The David Alliance

By Garth HeckmanReligion & Spirituality

The David Alliance episodes

March 21, 2025You don't want to be me!
TDA
The David Alliance
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Garth Heckman

Title: Created to Be You: Embracing God's Design
Introduction:
Begin by acknowledging that in today's world, there's a lot of pressure to conform, to fit into certain molds. But what does God's Word say about our individuality?
Ask the group: "Have you ever felt pressure to be someone you're not? Where does that pressure come from?"
Scripture Readings:
Psalm 139:13-16:
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
Discussion points:
What does it mean to be "fearfully and wonderfully made"?
How does this passage emphasize God's intentionality in creating each of us?
How does the fact that God saw your "unformed body" and ordained your days, indicate his personal involvement in our lives?
Genesis 1:27:
"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."

I have learned early on if I am singing a song that I wrote… don’t worry about how my voice lines up to anyone else’s… Do you think Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Kim Carnes, Ronnie James Dio, Louis Armstrong, Tom Waits, Stephen Pearcy… I could go on and on… do you think they wished they sounded like Adelle? NOT a chance, they would not be famous right now… they are themselves and famous because of it.

If I preach a sermon… I have many times wished I could preach like other pastors and communicators… their set up, their delivery, their insight, their knowledge beyond scripture… WOW… but I have learned I am always at my best when I am just me.
Discussion points:
What does it mean to be created "in God's image”? IT TRULY MEANS TO BE WHO HE CREATED YOU TO BE.
How does this verse establish our inherent worth and dignity?
How does this verse indicate that all humans have value, and are created uniquely?
1 Corinthians 12:12-27:
This passage speaks of the body of Christ, with each member having a unique and vital function.
Discussion points:
How does this analogy illustrate the importance of our individual gifts and contributions?
How does this passage encourage us to value our differences and recognize our interdependence?
How does this apply to our individual personalities, and giftings?
Romans 12:2:
"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Discussion points:
What does it mean to "not conform to the pattern of this world"?
How does the renewing of our minds help us embrace our true selves?
How does knowing God's will relate to being our authentic selves?
Key Takeaways:
God's intentional design: God created each of us with unique gifts, talents, and personalities.
Value in individuality: Our differences are not flaws but essential parts of God's plan.
Freedom from conformity: We are called to live authentically, not to imitate the world's standards.
God's image: Each person bears the image of God, therefore each person has great value.
The body of Christ: Our individual uniqueness is vital to the body of Christ.
Application:
Encourage participants to reflect on their own unique qualities and how they can use them to serve God and others.
Discuss practical ways to resist the pressure to conform and embrace their true selves.
Pray for the group, that they may find the strength to be whom God created them to be.
Closing:
Remind everyone that God loves them unconditionally and celebrates their individuality.
Encourage them to walk in confidence, knowing that they are fearfully and wonderfully made
8 min
March 19, 2025 Bad can = New!
The David Alliance
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Garth Heckman

- When God wants to do something new,
Certain things seem to happen:
* We are ready but we still have to wait - 7 days on the ark with no rain, after God shut them in.

* People we love do not go with us on our journey

A spouse loses weight and starts to work out… but their significant other does not want to…

You become completely sold out on Christ… but your friends, your spouse, your kids don’t want to come along.

** many times everything has to go… even seemingly good things. God can use destruction, loss and death (as confusing as it is) to bring you new life, new direction and a new understanding of who he is.

Nature will use fires to destroy a few thousand acres of forest… but it ultimately brings greater growth.

*We may not understand the the process (build a boat… whats a boat?), the answer (fill it with animals) or the outcome… but trust God anyway.
- When they started all over Noah and his family had the same set up as Adam… and yet man still fell into darkness and messed up… fresh starts do not mean a different out come without the cross of Jesus Christ.
8 min
March 18, 2025 Judge or Love?
The David Alliance
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Garth Heckman

We judge others… it is natural, it is sometimes needed, but in a SINFUL WORLD may we have the eyes and heart of Noah. He saw where people were at…
What if you had glasses you could put on and you put them on after making a judgement call.

OVER A BILLION PEOPLE DIED… ALL LIFE ON EARTH DIED… NOAH WAS HEART BROKEN.

- Noah was in a evil wicked sinful world. Debauchery, sexual deviancy, witchcraft… and yet he was a preacher of righteousness. 2 Peter 2:5

MY PHONE CALL THIS WEEK: on a scale of one to ten, 1 you are going to hell. 10 you are going to heaven… where are you?

We judge others… it is natural, it is sometimes needed, but in a SINFUL WORLD may we have the eyes and heart of Noah. He saw where people were at…
What if you had glasses you could put on and you put them on after making a judgement call.

OVER A BILLION PEOPLE DIED… ALL LIFE ON EARTH DIED… NOAH WAS HEART BROKEN.

8 min
March 17, 2025 The hardest good bye!
The David Alliance
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Garth Heckman

What was your hardest goodbye?

Chpt. 7 come into the Ark. * God is there…. And Noah doesn’t want to see people perish… God must call him in and God must shut the door.
**God knows who has rejected him, who will not come to him… God judges, God shuts the door. It is not up to us to shut the door.
Gary Palermo - Night of a revival… says to family “tonight is the last night you will have to accept Jesus”. That night they were in a horrific car accident and all died.
8 min
March 13, 2025 Please rule over me
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The David Alliance
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Garth Heckman

Commercial #1 for Garth consideration

If you believe that the only hope for God’s world is a Great Awakening could you please check out our website Collective Prayer Network (.org). As God puts it on your heart, can you pray for a Great Awakening. It could be a couple of minutes a day, a week, or He may ask you to skip a meal and pray. Pray the rosary. Whatever God tells you, can you obey? Thank you and together can we as God’s children Bless God.
(Boston Accent 23 seconds)

There are two types of people in this world… those who love authority and those who love having authority over them… and those who love authority that can be manipulated… and those who manipulate authority to look like they don’t have authority… and wait… what?

What is the most authority you have ever been given? As a Valet in Dallas I was asked once to not park cars (we had a pretty big crew) and rather than park cars… I ran security at the door for the club we were at… it was definitely a test in integrity. No one gets in… unless they have a C note, no one gets in unless they are bigger than you and are intimidating, no one gets in unless she and her friends are absolutely dropped gorgeous….

Adam was given the order to Reign… he was the bouncer of the garden of eden.
He was over creation… naming it, running it, multiplying it… he was the authority… But
When he sinned he covered himself up with that which he was supposed to be over.

Gen. 3 Adam goes from having all power and authority over all of creation to covering himself up with that which he was supposed to be over.
Adam and Eve and cover themselves… they cover up their identity/power… and they hide under the trees… they submit to the worlds power… we are under the worlds power, covered in the worlds authority not ours.

How many people Xn and non Xn cover themselves up with creation… they hide under cars, houses, makeup, push up bras, hobbies, money, Worldly causes, jobs, positions, trophies, accolades, popularity, clothes, muscles…etc…
And their authority is set under who the world says they are. You are BLM supporter, you are democrat, you are a republican, a tree hugger, you are an anti Vaxer, you are a pro gun nut… right or wrong, good or bad… you choose to follow the worlds power and authority then to choose to be over it… meaning, I first go by what the Bible says and not media or my flesh or my emotions.
You are called to be the authority in this world through Christ. He has given you his power and authority BUT>>> you choose to lay it down and submit to the worlds power and authority?

Which Adam has dominion over your life? The sinful nature passed on through the first, or the new life offered by the last?
8 min
March 11, 2025 I don't have a bellybutton
TDA
The David Alliance
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Garth Heckman

If you believe that the only hope for God’s world is a Great Awakening could you please check out our website Collective Prayer Network (.org). As God puts it on your heart, can you pray for a Great Awakening. It could be a couple of minutes a day, a week, or He may ask you to skip a meal and pray. Pray the rosary. Whatever God tells you, can you obey? Thank you and together can we as God’s children Bless God.

I always used to ask this trivia question to teenagers as a youth pastor… Did Adam have a bellybutton?
But guess what… it’s not funny anymore becasue I no longer have a bellybutton… true story…

What was his job?
Rule

Ever name your child? - thats fun…
My name was to be “DANAE”

By naming the animals he was using his authority and his dominion and understanding of Gods creation.

Adam's role in naming the animals is part of his identity and purpose.

He was fulfilling his role as a man in right standing with God.
By naming the animals, Adam exercises authority, reflecting the order God established in creation.

Naming the animal was giving the job description.
So satan does what?….
Sermon on Adam Adam was given the task of naming things and being over them but what happened he started to listen to Satan naming him and naming Eve. Satan said no this is who you are. This is who God says you are. This is what will happen. Once he allows Satan to name him, he fell into sin and deception. And then hid himself under creation rather than being over it.
8 min
March 11, 2025 Me Myself and Us... What?
TDA
The David Alliance
[email protected]
Garth Heckman
If you believe that the only hope for God’s world is a Great Awakening could you please check out our website Collective Prayer Network (.org). As God puts it on your heart, can you pray for a Great Awakening. It could be a couple of minutes a day, a week, or He may ask you to skip a meal and pray. Pray the rosary. Whatever God tells you, can you obey? Thank you and together can we as God’s children Bless God.
(Boston Accent 23 seconds)

When God made the earth and everything in it - it is described specifically that We made Adam in OUR image. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
SO IN THE GARDEN-
* Adam knew God as his creator… like a baby knows its mother… this was my creator.
** Adam knew Jesus in the sense that his body was the same body that Jesus had. God did not send his son down looking like Adam, Adam was created to look like Jesus in human form. So Adam knew Jesus in that this is how God would look if living on the earth.
** ** And finally Adam knew God because the spirit of Life (the Holy Spirit) was breathed into him.
Adam embodied the Father, son and Holy Spirit in the Garden of eden.

Then Sin entered the world and he was separated from God in all three ways.
** Adam was separated from God the father due to sin (blood was shed to clothe them- first sacrifice)
** ** He was separated from Jesus Body… sin would now cause decay, death and disease.
** - **He was separated from the Spirit of God living in him… not until pentecost do we see this again.

What does this tell us about Adam - He was created in perfect union with Father Son and HS.
- Sin entered the world
But Christ came to provide that union again.

AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN - God is proving that he wants to have an intimate relationship with you.

8 min
March 10, 2025 Got to know your name! (Kings X)
The David Alliance
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Garth Heckman

How bad did you want a relationship with your spouse?
I eyed her up during the whole service.
I invited her to Youth group.
I ran out to the parking lot to ask her on a date…
I lied - THEN I broke up with my GF
I would drive 45 mn to pick her up…
I would go weeks with just 2-3 hours of sleep a night
I spent 1400 on her for our first Christmas
…I was all in - I had to have this woman as my wife!

God wanted to have a relationship with us so bad,
- he created us to do it.
- Then once we blew it, he sent his son to die so that it could be restored!
- on top of that he provided a way so that we could be with him FOREVER. Gods intent, work and provision is amazing - There is no doubt, he wants to know us!
8 min
March 06, 2025New Shoes!~
TDA
The David Alliance
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Garth Heckman

Romans 5
1 Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God (so things should be good now… we got peace - Right?) because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

In 1983, Australia hosted its ultramarathon, a 573.7 mile foot race from Sydney to Melbourne. This is a race that takes days to run, and professionals from all over the world came to participate. Shortly before the race began, a 61-year-old farmer named Cliff Young, wearing overalls and goulashes over his boots, walked up to the registration table and requested a number to enter the race. The people at the registration table thought it was a joke—that somebody was setting them up—so they laughed. But Cliff Young said, "No, I'd really like to run." So they gave him a number and pinned it on his old overalls.
Cliff Young walked over to the start of the race. All the other professional runners, who were decked out in all their running regalia, looked at him like he was crazy. The crowd snickered. They laughed even more when the gun went off and the race began, because all those professional runners had sculpted bodies and beautiful strides, but not Cliff Young. He didn't even run like a runner. Cliff Young ran with an awkward, goofy-looking shuffle. All through the crowd people were laughing, and finally, someone called out, "Get that old fool off the track!"
Five days, 14 hours, and four minutes later, at 1:25 in the morning, Cliff Young shuffled across the finish line of the 573.7 mile ultramarathon. He had won the race. And he didn't win by a matter of minutes or even an hour or two. The second place runner was nine hours and 56 minutes behind him. Cliff Young had set a new world record for the ultramarathon. The press mobbed him wondering what kind of special running shoes he must have had, and they rummaged through his backpack wondering what he'd survived on—he'd lived primarily on pumpkin seeds and water—and then they discovered the secret to his success: - HE NEVER STOPPED RUNNING! Cliff Young had shuffled his way to victory without ever sleeping. The other runners would run for 18 hours straight, and then stop and sleep for three or four hours. He endured running five days, 14 hours, and four minutes at the age of 61.

Perseverance
"And the perpetual impulse forward always falls back again
to gather new strength. The fall is brutal, but we set out again."
Albert Camus 1954
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Here are some verses about perseverance in the Bible:
Matthew 10:22 (NIV): "You will be hated by everyone because of my name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.”
They will ask: WHY WOULD YOU PERSEVERE FOR CHRIST? - THEY WILL BE MAD, ASHAMED, CONVICTED
2 Corinthians 12:10 (NIV): "Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, with insults, with hardships, with persecutions, and with difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
PAUL STATES THESE HARDSHIPS BRING WEAKNESS AND THEN GOD TAKES OVER…
LIFEGUARD WAITING TILL THE GUY GOES UNDER A 3RD TIME - JUST WAITING FOR THE FIGHT TO GET OUT OF HIM.
Hebrews 12:11 (NIV): "No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it's always painful. But afterward, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace.”
HARVEST - Perseverance while going through it seems like a lot of manure… the harvest is worth it.
James 1:2-4 (NIV): "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of various kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
TRIALS OF VARIOUS KINDS - GK GREATLY DIVERSE GROWING IN INTENSITY.
I.E. HOW MUCH GREATER IS YOUR MARRIAGE GOING THROUGH THE TRIALS IN TODAYS WORLD THEN IN 1920?
8 min
March 05, 2025 Axel got it right... Patience.
TDA
The David Alliance
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Garth Heckman

Romans 5
1 Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God (so things should be good now… we got peace - Right?) because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Patience/Perseverance =

"In the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, a Japanese gymnast, Shun Fujimoro, was competing in the team competition. Somehow. during the floor exercises, he broke his right knee.

His mindset was not that I came to compete, nor was it that I came to win… it was I came to complete or what I would add persevere until I am done.
I came to prove myself…

NO SLEEPING - STAY AWAKE - RUN FOR THE PRIZE

2 Tim. 2:3 Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them. 5 And athletes cannot win the prize unless they follow the rules. 6 And hardworking farmers should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their labor.

Paul uses 3 individuals in regards to serving God… but ask yourself what do they have to persevere against?

Farmer has to persevere elements of the world
Warrior persevere over others
Athlete must persevere over himself
8 min