the Israelite army did, yet in verses 25-27, he acts as if he never heard anything.

Everyone else was terrified, but David's response was—

Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

1 Samuel 17:26

How can two people hear the same thing and have such opposite reactions? They were tuned into different frequencies. David had his noise cancellation feature on and did not listen to Goliath. But the Israelite army had amplified Goliath's voice above God’s voice.

One paralyzed by fear, one mobilized by faith.

Every morning, before we get out of bed, we are already defeated.

We ask Goliath (social media, in this case) to feed our insecurities, comparisons, competition, and FOMO, and we start our days full of doubt, fear, negativity, insecurity, anger, offense, and bitterness. We go through the day defeated because we don’t know who we are in Christ.

We must choose to abide in the Word of God instead of drowning ourselves in the voices and things we see and hear on our phones.

2. The enemy can use the people closest to you to tear you down and keep you from chasing the calling God has for your life.

Read 1 Samuel 17:28.

Just when Goliath finished taunting David, David ran into his older brother, Eliab. Don’t be surprised when people turn against you when God calls you to something—the enemy will come at you through people close to you.

Eliab was jealous because in 1 Samuel 16:6 it said, “Samuel saw Eliab and said, 'Certainly the Lord’s anointed one is here before him.'"

You're going to have a lot of people around you that are jealous of you because they think you were called to something that they were called to. They will attack you in the very area God wants to use you.

Eliab felt he was the one who deserved to be King.

Eliab’s own selfish ambition was speaking to David’s innocent and faith-filled actions.

In 1 Samuel 17:28, he says, “I know your arrogance and evil heart”

But we see that in 1 Samuel 16:7, it says, “Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible but the Lord sees the heart”

According to Acts 13:22, David was a man after God’s heart. God chose David's heart over Eliab. God knew something about David that Eliab did not—He had the right heart. Eliab attacked the very heart that God had chosen, and if the enemy could use Eliab to reach David's heart with his words, he would have him where he wanted him.

Proverbs 4:23 says to guard your heart above all else…but do not harden your heart. The Enemy is after your heart—your heart will take you further than your gift.

Don’t let people's insecurities, trauma, or brokenness break you or take your courage. David’s courageous and faith-filled heart put his trust in God.

3. We can be tempted to devalue the things we are entrusted with now to chase after the things that give us more notoriety.

After David was anointed king, he humbled himself to continue caring for the few sheep he had been entrusted with.

If you diminish and devalue the people you're meant to lead now, God will not give you more. Can we continue to be faithful, or will we take the position before God gives it to us?

All of us are called to lead in some capacity; if you are in Christ, you are an influencer for Christ. There is no spiritual gift called “Christian influencer.” Every single one of us should be influencing people toward King Jesus.

4. God wants to use you, not the fake version of you.

Read 1 Samuel 17:33-39.

To do what God has called you to do, you can only be you. You don't need to try on someone else's armor. God can only anoint you, not a fake version of you.

We must combat the temptation to look to our left or right, compare ourselves to the people around us, and instead believe that we were each uniquely created to use our gifts to glorify God.

5. God's breath is what makes our weapons impressive, not the weapons themselves.

The power wasn't in the armor—it was in the anointing. David defeated Goliath BEFORE he picked up a slingshot.

There is never any power in our efforts—it's in God's hands. God breathing on the things we do or the weapons we have is what's impressive.

A little thing in the hands of a big God is the only thing that makes the difference.

The degree to which you're willing to look unimpressive to people so that God can look impressive through you is the degree to which God will use you. God won't use you if it's all about you.

If you can discover what God says about you instead of clinging to social media or your past for your identity, you can begin to see yourself through the lens of the Word of God.

Could we be a generation that knows what God says about us?

“

You can't control what you hear, but you can control what you listen to.

”

Christine Caine

Discussion Questions

When you're faced with the voice of the enemy, do you find yourself paralyzed and immobilized, or focused on the voice of God? How does your response impact your faith?
How does social media influence your life?
This talk challenges us to choose the Word of God above all else. What steps do you need to take to make in order to reorient your life on Jesus and His Word?
Have you had someone like Eliab in your life? Someone who was jealous of your calling and has tried to tear you down? Describe what that experience was like.
According to scripture, how should we respond to people who seek to question our motives or bring us down?
Have you allowed the enemy to have a foothold in your life? How can you, as the scriptures mention, guard your heart from these attacks?
Are you faithful with the people you're leading or the things you're entrusted with now? How can you better honor God with all that you have been given?
We are all influencers for Christ. How has God placed you specifically to tell others about Him?
Are you being authentic to who God has called you to be, or are you comparing yourself to another? Why is it important to know your identity in Christ?
Have you believed the lie that you can accomplish things for the Kingdom on your own? How did this talk challenge you to understand that it's not by your own power, but it's through God's power that you would bring Him glory?

Scripture References

David and Goliath

1Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah. 2Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. 3The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them.

4A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span.5He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; 6on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.

8Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” 10Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” 11On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

12Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was very old. 13Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. 14David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, 15but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.

16For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.

17Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. 19They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.”

20Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. 21Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. 22David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. 23As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. 24Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.

25Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.”

26David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

27They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.”

28When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”

29“Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” 30He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. 31What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.

32David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”

33Saul 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.”

34But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35I 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. 36Your 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. 37The

Lord

who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Saul said to David, “Go, and the

Lord

be with you.”

38Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.

“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. 40Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

41Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. 43He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44“Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”

45David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the

Lord

Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46This day the

Lord

will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the

Lord

saves; for the battle is the

Lord

’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

48As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.

50So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

51David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.

When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. 52Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron. 53When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp.

54David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem; he put the Philistine’s weapons in his own tent.

55As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is that young man?”

Abner replied, “As surely as you live, Your Majesty, I don’t know.”

56The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is.”

57As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine’s head.

58“Whose son are you, young man?” Saul asked him.

David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”

Christine Caine

Christine Caine is a speaker, author, and activist who has served the local church globally for over 30 years. She and her husband, Nick, founded the anti-human trafficking organization, The A21 Campaign, which works at the local, domestic, and international levels to end modern-day slavery.