SPEAKER_00: Good morning, church.
SPEAKER_00: I thank God for the worship this morning because you know whenever I have to preach, often uh some nights I it's hard for me to go to sleep because uh I don't take light of the fact that I stand and proclaim the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And what God had placed on my heart, Pastor Jared, was uh actually altar call.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just amazing to come into the house and see what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I had a scripture that the Lord wanted me to read, and I didn't know where I was gonna read it because it wasn't a part of the sermon originally, and after the altar is open even now for prayer, I know that this is the time to read that scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Because many of our battles we fight, we fight them in this body that we live in, that our soul is encompassed in.
SPEAKER_00: And many of the struggles that really cause us to really fear what's ahead are the struggles that are within ourselves, and it oftentimes deal with our health, because we know that the longer that we live in this body, this body is wasting away.
SPEAKER_00: But the word of God tells us that although this outward man perishes, the inward man is renewed day by day.
SPEAKER_00: And so for those of us who know Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, we know that we have victory in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So no matter what happens to this body, we know that we ultimately get to be with the Lord forever.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the things that we fear is what we know that's coming ahead.
SPEAKER_00: We concern ourselves with what's life going to be like for me a few years from now?
SPEAKER_00: Am I gonna have enough money to retire?
SPEAKER_00: Am I going to be able to do the things that I desire to do?
SPEAKER_00: Am I going to be able to see my grandchildren?
SPEAKER_00: Am I going to be in good enough health to be able to enjoy life?
SPEAKER_00: And every day that we live, we get a little bit closer to fighting death.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's not good news, I know.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that God has given us hope.
SPEAKER_00: He's given us victory.
SPEAKER_00: And it's found in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, starting at verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've got a number of the scriptures that I have to read because I'm going to go from verse 7 all the way through verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't plan on being very long, so let me move swiftly here.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians chapter 4, beginning at verse 7, it says, But we have this treasure in jars of clay, talking about our bodies, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
SPEAKER_00: We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
SPEAKER_00: So death is at work in us, but life in you.
SPEAKER_00: Where does that life come from?
SPEAKER_00: It comes from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, I believed and so I speak.
SPEAKER_00: We also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15, for it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16, so we do not lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
SPEAKER_00: Now watch this.
SPEAKER_00: For this light, momentary affliction.
SPEAKER_00: Get a load of that.
SPEAKER_00: This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.
SPEAKER_00: For the things that are seen are transient, that means they're temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, this life, the things that we deal with down here are just temporary.
SPEAKER_00: But the life that we live after this life is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: And so no matter what battle we're in, we win because we will transfer from this temporary life into an eternal life to live forever with the Lord Jesus Christ, without problem, without health issues, without financial issues, without the burdens of this world, without concerning ourselves whether or not some crazy person is just gonna go off and start shooting up everything.
SPEAKER_00: We are released from that through victory in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it's open at any given time that the Holy Spirit moves on your heart and you feel as if you need to have a conversation or surrender your life to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Jared is here, uh uh uh Sister Brittany is here, uh raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: My sister, yeah, Myra's here, others are here to share with you.
SPEAKER_00: And don't worry about whether I'm in the moment of preaching or not.
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord is speaking to you, you just move.
SPEAKER_00: Obey the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I thank God for what he did early this morning, Pastor Jared, because that's exactly what I had on my heart, man.
SPEAKER_00: And y'all know how emotional I get when God starts moving like that, it messes me up.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I'm trying to keep it together.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's move on to chapter 5, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: For in this tent we groan, belonging, or longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.
SPEAKER_00: If indeed by put putting it on, we may not be found naked.
SPEAKER_00: For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened, not that we should be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
SPEAKER_00: If anybody's wondering whether or not they can lose their salvation, if you have the Spirit of God, that is your guarantee.
SPEAKER_00: Stop letting the devil tell you that you're losing.
SPEAKER_00: Stop telling letting the devil tell you that you are not found in Christ and that he's trying to destroy your life so that you would have a miserable life down here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: I told you last week, if the devil had his way, he would have killed every last one of us before we gave our life to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But since we gave our life to Christ, he knows he's already lost.
SPEAKER_00: So what he's gonna do is everything he can to make your life down here miserable, to shut down your testimony, to cause you to not tell of the goodness and the glory of our God.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want you to share the gospel, he wants to shut you down.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6 says, So we are always of good courage.
SPEAKER_00: We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For we walk by faith, not by sight.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.
SPEAKER_00: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Pause there for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: No matter who you are, no matter where you are in this life or in the life to come, we all have to appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So the altar is open.
SPEAKER_00: If you question your salvation, if you're unsure of it, because we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, I would want to have that conversation today as to whether or not you have the guarantee of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The guarantee that Christ Jesus gave us through the victory in his death.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10 says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're gonna get into the Bible story.
SPEAKER_00: So many people have heard about and they know about it as a story.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Samuel chapter 17.
SPEAKER_00: This is David going in and fighting Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: And as I told y'all last week, we come here, we have been doing it for hundreds and hundreds of centuries.
SPEAKER_00: We preach from the same book.
SPEAKER_00: The stories don't change.
SPEAKER_00: Every time, Noah builds an ark, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Every time, David's gonna kill Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: Every time you read the book, it's gonna happen every time.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is gonna get up on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: His disciples are not gonna believe it.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's gonna doubt him, right?
SPEAKER_00: Every time he's going back to heaven, he gives us the victory.
SPEAKER_00: Every time you read the book, we get the victory.
SPEAKER_00: The people who are on the Lord's side get the victory.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't have to tell you that David beat Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: You know that.
SPEAKER_00: So the question is since there is a story, what's in the story for me?
SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, we know that Goliath came out and he taunted the Israel army.
SPEAKER_00: David shows up and asks, wait, who is this who defies the name or the army of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Who is this?
SPEAKER_00: And then his brother kind of has a little conversation with David.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing here?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you here?
SPEAKER_00: What'd you come here for?
SPEAKER_00: David said, What did I do now?
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even do anything, I just showed up.
SPEAKER_00: We understood last week that the Israel army, the men were afraid because Goliath would come out and speak words to taunt them, and they get upset, afraid, and take off running at words.
SPEAKER_00: And as we fast forward to the story, we know that David throws, takes a slingshot and a rock, hits Goliath in the forehead, the rock goes into his head, he falls forward flat on his face.
SPEAKER_00: David walks up to him, takes, he didn't have a sword.
SPEAKER_00: David's a bad dude.
SPEAKER_00: He walks up, he says, Okay, I'll take his sword, cuts his head off to prove that he killed him.
SPEAKER_00: Took his own sword and cut his head off, and used that to prove that he killed him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the funny thing about that is the whole time Goliath was taunting the army of Israel, the men were running.
SPEAKER_00: But when David kills Goliath, now all of a sudden they got brave.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the Philistines take off running, and here go the men chasing behind them.
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying, well, wait, what happened to all of that when it was just David?
SPEAKER_00: You know, it takes a lot to stand up for somebody who doesn't have your back.
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, this there's more than just a story in David and Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: We have a story.
SPEAKER_00: And if it wasn't for David's story with Goliath, we may not have the story that we can win over giants in our own lives.
SPEAKER_00: And the giants in your lives are not big people, they're big problems that we see as bigger problems.
SPEAKER_00: But I decided that I'm not gonna say how big my problem is, I'll tell my problems how big my God is.
SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, every time I read the book, we win.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what problem I face, I win.
SPEAKER_00: And according to what I just read from 2 Corinthians chapter 4, even if I die, if I die in Christ, I win.
SPEAKER_00: Even if cancer takes me, I win.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing that we gotta understand.
SPEAKER_00: You might have something, just don't let it have you.
SPEAKER_00: Live your life as if you still have life.
SPEAKER_00: And don't live your life as if you're already defeated.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the people that I know, once they find out some bad news, it seems like they just go down.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, wait.
SPEAKER_00: The doctor said, What stage is it?
SPEAKER_00: And how long?
SPEAKER_00: So before he told you, you were living with it.
SPEAKER_00: But as soon as you found out about it, seemed like you just started going down, down, down.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because of words.
SPEAKER_00: But do you know the word?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know the God who has power over sickness and over death?
SPEAKER_00: And so what can death do to me?
SPEAKER_00: That I'm in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing more than set me free.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That's about all it can do for me is set me free.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes we just got to stand up and face the battle.
SPEAKER_00: Stand up and face the issue that we're dealing with.
SPEAKER_00: You see, your story isn't all about you.
SPEAKER_00: David and Goliath wasn't all about David and Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it was a fight between two nations.
SPEAKER_00: It's just that two champions had to stand up and fight.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: When we find out later on, the fight really wasn't about two nations.
SPEAKER_00: The fight was about God proving to people that He's still God on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: And our fight in life is always about an enemy that's coming after us.
SPEAKER_00: It ain't really about us.
SPEAKER_00: Understand, how you handle your story will determine how it impacts the lives of the children you raise as you live your life in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: See, every battle that's sent my way, depending on how I face that battle, will determine how my story turns out and the influence that I have on those others who know about my story.
SPEAKER_00: See, we've got the impact of the story from David and Goliath, because David gave God the glory.
SPEAKER_00: Are you giving God the glory in the midst of your story?
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of your battle?
SPEAKER_00: What are you saying about your problems versus what you're saying about your God?
SPEAKER_00: See, whenever else everyone else around you stands down, who will stand up in the name of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: That's what David did.
SPEAKER_00: All the men would stand down.
SPEAKER_00: They would take off running the other way.
SPEAKER_00: But David said, Oh no.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna defy the name of the Lord God?
SPEAKER_00: Our God?
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: Stand up, people.
SPEAKER_00: It takes a different level of love, courage, respect, and integrity to stand up on behalf of people who won't have your back.
SPEAKER_00: It takes a lot to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did that for each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: He stood up for us.
SPEAKER_00: And he went to a cross for each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: And just like David here in this story, somebody had to face the giant.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus had to face a gruesome death for all of us so that we might be free and not overtaken by our enemy who's still coming after us.
SPEAKER_00: So in the midst of your war, you don't get to pick and choose who you're gonna fight against.
SPEAKER_00: Understand, we're in a war right now.
SPEAKER_00: And those young men and women didn't get a chance to pick and choose who they were gonna fight against.
SPEAKER_00: They don't even know people over in Iran.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have any beef with people in Iran, but they were chosen to fight.
SPEAKER_00: And they have to stand up and fight.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them have to fight for people who they don't even like, but they have to stand up and fight.
SPEAKER_00: And in the midst of where we are in our society today, Christians have to stand up and fight, whether you like the people you're fighting for or not.
SPEAKER_00: Because as children of God, we are supposed to love those who hate us.
SPEAKER_00: So will you stand and fight?
SPEAKER_00: Even for people who don't like you, who don't care about you, who may not even want you in their lives?
SPEAKER_00: Takes a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Here's number one God's perspective, not people's opinions.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read from 1 Samuel chapter 17, verses 38 through 40.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Then Saul clothed David with his armor.
SPEAKER_00: He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail.
SPEAKER_00: And David strapped his sword over his army, or over his armor, and he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them.
SPEAKER_00: Then David said to Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.
SPEAKER_00: So David put them off.
SPEAKER_00: Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch.
SPEAKER_00: His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.
SPEAKER_00: You know.
SPEAKER_00: Saul wanted to put on David.
SPEAKER_00: Something that wouldn't even fit him.
SPEAKER_00: Something that had not been tested or proven for a battle.
SPEAKER_00: Something that would have brought on more of a restriction, more though, than even safety.
SPEAKER_00: In my job, sometimes we we we tell people that they have to wear gloves whenever they're doing electrical work.
SPEAKER_00: But we've also found out that bulky gloves that don't fit right don't give them dexterity that they need.
SPEAKER_00: And actually, it can become more of a safety hazard for them to put those on than it does when it protects them because they could drop their tools inside of an on an electrical circuit that's live and cause themselves perhaps harm.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people are asking you to put on stuff that doesn't fit you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let people push their opinions and agenda on you when you know it's not right for you.
SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes that's what happened in life.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people have opinions.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, take this, do this.
SPEAKER_00: And what Saul wanted to do was say, hey, David, I can, I look, I got something here for you.
SPEAKER_00: Put this on, wear this, and go into battle.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there are some people in the world that have a lot of advice.
SPEAKER_00: And whether it's good advice or bad advice, some of that you just have to reason out for yourself and determine what's right for you and what is not right for you.
SPEAKER_00: But don't go into battle on somebody else's opinion.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be covered, be covered in the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing is choose what you know is right for you.
SPEAKER_00: Because comparison kills confidence.
SPEAKER_00: When you begin to compare yourself with something or someone else, you begin to try to measure up to what other people are trying to compare you to, and sometimes you have to ask yourself, how does God see me?
SPEAKER_00: It's not about what people see in you, but what how does God see you?
SPEAKER_00: No, I decided that I was gonna be still.
SPEAKER_00: He said to me, I wish more people would do that.
SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, You can look at what one person's doing and measure that against what you're doing, measure it against where you are in life, and you can say to yourself, by now, I should be here.
SPEAKER_00: Or you can look at where they are and say, Man, they're not where I thought I would be.
SPEAKER_00: But when you start comparing yourself to somebody else, what you find out is that it will either take you up or drag you down.
SPEAKER_00: But it also always gives a false reality of where you're supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes you're exactly where God wants you to be.
SPEAKER_00: When David was back in the fields attending sheep, he was exactly where he was supposed to be in order for God to recognize that that little boy back there is the one that I'm going to anoint this king.
SPEAKER_00: You see, his anointing for king started when he was in the place where he was supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't worried about trying to be something or someone else.
SPEAKER_00: He was where he was supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: And when he came to the line of the battle, he showed up exactly where he was supposed to be at the time that he was supposed to be there.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pause for a moment and ask ourselves this question.
SPEAKER_00: What thing is running around in your mind right now that's causing you to think that you need to catch up because you're not where you need to be.
SPEAKER_00: Those are the things that are fatal distractions to every Christian's life and every person's life when we're trying to compare ourselves against where we are now to where we think we ought to be.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of waiting on the Lord to bring you to the place where you're supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: David showed up at the battlefield at the right time.
SPEAKER_00: There was nobody else willing to face the giant.
SPEAKER_00: David just simply asked a few questions.
SPEAKER_00: What will the king give to the man who faces this giant?
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't trying to go out there to be anybody other than who he was already.
SPEAKER_00: He showed up to bring food, doing exactly what he was supposed to have been doing.
SPEAKER_00: But when he brought the food, come to find out God had gave him an anointing to defeat a giant.
SPEAKER_00: Just keep doing the things that you're supposed to be doing at all times and let the Lord exalt you.
SPEAKER_00: Use everything in your life that God has placed in it to write your story because He has the last say so.
SPEAKER_00: He's the author and the finisher of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so whatever story needs to be written along the way, we've got pages.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the end of the book, but everything in the beginning, from the beginning to the end of the book, tells a story about your life as far as what God wants to do in you and through you.
SPEAKER_00: And if we really looked at David, we'd say, This little bitty boy, really God used him to take down a giant?
SPEAKER_00: I promise you, there are some people that have been through some stuff that you're going through.
SPEAKER_00: And because they've been through it, that means that they got on the other side of it.
SPEAKER_00: And there are some people that are going through some stuff that you're going through like right now.
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, the operative word is through.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you go in and you're going through, that means there's a coming out.
SPEAKER_00: And so, whatever giant you're facing in your life right now, allow the Lord to write your story to take you through it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to match up to anyone else's abilities.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to compare your strength to anybody else's.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to compare your anointing to anybody else's.
SPEAKER_00: You are uniquely you, and that is for a perfect reason.
SPEAKER_00: God made you to be you for very specific reasons and very specific person.
SPEAKER_00: I can't do the things that Pastor Jarrett does.
SPEAKER_00: If I got up here and saying, Y'all would want to give the benediction.
SPEAKER_00: That's not my anointing.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't try to walk in that.
SPEAKER_00: I walk in the thing that God has given me to do.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to try to face your giants for you.
SPEAKER_00: That's why they're yours.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't bring anything our way that we're not capable of handling in his strength.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at Romans 12 and 6.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone has a gifting that they can use that God has given to them, and it is uniquely your gifting.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to try to be David, I just need to be Byron.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, the heart that depends on God and not human strength.
SPEAKER_00: When we tend to depend on our own human strength or even the strength of another human, we go back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: On one hand, we say we're going to trust God and pray for me over this issue, but on the other hand, we run and we listen to the opinions of others and the advice of others.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be either hot or cold.
SPEAKER_00: We're either going to believe that God can give us the victory or that we're defeated.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the time we straddle in between.
SPEAKER_00: And the heart that truly depends on God and gives God the glory recognizes that whatever battle they're facing is not within their own strength.
SPEAKER_00: So 1 Samuel 17, verses 45 through 47 says this.
SPEAKER_00: Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin.
SPEAKER_00: But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
SPEAKER_00: This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand.
SPEAKER_00: Pause right there for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: There was no question in David's mind that the Lord was going to do the work.
SPEAKER_00: There was no question in his mind that the Lord was going to give him the battle.
SPEAKER_00: David recognized that it wasn't about him.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't that he was going to take it into his own hands.
SPEAKER_00: He said, the Lord will deliver you into my hands.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's let me pause there for one moment.
SPEAKER_00: If we believe that the Lord will truly do it, do we ever really give it to him?
SPEAKER_00: Because how hard is it for you to sit back over things that you have no control over and truly not worry?
SPEAKER_00: If it's really a difficult situation.
SPEAKER_00: But when we know that the Lord will fight our battles, we give it to him.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing: it's not automatic.
SPEAKER_00: Because even though the Lord fought David's battle, guess what David had to do?
SPEAKER_00: He still had to face Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: He still had to go to the battle line.
SPEAKER_00: He still had to grab some tools, some weapons.
SPEAKER_00: And what he had to do was be obedient to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as the Holy Spirit allows me in this moment, sometimes God has already given us the battle, but he told us what we need to do in order to have the victory.
SPEAKER_00: So there's an action behind victory.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody goes out on a battlefield and just because they stood there, their enemy just falls and dies.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't happen that way.
SPEAKER_00: They got to fight.
SPEAKER_00: It takes some action.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If we're going to fight against some things, I believe that God has put people here with wisdom and knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: We can't accept deliverance when the Lord has given us an answer and decide that we're not going to do what we know is the right thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_00: You can't be in need of rescue, and God sends you help, and you decide that you're not going to get up.
SPEAKER_00: Get in the boat, get on the plane, or in the car to be rescued.
SPEAKER_00: David knew that even in the midst of the Lord giving him the battle, there was still action that he was going to have to do.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes that action is, I will not stand down.
SPEAKER_00: I will stand up in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's, yeah, I know you don't want me to say anything to people about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I know you don't want me to wear my cap that says keep praying to work.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I know that the Lord can win the battle.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that one, my message to people is not going to harm anything or anybody.
SPEAKER_00: So you can either try to shut me down or I can believe that the battle is the Lord's.
SPEAKER_00: And walk in the obedience that God has given me.
SPEAKER_00: Now don't get me wrong.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about doing anything that's foolish.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about battles that we already have, victories that we already have, but it's going to take some action in order for you to get the victory.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus got victory, but he had to die in order to give us victory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes there are some things in our life that have to die off in order for us to have the victory.
SPEAKER_00: If you want victory over your addiction, there are some things that you're going to have to actively stop doing.
SPEAKER_00: Amen, church.
SPEAKER_00: It's mighty quiet in here.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: They say when you step on toes, somebody ought to say, ouch.
SPEAKER_00: But the truth of the matter is we want victory without having to take action sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the army of Israel wanted victory, but they were running the opposite direction.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't want to take the necessary action in order to win the victory.
SPEAKER_00: And the truth of the matter, if God has already given us victory, we just got to take action.
SPEAKER_00: Why aren't more people saved?
SPEAKER_00: Because Christian people aren't taking action.
SPEAKER_00: Why are our children being taught things that are don't align with the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: Because our Christian families are not taking action.
SPEAKER_00: Why are our children being swept away into all these different philosophies?
SPEAKER_00: And why is it that we're not reinforcing what they should know as truth in the homes because we're not taking action?
SPEAKER_00: We want victory, but we don't take the action.
SPEAKER_00: And there are always necessary actions that we must take if you want the victory.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy doesn't lay down because you said, I am not going to surrender.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy doesn't just walk away.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy is going to chase you down, and if you don't fight back, he will overcome.
SPEAKER_00: So what are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: Are we taking the necessary action in order for us to win the battle?
SPEAKER_00: So watch this.
SPEAKER_00: David didn't have armor, he had no sword, he didn't even have military experience.
SPEAKER_00: None of that.
SPEAKER_00: The odds were stacked against David because of his age, his size, and the fact that he had no formal training for this battle.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have it.
SPEAKER_00: But his training was in the field protecting sheep from lions and bears.
SPEAKER_00: His past victories is what gave him the confidence to step into his current victory.
SPEAKER_00: See, sometimes we just forget that God has already done it before.
SPEAKER_00: And if he's given us victory before, he can give us the victory again.
SPEAKER_00: So David wasn't afraid of Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: That's a bad dude that will walk up to a lion, grab him by the bill, whack him, and kill him, and a bear.
SPEAKER_00: How many lions and bears have come into your life?
SPEAKER_00: Have come into your family's life that you have already overcome.
SPEAKER_00: How many of those giants have crept in?
SPEAKER_00: For you to look back and say, you know what, God?
SPEAKER_00: I've been through something like this before.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to run.
SPEAKER_00: I've been through something like this before.
SPEAKER_00: I can believe that I have victory.
SPEAKER_00: See, David was facing a problem much larger than himself.
SPEAKER_00: And in the natural sense, David should have lost that battle.
SPEAKER_00: But David won the battle and didn't even have to go into the battlefield.
SPEAKER_00: He won it from a distance.
SPEAKER_00: He rushed up to him and threw a rock and took his enemy down.
SPEAKER_00: Not a scratch, not a scar, not a tussle, not a struggle.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God had anointed him and given him exactly what he needed in order to win the battle.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the truth of the matter is when you're fighting the battle that God is winning for you, you'll come out like those Hebrew boys that went through the fiery furnace.
SPEAKER_00: They went in.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible says that when they came out, their clothes didn't even smell like smoke.
SPEAKER_00: But the guards that went to throw them in, before the guards could even throw them in, they just got close to the fire, and the fire consumed the guards.
SPEAKER_00: We got the story, y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Read the book.
SPEAKER_00: We win.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we win.
SPEAKER_00: And if the battle had been David's, I can imagine David would have been all beat up, dirty, beat down, maybe even killed.
SPEAKER_00: But the battle wasn't his, it was the Lord's battle.
SPEAKER_00: So he gets to walk away without a scratch.
SPEAKER_00: And you've walked away some in some battles without a scratch.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them you walked away with some scars.
SPEAKER_00: But you just got to remember that you already have won.
SPEAKER_00: And somebody's struggling right now.
SPEAKER_00: You're struggling with a victory that's already won.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to make this statement, and I had a preacher come back and talk to me about it because it is a hard statement.
SPEAKER_00: A friend of mine, bless his soul, he's passed away now.
SPEAKER_00: He was a pastor in Missouri, a good friend of mine, and he would always make these controversial statements that make you go, hmm, wait, I got to think about that.
SPEAKER_00: But then when you really think about it, if you think about it deep enough, there's a lot of truth to it.
SPEAKER_00: And here is it.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a statement.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me let me let me preface it this way.
SPEAKER_00: Not everybody in the house is saved or have the victory in Jesus until you take the action to confess and to believe in your heart and to walk it out in obedience and be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: So let's let's we're clear on that.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so my friend made this statement.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You know what, man?
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's saved, they just don't know it.
SPEAKER_00: I said, say what?
SPEAKER_00: He said, everybody's saved, they just don't know it.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, what you mean?
SPEAKER_00: I thought about it.
SPEAKER_00: I said, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: If people really knew what Jesus had done for them, and they really knew what believing in faith really means in surrendering their life to Jesus Christ, they would be saved.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: So, what's the thing that's keeping people from being saved?
SPEAKER_00: Because the price is already paid.
SPEAKER_00: It's knowledge of the truth and then the action that follows when they know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: See, when you know the truth about the battle, the victory, all you got to do is take the action in order to get the victory.
SPEAKER_00: And most people falter on taking the action.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 45, David says this.
SPEAKER_00: We declare our victory through our conventional relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this, I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't about David, it was about his God.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't fighting a battle for himself, he was fighting this battle in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 46, our covenantal relationship invokes confidence and security in our victories.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what David says: This day will the Lord deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down.
SPEAKER_00: This day, the Lord will deliver you into our hands.
SPEAKER_00: Who is the army of Israel?
SPEAKER_00: They are the army of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They belong to God.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that covenantal relationship that they have with God, God gives them the victory.
SPEAKER_00: And each and every one of us who have given our life to Christ are in a covenantal relationship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We can proclaim his promises all day, every day.
SPEAKER_00: Then I love this in 46b.
SPEAKER_00: We proclaim the name of the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_00: These are the things that we ought to do in the midst of our victory.
SPEAKER_00: And David said this: that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: There was a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: There was a purpose behind this victory.
SPEAKER_00: There was a purpose behind David's confidence to step up to this giant.
SPEAKER_00: And the purpose was to proclaim the name of the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 26 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed.
SPEAKER_00: He will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand.
SPEAKER_00: Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_00: They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.
SPEAKER_00: Who do you trust in?
SPEAKER_00: How many times do we have to recognize that the battle has already been won?
SPEAKER_00: When you put your trust in God, that's all you need.
SPEAKER_00: And right here, there's more to this message.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to pause right here.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to move into something else as the Holy Spirit is leading me right now.
SPEAKER_00: Because as you contemplate what battles you're faced with right now, what victories you have already won.
SPEAKER_00: What hard things you deal with on a day-to-day basis.
SPEAKER_00: The bad news that you get.
SPEAKER_00: The disappointments that you get.
SPEAKER_00: The things that come upon you that you weren't expecting.
SPEAKER_00: The things that actually might even cause you to step outside of who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the moment you fought that battle, not in the name of the Lord, but in the name of yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And you keep finding discouragement.
SPEAKER_00: Because it seems like it's one defeat after another.
SPEAKER_00: And the harder you try to win, it seems like you keep losing ground.
SPEAKER_00: Whether that's in your finances, your relationship, in your health, or whatever it may be.
SPEAKER_00: I want to take this time to give you the opportunity to truly seek the Lord through prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Because here, what I want you to know.
SPEAKER_00: In the heart of the matter, and the heart of this matter, is a heart that depends on the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's the heart that God uses.
SPEAKER_00: But as you consider yourself and your situation, are you truly depending on God right now?
SPEAKER_00: If you know you need prayer and you know prayer works, are you depending on God when the Holy Spirit is telling you to pray or even to be prayed for?
SPEAKER_00: But yet you cling to your seat.
SPEAKER_00: As if you got this.
SPEAKER_00: We say the battle belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: But even though the battle belongs to God, it doesn't mean that you get to do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: But he's giving you some weapons to fight with.
SPEAKER_00: Because the enemy is not going to just let you have the win.
SPEAKER_00: You need to know that.
SPEAKER_00: Every opponent that opposes you, they're trying to overtake you so that they can win.
SPEAKER_00: So it truly is a fight between two strengths.
SPEAKER_00: Two opposite strengths.
SPEAKER_00: And the one who's the strongest is the one who usually wins.
SPEAKER_00: But what God showed us was that this little ruddy boy, David, little puny fellow, he wasn't as big as Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have as much strength as Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: But he fought the battle in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And with God's help and God's strength, you can't help but win.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know who you are, but you know who you are.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just speaking as the Lord has given me the utterance to speak.
SPEAKER_00: But you know whether or not the Holy Spirit is speaking to you.
SPEAKER_00: And if He's speaking to you today, whether it's you need victory through salvation in Jesus Christ, or you need victory because you need encouragement, because you've lost confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever the reason is, if you feel the Holy Spirit speaking to you right now, telling you to come forward in prayer, come forward in surrender.
SPEAKER_00: We want to give that opportunity to you right now.
SPEAKER_00: You won't labor long, Pastor Jared is going to minister to us in songs.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be standing here and there'll be others that will join me.
SPEAKER_00: No matter who you are, come.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid, don't be ashamed.
SPEAKER_00: The battle already belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: We win.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we open the book, we win.
SPEAKER_00: And you may not be winning right now.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you don't know how to win.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord can help you.
SPEAKER_01: Almighty fortress, you go before us.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing can stand against the power of our God.
SPEAKER_01: You shine in the shadows, you win every battle.