Worshipper Warrior X: David & Goliath - A Battle for your Imagination Part 2 - Worshipper Warrior

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The kingdom.

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We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

All right, turning your Bibles to 1 Samuel 17.

And as I challenged us last week, I want to challenge you with an imagination that God might give us today from an age-old story, David and Goliath.

In the final chapter, Surprised by Joy, C.S.

Lewis writes briefly on his transition from pure and simple theism to full-on faith in Christ.

It was on a walk with J.R.

Tolkien on Addison's walk along the Thames River at Oxford.

The subsequent discussion followed.

Tolkien argued that Lewis ought to approach the New Testament with the same sense of imaginative openness and expectation that he approached pagan myths in his professional studies.

Quote, the story of Christ is simply a true myth.

A myth working on us in the same way as others, Tolkien said.

But with this tremendous difference, it really happened.

So, men and women, as we look at David and Goliath, and everybody knows the story, even those who don't go to church know David and Goliath.

There have been books written about David and Goliath for leadership studies that the author probably doesn't even believe it really happened.

And it's just so famous.

But I want us to look at David and Goliath.

This is part two, so if you're here last week, you need to go online and listen to it because I'm just going to cover it really briefly.

I want us to look at 1 Samuel 17, the story of David and Goliath in the Valley of Eli with an imagination.

I want you to look at it and ask God to give you a God-saturated imagination for your life.

So it really happened.

I've been there, I've been to the Valley of Eli myself, and in that valley on the southern ridge would have been where the Philistines are.

On the northern ridge, protecting the route into Bethlehem on the Shephalah, the mountain, the Shephala mountain range, that area would have been the Israelites.

And so David enters that.

He's 13 years old.

At most 15.

But I believe he was 13, and I shared uh several times in the past I've shared why I believed that.

I won't go into it here.

But last week we looked at the Goliath-saturated imagination.

And we looked at what's happening in the Valley of Eli with all the soldiers of Israel, even the king of Israel, Saul, has a Goliath-saturated imagination.

We looked at the first half of this chapter and we talked about that number one, a Goliath-saturated mind.

A Goliath-saturated imagination.

Number one says, My problems are insurmountable.

I'm not going to be able to knock that thing down.

I'm never going to change that mountain in my life.

Number two, we looked at that a Goliath-saturated imagination fakes you out and makes you believe you're alone.

You're by yourself.

You're the only one who can fight that battle.

Some of you are in a battle for your life in your marriage.

Some of you are for a battle for your life in your job.

Some of you are in the battle of your life with the disease.

And the enemy's gonna come and demons are gonna come and they're gonna say, You're all alone.

This is all up to you.

Remember, that's what Goliath said.

He said, Hey, where's the man?

I want a man to come and fight me.

Thirdly, a Goliath saturated imagination always creates fear.

Always creates fear.

Fear has anointing on it, church.

Fear has anointing on it.

There's an anointing of fear, and I shared with you last week that what faith is to God, fear is to Satan.

So what God does to build faith in you to believe that you can move that mountain, whatever that problem is, Satan comes and he says, You can't move that mountain, then I'm gonna create in you so much fear that you're gonna run from your mountains of your life.

And many Christians are in that place, aren't they?

And so then we moved in and we started talking about a God-saturated imagination.

What it means to enter the valleys of our life and to believe that God can do something.

And so we looked at, first of all, that David was submitted to his father.

He was submitted to his dad.

He's bringing supplies back and forth.

He's running a mini marathon every day, going from Bethlehem back to the valley of Elah with Saul and his brothers there.

So he comes being faithful.

And I said last week, men and women, be faithful at what God's called you to do.

Start with being faithful.

Don't always be looking for the next horizon.

And I'm not saying don't have dreams and don't have visions.

I'm saying whatever God's put you in, be all there.

Be wholehearted, be all in there.

Don't, and I and I meet this all the time, people kind of looking for the next horizon if God does this and this is gonna happen, and that's great.

I'm not saying anything against not having vision, dream.

I'm just saying be all in today.

There's something about God gives us a little, and if we're faithful of that, he'll give us more.

It always starts small.

Men and women, faith always starts small.

But it grows.

It's the kingdom.

We'll talk about this when we talk about the kingdom revolution.

The kingdom always starts small.

It's yeast in the loaf and it takes it over.

And as you let God work in your life, as you're faithful with what he's called you to do, you stop the lying.

You stop the embezzling.

You stop the lust.

You start walking in obedience and joy with him.

Watch out, man, doors are gonna open for you.

They always open for people into influence when we're faithful with what we've been told to do by the Lord.

So pick it up.

So everybody in your Bibles, we're in 1 Samuel 17, we're gonna pick it up here at verse 29.

Probably one of the most supercharged verses of the whole story.

It's supercharged right here.

He says, David said, remember, I talked about last week that there's always an older brother in your life.

There's always an older brother in your life that says, you can't do that.

That's never gonna change.

You've always been this way.

And so that's what Eliab does.

We read that last week.

Eliab says, What are you talking about, you you insolent younger brother that dad doesn't even like and didn't even call you in when Samuel came and everybody knows I'm the tallest and the best looking and I'm the mighty man of God.

What are you doing here?

Just bringing little cheese and crackers from dad, you you little wimp.

And right?

If you don't have some people in your life that treat you that way, you're not doing enough.

You need to get out more often, man.

I'll tell you, they're out there, they're ready to get you too.

But look at the response of a 13-year-old to probably around a 30-year-old brother of his.

He says, Well, what have I done?

Verse 29, what have I done?

I just asked the question.

Hey, don't you want to get free?

I mean, don't you want to have no more taxes?

Remember that was kind of the exchange that happened there with Saul.

He says, This, is there not a cause?

Hello?

Is there not a cause?

And I think what he, if we were to put words in his mouth, David saying, Is there not a cause worth dying for?

Talk about you guys standing around shouting and screaming for 40 days and 40 nights with Goliath doing nothing.

Because that's the anointing of fear.

The anointing of fear is always passivity.

The anointing of fear is always passivity.

And if there's a thing that we as men struggle with the most, I think, in our spiritual life is being passive and letting things just move along instead of becoming active with faith to change those things.

And it takes a lot of courage.

Takes a lot of courage to do that.

So here's the second point.

Here's the second one.

First one, be faithful.

We talked about that last week.

Number two, a God-saturated imagination is becoming a worshiper first.

David is conditioned as a worshiper.

David got his saturated, God-saturated, Holy Spirit saturated, the God of the impossible saturated imagination by being a worshiper first.

Listen, men and women, this is really important.

He was not conditioned in the valley of Elah, he was conditioned on the hills of Bethlehem.

If you don't come from the hills of Bethlehem into the valleys of Elah of your life, then you're gonna become, you're gonna become Goliath saturated by the imagination of everybody around you, which says it's impossible.

That can't change.

You can never change.

And we've got to sequester ourselves away, I think, starting every day in worship and spending time with the Lord and worshiping him.

You know, in chapter 16, remember the story?

We we studied it, you know, a few weeks ago.

David actually enters Saul's court, leads worship.

As he's leading worship, he's casting demons out of Saul.

What's going on?

It's the presence of God.

Men and women, you can bring the presence of God into your workplace.

You can bring the presence of God into your marriage.

You can bring the presence of God into your parenting.

You can bring the presence of God into your finances.

You can bring the presence of God into your future vision and hope for your life.

But it starts with worship.

Because what is worship?

Worship is gazing upon the Lord.

Worship is gazing upon him.

Worship is focusing in on him.

And what happens, there's a transaction that happens as we worship the Lord, where he transacts with our heart and he takes our fear and he begins to translate it into faith.

So even in worship, we sometimes come into worship.

I'd say most of the time, we come into worship with a Goliath-saturated mentality.

And I believe what God would have us do as we come in that way is that He transfers that fear into faith, and we begin to have a God-saturated kingdom perspective by gazing upon him and knowing him and loving him and blessing him.

David did that.

David did that in the hills of Bethlehem.

He spent time again and again with the Lord.

God was building God.

God was building God into David.

The one thing you can say about David, he was a sinner.

He was uh he made a lot of mistakes.

He he authorized a hit on Uriah, he stole his wife, he had a child at a wedlock.

And yet he's called a man after God's own heart, not just in 1 Samuel 13, 14, but also in the New Testament.

Isn't that incredible?

That God's editing process is that here was a man who was directly and indirectly involved in murder, adultery, a child at a wedlock.

He said he still said he's a God, he's a man after my own heart.

Because David was a worshiper.

David was a worshiper.

So he comes as a worshiper, a God-saturated view, a God-saturated imagination into the valley of a Goliath-saturated imagination.

He says, Is there not a cause worth fighting for?

Many women, listen.

If it's not worth dying for, it's not worth living for.

And it's my thesis, and we're gonna, and we're gonna download this over the next year, that the cause of Christ is the coming of the kingdom of God on earth.

That the kingdom of God is at hand through Jesus, and you have Jesus.

And you can bring the kingdom of God into your workplace.

You can bring the kingdom of God into that school, you can bring the kingdom of God into that classroom.

You can bring the kingdom of God when you're working on that car, you can bring the kingdom of God when you're operating on someone, you can bring the kingdom of God into your marriage, you can bring the kingdom of God when you do wait, do your taxes.

Well, maybe not, but no, but the kingdom, what we need today on this earth is for the Church of Jesus Christ to get serious about a revolution of the kingdom of God, which Jesus gave us.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, that'll be coming up.

Verse 30.

Then he turned from him toward another and said the same thing, and these people answered him as the first ones did.

Now, when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul and he sent for him.

Then David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him your servant will go and fight with the Philistine.

And Saul said to David, You're not able to go up against this Philistine to fight with him, for you're just a youth.

And he a man of war from his youth.

David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep his father's sheep.

And when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it.

And I struck it, and I delivered that lamb from its mouth.

And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard.

I struck and killed it.

I mean he slit its throat.

Your servant has killed both lion and bear.

And this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.

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.

And Saul said to David, Man, okay, go.

The Lord be with you.

I'm convinced.

Thirdly, listen to this is really important.

The imagination and mindset of a worshiper warrior is developed in the boot camp of a secret history with God.

Let me say that again.

The imagination and mindset of a worshiper warrior is developed in the boot camp of a secret history with God.

Men and women, every one of you in this room, have in your life lions and bears.

And God's setting you up as you fight, and nobody knows, in most of the cases, but you and God.

Nobody else knows what you're fighting.

Nobody knows what you're going through.

But as you get victory in a secret history with God, which I'm calling like a boot camp.

It's a boot camp of training.

God's going to give you more.

Until you win the private victories, God can't use you in the public arena.

So we're getting tested all the time.

God's testing us.

I mean, I know pastors that I've met with many, many times that have these churches and there's a there's an impasse.

They can't break through 200.

That's usually the issue, or 300 or something like that.

And they want to know, you know, what's the next thing?

And I always say to them, look, we can talk till the cows come home about how you do worship and how you do that, and those things are important.

But I'll bet, more than anything else, if God's put a desire in your heart to grow this church and have an influence and impact, that's from God.

But what's happening in your life?

What's hindering God's spirit from working in you that cascades down into the whole congregation?

Because if you're not passing the secret test of the boot camp of the Lord, God can't elevate you, God can't promote you to the next thing that he has for you to do because you're not being faithful at the little things that he's giving you right now.

Faith always has a fighting spirit.

David, listen, David is David wars out of worship.

Really important here.

When we talk about being a word-rooted, spirit-alive, culturally engaged church, what I want us to understand here at this church, at the road, is that if God is calling us into cultural engagement, whether it be political, education, business, whatever, and you're not a worshiper first, you're gonna get angry, bitter, and too fierce.

But if you're a worshiper and you wore out of being a worshiper, there's kindness, there's love, there's joy, there's peace, and there's goodness on what we say.

It's my beautiful wife and Pam Heiler and others from this church going up to Washington during that bill a couple weeks ago that we prayed about, and meeting with the Democratic uh Congresswoman who wrote it and loving on her.

And our hope and pray is we'll continue that relationship because we're building bridges.

That's the kingdom of God revolution.

Not shouting at people, not wagging our finger at people and screaming at them.

That does no good.

You know what that is?

You know what that is?

That's Peter with the sword in the garden.

So they they all come in, all the soldiers and all the flames and everything, and Peter pulls out a sword and whacks off the ear of the servant.

And Jesus says, Well, if you want to live by the sword, you're gonna die by the sword.

And he heals the guy's ear.

Talk about a waste of energy.

But Jesus came loving the sinner.

Jesus came caring for those that were making decisions that we wouldn't agree with.

And over the next few centuries, Asia Minor was taken over by Christianity.

Rome was taken over by Christianity.

It spread all up into Europe and across the British Isles.

And when the Puritans and the pilgrims came here, they wanted to build a holy nation, a nation where the nations of the world would flock for freedom.

I'm studying uh American history with my son right now.

We homeschooled him, and man, we're just having a blast going through it.

Because here's what it does.

Man, do you realize how screwed up our country has been through the centuries and somehow we figured it out?

I mean, God's grace really has been shed upon us because there have been a lot of big impasses.

And I'll just say this, and this is I'm getting off a little, but the the years of 1850, I would say it's probably from the uh from the uh gold rush in in California, from 1849 to 1861, this is the beginning of the Civil War, feels all very much like what we're going through right now.

And I and I could explain that at another time.

But that's we worship out of the boot camp.

Of a secret history with God.

Verse 38.

So Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head.

He also clothed him with a coat of mail.

Now we know this is interesting because I think our impression of David is he wasn't super tall, or it would have been mentioned because when we talk about Saul when he was being anointed king, they said he was taller, head and shoulders above everybody else.

So think about this.

He's trying to put on Saul's armor.

David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk.

This would be so funny if we were a movie about this.

For he had not tested them.

And David said to Saul, I'm a hobbit.

No, I'm not kidding.

I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.

So David took them off.

Then he took his staff in his hand.

He chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook.

He put them in the shepherd's bag and a pouch which he had, and his slang was in his hand, and he drew near the Philistine.

Men and women.

God has uniquely qualified each of you for something that he has for you to do.

Number four, the God-saturated imagination believes I have a unique assignment from God and a unique stone he has given me.

Man, woman, or child in this room, whatever your race, whatever your education, whatever your background, whatever failures you've had in your life, whatever shame you've gone through in your life, God has an assignment for you.

And he has given you a unique stone for you to pick up that will make you what God has called you to be before you were even born.

And he gave you certain talents, and he gave you certain skills, and he gave you a unique way of looking at life, often formed by the background that you had, as muddled and as muddy and as crummy as some of it was, God was still forming you into the man and the woman that he wants you to be.

And every one of us carries some kind of shame.

And God's made you to be an overcomer.

It almost seems like the more shame, the more anointing.

And David, who's been shamed by his brothers, uh, we know in chapter 16, he's not even noticed by his father when Samuel, the great prophet, came to his hometown, is the one that God's gonna raise up.

And then we've studied earlier how even God had to say to Samuel, don't look at his appearance.

I don't look at his appearance.

Look back.

You guys look back at chapter 16, 7, 16, 7.

Look at chapter 16, 7 of 1 Samuel.

The Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him, for the Lord does not see as man sees.

For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

You see, where many spend the majority of their time building up their resume, God's looking for men and women who are building up their heart.

And he's testing you.

And he's putting you in situations where you fail.

Where there's a demonized boss.

If you haven't had a demonized boss yet, then it's coming.

In other words, God even uses those who have ulterior motives to form you into the man and the woman that he wants you to be.

So my challenge here this morning for all of us here is have a God-saturated imagination.

It begins, number one, be faithful to what God's called you to do.

Just be faithful there.

Number two, be a worshiper.

Learn to be a worshiper.

Worship Him.

Number three, as you're faithful and you're worshiping, God's going to give you opportunities to war out of that with the cause of Christ.

And it's going to be a secret history with God.

It's the boot camp of a secret history with God.

And then fourthly and lastly, you all have an assignment.

You all have an assignment from the Lord.

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