Seeing Into The Text

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Amen.

Let's pray towards all that.

Lord Jesus, we just want to, when we sing great hymns of the faith like that, and we say sin had left a crimson stain, we're not afraid of acknowledging the destructive nature of sin.

It always kills.

Something always dying in me when I sin.

But also we acknowledge the efficacy, the power, the potency, the sufficiency of the blood of Jesus.

That whatever stains us, the blood of Jesus washes off of us in Jesus' name.

And so because of that, Lord, we're not going to live in the shadow of mistakes that we've made.

We're going to live in the light of the gospel and the freedom that comes from the truth.

So, Lord, we're here to bind up the strong man and take our stuff back.

We're tired of acting like our past has power over us.

We are the forgiven, bought, and paid for people of God.

And so we say, sin left a crimson stain, but the blood of Jesus wash that off of me.

That's no longer who I am.

So whatever it is that I can't seem to get past, whether it's an abortion, a divorce, an affair, or whatever it is, God, in Jesus' name, that doesn't have power over us.

And so we just wash that off of us today, Lord, in Jesus' name we pray.

That God, we want to see into the word and see the wonder that has our name on it.

So give us eyes to see and ears to hear.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You could have a see.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to 1 Samuel chapter 17.

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

1 Samuel chapter 17.

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, I'm on page 239 on your pew Bible.

I want to talk to you, like I said, about seeing into the text.

I want to read a very familiar story, and I want to read a lot of it about David and Goliath.

It's an actual battle that took place between two armies represented by two men, uh, that that and what it means and matters for us in this room this morning.

1 Samuel chapter 17, starting in verse 1.

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

Let's get the story that took place and hear how God wants to use it in our lives.

It says, Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle, and they were gathered at Soko, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Soko and Azekah in Aphizdamin.

And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the valley of Elah, and they drew up in line of battle against the Philistines.

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

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

He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of his coat was five thousand shekels of bronze, and he had a 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 six hundred shekels of iron, and his shield bearer went before him.

Let me just stop right there.

You get in the picture here when the we don't talk about cubits and span and shekels.

So let me tell you in plain English, this cat was nine feet six inches tall, okay?

That means, boys and girls, if you went home today and your mom got on your dad's shoulders, that's about how tall this guy was.

Almost as tall as a basketball goal, okay?

And it says that he had a uh a coat of mail, a coat of armor.

It was like a protective, like metal fish scales.

The thing weighed 125 pounds.

It was this metal shirt he wore into battle.

The tip of his spear weighed 15 pounds.

And so, get this picture.

Nine feet six inches tall.

He wears a hundred and twenty-five-pound shirt, carries a spear that the tip of it weighs 15 pounds.

The shaft of it is like a weaver's beam.

And here's the first thing that just sort of exploded in your mind.

Why does this guy need somebody to go before him carrying a shield?

If I'm nine feet six inches tall and I got all that, I don't need a shield bear.

I need walk-up music.

That's what I need.

I just, I don't need anybody walking.

I'm just gonna be like, gee, DJ, kick that, kick, kick that stuff, and it's gonna just come up.

Y'all gonna make me lose my mind.

Up in here, up in here, and I'm just walking out to that, swagging in my 125-pound shirt, ready to kill some fools.

You white people have no idea what I just sang, do you?

I can see y'all like, could you sing Willie Nelson?

Nobody goes to war with that.

You gotta let these people know your intentions, okay?

But he's got a shield bearer in front of him.

So just try to get past that and hear this.

This is what he does.

He stood and he shouted to the ranks of Israel, why have you come out to draw up for battle?

Am I not a Philistine?

And are you not servants of Saul?

Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.

Because they come out to battle, but they weren't battling.

He says, If he's 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.

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

Give me a man that we may fight together.

When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

Now David was the son of an apaphrite of Bethlehem in Judah named Jesse, who had eight sons.

In the days of Saul, the man was already old and advanced in years.

The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle.

And the names of his three sons who went to battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him was Abinadab, and the third Shamah.

David was the youngest.

The three elders followed Saul.

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

For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening.

And Jesse said to David his son, Take for your brothers at Ephah of this parched grain and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers.

Also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand, and see if your brothers are well, and bring some token from them.

Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elih, fighting with the Philistines.

And David rose early in the morning, he left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions, and he went, as Jesse had commanded him.

And he came to the encampment at the host was as the host was going out to battle lines, shouting the war cry.

And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army.

And David left the things in the charge of the keeper of the baggage, and he ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers.

And as he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and he spoke the same words as before.

And David heard him.

Mark that in your mind.

David heard him.

And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, they fled from him and were much afraid.

And the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man who has come up?

Surely he has come to defy Israel, and the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches, and give him his daughter, and make his house free in Israel.

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

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

And the people answered him in the same way.

And so shall it be done to the man who kills him.

Now Eliab, his oldest brother, heard him, and he spoke when he spoke to the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why have you come down?

And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?

I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.

And David said, What have I done now?

Was it not but a word?

And he turned away from him toward another, and he spoke in the same way, and the people answered him as again as before.

When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him.

And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him.

Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

And Saul said to David, You're not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you're but a youth, and he's been a man of war from his youth.

But David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep sheep from his father.

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

And if he rose against me, I caught him by the beard and I struck him and killed him.

Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.

And David said, The Lord 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.

And Saul said to David, Go, and the Lord be with you.

And then Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a helmet of bronze on his head, and he clothed him with a coat of mail.

And David strapped his sword over his armor, and he tried in vain to go, but he had not tested them.

And then David said to Saul, I cannot go out in these, for I've not tested them.

So David put them off, and then he took his staff in his hand, and 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 Philistine.

Now, I couldn't tell you how many times I've heard or read the story of David and Goliath, but just a couple weeks ago I just started just reading it over and over and praying what David prayed in the Psalms.

Lord, open my eyes so that I could see wonderful things in your law.

And here's six things that I saw in this passage I want to just share with you this morning.

The first one is this is that accommodation robs me of authority.

Accommodation robs me of authority.

Verse 16 tells us that this has been going on for 40 days.

Goliath would come out twice a day in morning and evening, and he would taunt the armies of Israel trying to get them to fight.

So morning and evening for 40 days, that's 80 times they've heard the same thing.

This is why you need people in your life who can hear things anew and be bothered by them.

Ask yourself this question today.

Is there anything that I've been hearing for so long that it no longer bothers me?

Let me say it again.

Is there anything you've been hearing for so long from the same person that it no longer bothers you?

Like, for example, a couple years ago I was having dinner with some friends, and it was uh a man and his wife and a couple of their kids were there, and and and we got the guy came and took our drink order, and then they left, and then the guy said, uh, the the man said, I need to take my pills.

And I was like, oh, oh, oh, oh, okay.

There's water uh coming.

Uh be just a second.

And I noticed when the guy said that that the whole family kind of was kind of like, mmm.

And I leaned over to one of the kids and said, uh, so does your dad take medication?

And he said, Yeah, my dad takes oxycottin.

Anybody?

No?

You hear that, you don't go like Scooby-Doo?

Like, what?

Uh and the boy proceeded to tell me that four years ago my dad had back surgery, and my dad still needs pills.

Y'all don't have no pill-popping friends, do you?

I can tell I'm talking to a bunch of pearly.

I was kind of like, what just happened?

He just got off.

And the man just kind of looked across the table at me like, mm-mm.

And I was like, hey, so anyway, what type of what sports are you playing these days?

And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And at the end of it, we're walking out, and I saw the man and I said, hey, maybe sometime we could come back and visit that.

Because see, you hear things so long, it just becomes part of the thing.

I'm not mad at my friend.

I didn't look at him and go, oh, man, blah, blah, blah.

I just, I was struck by it.

No one else was struck by it.

Because hear this again.

You can hear things so long that you just learn to accommodate them.

And here's the danger in that.

Whatever you accommodate, you have to tolerate.

And whatever you tolerate, you eventually have to become.

Let me say that again.

Whatever you accommodate, whatever you make room for, and just allow into your life, into your business, into your friendship, into your relationship, whatever you accommodate, you have to tolerate.

And whatever you tolerate, you have to become.

Like I do not like being disrespected in my family.

Now, my kids are very respectful young ladies.

My wife's respectful, never spoken disrespectfully to me.

Every once in a while, my kids lose sight of my awesomeness.

Uh, like my oldest got a little sideways, and she's about 16 and said something to me, and I just said, I don't know who.

I'm sure you've got people in your life you can talk to like that.

I'm equally sure I'm not one of them.

And she looked at me and I said, You hear me?

And she said, Yes, sir.

I said, This is not a contest, but I'm a respectful man, so you will give me some respect, or we will have problems.

Yes, sir.

And I went to her a couple hours later, I said, We good?

And she goes, Yeah.

I said, You can speak up, you can push back, you can share your opinion, but what you can do is live in my house, eat my food, sleep in my bed, sleep under my roof, and disrespect me.

Not gonna happen.

It's not now.

Relax, y'all kind of like, oh, you're a harsh man.

No, I'm not.

I'm a gracious man.

My next life, I want me for a dad.

And I tell my kids that.

And they just laugh and roll their eyes and they go, well, actually, it's not bad.

But see, here's the thing: it's not about getting big on my kids, it's just this.

Hey, I'm not going to accommodate something that I'm not willing to tolerate.

Because if I accommodate that, then I gotta tolerate that, then I gotta become that.

Then to fit into my family, I gotta disrespect myself.

I'm not willing to do that.

And so ask yourself today, because accommodation robs me of authority, ask yourself, what am I tolerating that I shouldn't?

Or maybe it's this who am I tolerating that I shouldn't?

Men, if you want to get an interesting conversation going, ask your wife, hey, is there anybody in my life I'm tolerating that I shouldn't?

And she'll be like, You want to appetise list?

Some of your foolish friends, I'll put them down here twice.

Because here's the thing David's brothers and all the armies of Israel, they've heard it 80 times.

They just kind of grown numb to it.

David shows up and he he he he hears it for the first time and he's like, excuse me?

Hello?

Were we gonna do something about this?

He responds with authority.

His brothers and everybody else just makes room for it.

They just allow for accommodation because the God defies the armies of Israel and defies the living God, and they're just like, oh, well, you know, that's kind of he's kind of tall and everything.

It's possible to hear things so often, so long.

You just grow accustomed to it as if it's normal and you could no longer act with authority towards it.

And so guess what?

You have to accommodate it.

You just have to.

It's like uh I'm not endorsing this, but if you probably saw this on the news this past week, some like 80, 90-year-old woman shot and killed her 70-year-old son because he tried to put her in an old folks home.

And somebody said to me, What did you hear about that?

I said, Yeah, I said, that woman said, I'm not accommodating that.

And the guy said, What do you mean?

And I said, I'm preaching about it Sunday.

She said, I'm not going to old, I'm not going to accommodate that.

That's just, I'm not approving of that, but that's the principle.

You ought to have things in your life that you're like, I'm not going to accommodate that.

Not going to do that.

Even when no one's looking, I'm not going to accommodate that.

Because then I'm going to have to tolerate that.

And then I'm going to become that.

It all starts with accommodation.

Second principle we see is simply this I'm responsible for obedience.

God is responsible for outcomes.

It's verse 17 and 18.

I'm responsible for obedience.

God is responsible for outcomes.

Later in the Old Testament, women and children, when David and Saul would walk into a city, they would line the roads and sing, Saul has slain his thousands, but David has slain his tens of thousands.

And you know how all that got started?

He got up one day and his father said, Take this grain and this bread and these cheeses to your brothers out at the front lines and bring me back a report and a token of their well-being.

And David, out of obedience to his father, did what his father said.

Students, you're in the point right now, you're demonstrating to God how much you can be trusted with by the way you obey your mom and dad, or your mom or your dad if you live with just one of your parents.

And so David didn't get up and say, Today I'm going to make history.

Today they're going to write songs about me.

No, today he got up and his dad said, Do this, and David did it.

Why?

Because David understood this principle that I'm responsible for obedience and God's responsible for outcomes.

Don't waste your life trying to create something.

Just obey.

And the outcomes will create themselves.

Because if you and I go into this thinking about what the outcome will be, it's no longer obedience, it's manipulation.

We're kind of doing the right thing.

Like, hey, you're noticing this?

No, notice this, but just obey.

Leave the results to God.

Third principle we see in the text is simply this: that there's power in really believing some things.

There's power in really, circle the word really.

Actually believing some things.

Not giving mental assent or hey, religious tradition.

Hey, we kind of do this for a long time, so I guess it's true, but actually in your head and your heart and in the marrow of your bones, believing some things.

They told David once, by the way, they said, uh, this is what's going to happen.

The king, whoever kills this guy, the king's going to enrich you, and he's going to give you his daughter, and your house is going to be free.

You know what that means when he says your house is going to be free in Israel?

You're never going to pay taxes.

Did anybody see the movie Armageddon where Bruce Willis and a bunch of oil-filled people saved the world?

Hello?

Yes, yes, you're Americans, aren't you?

You've seen Marnageddon.

It was on TV just the other night.

And I love when they're negotiating with NASA about what they're going to pay them.

And he says, Well, my God, it's got a list of demands.

And one of them is never pay taxes ever again.

Now, if you own a business, can you imagine never paying taxes ever again?

No payroll tax.

No personal income tax.

None of that.

That's what he says.

And David is looking out there at Goliath.

He's like, now tell me again what the king's going to do.

He's going to enrich you.

He's going to give you his daughter and your household.

He's never going to pay taxes ever again.

Now, to be clear, David wasn't looking at it through the lens of reward, but instead through the lens of responsibility.

He was just like, because David was compelled.

When I say there's power in really believing some things, see, here's the thing.

David looks at this.

Everyone else is looking at Goliath through the lens of themselves.

David is looking at this through the lens of God.

And because he's seen what God can do, he is convinced about what God is fixing to do.

And so he's fixated on that.

And he's like, okay, just give me the details here, because we're about to set the kingdom down right on this old boy with his nine foot six himself and his 125-pound shirt.

I'm going to be wearing at home when this is all over with.

Why?

Because he believes something.

He doesn't believe Christianity is not believing 44,000 things.

Let's believe in a few things that have been set on fire by them.

Matter of fact, before you go to bed tonight, you should just make a list.

Here's five things I'm going to believe to the day I die.

Here's five things.

Come hell or high water.

I'm never going to change my mind about.

Now, why do I tell you that?

Look at me.

Because nine months from now, when you face a big decision, go back and read that list.

It'll help you make the decision.

What you believe should already just determine some decisions in your life.

For David, it was very simple.

It was very, very simple.

It was that, hey, above all things, God is preeminent.

No one's more important than God, which is why David says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

For David, the thing he believed was a simple truth that God's preeminent in all things.

This guy's put himself above God.

Where's the line of guys that want to cut his head off over this kind of heresy?

No, they're cowering down back here in the trenches, kind of going, hey, just keep your head down.

We'll negotiate a peace treaty.

No.

The Bible talks about this kind of preeminence in Colossians chapter 1, starting verse 15 with these words.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

Of Jesus.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominion or rulers or authorities.

All things were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

He is the head of the body of the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

Hear that last thing.

That in everything he might be preeminent.

In other words, he is all these things for one simple purpose, that in everything he might be preeminent.

Which is why I had been haunted by the song we sang a few minutes ago.

I want to see Jesus lifted high.

I've been haunted by that for a couple weeks.

I was not here a couple weeks ago.

My wife and I had just been through a brutal three or four months.

And we just said, let's just get out of town and go somewhere.

Our daughter went to camp.

We disappeared, went to Austin for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, came back Monday.

And so we set it up.

Some friends had given us a gift card to the Omni.

So I called, made the reservation, and I said, Hey, I'm going to use the gift card.

They said, Well, we need a credit card to hold it.

And I said, Okay, but I want to pay with this gift card.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

When you check in, just tell them.

So I checked in, told them, hey, got the gift card right here.

So just remember that.

They said, okay, we got it.

So we're there.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Now, this is my confession.

When I go on vacation, I don't think about going to church.

I think this.

I think, you know, Jesus, I go to church three times every Sunday.

You're sorry, rascals come once.

You're like, oh, the service went eight minutes over.

Shut up.

Try three times.

This is what you get when I don't get to preach very often.

It gets backed up in me.

Gotta get it out.

And so I'm thinking, we're on vacate.

We ain't gotta go no church.

And I'm I'm like I got like shorts and t-shirts for the whole time.

I'm open to closet.

My wife's kind of not a dress-up outfit, but it's not shorts and t-shirt.

And we have friends that are on staff at a church there in Austin.

Good church, great church.

I just like I gotta go.

We gotta talk.

I don't want to talk.

My wife kind of, I get to feel that my wife kind of wants to go.

We went to church.

And not because I'm hen pecked, I just want to serve my wife and make her happy.

And so we go to church, and I'm sitting there, and about three songs in, the guy in the bed, my friend Brett starts singing, I want to see Jesus lifted high.

And I was like, whoa, hello, me too.

And they just kept singing it.

And so that's the only line I learned from the whole song.

And I sung it the rest of the night.

The guy got up to preach and he read Romans 13 about being subjection to the authority in the land.

He talked about immigrants, apparently it was National Immigrant Day or something, refugee day or something.

And he read the Bible and then told us his opinion about separating kids from their moms down the border.

Which I'm not for that.

I think that's horrible.

But here's the thing for all you want to be preachers.

If you're gonna read the Bible, find the moral courage to actually preach the Bible.

Don't read the Bible and then give me your political spin.

So I just protested.

I just started working on a sermon, and my wife just kept looking at me, kind of like, I see what you're doing.

You're not paying attention.

He's not preaching.

I ain't gotta pay attention.

This is not a sermon.

This is a little he is pandering to these 20-year-olds about the state of the country.

They're all liberals when they're 20.

Let them make some money, they'll become conservatives.

So I'm just sitting there, and like he read, it says in Romans 13, I'm gonna make it up.

It says, let everyone be in subjection to the authority of the land.

There's no authority except that which is given of God.

And then he goes on to say about these authority, male and female, police officers and people, that they are God's instruments that they're instruments of God's wrath to punish the evildoer.

And so instead of saying to his church, hey, by the way, don't run from a cop when a cop says, don't run.

Now, are there crooked cops?

There's some.

Are all cops crooked?

Absolutely not.

But we're such an activist country.

We just look for it, and preaching is not appealing to people's activism.

It's just not.

And so I was just like, really?

This is what you're doing.

You're not helping these people.

This feels good when you're 20.

When you're 30, you don't have the spiritual fortitude or the belief structure to support the kind of life the Bible talks about.

And so you just forget it all.

So he just prattled on.

So I just worked on a sermon.

And my wife is kind of looking at me like, I see you, and I'm like, you can't get on to me in church.

I'm gonna do what I want.

So I just kept on.

But the thing that I just kept, I even wrote it in my notes.

I want to see Jesus lifted high.

It became my prayer.

We walked out of there, we went to dinner.

I'm singing the whole way there.

I want to see Jesus lifted high.

My wife's like, could you sing another line of the song?

After dinner, I sang it, walk into the truck.

She's like, babe, come on.

I went, for you, it's a song.

For me, it's a prayer.

I want to see, in all things, Christ preeminent.

That didn't convince her.

The next morning, I went to check out and I said, Hey, remember, I have a gift card, and the guy behind the counter said it to Omni in Austin.

He said, Well, I've never done one of these, so I may have to leave it on your credit card.

No.

No.

There's people in line.

See, here's the thing about growing up white trash.

You can't embarrass me.

You just can't.

I've been embarrassed so much by my dad growing up.

You can't embarrass me.

My mom came to get me at AC's pool hall one time with pink rollers in her hair, looking in the window.

My friend's like, hey man, didn't know your mom.

Shut up, I'll kill you with this pool cue right here.

So I said, Excuse me?

And he goes, Yeah, I don't know how to do a gift certificate.

Well, you better figure it out because I ain't paying for this.

And he said, Well, sir, you may have to because we have a lot of customers.

You ain't gonna get to one of them until you satisfy me.

He said, Well, I just want to do this.

I said, Hey, life's hard, and it's harder if you're stupid, so don't be stupid.

Now, the guy says across the camera, he can't help it.

He's got taught corporate speech.

He says, Well, sir, you don't have to call me stupid.

I didn't call you stupid, okay?

I can be responsible for what I say.

I cannot be responsible for what my words make you feel.

Ladies, that applies in marriage too.

We are responsible for what we say, not what you feel.

And the guy's like, I said, I didn't call you stupid.

I warned you against the consequences of being stupid.

And he said, Well, you are kind of funny.

And I said, Don't encourage me.

And so he just kept hitting buttons and he said, Yes, sir, I'm sorry.

I said, You can apologize all you want.

You're gonna have to change this behavior for which you're apologizing.

Uh, what does that mean?

Because, see, you can be a mass murderer and just go, I'm sorry.

And we're supposed to go, okay.

No, no.

Hey, do you get paid for working here?

Do you know what you're doing?

Go find somebody that does.

He said, Let me get a manager.

And he walks off to get a manager, and guess what?

The Holy Spirit said, Hey, let's sing.

We want to see Jesus lifted high now.

And I was like, Okay, because Jesus being lifted high means I get my way, right?

And so he came back because he said to me before he left, he said, Well, let me make a copy of your gift certificate and then I'll mail you a receipt.

So you can take your wife out to an omni resort on me?

No.

You ain't doing that.

Why am I gonna trust you?

You could just call that in.

He goes, Yeah, I could, but you could trust me.

I don't know you, man.

I don't trust half the people I know.

Why do you think I'm gonna trust you?

The man in the other, he just said his secrets down and he goes, Y'all take your time.

I'm enjoying this.

The guy left, and the Holy Spirit said, Let's sing now, Neil.

And so I started just singing.

I want to see Jesus lifted high.

And the Holy Spirit said, I'm not lifted high by this.

Oh Lord, that sounds like my wife's voice now.

Get behind me.

Get behind me.

You know how she likes to micromanage me, Lord.

Get it off of me.

And the guy came back, and you know what came out of my mouth?

He came back to the manager.

She goes, Is there a problem?

I said, I think this can be rectified by this.

Why don't you make a copy of my gift certificate and just email me the receipt?

You have my email?

She goes, Yes, we've got you.

You're a select member.

We've got you on file here.

We'll email that to you.

She goes, That's it?

I said, That's it.

Thanks for your help.

And I walked to the elevator singing, I want to see Jesus lifted high.

My wife met me at the elevator.

She said, How was that?

Seamless.

Come on, let's go.

Got home a couple days later.

We'd go outside to mow.

And I'm still singing every day, all day.

I want to see Jesus lifted high.

I mean, every once in a while I throw my hands up, whoa! My wife would get ready to mow and she said, Hey, be praying for our neighbors over there.

Their daughter wrecked their mom's car, and it's totaled.

I said, What happened?

They said, Well, she had her cousin's dog, and the dog hit the power window button, and she's afraid it's gonna jump out, and she got distracted and hit a tree.

Hey, look at me.

You don't get distracted, just watch the road, just get that dog by somebody and throw him in the floorboard.

Ain't gonna hurt the dog.

They're cartridge.

And so I just thought, in a nanosecond, I just thought, a dog, this is why my insurance is so high, because you people can't focus.

So I'm going out there and I'm mowing the yard, and guess what?

I'm singing.

I'm mowing my yard thinking.

I'm singing, I want to see Jesus lifted high.

And I turned and I looked over, and my neighbor's grass is taller than mine.

He said, You know what lift me high right now?

No.

But I get the distinct feeling you're gonna tell me.

Hey, they're at the salvage yard, getting their personal effects out of their car.

Remember when your daughter's car got totaled?

You had that experience so you could comfort others with the comfort you've received from God.

You think they want to come home and mow their grass?

So, what would lift me high is if you just mowed their yard.

Are you kidding me?

How about if I just sing more?

So I mow their yard, the front yard.

I try to minimize it.

I try to interpret what the Holy Spirit's saying.

So I mowed the front, and I was coming back into my yard.

He said, We got a backyard too.

I know this about my neighbor.

Every time they mow the front, they don't mow the back.

I heard guns and roses when I opened that gate.

Welcome to the jungle.

It was that tall.

I was like, no.

I slammed the door.

These people don't mow their young bodies.

That's my responsibility.

And you know what he said?

He said, just shut up and mow and sing.

It was so tall.

My mower, I had to hold the front wheels up and mow a little bit.

And I'm singing.

I wanna see Jesus lifted high.

And I mow a little bit, and I'm like sweating through so bad.

The other neighbor on the other side came over and said, Are you okay?

I said, Well, she goes, I heard like screeching.

I said, That was me singing.

It's hot out here.

She goes, Okay, I just didn't know.

I thought you were and so I mow and I'm coming out of the backyard and they pull up.

That little 16-year-old girl got out of the car, like, I'm fixing to go in the house and take a whooping.

The mom got out and just looked at me and went.

Now, these are my neighbors, I love these neighbors.

She said to me the other day, she goes, Yeah, we don't know how to take you.

And I said, What?

And she said, You speak cryptically, and we can't figure it out.

My kids are scared of you.

And I was like, So I'm pushing the mower across her yard, and she does this, and I just turn loose the mower and it stopped, and I just want to see Jesus lifted high.

Her husband, there he goes again.

Crank my mower back up, finished my yard.

Why?

It's the power of just really believing something.

And here's what I'm asking you to do walk out of here in a few minutes and just be willing to believe.

Do you do you want to see Jesus lifted high in your marriage, in your finances?

Then you've got to ask yourself, is there anywhere where Jesus is not, where Christ is not preeminent?

Because for David, that's what it's about.

I just it this is all about Jesus.

This is all about God.

No, no, no.

You're not going to defy the armies of the living God.

Are you kidding me?

Here's the fourth thing you see in the text is it expect resistance when you upset the status quo.

Expect resistance when you upset the status quo.

It is going to happen.

David begins to kind of act differently in Eliab, verse 28 and 30.

Eliab, his oldest brother, he heard him and he got mad.

And he said to him, Why do you come down?

And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?

Nobody has the capacity to insult you like your family.

He says, Hey, and with who have you left those few sheep?

In other words, what you're doing is not that important.

We're out here going to war for God.

You've got a few sheep in the wilderness.

Who's responsible for them?

And David goes, What have I done now?

Translation, this is not the only time this has happened.

Look at me.

Here's what David's done.

David didn't do anything wrong.

The only thing that David did, well, what's being realized here is the problem is that he's becoming somebody that his brother can never see himself becoming.

Eliab is mad at himself and he takes it out on David.

Just because someone's mad at you doesn't mean you've done something wrong.

Matter of fact, there are many days in the week people are mad at me.

Can I just tell you that?

Going back to my friend, who is kidding says dad has to take his pills four years after back surgery, a minor back procedure, uh later that week, I said, Hey, can you get coffee or lunch or something?

Yeah, sure.

And so we get coffee and lunch, and we're sitting down the first five minutes.

And I said, Here's the things I want to talk about while we're here.

I want to talk about this and this and this, and then I want to talk about your use of pills.

And he goes, What do you mean?

And I said, if you're still having pain four years after a back surgery, you should go see a doctor and have another surgery.

But my concern is it's not pain, it's now addiction.

And this may surprise you, but that man left that table mad at me.

I know.

And said things to me that I cannot repeat in church.

And we got out of the parking lot.

I stuck my handout and I said, Hey, I just want to.

I'm love, I'm trying to love you.

Well, don't love me.

I ain't shaking your hand.

Okay.

Now, to his credit, probably four minutes later, called me and said, I need help.

Can you help me get help?

Oh, absolutely.

I said, I'm so proud of you.

See, it's possible to just accommodate, to hear something.

Sometimes our Dixon calls out to us and we just go, I gotta accommodate this, I gotta tolerate this, and then you become somebody you've never wanted to be.

And where did it start?

Because you just made a little bit of room.

You just didn't speak up and say, hey, I don't think that needs to be a part of your life.

And so expect resistance when you upset the status quo.

Eliab's mad at himself.

He just takes it out on David because that's safer.

Fifth thing you see is what happens in private determines what happens in public.

We're about done.

You still with me?

I'm just trying to keep you until the rain passes.

Because I care about you more than me.

Amen.

Let me say this.

Don't miss this.

What happens in private determines what happens in public.

It's verses 31 to 37.

Uh, David, then they're like, what do you think you're doing?

And David goes back to what happened in private.

He says, When I was with my father's sheep, a lion and a bear came after them.

And I've killed lions and bears, and this guy's gonna be like them.

Why?

Because he's seen what God can do in private.

He's been living in obedience to his father when no one was looking.

By the way, you are who you really are when you do what only you and God know about.

You come down here and shuck and jive and sing songs and raise your hands and you convince everybody.

You're like the Kardashians.

There's no substance in there.

If you listen to those people talk, one of my walking through, my oldest daughter was watching a couple years ago, some show keeping up the Kardashians, and she goes, Dad, you want to watch this?

I said, What is it?

Oh, it's about the Kardashians.

And I said, Who's that?

And she's like, Willie Dad?

I mean, she's got like 29 million followers on Instagram with us.

I don't care.

I said, You know what?

This is a big feedback loop.

They get followers because she takes naked pictures of herself and posts them and then a company comes along and says, we want to use those people to sell our product to.

Thank you.

We'll give you money, Kim.

And that's how they become famous.

They have no marketable skills.

If it weren't for social media, those girls couldn't get a job at Taco Bell.

Now you're thinking one or two things right now.

You're thinking, why do you hate people?

I don't.

Just don't be duped.

What am I saying?

I'm saying in our social media culture where everyone's a brand, people give most of their energy to impression management instead of character development.

And when the moment arises, look at me, when the moment arises, they can't rise to it.

It is not in them to do.

They want to, they beat themselves up, they feel bad, but because they didn't pay the price in private when no one was looking, they couldn't say no to the temptation, so they can't say yes to the opportunity.

And hear me, students, unless you learn to say no to the temptation, you'll never know how to say yes to the opportunity.

And because David had said no in private, and yet to the temptation and yes to God, he could say yes to the opportunity.

And people sang about him.

Saul has slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands.

Unless we grasp the significance of this in our lives, unless we grasp the significance of this, our lives will be about compensation instead of demonstration.

We will compensate for who we are not instead of demonstrating who we are.

Last thing I see in the text is simply this know and like who you are so much that you can resist being anybody else.

Let me say that again.

Know and like who you are so much that you can resist being anybody else.

When finally they realize, oh, David's going out there.

Then Saul says, Well, let me put you in my armor.

And David lets him and he puts a silly helmet on his head and he walks around.

He's like, I can't go out in this.

This just doesn't fit me.

It's not me.

Takes it off.

And the Bible just winks at us and says, and he gets five smooth stones and puts them in a shepherd's bag.

Shepherds carry a shepherd's bag.

They don't carry a sword.

Just can you find the courage today just to be yourself?

Just to kind of say, you know, I don't need armor and a hat and a sword.

I got a shepherd's bag.

I keep my shepherd's stuff in here, and I got a sling.

And I've been with God.

And I'm looking at this guy right here through the lens of what God's done over here.

And I'm not afraid.

I'm driving around town in a truck, and it doesn't say fear not afraid.

It says ain't scared.

And so when the opportunity comes, notice that there's an order here.

Know and like who you are so much.

Know yourself.

What do I mean?

Have you taken the time to get to know who you really are?

Do you know yourself on such a level that you're able to like yourself?

Have you told yourself the truth about yourself so often that you have come to believe the truth about who you really are?

Because when you do that, beloved, you don't go out in life wearing other people's costumes.

You don't walk into a social gathering, ladies, and going, God, I wish I had her body.

Man, her house was really nice.

I wish I had that truck.

I wish I had this.

I wish I had that.

I wish I was a baller.

I wish I was taller.

I wish.

No.

Why?

Because you look at me, we're done.

You know who you are, and you like who you are.

Let's pray together.

Take a moment and just ask the Lord, what had your name on it today?

What stood out to you?

What stands out to you even now?

What is it that you're like, man, I want to think about that this afternoon.

So you need to learn, you need to teach yourself to read the Bible and see into the text.

And see and savor everything that's there.

Because it's it's it's deeply thought-provoking.

And so here's what I want you to do for the next 30 seconds.

I want you to think about one thing that you're like, I want to think about that later.

I want to put that in my to-go box today and take that with me.

What's your one thing today?

Father, our confession today is that we're tired of cowering down, we're tired of accommodating things, we're tired of bracing for people, and accommodating them and their nonsense, and then having to tolerate it, and then becoming somebody we never wanted to be.

So no wonder there's so much self-medicating behavior going on.

Because we don't know ourselves, because we've just allowed other people to dress us up and their ideas and send us out into this world.

And so, Lord, let us steward our one thing this week.

Let us think about it, let us respond to it, let us act towards it.

Lord, thank you that you open our eyes so we can see wonderful things in your law.

Because your word is wonderful.

Let it fill us with wonder today.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Everyone said, Amen.

Thanks for your presence today.

Uh we'll be available down front if you have any questions.

Or if you just say, hey man, I I I need somebody to pray for me.

We'd love to.

It's like what I mentioned earlier.

We want you, if you come to this church, we want you to be so known that people know how to pray for you.

Uh that doesn't mean you know everybody, because if you knew everybody, some of them would get on your nerves.

You ain't got to be everybody's best friend just because you're all Christians, okay?

Uh, but we want you to be known.

And so uh you're safe here.

This is what we do every Sunday.

We worship God and we teach the Bible.

We try to teach it in a way that it makes sense, okay?

Uh again, if you're a guest, hopefully you've had a chance to fill out one of those connect cards.

You'll drop it in the wooden box for the rest of us.

If today's the day that you worship through giving, take care of that before you go, okay?

Let me just make one thing, or really two things by way of quick announcement.

Uh, not this Wednesday, but next Wednesday, July 18th.

We're having a men's outing.

We're going bowling at the Regal 22 out here, which used to be the Palladium.

It's from 7 to 9 p.m.

The cost is$15 a person.

If you'd like to come to that, we'll shoot an email out later this week.

Uh you can just email Wade at grandparkway.org.

He is coordinating all that.

We'll get it all set up and signed up.

We just want to get together with our friends and just enjoy hanging out and bowling together.

Two hours.

We need we need you to register so we can know how many lanes to rent, okay?

The other thing I want you to save the day.

Put it in your phone if you would.

October 19th and 20th is our men's retreat.

We're doing something different this year.

We're not going off to Piney Woods.

Uh we want to try to capture more men.

We always have a good group, but it's kind of limited because of some guys like, hey, I can't sleep in a bunk bed or whatever.

So this year we're going to do it out the warehouse.

It's just like when we go off.

We're going to be out there Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, then we'll be back here for worship.

Jason Kraft from Amarella is going to be our speaker.

Uh but instead of eating camp food, uh Friday night, eat before you come.

And we'll start probably 7:30 or so.

Uh but Saturday morning we'll have Whataburger taquitos.

For lunch, we'll have Chick-fil-A.

And for dinner that night, we'll have Rudy's barbecue.

And so, and then we'll just go home and sleep in our own beds.

We'll send you more information, but the dates are October 19th and 20th, and we'd love all of you men to be a part of that with us, okay?

Stand to your feet if you will.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

God gave you the Bible because you were created to be filled with wonder.

It never runs out.

Depart now and take this wonder with you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.