Restoration 2012: Restoring Power

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Restoration Ministry

John Bradshaw

David and Goliath

Father in heaven, thank you in Jesus' name that we can be here in this place today.

I pray that over these next moments that there would be a collision, that we would collide with your grace, collide with your grace, that our lives would intersect with your power, that we would enjoy the security of your presence.

I pray, Father, that You would speak in spite of the limitations of fallen humanity.

And Lord, I ask for special grace that we all would hear, That our heart would be open to your heart and that our mind would be 1 with your mind.

So we ask you sincerely to make this time your own and we pray that your Holy Spirit would do a great thing.

We ask it of you in faith, believing, and we pray in Jesus' name.

I read it online, but it came from The New Yorker, and it was written by a smart writer.

Now I tell you that not to recommend everything Malcolm Gladwell has ever written, for I don't know everything he's ever written.

I did read a very clever book he wrote called Blink, that was a good book.

You may have heard of a book he wrote called The Tipping Point.

I'm the last guy in town to read that, I still haven't, but people say that was a good book.

Understand, I'm not telling you everything that he has ever written as gospel.

He doesn't write as a Christian writer, he's a secular writer, but he's a smart fellow with a knack of being able to observe and analyze what would otherwise be considered mundane or everyday human behavior.

Gladwell cited the research done by, I believe, a political scientist who studied every war that had been fought in the last 200 years.

And the political scientist came to the conclusion that in a war where there is a very strong side fighting against a much weaker side, the strong side will win 71.5% of the time.

Now I'd like you just to think about that.

When there is a much stronger side in a war, warring against a much weaker side, the stronger side wins 7 times out of 10.

Gladwell is talking about when 1 side is 10 times stronger than the other side in terms of armed strength and population.

So you can be 10 times stronger than the other guy or switch this around.

The other guy can be 10 times stronger than you and yet you will still win 28 and a half percent of the time.

The research discovered that when the small guy, I'm going to call him David, David versus the Goliath, when the small guy recognizes his weakness and chooses to take an unconventional approach, then the little guy, David, defeats Goliath 63.6% of the time.

I don't know how you can be 10 times smaller, but you can be 1 tenth the size of the opposition, much weaker by every measurement, and still win more than 6 times out of 10.

Lawrence, you know him better as Lawrence of Arabia.

Lawrence of Arabia was involved in conflicts in the Middle East years ago.

He was overpowered, he was outnumbered, he didn't really have a hope.

He assembled together a ragtag group of helpers, I'm just going to call them that.

They realized that in a straight fight they wouldn't win and so they adopted an unconventional approach.

They said we can't be bigger, we can't be better, we can't be stronger but we can be smarter, we can be more determined, we can out think them, we can go, go, go, go, go and that's what they did And that's why Lawrence of Arabia was successful.

Small guy, David, beat the Goliath because of the approach.

In fact, Gladwell wrote in his article that at the end of the day, what somebody really needs to have is attitude.

Attitude can carry you a long way, he wrote, a long way.

Then what was fascinating was he gave the illustration, a real life example, of a basketball team.

Now this basketball team was comprised of 12 year old girls in the Silicon Valley.

You know India, famed for its NBA basketball players.

You think India, you think the local lunch buffet, right?

You say, India, I'm thinking the Taj Mahal, I'm thinking computer programmers, and I'm thinking Alu Gobi.

The 12-year-old girl's father decided that he would coach the basketball team.

He had never played basketball in his life and knew nothing about it.

But he came to this task with a pragmatic approach.

I wish I could tell you more about the ins and outs of his business ventures.

He's a smart businessman and he's been involved in things that have affected your life, no doubt.

You see, he looked at basketball and said, people play this game all wrong.

You know, India, the other thing I would have mentioned, India, what's India known for?

But he brought a fresh perspective to coaching basketball.

Team gets the ball and they dribble to the other end.

Typically the other side just rushes back on defense.

Maybe 1 player will come up to guard the player or get in a fella's way, but everybody else runs back under the basket.

So team A takes the ball to the other end of the court.

They rehearse a move that they've practiced 10, 000 times, let's say they succeed in sinking the ball through the basket, they run back on defense, the other team now takes the ball up.

He said, why should team A allow team B to come all the way up the court and execute a well-practiced shot?

He said, my 12-year-old girls, if we do that, we'll get beaten.

We weren't born with basketballs in our hands.

The other teams, typically, that's what they're like.

But our team of little skinny 12 year old white girls in Silicon Valley, we hardly even have a hope.

He said, so let's change the way the game is played.

Instead of us rushing back on defense and allowing these big girls who really know how to play well to just score on us and score on us and score on us, let's adopt an unconventional approach.

We cannot be better, but We can be fitter, we can be faster, we can be more determined, we can be aggressive, we can go, go, go, go, go, we can have attitude.

So, the other team would take the ball and they'd get ready to inbounds.

How long do you have to inbounds the ball?

He said, instead of standing back, we're going to send girls up to get in their face like this.

Often, after 5 seconds, the poor kid with the ball trying to pass it in is going, what in the world's going on?

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David and Goliath

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