Mike Tison, Outdoorsman and Wild Game Dinner spokesperson.

Blind spots will affect your family more than anyone else…but they will affect your friends, neighbors and co-workers! I want you to imagine…that in your walk with God…that everything seems like it is good! You are doing your best to walk with God…you are trying to be obedient and there is a definite sense of God’s blessing on your life! How many of you are there or have been there or hope to get there? Here is what usually happens…just when you are thinking you are doing well…everyone else sees the degrees! The areas in your life where you are not vigilant! The areas that you may be making excuses…the areas that you think are not that bad…the things you justify! Let’s …look at David’s life…once again!

I encourage you to go back and read all of 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12 so you can get the full story. One of the things that I love about the Bible is that it shows real people. This is a story about the shepherd boy that becomes king. David may have been the greatest king that Israel has ever known. The Bible says that David was a man after God’s own heart! What a statement! That is amazing! And…yet…the Bible also tells us about his blind spots! You see…you and I can have a heart that loves God…and we can still have blind spots. Blind spots do not keep God from using you…but they may limit your effectiveness! They will certainly affect your witness! Do you have any blind spots? Let look at one of the blind spots that David struggled with! The blind spot of temptation! David was tempted to sin…and sin he did!

Today we are going to look at how David faced significant trials! Trials are: problems, adversaries, adversity, pain, misery, suffering, distress, burdens, worry…you get the idea? Have you ever had trials? Since we are on this adventure…lets learn how to cope with trials. Did you know that there are steps to coping with a trial? There are literal things you can do that will help you cope with every trial you will encounter!

Today, we are beginning a new series, called The Adventure Begins. This series will last for the first quarter of 2019. We are going to examine the life of David. Why is this series important? Why do we need to examine the life of someone in the Old Testament when we are NT believers! Well, the N.T. believers only had the O.T. because the N.T. was being written, so the O.T. was the only Bible the Early church had! Jesus quoted the O.T. and the Apostles quoted the O.T. So, we need to study the O.T.!