May 16, 2026, ”Bringing a Sling to a Sword Fight” Pastor Jamey Houghton

Hello and welcome to church. We're so

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today. God bless and enjoy our worship

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>> [music]

>> One of my favorite things when I was a

young man

was playing basketball. I went to

Escondido Adventist Academy. Anybody

ever heard of Escondido Adventist

Academy?

Uh all right, a couple of you. All

right. It's in uh North San Diego

County. I went there for 11 years.

And

they had a very strong basketball

program.

And uh I My brother had played varsity

basketball. I wanted to play varsity

basketball. And I worked very hard to

try and someday make the team. I can

remember being in eighth grade, not

quite old enough yet, and and uh they

would be having varsity practice come

in, and I would be in there shooting

around hoping that the coach would see

me shooting and that I would do good so

that hopefully he would let me be on the

team when I was in high school. Loved uh

playing basketball.

And uh this is me as a senior playing

basketball. So, seniors, this is me at

about your age playing on the uh varsity

basketball team for Escondido. Loved

basketball. We had so much fun. The uh

the friends that I played with friends

for life. Whenever we see each other,

even after many, many years, uh it's

like time never never passed.

We made the playoffs my senior year, and

we were a Division 5 school, which meant

the smallest of the schools. My

graduating class had 24.

So, when I see the graduating class from

CA, I'm like, "Wow, that's huge."

My graduating class had 24, so we were a

small school. The Division 1 schools

were the biggest schools in San Diego

with thousands of students, public

schools.

And we would be playing different

schools, most of them the smaller

schools. In the playoffs, in around the

third round of the playoffs, we played a

school called Horizon Christian.

Horizon Christian recruited specifically

for basketball.

Now, they weren't a huge school,

but they were big enough to be a

Division 4 school.

And so, we ended up being matched or

mismatched with Horizon Christian in the

third round of the playoffs.

And I say mismatched because Horizon

Christian had been beating Division 1

schools by 40, 50, sometimes 60 points.

Many of the parents of the kids who

played here were NBA players. The center

was 6'11".

Backup center was 6'8".

All of the seniors that were playing had

full ride scholarships to play college

basketball. And here we were,

small little Escondido Adventist Academy

playing them in the third round of the

playoffs.

And there was a defense that we played,

a 1-3-1, where I had to swing down low.

If the ball went on the far side, I had

to swing down low and try and box out

the center.

And I remember seeing this center and

walking past him on the court, and I was

like, "This guy is huge."

And I knew that on this play I had to go

down and try and body this guy.

And so, the play happened. I was like,

"I know where to go." I went around and

got in front of this 6'11" center and

started backing him up. I got in

position. I started pushing him back,

pushing him back. I was like, "All

right, I'm getting position on this guy.

This guy's This guy's not as strong as

he looks."

This is going all right. Sure enough,

the shot misses, and it comes long, but

I'm in the right place. I've got

position. I should be able to get the

rebound.

Well, the giant behind me also saw the

shot.

And I felt I felt a knee kind of come

right in my backside.

And then I felt these massive hands grab

my waist.

And then I was lifted off the ground.

And literally he put me on his knee,

lifted me up, set me down over here and

jumped up and got the ball.

Like I was a child.

And I was so mad. I was like, "He can't

do that. Nobody the No whistle was

blown. He just manhandled me."

Moved me out of the way, got the

rebound, and and that was it. Our goal

had to not be was to not be blown out by

50.

Uh we we wanted to not be beaten by more

than 20, which we pulled off. It was It

was We and we called that close

uh because it was such a

such an incredible team.

Um

but uh I'll never forget how big this

guy was. When you got up close to him,

you're like, "Man, this guy is huge."

Who is the biggest person you know? Do

you know anybody super tall? We have We

have a couple tall people that go to

this church. One of my best friends

growing up,

he was the oldest of three boys, and we

hung out all the time. And I remember

when his littlest brother was born,

um

cuz he brought him to show and tell at

school.

Some people bring like their pet snake

or whatever, and he brought his little

brother.

And um

I remember the doctors saying, you know

how they the doctors they'll tell you,

"Well, we think they're going to be

about this tall." The doctors were like,

"This kid's going to be a big one."

And my buddy T.J. was 6'4", that's

respectably big. His His middle brother,

Michael, was 6'3", and so we're like,

"Well, all right, maybe he'll be right

around there."

And um

the youngest one, Mark, really kept on

growing. And we used to We used to pound

on this kid.

Um

we don't anymore because that's how big

he is now. That's me and him last week.

Uh we our paths crossed and he ended up

being 6'11.

Um and you can see just how how massive

and when you stand next to him and

especially cuz I've known him his whole

life. We're we're like brothers. When I

see him, you want to go give him a bear

hug, right?

I feel like a child.

Because I'm I'm hugging him like right

around here.

And he's he's a good kid and so he'll

kind of lean over a little bit and kind

of make me feel a little better about

things, but big guy, big big guy. I

remember when I lived in Thailand there

would be these these huge European guys

that would show up out of nowhere like

7'2 walking down these these uh these

roads on vacation. Now, height is is

kind of like So if you look in the Bible

at the story of David and Goliath,

there's another tall person besides

Goliath in the story and that is King

Saul.

The Bible says that King Saul was head

and shoulders taller than everyone else

in Israel. So, you can see probably

proportionately Saul was kind of like my

brother Mark here compared to me as

respect in respect to all the rest of

the people in Israel. He was a big guy,

head and shoulders taller than everyone

else in Israel the Bible says. Now, for

height,

this is Robert Wadlow. He is the the

tallest person on modern record, 8'11.

8'11. On the left you see Shaquille

O'Neal who's 7'1

um with with like a wax figure of him.

Their their lifetimes didn't didn't

cross, but they made a a figure of him

and that's Shaq, one of the most

dominant centers in NBA history, 7'1 300

whatever pounds,

standing next to him and looks like a

dwarf. Just tiny.

Imagine standing next to someone who's

8'11.

This is a picture of Robert Wadlow with

his family.

Notice the tie around his neck.

>> [laughter]

>> That's like a regular man's tie.

And look how short it is.

Just absolutely huge. Now, we read about

giants in the Bible in multiple places.

We see in Genesis before the flood, it

says that there were giants in the land

during those times. Now,

he's not the only giant in his family

that is in this story. We see in 2

Samuel, I think 21, and in 1 Chronicles

20, we see that he's got some family

that are quite large as well, and very

likely they were on the sidelines of the

story that we're going to be looking at

today.

But size is an incredible thing when you

when you're next to someone who's huge,

you feel extra extra small.

And that's the comparison that we see in

our story today. The story of of David

and Saul we pick up from 2 weeks ago.

Saul has departed from following God.

David was anointed by Samuel secretly.

Saul doesn't know this, but David knows

it, and David goes back to his sheep. He

knows that he's going to be the next

king of Israel. In fact, it was he was

anointed in front of his brothers.

And yet he goes back out to the field

waiting on God to open up doors.

Now,

the Israelites and the Philistines often

at each other's throats, often in

battle, often fighting against each

other for a variety of different

reasons. And here in this story in in 1

Samuel 17, we find that

the Israelites and the Philistines are

at war again.

And we have an introduction

to a very intimidating giant.

And in verse 4 of 1 Samuel 17, it says,

"And a champion went out from the camp

of the Philistines named Goliath from

Gath, whose height was 6 cubits and a

span." All right. Nobody really uses

cubits anymore. How tall was this guy?

There's a lot of different ideas roaming

around about how tall Goliath was.

And if you look at the the measurement

of cubits,

um you'll find that that just the six

cubits alone is around 9 ft tall, but it

says more than 9 ft tall. It says six

cubits and a span.

Well, what's a span? And how do you

measure that? And how much taller than 9

ft was Goliath?

There's several different ideas, but

there's it's for sure that he was taller

than just the six cubits. It says and a

span, another another amount of

measurement, but we read a little bit

more about this in the book Spiritual

Gifts, volume 4A, page 79 that is

interesting on this take. And the

author, Ellen White, says this, "But the

Philistines proposed their own manner of

warfare." Talking about Goliath.

In selecting a man of great size and

strength

whose height is about

12 ft, she says.

And they send this champion forth to

provoke a combat with Israel, requesting

them to send out a man to fight with

him.

He was terrible in appearance and spoke

proudly and defied the armies of the

Israel of Israel and their God.

Goliath

was a mountain of a man.

Clearly, he's undefeated in every fight

he's ever been in, otherwise he wouldn't

be alive.

He's got a large family that we read

about, some sons, brothers.

And he is the Philistine champion.

Likely, they've done this before with

other people. All right, you guys you

guys pick your biggest guy, bring him on

out. Okay. All right, somebody find

Goliath. And out comes Goliath.

Just coming out. You imagine how many

soldiers he scared?

Mountain of a man.

And bold.

Describes what he wears, all kinds of

armor. He has an armor bearer, someone

to carry his shield for him as well.

In verse eight, it says he stood and

cried out to the armies of Israel and

said to them, "Why have you come out to

line up for battle? Am I not a

Philistine and you the servants of Saul?

Choose a man for yourselves, and let him

come down to me. 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, you shall be our

servants and serve us."

And the Philistine said, "I defy the

armies of Israel this day. Give me a man

that we may fight together."

When Saul and all of Israel heard these

words of the Philistines, they were

dismayed and greatly afraid.

And understandable, right?

Probably nobody's in the hot seat more

than King Saul. Cuz who's their giant?

Well, he's about as close as you get.

He's the tallest person in Israel.

And I wonder if there were mumblings

like, "Well, none of us can go. Why

doesn't Saul go out? He's the biggest

one of all of us."

Who's your biggest guy? And everybody

kind of just looks over at Saul. Saul

wants nothing to do with this.

He's not volunteering.

In fact, he sets up a reward for whoever

will go out there. We'll get to that in

just a minute.

While this is happening,

David is out watching over his sheep.

Goliath, on the other hand, is insulting

Israel

for 40 days. Twice a day, the Bible

says, Goliath came out and insulted the

Israel's, mocked the God of the

Israelites,

challenged them.

40 days, twice a day, 80 times.

Can you imagine

hearing that all the time from those

Israelites, wondering what's going to

happen?

One of the cool things that you can do

is you can go and spot and see where

these things all happen. This is the

Valley of Ela,

where this battle happened. You can go

there today. These are the two hills in

the valley in the middle where this

where this story takes place. I would

love to go here someday, take my Bible,

and read this story on one of these

hills.

It must have seemed like an awful long

time for those Israelites. Like, is this

ever going to end? Is he going to just

do this all forever? How long is this

going on? Sometimes when we're facing

particularly difficult situations in our

lives, it can feel like it's never going

to end.

Like it's just going to keep on going.

Am I ever going to get out of the

situation that I'm in? One of the things

that I've learned in life is that no bad

situation lasts forever.

Nothing ever lasts forever. There's a a

movie, the Cars movie. Anybody watch the

Cars movie before? And there's a song,

one of the songs in the on the um

on that movie. Uh I think Brad Paisley

sings it. And the words of the song go

like this, behind the clouds the sun is

shining. Believe me, even if you can't

quite make it out. You may not see the

silver lining, but there's a big blue

sky waiting just behind the clouds.

I've always liked that song because it

reminds me that tough times don't last

forever. There's a big blue sky right

behind the clouds.

And that at some point those tough times

are going to be over. Same thing with

these guys. It must have felt like this

was going to last for a long time, but

God had plans to take care of the

situation. Jesse, the father

of David and several of the boys that

were there

serving in the army, sent David out to

go check on the boys and see how things

were going. It had been probably a long

time since he'd had any news.

So he sends David with supplies. He goes

there. He says, "Bring me news. Tell me

what's going on." So David shows up.

His brothers are there. He brings the

supplies.

It says 1 Samuel 17:23, "As he talked

1 Samuel 17:23

with them, there was the champion, the

Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name,

coming up from the armies of the

Philistines. And he spoke according to

the same words. So David heard these

words. And all the men of Israel, when

they saw the man, fled from him and were

dreadfully afraid." Picture David

walking up on this. He hears Goliath's

challenge. He sees his fellow Israelites

terrified.

He's listening to all this. He sees it

for the first time.

So the men of Israel said, "Have you

seen the man who comes up? Surely he has

come up to defy Israel. And it shall be

that the man who kills him, the king

will enrich with great riches, will give

him his daughter,

and give his father's house exemption

from taxes in Israel.

Now, that's quite the motivational

package from King Saul.

Whoever takes care of this person will

be honored.

They will join my family by marrying my

daughter, and your family won't have to

pay taxes ever again.

What would you do in order to not pay

taxes for the rest of your life?

What kind of challenge would you be

willing to take on if they're like, "You

wouldn't have to pay any more taxes for

the rest of your life." That's pretty

appealing. Pretty nice carrot that Saul

is dangling there in front of his army

to see who will go and take care of this

this giant.

And David speaks up, verse 26,

and says to them, "What shall be done

for the man who kills this Philistine

and takes away the reproach from Israel?

For who is this uncircumcised Philistine

that he should defy the armies of the

living God?"

Now, Eliab,

his oldest brother, heard about this.

Eliab's not too happy about it, but

we'll come to that in just a moment. The

>> [clears throat]

>> the armies of Israel

are terrified.

Says this multiple times. Why are they

terrified? They're facing a giant

problem.

And this is relatable because we all

face different problems in our own

lives. There are different things that

we face challenges in our lives,

problems in our lives,

each and every one of us that we have to

face, and sometimes we're not sure what

the solution is to that problem. We're

not sure how we're going to make it out

of this situation or that situation or

how this is going to work itself out.

And it can be frankly terrifying

sometimes when you look at these

different things that we face and try to

figure out what's going to happen. There

may be a work situation that you're

working through and figuring out how

it's going to how it's going to happen.

You might be having to deal with taxes,

school bill. How are we going to pay for

this school bill?

How are we going to save enough money to

be able to retire.

If you're a parent, you might be

wondering, "How am I supposed to parent?

I'm not sure what I'm doing."

This is harder than I thought it would

be.

You may have legal problems.

The list is endless. Maybe if you

graduated from eighth grade and you're

going into high school, high school

sounds a little bit scary. You're not

sure what to expect. You're going to be

on the bottom of the totem pole. For

those of you graduating from 12th grade,

you're looking at college and you're

like, "Ooh, college."

Woo, that looks a little bit

intimidating.

Classes are going to be a little bit

harder. You'll be at the bottom of the

totem pole again.

Those of you that have just graduated

from college might be a little bit

intimidating to look about getting a

job, maybe buying a house, and how hard

that's going to be.

There's all kinds of different

challenges that sometimes we're just not

sure how to figure out.

But, I want to remind you today that no

matter what you face, the same God that

was with David will be with you.

And he will send his angels just like

the one he sent to be by David's side

to be with him. Listen to this.

Patriarchs and Prophets, page 644, but

unknown to Jesse, the youthful shepherd

had been entrusted with a higher

mission. The armies of Israel were in

peril, and David had been directed by an

angel to save his people.

Philippians 4:19 says, "And my God shall

Philippians 4:19

supply all your needs according to his

riches and glory by Christ Jesus." When

you're facing a challenge,

scripture doesn't say that he will

supply some of your needs.

It says he will supply all of your needs

to help you make it through whatever

challenge you're facing. A little bit

earlier in that chapter, Philippians 4:6

Philippians 4:6

says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in

everything by prayer and supplication

with Thanksgiving, let your requests be

made known to God, and the peace of God,

which surpasses all understanding, will

guard your hearts and minds through

Christ Jesus." That peace of God is one

of the most wonderful promises, I think,

that God gives us because we worry about

the different situations that we face in

life. We worry a lot about them.

Sometimes we lose sleep about them.

People sometimes get ulcers because they

worry so much about the situations

they're in and yet

the Bible promises that God will give us

peace and help us figure out solutions

to whatever we're facing.

Now we come back to

the story in verse 26 and 27 actually

verse 28 it says Eliab the oldest

brother heard about what David was

saying.

And he says to David, "Why did you come

down here and with whom have you left

those few sheep in the wilderness?"

Did you hear the little dig at his

brother?

"Why are you here? Dad doesn't even

trust you with that many sheep and

you're way out in the wilderness. You're

not even around camp very much.

Those few sheep that you have, what are

you doing here?

Why are you here?"

David says, "What have I done now?"

But the words that David spoke were

heard and reported to Saul and Saul sent

for him.

Verse 32 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 are not

able to go against the Philistine to

fight against him. You are a youth and

he is a man of war from his youth."

Friends, I want to pause here for just a

moment and speak to the young people in

our audience today and watching online.

Don't ever think for a minute that God

can't use you because of your youth and

your your young age.

God has used young people over and over

and over again to do big things for him.

In fact, more often than not he uses

young people.

But age doesn't matter to God at all for

who he's going to use and move on people

and to do big things to people. Whether

you're young or whether you're not as

young anymore, God still has play If

you've got breath in your lungs, God can

use you.

Don't let your age be anything that

makes you think, "Well, maybe God's done

with me, or maybe I'm too young for God

to use me." Let God choose who he uses.

God uses young people all the time.

Listen to David's speech. This is one of

the coolest speeches in the Bible, I

think.

David says to Saul, verse 34, "Your

servant used to keep his father's sheep

when a lion or a bear came and took a

lamb out of the flock.

I went out after it, and struck it, and

delivered the lamb from its mouth.

And when it rose against me, I caught it

by its beard, and struck it, and killed

it."

Do you realize how hardcore of a couple

verses these are?

I

do not go camping or hiking deep in

grizzly bear country.

Just not going to do it.

I don't trust grizzly bears.

I think they're a little crazy in the

bear family.

Too dangerous. I don't want to punch my

ticket by getting killed by some grizzly

bear.

David

used to camp out with

the favorite food of all the predators

all around him in the hills where they

had bears and African-style lions. Not

like mountain lions that we have here,

like big lions.

And he talks about fighting these off

and saving the lambs from their mouth.

And he says, "When they used to come up

against me," particularly he's talking

about the lion, he says, "I grabbed it

by the beard,

and I slew it." So, face-to-face,

hand-to-hand combat with a lion, and he

kills this lion.

One hand on the beard holding it off and

then killing it with with some other

weapon.

He says, "Your servant has killed both

the lion and bear, and this Philistine

will be like one of them, seeing he has

defied the armies of the living God."

Listen to what David says.

Moreover, David said, "The Lord who

delivered me from the paw of the lion

and from the paw of the bear, he will

deliver me from the hand of this

Philistine."

He pauses here for just a second.

As he's facing this challenge, he's just

volunteered to go fight the biggest man

he's ever seen in his life, probably.

And this is what he says to King Saul.

He says, "Saul,

I've been in dangerous situations

before.

I faced lions and bears.

And God, he gives God credit. He says,

"And God helped me make it through those

things. He helped me when I faced those

challenges in my life. And because I

look back at my life and I can see where

God has been with me in the past, I know

that God will be with me as I face this

giant."

And it's the same way for you and me

today, friends. When you face a

situation in your life that's tough,

that you're not sure how you're going to

make it through, I want you to pause and

look back at your life and see where God

has been with you in the past, where God

has brought you through the toughest of

times, where God has helped you, or

maybe even God has healed you.

Look back where God has been in your

life, and you will see a God that's been

very involved.

And then, when you remember how God has

been with you in the past, as you look

forward, you can know that that same God

will be with you as you face whatever

you're facing right now.

As you look back, you can gain courage

by seeing where God has been with you in

your past, and it will help you in the

future. I asked

Noah and Luke Carithers from our

children's divisions to help me

illustrate this part of the story, and I

think they did a really good job here.

How many stones do you see down there in

the picture?

Five, the correct number. Uh there's a

lot of details in here that are perfect.

David's even smiling right here. He's

He's not afraid. He's ready to go.

Thank you to Noah and Luke Carithers for

helping me with this picture.

David

heads down to see Goliath.

There are likely other giants watching

from the Philistine side.

Verse 40 says he took his staff in his

hand and chose for himself five smooth

stones, put them in the shepherd's bag

and a pouch what he had what he had and

his sling in his hand. He drew near the

Philistine so the Philistine came and

began drawing near to David. And the man

who bore the shield went before him.

And the Philistine looked about and saw

David and disdained him for he was only

a youth, ruddy and good-looking.

So the Philistine said to David, "Am I a

dog that you come here with sticks?"

And the 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 the beasts

of the field." Remember that as these

two are about to encounter each other,

everybody on both sides of the hill is

probably absolutely silent

watching and listening to what they say.

Finally, someone has come out to

challenge the giant.

And it's not who they expected.

It's some kid with a shepherd's rod and

a sling. Not even any armor, doesn't

even have a sword to fight with.

Can you imagine the the looks on the

faces of the Philistines?

This is This is who they send out? This

is going to be a breeze.

Goliath comes out. He's upset that they

send him and he says, "I'm going to feed

you to the animals today."

And this is what David says.

Likely everybody on both sides can hear

it.

He says to Goliath, "You come to me with

a sword and with a spear and with a

javelin,

but I come to you in the name of the

Lord hosts, the God of the armies of

Israel, whom you have defied. This day

the Lord will deliver you into my hand.

I will strike you and take your head

from you.

Bold words from a shepherd.

Who's not even carrying a sword. So the

underlying message is, I'm going to take

I'm going to kill you and then I'm going

to take your own sword from you and

finish the job.

He says, I will give your carcass in the

camp of the Philistines to the birds of

the air

that you may know there is a God in

Israel.

Now all the assembly shall know that the

Lord does not save with sword and spear,

but the battle is the Lord's and he will

give you into our hands. Isn't it

interesting here that David gives credit

to God and says, you know what? God

doesn't always deal with things with

problems like we have in the ways that

we always think they should.

Often times we look at the situations we

deal with in life and we're like, okay,

I think it should be A, B, or C. This is

how this is how it should happen. But

sometimes God solves our problems and

works out things for us in ways that we

never even would have thought of.

And I think this is one of the reasons

why God says when we pray to ask and

say, but not my will, but your will be

done.

Cuz God has a thousand ways to solve our

problems of which we're not even sure

of.

We haven't even thought of.

So it was when the Philistine arose and

came and drew near to meet David that

David hurried and ran towards the army

to meet the Philistine.

This was probably the most brave thing

either side had ever seen.

He's running towards the giant.

Is there something that he knows that we

don't know?

David put his hand in his bag and took a

stone out and slung it and struck the

Philistine in the forehead so that the

stone sank into his forehead and he fell

on his face to the earth. Can you

picture in your mind the faces on both

sides of the hills as they watch watch

unfold? As they watch him reach for his

sling and and both sides would have

known that that's a fairly a fairly

potent weapon, the sling.

The shepherds there

very accurate and it it's moving when

they when they throw the rocks through

that sling.

I think probably the angel helped either

move the velocity up a little make sure

that it was perfectly aimed and it did

what it was supposed to do. And Goliath

stops in his tracks.

Hits in the head, slowly starts to fall

forward. Can you imagine the

Philistines' faces as they see this? Oh,

no.

He hits the ground. Can you imagine the

the Israelites' faces? Can you imagine

King Saul's face? Can you imagine

Eliab's face?

As he sees what God has just done

through his little brother David, who he

was just giving a really hard time to.

David walks up to the fallen Goliath.

Every eye is on the middle of that

valley.

He pulls the sword out of Goliath's

sheath.

And he finishes what he said he would

do.

Goliath, the giant

at David's feet.

David trusted

that God was going to be with him when

he faced the situation. Even though he

couldn't see he couldn't see all the

angels that were there at that time. He

he trusted that God would be with him.

And I think that when we face the

situations in our life that are tough,

if we trust God

and put the whole situation in his hands

he will also take care of things

for us and be involved in the solution

for those things.

Trusting God is sometimes hard though.

David had to actually walk out in the

middle of that valley.

He had to take step after step. He had

to face that giant. He actually had to

be a part of this whole conflict.

The Bible never says that we won't go

through tough times, but it does say

that God will be with us through those

tough times and be right by our side,

just like he was with David.

It's up to us

to trust.

Deuteronomy 31:6 says, "Be strong and

Deuteronomy 31:6

courageous. Don't be afraid or

terrified, for the Lord your God goes

with you. He will never leave you or

forsake you."

Isaiah 40:29 to 31 says, "He gives

Isaiah 40:29–31

strength to the weary and increases the

power of the weak. Those who hope in the

Lord will renew their strength. They

will soar on wings like eagles. They

will run and not grow weary. They will

walk and not be faint."

Many years ago, I was about the same

time as I was a senior in that first

picture, I worked at Pine Springs Ranch

in Southern California.

And I worked on the ropes course. Lots

of fun working on the ropes course. And

I worked throughout the summers, but I

would also work throughout the year.

They needed people to come up and run

run that ropes course for groups that

were coming through during the week. And

so I went up there and I could make some

extra money doing that. And there was a

group that came from all of the

different Adventist colleges, and it was

a group of deans, the deans in the

dorms.

And I was already planning on coming

here to Southern.

And the group that I had to take through

this ropes course

had the the ladies dean,

Sharon Ingle. Does anybody remember

Sharon Ingle? She was the women's dean

at Southern.

And uh this is the first time I ever met

her was on the ropes course at Pine

Springs Ranch. And part of what I was

supposed to do

Dean Ingle was about 5 years away from

retirement.

And I was supposed to take her 35 ft up

a rope ladder into a pine tree,

get on a platform, come around the other

side, and go on a zip line, step off of

a 35-ft platform, and zip line down

about a quarter of a mile down to the

bottom of the hill where a friend of

mine was going to take her off the zip

line and belay her down.

Well,

Dean Engel was a good sport and I was

like, "Okay, she wants to do this. We're

going to We're going to succeed at

this."

And so, she started climbing and she of

course she was roped in and was

everything was totally safe and she

started climbing this very unstable rope

ladder 35 ft up in this pine tree and

I'm up on the platform waiting for

Someone else's is making sure she's safe

on belay there.

And she makes it to about two or three

rungs away from the top where I'm at,

where my feet are down here.

And I'm talking her through I'm like,

"All right. All right, Dean Engel, you

can do this. You've You're almost

there." You know, I'm trying to

encourage her. I said, "Everything's

safe. The ropes The ropes are safe.

You're good to go. Just a few more A few

more rungs on the ladder and you're

going to make it."

She said, "Oh, Jamie,

I don't know if I can make this."

I said, "Okay.

I said, "I'm going to reach my hand

down.

You're going to have to let go of that

ladder for a second with one hand and

you grab my hand

and I'm going to help you make it up on

this platform.

But you're going to have to let go of

both hands at some point here.

And I'm clipped into the tree here. I'm

not going anywhere. It's all safe. You

can trust all of the gear and I'll help

you get up on this platform." She says,

"Okay."

So, I kneel down and I'm I'm tied into

the tree. I'm good to go and I I get her

hands in my hands

and I pull her up and get her up on the

platform. Now, it's a very small

platform and there's two of us on there.

When she got up there, she was very

excited to be standing on the platform

and the tree was right there and the

tree seemed like a solid thing. So, she

grabbed that tree and wrapped her arms

around the tree as hard as she could.

The problem was is that I was between

her and the tree.

So, I'm like this and Dean Engel's like

this right here and she's white

knuckling this tree and hanging on to it

and I was like, "Okay. We can just stay

here for a little while. You just Just

relax. You made it. You're safe. You're

good." She's like, "Okay, just let me

stay here for a minute." I'm like, "All

right."

So, we stayed there for a little while.

I said, "All right, Dean Engel, we've

got to make it make our way around to

the other side of the tree.

And that's where I'll clip you into the

zip line, and then you just step off

that platform. You can't see the rope

above you cuz everybody looks down, but

you can trust that the rope is going to

keep you safe and the and everything is

safe.

You just have to take that step off the

edge.

Well, we made it around to the other

side, and and you you get a little bit

of a sense of it when you're up there

and you look down and how far you're

going to go down and how far you have to

step off. And she she says to me, she

says, "Jamie, I know you're coming to

Southern next year."

She says, "If you get me down alive,

I promise I will make you cookies every

Christmas."

>> [laughter]

>> And she says, "I'm also the head dean of

the girls' dorm. If you ever need a

date,

you come and talk to me." And I was

like, "Dean Ingle, you're going to make

it down just fine. I'll make sure you

make it down alive." She's like, "I'm

serious." I was like, "I know you are

and I appreciate it. You're going to

make it down alive."

So, she got there and I'm talking, you

know, I'm I'm saying, "Hey, you can

trust you can trust the gear.

Everything's going to be fine. And I

know you're looking down, but right

above you is is all of the equipment

that's going to keep you safe."

I said, "All you have to do is step

off." She says, "Can I sit down and then

kind of scoot off?" I said, "Sure,

that's fine."

So, we we both sat there next to each

other, and it took us a little bit of

time, maybe 7 or 8 or 10 minutes or so,

of just looking at it. And I said,

"Whenever you're ready, you go."

And uh so, finally she scooted to the

edge, and she slipped off right there.

The rope caught her just like I said it

would, and off she goes doing probably

30 mph downhill, wind blowing in her

hair.

And uh she made it down.

And she was true to her word. Every

Christmas,

she would come to the boys' dorm and

bring me and my roommate cookies.

And she would say, "Now, do you need a

date? Uh cuz I can I can pull some

strings."

I was like, "I appreciate it very much,

Dean Ingle. Thank you very much. I'm all

right." She's like, "Well, you just let

me know. You let me know." I don't know

what plan she had of like auctioning me

off in the lobby or something.

But uh

but her promise she was true to her

promise.

And, uh she came. But, she had to trust

something that she couldn't see. She was

looking down, and everybody looks down,

but right up above you is what's going

to keep you safe.

And, sometimes when we face challenges

in life, we have to trust a little bit

not knowing what's going to come of

this, but somehow that God's going to

work it out.

And so, whatever it is in your life that

you face, whether you're going some

through something right now, if you're

not, just sit tight. But, it's probably

something's going to come about.

That's the way life goes.

Whenever it is you face a challenge in

life,

trust that the same God that took care

of David will take care of you as well.

In the Bible, we see over and over and

again that God is a God who's ready and

willing to help. He's willing to give

wisdom. He promises wisdom. And Isaiah

says, "You will hear a voice behind you

saying, 'This is the way, walk in it.'"

That's a loving God who wants to point

you in the right direction. A God who

sometimes will send angels to help out.

You may not even know it.

You can trust

in God, and he will take care of you.

Isaiah 40:29-31, he gives strength to

Isaiah 40:29–31

the weary, increases the power of the

weak. Those who hope in the Lord will

renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles.

They will run and not grow weary. They

will walk and not be faint. The Bible is

so full of Bible promises

that remind us that God will be with us

through every stage of our life and

through every situation. I want to

invite our worship team to come up

and lead us in our closing song.

Closing song is Standing on the

Promises. And the last verse says,

"Standing on the promises, I cannot

fall. Listening every moment to the

Spirit's call. Resting in my Savior is

my all in all. Standing on the promises

of God." Let's stand together as we sing

our closing song.

Father in heaven, thank you so much for

being with us when we face the

challenges in life. Thank you, God, for

giving us the strength, promising to

give us the strength, promising to give

us wisdom when we ask. We're so glad

that we don't have to walk this journey

alone. As you promised to never leave us

or forsake us. Help us to trust in you

God like David did as we move forward in

life. And we're so glad God that today

we're one Sabbath closer to not having

those challenges to deal with anymore.

We're so glad that we're one Sabbath

closer to being with you in heaven. Keep

us faithful till that day when you come

to take us home is my prayer in Jesus'

name. Amen.

Thanks so much for joining us here at

the McDonald Road Seventh-day Adventist

Church for worship. [music]

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We would love for you to partner with us

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McDonald Road Seventh-day Adventist

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