F4F | David and Goliath is NOT About Your Giants Falling

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So, we've covered it before, but I'm going to go back and kind of do it again.

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This idea that the story of David and Goliath, it's not about you. It's not about you slaying your giants.

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It's nothing like that at all. In fact, it tells us something about Christ. So, you know, the idea is, is the scriptures are about Jesus.

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They're not about you. If you want to find yourself in the biblical text, you're the guy who listened to the devil, sinned, got yourself in trouble, can't get yourself out of the problem, so Christ has to rescue you.

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He has to redeem you, to purchase you, to raise you from the dead, things like that. And you've sided with the devil in your sin and all that kind of nonsense.

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So, all that being said, what we're going to do, we're going to head over to Faith Church St. Louis, and it's not going to be

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David Crank that we're going to be listening to. And here's kind of a subtext of this particular review, this particular critique.

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And that is the person we're going to be listening to, Austin Shuler, he hasn't graduated seminary.

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He hasn't studied and shown himself approved as a workman who need not blush with embarrassment, who can rightly divide the word of truth.

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He is the product of nepotism. Yeah, the reason why he's preaching is because his stepdad, his mom is

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Nicole Crank, and she had Austin from a different relationship.

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So he is the stepson of David Crank. David Crank inherited his church from his dad as well.

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And so, you're going to note that in this church, I make a big to -do always and again about women preaching because Scripture is clear that a woman is not to have authority over a man.

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But that doesn't mean that all men are qualified to be pastors. Austin Shuler isn't.

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He's not somebody who studied and showed himself approved as a workman who need not blush with embarrassment, who can rightly handle the word of truth.

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He doesn't preach the gospel correctly. He twists it. And this is what he was raised on.

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And he has no legitimate, and I mean legitimate, biblical qualifications to be a pastor.

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So that being the case, this is going to be a train wreck pretty much from the word go.

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So what we're going to do here, let's whirl up the desktop. And there we go.

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Photograph I took a couple years ago here in North Dakota. And, you know, during the, just right around the harvest time, it was, oh, that was a spectacular day.

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Anyway, oddly enough, on that particular day, I was with Brandon Kimber. Brandon Kimber from the

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American Gospel. He was there when I shot this. It was a good photography day for me.

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All right. All of that being said, let's head over to Faith Church St.

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Louis. And I put the closed captioning on, sped it up just a little bit. And we're just going to test to see how this young man handles the biblical text.

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And the answer is he doesn't handle them well at all. In fact, let me do this. I'm going to pull up Google and I'm going to plastic pop beads.

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I've used this analogy before. And, you know, if you've seen plastic pop beads, let me make this plural, you know, you get the idea.

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Let's take a look. They're selling pop beads here at this particular website. Take it a moment to load.

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There we go. And, you know, and so what he's doing, so the technique that he's engaging in, in this particular biblical text, there's a couple of them.

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One, he's ripping verses out of context and then stringing them together.

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This is pop bead theology. This is not how the Bible is to be understood.

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And he's relying on an old translation and not applying context to one particular text.

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And then the other bit is, is that he's not literally, and I mean this, he's not reading out the story of David and Goliath.

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So what we'll do along the way is we'll walk through his technique. We've already noted he's not qualified to be a pastor.

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He should not be preaching and teaching at all. And on top of that, we're going to note that when we get to the story of David and Goliath, we're going to read it out.

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And I'll show you the connections between Christ and the story of David and Goliath.

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There's a couple of really good ones. And one in particular, as it relates to the story that David tells regarding what would happen when a lion or a bear would snatch one of his lambs when he was a shepherd.

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And so kind of in honor of this, I've got a mug here. There we go.

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And the mug has David and Goliath. And so there's Goliath. And then it says, not you. So somebody gave this to me a few years ago as a gift.

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And I think it's a fine, fine gift. And it makes the point really well. So let's check in with Austin Shuler.

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I won't call him pastor. He's not qualified to be such. And just because your daddy's a pastor or your granddaddy's a pastor doesn't mean you're qualified to be a pastor.

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Each man in the pastoral office must do, meet the qualifications all on his own.

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You don't inherit them from your dad. But in the NAR churches, in the Word of Faith churches, churches apparently are like legacies, you know, or they're like, you know, furniture, you know, you can pass on from one family to another.

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That's what happened with the Osteens, by the way. So here's Austin Shuler. And he's, for the context on this, he's talking about fear.

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And he'd given a personal anecdote about a time he was snorkeling with his wife over a particular reef.

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And then he got scared, thinking there might be a shark. And he abandoned his wife and fled to the boat. She got scared.

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And she kind of froze in place. But, you know, that's the context here. This is his lead off story.

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So here we go. What's going to happen? And sometimes our thoughts, this can happen, Faith Church. It could be about anxiety.

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It could be about anxious thoughts about our mortgage payments, our housing, gas prices, the office, who's holding office, who isn't.

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Am I going to church? Am I not going to church? Am I going to get baptized? Am I not going to get baptized? But I want to come with a thought today across all of our locations.

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Come on, Weldon. I know you're with me on this. Ryan and Nia, you're at Ferguson Florissant. But I want to come with you right now. And maybe I'm at your home online.

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And I want to tell you that the giant of fear must fall today. Okay, so we're off to a really bad start.

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And I mean this. When we talk about the story of David and Goliath, that is the story where you have a giant, you know, an oversized human being who probably would have done well in the

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NBA had he lived today. He's, you know, so he fell because he was slain by David.

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And here's the issue is that when you read the Bible and you read the stories of the different patriarchs and the exploits that they did by faith, and you think it's about yourself, you kind of turn your life into like a video game.

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And so, you know, when the giants show up in your life, plural apparently, you know, you need to level up.

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And so this is your time to beat the boss level so that you can go to your next whatever.

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And so, yeah, it doesn't work that way. And that's not what the story of David and Goliath is about at all.

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In fact, the story of David and Goliath is a type and shadow prefiguring of Christ's defeat of our undefeatable enemy,

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Satan. That's what this text is about. So we continue. Come on, I'm going to say it again.

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The giant of fear, it has to fall today. You know, Pastor David says fear is nothing more simplistic than this.

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It's the false evidence appearing real. Am I the only one that many times in life that something looks way worse than it really is?

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But when you dig into it and you go, man, it's like, I don't know. So where do you get this? That's the standard word of faith definition, by the way.

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Fear is false evidence appearing real. It says no biblical lexicon anywhere.

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Fear is fear. And so we've got a big problem. And so in the word of faith way of looking at things, when reality deals you a bad card, okay, so maybe you visit the doctor and the doctor runs the test and the test come back and it says cancer, all right, that is rejected.

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It is rejected in the word of faith heresy, because if you accept it, if you speak it, then it becomes reality.

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So they might say, well, the report is cancer, but that's false evidence appearing real.

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No, it really is real evidence. It's scientifically valid. And so over and again, the word of faith heresy, it's akin to Christian science and the mind science cult, where if you're in a bad situation, you just say, it's not real.

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It's not real. I'm not here. This is a dangerous, dangerous way to live your life.

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And there are many people, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands who are in the grave for not dealing with real evidence in their life and thinking that they're faith -filled words, that they have the authority to change reports like that with their words.

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That's not true at all. But I'm worried about tomorrow. And then you get into the next day and you go, why do

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I even worry about it? Just me? Why did I even lose one second, one moment? Why did I speed up in that moment?

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It was 20 feet of water, Austin. Then I get in the boat and the guy's like, hey, dude, we don't have sharks around here. I was like, you could have told a boy that before I jumped in.

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I wouldn't have left my wife halfway from the boat. Save me a fight later. But many of us have fears.

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But watch this in Philippians 4, 6 through 7. So many of us have fears. Yeah, that's true. Taking notes, it says, do not be anxious about anything.

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But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God.

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Watch this. It will transcend all understanding. Now, it's kind of ironic that he's reading this text from Philippians because we are to make our requests known to God.

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David Crank is a Word of Faith heretic. And Austin Shuler here is reading a text that tells us to ask

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God for things, to not decree and declare. The irony is thick.

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It will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ. Can I tell you this, that our breakthrough begins in our mind before it shows up in our mess?

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Sometimes we have to have breakthroughs in our thoughts before it can ever be happening in our life. What are you talking about?

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The text you read, Philippians 4, has nothing to do with breakthroughs. All right, let me pull this up.

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All right, so let's come over here, shall we? Let's see here. Philippians 4. Philippians 4.

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All right. I entreat you, Daya, I entreat Syncthae, to agree in the Lord.

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Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.

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Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

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The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, all right? And life throws things at you that create anxieties.

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No doubt, okay? But in everything by prayer and supplication.

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These are requests. With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

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And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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And so this isn't a text about breakthroughs. This is a text about what do we do when life deals us some really awful cards?

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And, you know, maybe you're having a hard time paying the bills or finding baby food right now or things like that.

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You know, the idea here is that we, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we let our requests be made known to God.

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No decreeing, no declaring. This isn't a text about breakthroughs. So, I don't know where he's going with this.

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Watch, the Bible says, as a man or woman thinketh, why, so are they. Now that's classic word of faith heresy out of context.

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That's Proverbs 23. Let me back this up so you can hear it again. Sometimes we have to have breakthroughs in our thoughts before it can ever be happening in our life.

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Watch, the Bible says, as a man or woman thinketh, why, so are they. So if the scripture says it then, it still means it now.

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Except for it doesn't mean what you're making it mean. So here's the idea, coming back. This is pot bead.

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This is the pot bead approach to preaching. He's not interested in actually preaching what the

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Bible says and what the Bible means. So we're going to take verses out of context and string them together to create the illusion that this is what the

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Bible teaches. Now does the Bible say that as a man thinketh, so is he? Not exactly.

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So here's our text. I'm going to read it from the ESV. We'll look at it from the King James here in a minute.

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But the ESV, which is a great modern day translation. It's not flawless. There's no such thing as the perfect translation.

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That thing doesn't exist. But this is a good modern translation. So here's the admonition.

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Do not eat the bread of a man who's stingy. Okay? So a guy who cares more about money than he does about human beings, right?

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Do not desire his delicacies, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.

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Eat and drink, he says to you, but his heart is not with you. You'll vomit up the morsels that you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.

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Okay? So the idea here is that when a stingy person says, oh, you know, come on over for dinner.

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Oh, yeah. Oh, you know, you go ahead and eat those things over there. He doesn't want you to eat them because the only thing he's seeing is dollar signs.

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That's what this is about. But what Austin has done here, he's taken this out of context, using a part of the

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King James Version. And so here's what it says. Proverbs 23, 7. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.

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There you go. Yeah, totally out of context.

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Again, three rules for sound biblical exegesis are context, context, context. It's not the only rule, but put it into a good, and then check other translations from time to time if you need to.

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But even in the King James, when you put it back in context, you can see what this is about. Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats.

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For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink, saith he to thee, but his heart is not with thee.

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The morsel which thou hast eaten, shalt thou vomit up and lose thy sweet words.

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Right. But what is Austin doing with this? Telling us that if we want to have our breakthrough, it has to begin in our thoughts first.

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That's not what Proverbs 23, 7 is about at all. So, he's so far off the mark, it's not even funny.

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Let's break, let's back this up. Except for it doesn't mean what you're saying it means, and you've totally ignored what the text means in its context.

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Can I tell you that the fear is nothing more than just a presentation of what the devil's trying to do to paralyze you to stay here so you don't get there?

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That it looks… Okay, that's a weird generalization. So, let me back this up.

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Tell you that the fear is nothing more than just a presentation of what the devil's trying to do.

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So, here's the thing. We live in a world that has fallen. There's, and we're responsible for the fall.

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We brought sin into the good creation that God made. The creation that was

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Tov Ma 'od. Very good. We brought sin into the equation. As a result of it, there is sin, there is sickness, there is disease, there are disasters, there are wars, there are plagues, there are famines, there are earthquakes, there are volcanoes, there are lions and tigers and bears.

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Oh my! You get the idea. All of this is because of our rebellion against God.

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And nowhere in scripture are we told that when these things show up in our lives, that we are to stick our heads in the sand like ostriches and cover our ears and say, it's not real.

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This is only what the devil is trying to present. It may be possible that the Lord is trying to teach you something through suffering.

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And I didn't plan on this, but let's take a look at another text. Romans 5.

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Romans 5 is where we need to go. And here's our text. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, and we have, we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, in which we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

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Not only that, we rejoice in our sufferings. Scripture teaches us to rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that what?

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Suffering produces. Suffering produces? Yes, suffering produces.

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God uses suffering and we experience sorrow and tribulation and difficulty now.

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And so, suffering produces endurance. And this is an important thing because Christ is the one who endures to the end will be saved.

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Suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character. Character produces hope. Hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the

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Holy Spirit, who he has given to us. Hebrews 12 says it this way.

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Hebrews 12. All right, let's see here. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted.

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In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

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My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.

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For the Lord disciplines the one he loves. He chastises every son whom he receives.

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And here's the interesting word, mastigoi. He chastises every son whom he receives.

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That's the word for scourges. So, it is for discipline that you have to endure.

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God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

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If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

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So, we got a problem here. And that is that, you know, yes, there are scary things, difficulties, sufferings, bad circumstances, all kinds of problems on this earth because of our sin.

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And some of the suffering that we go through, it's legitimately from God. It is producing in us endurance and character and hope.

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God uses it in the process of our sanctification. And so, you'll note that one of the things that's wrong with the word of faith heresy is it doesn't recognize suffering is coming from God or difficulty is coming from him.

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And it teaches us to use a positive mindset and faith -filled positive words to change our circumstances rather than ask

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God to help us and ask God for the strength to endure. The difficulties and the suffering that we go through.

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So, he just says, oh, well, these are just presentations of what the devil is trying to do to paralyze us.

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That is a one -size -fits -all error. And many times, the difficulties we go through,

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God is using them to produce something in us that's important, that we need. Let me back it up. There's a lot of fear. All of us walk in different types of fear.

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Maybe your fear today that you're like, man, this thing is presenting itself. Can I tell you that the fear is nothing more than just a presentation of what the devil is trying to do to paralyze you to stay here so you don't get there?

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That it looks like. Where's there? Well, it's my fear. It's this. No, don't name it. Don't claim it. It's not your fear.

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Don't name it. Don't claim it. So, word of faith heresy. Whatever you do, don't name it or claim it, man.

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It's the fear. It's the fear. It's not that. Oh, well, it's my cancer.

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No, it's the cancer. Well, this is my report from the doctor. No, it's the report from the doctor. So today, all of our locations.

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It's a denial of reality. And here's the thing. This destroys people because they go to apply this.

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Well, their takeaway. I need to be positive. I can't say it's my cancer. I can't say things like this because my words will create reality.

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You're not accepting reality. And you should be. It is your cancer.

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And you need to pray to God to keep you in the faith through it. And if it's his will to heal you, and if it's not, then he'll heal you in the resurrection.

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I want to tell you that it's not your giant. It's the giant. I don't have any giant. Thing that's looking at you.

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It's trying to. So, no, he's allegorizing Goliath. Oh, it's bigger than me.

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I was in my personal time this morning reading. And it said he gave us all power and authority to speak to the mountain.

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Which text says that exactly? He gave us authority to speak to the mountain.

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You know, I seem to recall Christ talking about mountains. Let's take a look here. Let's see here.

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Matthew 17. We'll look at two verses. So Jesus says in Matthew 17, he said to them, because of your little faith, for truly

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I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, not the mountain, this one, a particular one.

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He was pointing to the Temple Mount. Move from here to there and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

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Mark 11 says, have faith in God. Truly I tell you, whoever says to this,

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Tutah, to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes what he says will come to pass.

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It will be done for him. So you get a note here. He's referencing a biblical text.

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He's not referencing it accurately. And we don't even have the address, the biblical address, we can go and fact check them.

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That's a problem. My personal time this morning reading, and it said, he gave us all power and authority to speak to the mountain.

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It doesn't say our mountain. It doesn't say your mountain. It says this mountain. The mountain. This mountain,

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Tutah. And that mountain can move with faith, the size of a mustard seed. And a mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds that there is.

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So I think we've got. Again, pop beat approach here, stringing together versus out of context.

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And this is something you're going to want to wear around your neck. Yeah, I'm sure.

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Show this off how great your theology is. Yeah, this isn't diamonds. This is plastic trying to tell us today.

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If we just stir up some faith on the inside of us today, no matter the size that we can speak to the giant. And I'm here to tell you today.

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The job. Okay, let me back this up. One of the smallest seeds that there is. So I think what

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God is trying to tell us. You think what God is trying to tell us? I think what God is trying to tell us is found in the

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Bible. Rightly handled. If we just stir up some faith on the inside of us. If we just stir up some faith on the inside of us today.

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Says no biblical text. Anyway, no matter the size that we can speak to the giant. And I'm here to tell you today.

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So we're not speaking mountains now. We're speaking to giants. Which giant again? What's his name? Which giant am

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I supposed to be talking? The giant that looks like it's there. It's about to fall. It has fallen. And guess what? It's about to fall today.

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It has fallen and it's about to fall. Uh -huh. This is a motivational pep speech.

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This is not a sermon. Yeah. All right.

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So let me fast forward. Okay. To the part where he deals with the text from 1 Samuel 17.

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Let's see what he does with this. First born champion named Goliath who was from Gath came out of the Philistine camp. And his height was six cubits and a span.

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This dude homie was tall is what that means. And Goliath stood and shouted the ranks of Israel. Why do you come out and line up for battle?

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I'm a Philistine and you are not the servants of Saul. He's questioning them. He's trying to talk down to them. And what

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I love is in verse 26, David asked them. And what you love is in verse 26.

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Are you in a hurry? You know, what's keeping you from reading out this account?

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Job of a pastor is to preach the word. So I mean, this is a perfect opportunity to read out the biblical text and read out the story.

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So let's do that first. Before he goes any farther. First Samuel 17. Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle.

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By the way, a little bit of context. David has been anointed as the king of Israel. Saul happens to be the currently reigning king of Israel.

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So David's the anointed but not yet coronated king of Israel. It's a little awkward. Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle and they were gathered at Sukkah which belongs to Judah and encamped between Sukkah and Azekah in Ephes Damim.

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And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the Valley of Elah and drew up in line of battle against the

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Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on one side and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side with a valley between them.

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And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath whose height was six cubits in a span.

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He had a helmet of bronze on his head. He was armed with a coat of mail and the weight of the coat was 5 ,000 shekels of bronze.

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And he had bronze armor on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam and his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron.

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And his shield bearer went before him. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel. Why have you come out to draw up for battle?

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Am I not a Philistine and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.

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If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.

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And the Philistines said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day.

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Give me a man that we may fight together. And when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

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Now, David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem and Judah. Keep that in mind.

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Okay. David, Bethlehem, Ephratha, Judah. Oh, also Shepherd.

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Keep that. Hang on to that for a minute. Okay. Whose name was Jesse, who had eight sons.

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In the days of Saul, the man was already old and advanced in years. The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed

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Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab, the firstborn, next to him,

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Abinadab, and the third, Shammah. David was the youngest. The three eldest followed

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Saul. But David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

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For 40 days, the Philistines came forward and took his stand morning and evening.

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Now, 40 days is an interesting number. I'll just point it out.

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Okay. For 40 days and 40 nights, it rained for Noah.

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The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Christ was tempted in the wilderness for 40 years.

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There's some kind of a thematic, biblically thematic tie -in here. For 40 days, the

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Philistines came forward and took his stand morning and evening. This isn't a throwaway detail.

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This is the type of thing that only God can pull off. Right? Pay attention because this has something to do in the types and shadows about what

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Christ is going to do for us. So, Jesse said to David, his son, take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain.

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These 10 loaves, carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. Also take these 10 cheeses to the commander of their thousand.

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See if your brothers are well, bring some token from them. Now, Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the

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Philistines. David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provision and went as Jesse had commanded him.

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David, shepherd, right? And he came to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry.

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And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle. Army against army. David left things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers.

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And he talked with them. Behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name came up out of the ranks of the

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Philistines and spoke the same words as before David heard them. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man fled from him and were much afraid.

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And the man of Israel said, have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy

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Israel and the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel.

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And David said to the men who stood by him, what shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?

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For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living

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God? People answered him the same way. So shall it be done to the man who kills him.

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Now Eliab, his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men and Eliab's anger was kindled against David.

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And he said, why have you come down? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart for you've come down to see the battle.

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And David said, what have I done now? Was it not but a word? And he turned away from him toward another and spoke in the same way.

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And the people answered him again as before. And when the words that David spoke were heard they repeated them before Saul and sent for him.

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And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with the Philistine.

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And Saul said to David, you're not able to go against him. You are but a youth.

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He's been a man of war from his youth. But David said to him, your servant used to keep sheep for his father.

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And when there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb from the flock and I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth.

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And if he arose against me I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears and this uncircumcised

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Philistine shall be like one of them for he has defied the armies of the living God. The one who delivered me from the paw of the lion,

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Yahweh, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.

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And Saul said to David, go and Yahweh be with you. Now, a little bit of a pause here.

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This part right here, David, okay, this is miraculous.

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Don't let this detail pass you by as if somehow he's speaking on hyperbole. He's not, all right?

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So this is gonna tell us something. So I think a good connector to David here is from Jesus's speech in John chapter 10 where he says these words,

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I am the good shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

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He who is a hired hand and a shepherd who does not own the sheep, sees a wolf coming, leaves the sheep, sheep flee and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

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He flees because he's a hired hand. He cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, my own know me.

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Just as the father knows me and I know the father. I lay down my life for the sheep. So I think a good way to think here since the scriptures are about Christ and up to this point, if you were to follow the scarlet thread of the genealogy of Jesus through the

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Old Testament, you would come to David and you can't go any farther yet because David hasn't had any children.

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He hasn't had any sons. The one son who would have become the heir of the promise of the

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Messiah, which would be Solomon, hasn't been born yet, not even close. So that being the case here, here we have

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David and he's practically the Messiah stepping onto the battlefield himself and God is miraculously saving and protecting

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David already. And this idea here that if a lion or a bear took a lamb from the flock, he says,

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I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. Remember scripture describes Satan as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

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Well, here we have David, a lamb gets snatched and he goes after it if it were me,

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I'd say, well, Mr. Lion, you can have that lamb and I'll just write it off on my taxes.

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But not David, he goes after it. This is the tenacity that our savior goes after us.

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We have a good shepherd, Jesus. And he defeats the devil for us, how? By laying down his life for the sheep.

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You see the connections are so wonderful when you consider it. And then of course, in the gospel of Luke chapter two, we get words like this.

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In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be registered. This was the first registration when

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Quirinius was the governor of Syria and all went to be registered each to his own town. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called

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Bethlehem because he was at the house in the lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

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And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling cloths, laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.

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And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

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So the announcement of the birth of the Messiah, the son of David, ha, in the city of David, Bethlehem of Ephrathah, ha, you starting to see it right here, okay?

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The first person that God announces this to, they're shepherds. And this invokes all the imagery of David.

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And an angel of Yahweh appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them. And they were filled with great fear.

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And the angel said to them, fear not. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.

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For unto you was born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the

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Lord. And so now we get the savior, the savior from who? It's the savior from the devil, savior from the wrath of God, you see, we need a savior.

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And so if you think about it, the themes are actually quite similar. David is going to become the savior of Israel in defeating

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Goliath. But did he? No, he didn't. God did. But we continue.

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A savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You'll find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

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And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising

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God and saying, glory to God in the highest on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased.

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And when the angels went away from them and to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the

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Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.

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And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told to them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

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But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned glorifying

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God and praising God for all that they had heard and seen as it has been told to them. Yeah, the themes are quite rich.

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And so you'll note here, we got this amazing account of David, the shepherd boy, okay?

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Who already has miraculously had his life protected. And he has that same tenacious desire to take back sheep who have been stolen by lions and bears and things like this.

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Sounds a lot like Jesus, our good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. We continue then.

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So Saul said to David, go, Yahweh be with you. So Saul clothed

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David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head, clothed them with a coat of mail.

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And David strapped his sword over his arm and then he tried in vain to go for he had not tested them. And then David said to Saul, I cannot go with these.

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I have not tested them. So David put them off. He took them off. And then he took his staff in his hand.

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He chose five smooth stones from the brook and he put them in his shepherd's pouch. His sling was in his hand and he approached the

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Philistine. The Philistine moved forward and came near to David with his shield bearer in front of him. And when the

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Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance.

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And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? And the

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Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.

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And David said to the Philistine, you come with me with a sword and a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of Yahweh.

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Sabaoth, the Lord of armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

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This day, Yahweh will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head.

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Ah, this sounds kind of interesting too. Strike your head. All right, let me find another biblical text here.

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I see a connection. Genesis chapter three. After Satan and the serpent in the garden deceived our first parents.

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The Lord, he handed out some punishments unto the serpent.

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He said these things, okay? Yahweh Elohim said to the serpent, because thou has done this, thou art cursed above all cattle.

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I'm in King James. Hang on a second here. I'm gonna go back to ESV. Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field.

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On your belly you shall go. Dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.

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He, the seed of the woman, will bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

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I'm just saying this sounds like a dress rehearsal in the types and shadows for Christ's crushing of the serpent's head.

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All right, I will strike you down and cut off your head. I will give, and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the

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Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth. That all on the earth may know that there is a

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God in Israel and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh saves. Yahweh saves.

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David's a savior. Not with sword and spear for the battle is

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Yahweh's and he will give you into our hand. All right, so when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet

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David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, struck the

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Philistine on his forehead and the stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground. It wasn't much of a fight, was it?

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So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling. The Lord did. The battle belongs to the

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Lord. With a sling and with a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David and David ran and stood over the

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Philistine, took his sword, drew it out of its sheath, killed him, cut off his head with it. And when the

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Philistine saw that their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the

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Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaarim as far as Gath and Ekron and the people of Israel came back from chasing the

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Philistines and they plundered their camp. David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem and he put his armor in his tent.

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Huh. Right. The story is about Christ, man.

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It's about Jesus. But here's the thing. You and I aren't called to defeat the devil or the giants or any giant.

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This is nonsense that's being preached here. Filling people's heads with nonsense and putting them away from the real savior, turning themselves into their savior in a way.

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Let me back this up. Elias stood and shouted, the ranks of Israel, why do you come out and line up for battle? I'm a Philistine and you are not the servants of Saul.

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He's questioning them. He's trying to talk down to them. And what I love is in verse 26, David asked the men standing near him, what will be done for the man who kills

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Goliath, this Philistine, and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised

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Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? What I love is David shows up to the scene.

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He's got only a few things in his hand and if you go read the story, Saul says, I put all my armor for battle.

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Just the mere fact that David wanted to fight the giant, the giant who had caused a whole nation of Israel to paralyze, that they had stayed in the moment, stayed in their camp, nobody wanted to face the giant, even with the whole part of you never got to face the

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IRS again. Come on, who's with me? I would be right there. I'd try. I ain't got to pay taxes. I got six stones, bro.

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What else? I'll bring whatever I got. But in the moment, what seemed insurmountable is they said, what do you have?

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And he said, I have a sling in these smooth stones. Can I tell you today, when you walked into a location, you may feel what's in your hand is insurmountable, that it's not enough.

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But I believe. I'm not David. I'm not a savior. I am one who needs to be saved.

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And so are you. So note that the transition from David to you was seamless, happened just like that.

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But this isn't about you slaying your giants. That's not why this text was written.

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Can I tell you today, when you walked into a location, you may feel what's in your hand is insurmountable, that it's not enough. But I believe that the one thing that many people have told you, or that your thoughts have told you weren't enough, is the thing that will actually propel you to slay this giant right now, that's trying to rear his head in your life.

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Because I'm telling you, God said that he gave us everything we need to do all that we are called to do. But so many times the enemy will tell us, it's not enough.

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Or it's enough, but you're not. I'm not David. Neither are you.

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And the difficulties that show up in your life, they're not giants. They are times of trouble.

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And we are admonished by God in his word, to cry out to God, to call upon him in the day of trouble.

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He hears our prayers. This is nonsense. And unfortunately, this is all too common as the type of preaching that passes for preaching the people here at megachurches today, especially ones influenced by the

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Charismatic Movement, Pentecostals in the NAR, and the Word of Faith. You're not

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David. The story of David isn't about you. It's about Christ. It's about God sending a savior miraculously.

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And the connections between Jesus and David are undeniable. He's our savior.

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He's slayed the Goliath in our life, which is the devil, by the way, for us, freed us by laying down his life for the sheep.

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I think you get the idea. So hopefully you found this helpful. Good reminder, by the way, that technique, we call it

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Narcissus, reading yourself into the biblical text. And if you found this helpful, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the description.

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Until next time, may God richly bless you. In the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ is vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.