The Mighty Men of Faith

May, 3, 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Faith for an extraordinary God. And I truly believe even when we exercise what God expects of us with extraordinary faith. Does anybody know God can do extraordinary things? And that's what I'm trying to lay out in this series. Last week we looked at Marion and tried to encourage the sisters, but as the late Dr. Manuel Scott would say, a gospel that doesn't reach everybody is not a gospel that is good for anybody. And so, though specifically, we are trying to encourage our brothers in the faith today, this is a word for all of us. Amen. If we can get that on the screen, I'd love for us to read that together. Here we go. He chose David, his servant, and took him from the sheep king. From handing the sheep, he brought him to be the shepherd of his people, Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance. And David shepherded them with integrity of heart. With skillful hands, he led. Shepherded him according to the integrity of his heart. The main text comes out of one of his chronicles. 23 verses 14 through 17. I want to encourage you to read really chapters 21 through 24, which is the context of this particular episode out of the life of David. I'm reading the NRV version, and here's how it reads. At that time, David was in the stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. David longed for water and said, Oh, if someone would give me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem. So the three mighty warriors broke through the Philistine line, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem, carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out before the Lord. Farbid from me, Lord, to do this, he said. Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives? David would not drink it. Such were the exploits of the three mighty warriors. I love that. I want to talk about the mighty men of faith. The mighty men of faith. As I said earlier, the context for this episode in the life of David is found in chapters 21 through 24. The last four chapters really serve as a fitting epilogue to the life and the legacy of perhaps Israel's greatest king, King David. Though many of us may uh know David for his failures, David, throughout the Old and New Testament, and especially in Jewish tradition, is hailed as a great king and leader. You must not forget, it was David that conquered Jerusalem and established it as Israel's capital. It was David that led the people to return the Ark of the Covenant back to the nation. It was David that defeated Israel's enemies and gave Israel rest for the first time in her history. It was David that took Israel from this scattered and fractured tribal community, made them a prosperous and powerful nation with notable geopolitical influence. It was David that God makes that glorious promise that one of his descendants would sit on his throne forever. And in that promise, God foreshadowed the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But lastly, least we forget, it was David who was perhaps the most intimate, who had the most intimate relationship with Yahweh. Least we forget the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? God is my refuge and strength of very present help in time. I'm talking about David, y'all. David knew how to talk to God and he walked with God. We can say all we want about David's failures, but what separated him for others is that David was humble enough to admit his wrongs. He loved God enough to change his ways to honor him. The word David here is the ideal leader. That's what the chronicle is trying to show us. He's the example, he's the model for leadership. He's the man you want running the country, not this criminal. He's the one that you want to be the supervisor in your company that you would work for. He's the one that you really want pastoring your church and leading your community. He's the ideal leader, which explains why his soldiers made such a great sacrifice for him in our text. He was a leader they trusted, y'all. He was a leader that they loved and they would give their lives, and at risk to themselves, they went behind enemy lines like some CIA operative on some Netflix series. Just to get this man a cold glass of water. And it started with what David says to himself. He's kind of in the cave, he's really to himself. That's what most scholars believe. And he's really whispering under the sound of his voice. And he says this, oh, that I wish that someone would get me a glass of water. He's whispering to himself, church. He speaks out of his mind. He speaks what he desires. He's not trying to induce his men to risk their lives for him on a whim. And that was common in that culture. Kings uh did not value the lives of their soldiers, and on a whim, they would have them give their life. That's not what David is doing here. Instead, he's hiding in a cave. He's on the run from the Philistines. And many believe that this event occurs sometime during his reign as king of Israel. And somehow the Philistines have run him out of his administration and he's in hiding and he wishes for a cold glass of water and he blurts it out out loud. Anybody ever talk to themselves? Just kind of wish a few things out loud? My daddy said, as long as you don't answer back, you ain't crazy. Amen. That's what David is doing here. He's wished it out loud. He's talking to himself, and his buddies overhear him, his boys, and they love him so much that they turned his wish into a command. And at great risk to their lives, they broke through the Philistine lines to get a glass of water for David. Tell your neighbor, that's sacrifice, that's love. When David turns around and realizes what the men had done for him, he refused to drink it. You mean to tell me we go behind enemy lines and we risk our lives? We on this clandestine mission for you and you don't appreciate it enough to at least take one sip of water? David said, No, I can't do it. Far be it for me that I would take advantage of the sacrifice of the men who care for me. I would not be who I am if it were not for these wonderful men in my life. He was a leader they could trust. And here's my thesis statement. And for men and sisters, for all of us, and here's ordinary faith. Ordinary faith relies on a good example of faith. We all need a good example. Really, when we talk about Christian discipleship, you can have all the Bible, you can get all the theology, uh, you can learn all of church history and all of Christian ethics and philosophy. But if you don't have a good example to follow to learn how to live, it's gonna be very difficult to live out the life that God calls us to live. We all need good examples. Not just the pastor, we need relatives, we need friends, we need neighbors, we need elders, and we need young folk. We need men, we need women, we need young men and young women. We need models, those who have gone where we're trying to go. We all need a good example, and the reason why the men were willing to risk their lives is because God gave them a good example. Hear me well, brothers. I know this is a struggle for us. Many times the devil loves to put up the bad examples, but you better hear me well for every bad example. God's got a good example. God's got somebody that you can follow, somebody that you can emulate, somebody who has gone where you're trying to go that can help you be strong in your faith. Doesn't mean they're perfect, doesn't mean they don't make mistakes, but it does mean they have David-like characteristics. They know how to walk with God, they know how to talk to Him, they know how to deal with men, they know how to handle difficult things in life, and that example helps us to grow in our faith. Said it time and time again, but I believe every Christian ought to have three types of people in their life. Number one, everybody ought to have a Paul in your life. Somebody you can look up to, somebody who's been where you're trying to go, somebody that can remind you from where you came from. You want to know what's wrong with the world, folk and forgot where God has brought them from. And sometimes we need the generation before us to remind us of where God had brought us from. Everybody needs a Paul in their life, but then everybody needs a barnabas in their life. A barnabas is somebody in your generation, somebody who knows your experience and knows how you've been crafted and designed different than previous or subsequent generations. Someone who can walk with you and understand the struggle that you're in. We all need a barnabas to know that we're not alone in this foxhole called life. But then also, we all need a Timothy. Yeah, that's young folk. Folk that come behind us. Because the truth is we can get stagnant in our ways, we can get stuck on ourselves, and God has a way of using young people to push us to our better selves, to remind us that God still has a future, no matter how old you may get. We need good examples in our lives if we're gonna be what God calls us to be. We need those examples, and that's why I like my meditation text right here, where it says of David, he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them with skillful hands. But it says that God chose David, and he chose him because he was tending sheep. I like that. And the Hebrew word there for tending is more than just the general uh practice or the general uh career of taking care of sheep, it's very specific. He had a habit of following behind sheep. He knew where sheep had been. And because he knew where sheep had been, he knew how to deal with them where they were. And to lead them where they needed to go, preach, Pastor. In other words, he first had to learn to follow sheep before he could lead sheep. Preach this thing. I'm trying to preach it. And that's what leadership is, brothers. Leadership is not this crazy, uh, uh tyrannical leadership that we see in the political arena. But leadership starts where people are to know where they've been and to live where they've been and then lead them where they need to go. We need that kind of example in our lives. We need that kind of model in our lives that we might be the mighty men that God calls us to be. Couple things, and I'm gonna be out of your way. So, what does that look like? Number one, an ordinary faith does not live for recognition. Ordinary faith doesn't live for recognition. I say that because in this text, it says during the harvest time, three of the 30 chief warriors came down to David. We don't know who they are. Text never tells us who these individuals are. There are plenty other stories in this last four chapters, 21 through 24, of these kinds of episodes where men go unnamed. And what they're remembered for is for what they did. Because what we do will always define who we really are. That's where you get your character, that's where a sense of who you are. Sadly, we live in a day where the church has transformed the sacred desk into a stage of performance. It's about celebritiism in our churches when in fact Jesus is the only celebrity that ought to be on the stage. And we must be mindful that we're not here to perform, but hopefully by engaging the supernatural presence of God, we're transformed into the image of who He is. And this this is a reminder to all of us that really the old religious cliche is appropriate here. Only what is done for Christ will last. Be careful about chasing recognition. Now, recognition is not appreciation. You ought to be appreciated for who you are and for what you do. God is not saying that we ought not be appreciated for our sacrifices. Tell your neighbor, don't take it grant, don't take me for granted. Uh-uh. Show me some appreciation every now and then. That's what we ought to do. Recognition is more about my ego. Recognition is more about making sure the spotlight is on me rather than the one who put me in the spotlight. God is not opposed to appreciation, but he is opposed to opposed to personal recognition to satisfy my ego. A professor said it so well, he says, it um he says, praise and recognition is like perfume. It has a wonderful whiff or a scent to it, but the last thing you want to do is drink it. And the problem today is a whole lot of folk is drinking recognition at their demise. And we wonder why our communities are a mess and our families are a mess and our country is a mess, because no one wants to be a leader the way God has made us leaders. So I'm reminded of what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman in the Gospel of John. He told her, after talking to her for a few minutes, go call your husband. She said, I don't have a husband. He said, That's the first time you spoke right. Because you don't, you're right. You don't have a husband. You've had five husbands. And the one you living with now, the one you living with now, the one you living with now, you'll catch it on the way home. The one you living with now, that ain't even your husband. You'll catch that on the way home. And and she kind of in a roundabout way said, Why are you getting in my business? That's what she was saying. And she said, Woman, I'm trying to tell you that you that what you're chasing will never quench your thirst. You can chase every man on the planet, you can chase the right man and think you have the right one. But the only one who can quench your thirst is the man that's standing in front of you. What am I trying to say? Status can't satisfy you. But the one who gives complain, he is the one that can satisfy me on the inside. And can I testify for a moment? If I stop chasing recognition, I learned a long time ago. God has a way of blessing me with what exactly I need. He'll lift me up where nobody can tear me down. Number one, ordinary faith said, I'm not looking for recognition, but I trust the Lord to bless me and to raise me up. But then number two, ordinary faith conveys restoration. That's what we see in this text. These three mighty men, they broke through the Philistine line, verse 16. Because they were concerned about David. They saw he was broken, y'all. I'm gonna get to that in a minute. He needed restoration. Psalm 23 and 3 says, He restores my soul. Redemption is not restoration. Redemption seeks to secure my soul in relationship with God. Redemption is about my salvation, it brings me into the family of God. Redemption forgives me and cleanses me of my sins and removes the penalty of sin. Redemption makes me born again. Sometimes I get weary. Sometimes I get thirsty. Y'all don't hear me today. Sometimes I get tired. I'm not lost. I haven't left the Lord, but sometimes life, as the young folks say, be life in, and I don't know if I can take another step. And in that moment, I don't need redemption, I need restoration in my soul. That's what David is trying to tell us here. It's kind of like what Asap said in Psalm 73. You ought to read that song. ASAP said, I looked at the wicked and I looked at how well they were doing. And he said, I almost slipped. Now he wasn't talking about slipping off the stage or something, y'all. No, he he was talking about slipping spiritually. He said, I almost left the faith when I saw how well the wicked were doing. And here I am, scratching and clawing, trying to live right, trying to do what God told me to do, and seem like I gotta fight on every side. But when I look at the wicked, look like their life is just as smooth. God, what are you doing here? I almost slipped. David here is in that place where he's about to slip y'all. Because in 2 Samuel chapter 7, God had made a promise. And that promise was that I'm gonna establish your throne forever. And here he is, he's been made the king of Israel. He's over the kingdom, but now the Philistines have run him out of his administration. He's back on the run. Ah, here it is. He's having a John the Baptist moment. Are you really the mother one to come? So when he asked for a cold, fresh, a fresh, cold glass of water, he's wishing for the kingdom, y'all. Maybe I misheard you. You ain't never been there before. Maybe I misheard you, God. Did you really come to me?

SPEAKER_01 20:43

And thank God he had a great man who said, I'm not gonna leave you in a place where you struggle. I'm gonna help you come out.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

That's a mighty man of faith. Hear me well, brothers. Not about how much doctrine you know, or how many scriptures you know, or how much Hebrew you know, or Greek you know, or who you know, but when a brother gets down, can you help that brother get back up? Can you help him get back in the fight? That's a man of faith, and that's what these three brothers do. They said, I'm gonna help David get back in the fight. That's what they do, they don't leave him there. Hear me well, people. A good brother of ordinary faith is committed to helping a brother remain at their best. I'm not gonna let you slip. You better hear me well when I say that. You gotta be careful about the people you surround yourself to help you in dark times. Hear me well. When life goes around, make sure you have the right kind of mighty people of faith in your life. Make sure you have friends like. David and not friends like Job. See, some folk got friends like Job. They'll be quiet for a few days and act like they're your friend. But the moment you get down, and the moment it looks like God may have left you, they'll start talking about you behind their back. Oh, I thought you were holy. I thought you were a man of God. I thought you were the woman of God. And they'll be the first one to kick you when you're down. Because the truth is, the only reason why they were your friend, they were waiting for you to fall. Thank God David had some mighty men.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

They didn't condemn him for his struggles. They didn't talk about him. Look at him now. They went and got what he needed to lift him up.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

I'm gonna say it like the songwriter said. He said it so well. If I can help somebody, I pass along. If I can cheer somebody with the word or song, if I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, then my living shall not be in vain. That's faith, y'all. You don't need to make it deep. When my heart is hurting, my life is not going the way I want. I I don't want to hear a scripture. No, show me that God is still on my side. Show me that God has not abandoned me. Show me that God is still on the throne. Let me know that God is still working behind the scenes, and for some reason I can't see what God is doing. Put some glasses on me so I can see that God is still in control. Ordinary faith knows how to share restoration. Let me last one out of here. I'm feeling all right. Ordinary faith honors God with reference. Oh, I love this. So these three brothers, they love David so much. Go behind enemy lines, retrieve a glass of water, brings it to David. And David pours it out on the ground. And that's how it would have been. David said, No, I can't do it. David said, I know I can make it if it wasn't for y'all. And you helped me be my best. So I would never ask you to do something that I wouldn't do myself. That's the first thing he said. He said, I appreciate y'all so much for the sacrifice. I want you to know I do the same thing for you. Say it, but that's a friend right there. That's a man of faith. That's a woman of faith who said, I'm not gonna take advantage of you in your vulnerable moment, but more than anything, I will go the extra mile to let you know how much I care for you. But then David offers it as a drink offering. And the drink offering in the Old Testament was an offering of thanksgiving. So David here, it's an act of worship. He's giving thanks. Why is that? Because David is basically saying, as a king, I never would have given y'all the order. If I had known that this is what you all were trying to do, I would have said, No, you can't do it. I would have, I would have broken up the command. But God knew what I needed. God knew I was slipping, y'all. God knew I was losing my grip.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

And though I never would have given the order, aren't you glad God overruled you and gave you what you need? Does anybody in here know that God knows how to give you what you need? That's what he did. So David said, I'm gonna give thanks.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

It didn't go the way I wanted, but thank God God was involved. Let me close with this. And so I was out somewhere this week, and I was in, and it's amazing as a pastor, some of the things people will ask me. They will ask me some of the craziest things. And it happened again this week. And so you know this whole week it's been overcast. No sun, just dreary rain. And one person, bless their heart. I'm not gonna call their name as much as I want to so badly. Help me, Jesus. Not gonna do that. They said, Pastor, is it possible that you can pray and do something about the weather? I said, You serious? And they said, Yeah, I'm serious. I said, Let me tell you something. I learned a long time ago, no matter what happens in life, it could, I know it's dreary, but it could have been a hurricane. So the only thing I know how to do is give thanks. I thank him when it's sunshine, and I thank them when it's raining. I thank them when it's snowing, and I thank him when it's hot. I'm gonna give thanks no matter what. Because I know it could be worse. But in spite of that, God continues to preserve me in the midst of what I'm going through. And that's my word to anybody with ordinary faith that no matter where you are, you ought to always give him thanks. I'm gonna say thank you, Lord, for watching over me when I couldn't watch over myself.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Thank you, Lord, because you kept me sane through this craziness. Thank you, Lord, because you still have a plan, even though they're trying to tear up our rights today. Thank you, Lord, because you still on the throne. Thank you, Lord, because Jesus hung blood and died 2,000 years ago, and you paid the penalty for my sins, but thank you, Lord. He didn't stay dead, but early on a Sunday morning, he got up with all power. Thank you, Lord, and Jesus got up. I'm gonna get up. Grandmama gonna get up. All of us gonna get up. Thank God! He's on my side all the time. Hey! Hey! Hey! Thank you, Lord!

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Can't do nothing about the weather, but I can always give thanks. And I'm gonna give thanks because my God is good. All the time. And all the time my God is good. Come on, give the Lord a hand cap of praise with me.