Run Down? 1 Chron 11

wife and quick laid-back

ions

walk walking

walking

Your feet bangs

your Wikipedia

walk stay

don't come

outside

go outside

I get

white

Good morning, good morning, good morning.

Let me tell you how blessed it is to be sermon-lord.

I know Aaron and Caitlin are on their way here yet.

God willing they will make it safely.

They arrived late yesterday.

So we have had a crazy week between people being at the hospital, getting checked out

by the doctor, making appointments with other doctors.

And it's a really active week of service.

We're serving in the panning, serving at the light station, serving at the data entry dinner,

which was yesterday.

We had arts and crafts, a youth Bible study on Thursday night.

On Tuesday night we had a great lesson that R.J. bought about forgiving for debts, the

same forgiving for debt and what the Bible actually says about forgiving and or forgetting

and what you should do those things.

Really good lesson that was.

It was just a really active week.

But now it's a new week.

It's Sunday.

We're starting off the week with worshiping God.

And so whatever went on last week, as good as it may be, we can count that as victory

if you want.

But today is a new day and we are serving the Lord with, I hope, worship for the next

hour or so.

And will there be preaching?

Yes, yes there will.

That's right around my t-shirt.

I have to make that arts and crafts night a Friday night.

And it's the first time I've ever painted a night.

And that's my own estimation.

And I think Josh's as well.

That does look like a night.

So we agree that it does look like a night.

All right.

So praise God.

There is a membership meeting today after.

I do not know if there's anything specific on the agenda, but we will meet.

So if you need something on the agenda in the neighborhood of membership or in the neighborhood

of the Monterey Spencer, like you think the church should buy X or a neighborhood of the

minister, like you think the church should do X, you need to let us know what that is

before the meeting begins.

Once the meeting has begun, we start with a closed agenda so we don't do a bunch of

new motions throughout and then sometimes that causes meetings to drag on and that kind

of thing.

But you're welcome to put your motion on the agenda to pull it together.

You can give that to Amalia, who is our Treasurer and also our moderator, or to me.

And we'll make that happen.

So that is today.

Also upcoming, just in case you had forgotten or hadn't noticed, there are the two novice

role playing events.

They are this coming Friday.

So if you have never played a role playing game or want to try it and try it out, you

do have to be 12 years old or older.

Okay.

So that's our age limit on those two events.

And it's gotta be for folks who either 30 hours, sorry, 40 hours or less experience or

never played in a Christian environment before.

We do it distinctly Christian, no foul language, no discussing imagery, nothing like that.

We don't do any of that.

So that's Friday and we do have some people RSVP for the first one on that Friday.

So that's really what it feels to you to get your RSVP in soon.

And then the following Monday will be really, not the week following Monday, but nine days

later.

Okay.

Ten days later.

Okay.

So that's upcoming and you've got other stuff in your bulletin to be aware of and we're

in a quiet moment here, but depending on the weather or the daily importance and situation

going on in the room.

We're not in your Destination.

We're on 이

Don't don't think about romance

Just think about the Lord put your thoughts on God

and let the Lord speak to you as we try together to reach the light of Jesus. Let us pray together and we'll worship a little more.

Father in heaven we are grateful. It has been

well

It's kind of a funny phrase to say but the truth is it has been a wonderful life even in the midst of difficulty

even facing

diagnoses that we don't like

even dealing with vehicle struggles that we don't like

or

Trying to overcome relational difficulties

dealing with family members that we don't connect with well for whatever reason

Trying to overcome fatigue today for example if we had a really long day yesterday or

if we're off schedule for whatever reason trying to overcome health issues if we've been sick and we want to be

fully on path to worship you. So Lord we're just asking you now. Will you take care of all that?

Just help us set it all down and focus during this time on your holiness

on your mercy

Your love for us

You are incredible and to anyone else who's somebody who doesn't know you they might even consider you a contradiction

It doesn't make any sense how a just and holy God can forgive a

wicked

or repentant people

We have been wicked. We have done wrong willfully and we are repentant to turn to you today

So we are grateful that that forgiveness is available for Jesus your son and we're asking you to work in us now as we reach new heights

You Jesus we praise you together

We lift our voices our hearts our minds in your direction do as you will and this your people and we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Did you hear the mountains tremble? Did you hear the oceans roar? When the people rose to sing of Jesus Christ the risen one?

Did you hear the people tremble? Did you hear the sea roar? When the rocks began to sing of Jesus Christ the baby one?

And we can see the sky too lowly, a mighty river through the nations, the young head of the town of Jesus

We have been wicked. We have done wrong willfully and we are repentant to turn to you today

So we are grateful that that forgiveness is available for Jesus your son and we are asking you to work in us now as we reach new heights

You Jesus we praise you together We lift our voices our hearts our minds in your direction do as you will and this your people and we pray in Jesus name

Did you hear the darkness tremble? When all the saints joined in one song? And all the streams flow as one river to wash away our brokenness

And we can see the sky too lowly, a mighty river through the nations, the young head of the town of Jesus

We have been wicked. We have done wrong willfully and we are asking you to work in us now as we reach new heights

Did you hear the darkness tremble? When all the saints joined in one song? And all the streams flow as one river to wash away our brokenness

Soak down in your heart Soak down in your soul The waters of the land are quite darkened

Did you hear the darkness tremble? Did you hear the oceans roar? When the people lost to be now Jesus Christ the living one

Did you hear the waves? Did you hear the waves?

Oh, what I would do to have a kind of faith that takes to come out and explode

Come on!

I need to call out my name in the lap of fear Reminding me of all the times I tried before I failed I'm going to keep on telling me time and time again

I'm going to keep on telling me time and time again I'm going to keep on telling me time and time again

The voice of truth says do not be afraid And the voice of truth that takes before my knowing Out of all the voices calling out to me I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

Oh, what I would do to have a kind of strength that takes to stand before time

Just a singing school, surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors Shaking in their armor, missionaries have a strength to stand

I need to call out my name as you pass through me Reminding me of all the times I tried before I failed I'm going to keep on telling me time and time again I'm going to keep on telling me time and time again

Never win, never win

But the voice of truth tells me a different story

The voice of truth says do not be afraid

And the voice of truth says this is for my own sake

Out of all the voices calling out to me

I was children too, and I didn't have to leave the boy's side

But the storm was just the right size with the giant all around

The waves they won't see so far, and the waves are just looking at us

I was so afraid when we were old, when I stopped and

I looked into the town and saw the dreams that we had all along

But the voice of truth tells me a different story

The voice of truth says do not be afraid

And the voice of truth says this is for my own sake

Out of all the voices calling out to me

I was children too, and I didn't have to leave the boy's side

But the voice of truth says this is for my own sake

We come to that part in our service where we have an opportunity to share with one another

how the Lord has inspired us this last week, and sometimes it's just by something you've experienced, sometimes it's something you said

I encourage you to find your inspiration in scripture because then you know that it came from the Lord for sure

But even if you encourage to find something along the way, it's not difficult to verify that, make sure that it's scriptural, that it makes sense with what God is teaching us

And so if you had an experience like that during the week, you had the opportunity to come and share it with others

Realize that a lot of times when you're getting something from God, it's not meant for you alone

God's a big God, and yes he has a big message, and he has a big message for your life

But as disciples of the Lord, a disciple is a person who hears from the Lord and then shares what they have heard

And so while God may have affected your life, and you say I changed this, I did that, this was exciting to me, whatever

If you don't deliver that message to a lot of other people, then you miss out

Just yesterday, Ariana, so Ariana has been watching quite a bit of Right Now Media this week

And the reason she's watching quite a bit of Right Now Media this week is because she's working on her multiplication facts

And when working on her multiplication facts, when she falls behind on the schedule that she and I set, then she is only allowed to watch Right Now Media

Not any other TV, Right Now Media is purely Christian, Christian messages, Godly shows, kids shows, things like that that are all Christian

If you don't know this, you can get a free membership to Right Now Media through New Heights and many people

In fact, we have, I think we have like 300 or 397 or something like that folks across the state of Toledo who have gotten free Right Now Media membership through our church

And so if you haven't done that, I recommend you do that

Anyway, so she's watching this really cool show that she found on there called, help me, Ryan, what is it?

Defrades, I always mess up the word, Ryan Defrades, Secret Agent

And every one of the shows, Ryan's on an adventure, something happens, he's a secret agent

And then after just a little while, they pull his mom in and she's a secret agent too

And so it's really Ryan and his mom, but the show is still named after him

And then he doesn't really like his mom going along with him on missions, you know, but at first, yeah, but then he realizes that she's pretty useful

And so I think she saves his life once or twice, that kind of thing

So then after that, actually is like based on the story, she sees the one that actually teaches Ryan the lessons

Yeah, so she's teaching him along the way

But the point is, so she's watching that show and I was working on something at the table and lit some data entry stuff

And I was listening to the show in the background

It was like one show after another and the message was really cool, like the story was cool

It tied in the biblical message, it went into the verses from the Bible, the story from the Bible, it was really cool

And I said to Ariana, I said, you know what, this is a really cool show, you know

And we didn't even know it was there until she started poking around right now, right now, finding something else to watch, it's a really cool show

And then I told Ariana, I said, I think we should probably tell other people about this show, which is what I'm doing right now

But that being said, that is when the Lord jumped in my heart and said to me, yeah, if you know something really cool, if you know something right

If you know anything that's true, right, if you have experienced any consolation of the Lord, if you know love, right

Then you ought to say, you know, I think we should tell other people about this experience

And so not only is that what Christians are called to, talk about the King, talk about God, talk about Jesus, talk about Lordship, right

Talk about avoiding hell, talk about going to heaven, talk about abundant life, all those kinds

Not only are we supposed to do that, but then on top of that, you can bring it here to the inspirational moment

Where we're all going to be able to be inspired by the same things that you've experienced

And then we can learn better to listen to the Lord, which we'll talk about that a little more later, okay

So what do you got? Have you read something this week? Do you have it?

How's the Lord encouraging you?

How many days?

I'm just going to encourage everybody, I mean, the idea of inspiration is that you have to be inspired

So if you do have something, I'd love to hear it, because that's what inspires me when I hear something from somebody else

Or a show or something, I just like the voice of truth, that song that just played

Inspired me to just share quick testimony, because I'm just getting God and the glory

But I did what would be almost, I think, impossible to share Jesus in a meeting in front of a bunch of people at work

That may not want to hear about God, because we only had a quick comment, and I prayed for the team

And I just heard that voice saying, you can't do this, you're too weak, you're not smart enough

They're going to be upset with you instead

There was a couple people that said thank you, and maybe they never heard the gospel the first time

So I'm just thanking God that I could do that, that was the first thing I wanted to share

The second thing is, if anybody's here in the Bible Scholar, I'm going to throw a joke 38

Anybody know what joke 38 is? Anyone?

Alright, joke 38 is where God comes in the world when he talks to Job

It's the end of the chapter, it's one of the most amazing chapters I've ever read, joke 38

God does the unthinkable, he doesn't talk about angels, he doesn't talk about glory

He doesn't talk about his kingdom, he doesn't talk about anything but what he's created

He talks about the intelligent design that God has created

He says things like, do you know where the waves halt and when they begin?

Do you know how a mother bird goes out and gets food and brings it back to his young?

Surely you must know, Job, how she knows how much to bring back

You have to know these things, right?

Do you know why there's goats that can climb up on mountains, they're called the hyrax

They were called goats, we call them goats today

He goes through creatures and he goes through the waters and the oceans

He talks about dinosaurs and possibly dragons

He's like, surely Job, you were there when it happened, right?

You've got to tell me what's going on

I'm telling you, read it for yourself, it's so good

I was just thinking of two things from that

One comes from John chapter 3

John 3 · chapter mention

Jesus said, how am I supposed to explain heavenly things to you

if you can't understand earthly things

And then finally, I was also thinking about the Tower of Babel

Because like you were talking about, the Bible just starts opening up all over

Everywhere, I could go way more in this, but going fast

But the Tower of Babel, we think that God has literally stopped in this Tower of Babel

because they're going to reach heaven, they might die

Is it that reason or is it because they're wasting their time?

Because God considers what is weak strong

He considers what we think is advancements and so much importantness

is not to God at all

It's watching God do miracles every day through everyday life

Because what he does is he confuses all their languages

And so they go out and they begin to live

And you just see how God is using every one of these people now

because they're not so caught up in, well, we can do this and we can finish this

And the reason I'm saying that is last night we were in the data entry

And this is what God really put in my heart

And it was funny, I'll tell you exactly what it meant to me

It was like Joe 38, we were listening to someone's brain tone

It was Mario, it was the old Mario song

And I was like, man, I wish I could hear the whole song

And not just the quick part of the Mario because I love that song

And so Brother Josh played the Mario song

And I said, isn't it amazing that God gave that person, that intellectual design

to make that song? I'm not like that

I would never think of three notes that could make a beautiful song

Or what everybody does in everyday

Even people that write art or do comic books

Because I don't enjoy comic books

Or people that put stories together

I mean, every time I think about God's creation

Or just animals that do amazing things

Or even the stars in the sky or the heavens

And I will finish with this because I was going to share it didn't come Tuesday

But I was challenged to read Genesis chapter

Or 50 chapters of Genesis

And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm not doing that

But I did, it was awesome

Thank God that I was there to do that

But I was so stuck in Genesis chapter 1

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Because Genesis chapter 1 explains why God is God and we're not

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Because let's just say I was God for a minute, just like Bruce Almighty

I would create the heavens and the earth

I wouldn't think about how to actually do it in order

If you notice, if you read it for yourself, every day matters

God says make light or take away darkness and make light

Because in light there's creation

You can't have creation without light because it's too dark

Things won't exist

I would be like, well I'm going to make animals

And they'll die and the cold will suffer

But every day specifically God does in the absolute correct order to do what he does

And so I just want to encourage all of us just to think about it

Because I can't go all day

But just the things that we do every day

The amazing things that we do every day

I mean, God has created us to do things that not everybody can do

So I just, for you yourself, God has also for me specifically done something for you

That you do for God's glory

It's just so awesome to think about how God does that through everybody every day

Amen

You are unique, you are equal because you are unique

Alright, who else?

Haley

I had one at one of my residents at work

His name is Harvey

He asked me to bring this so we could be frank, right?

And we were just talking and I told him I'm here for him

And he just kind of broke down and told me that a few years ago

He was a wrestling coach for this really well known wrestling team

And he was on his way to fight the game

And he got hit by a drunk driver

And then he went to rehab

He was on his way to his first rehab appointment

And somebody blew a stop sign and he got hit again by a drunk driver

And then he recovered and he did rehab

He still struggles to walk and struggles with a lot of day to day stuff

He was also just diagnosed with cancer last week

So just keep up with your mom's prayers

He's a really sweet heart

He's a progressive Christian

He goes to church every Sunday

So I told him that we would keep him in our house in prayers

And that we would love to pray for him

What's his name again?

Harvey

Harvey, okay

Alright, do we have another one?

Do you want to share your McDonald's story before you go to the bathroom?

Yeah, sure

Alright, go ahead

I was, so, two stores this week

Until day or above

But I was, I'm on my way to work deciding if I wanted to get breakfast

I decided to get breakfast

I was just getting a hash brown

I just had enough time to get breakfast and make it to work on time

No in between

Well, I pay and then as I'm paying I'm hit

Like, I need to pay for the person behind me

So I paid for her food

It was more expensive than my hash brown

And so I go up to the next window

And I'm waiting

And they tell me that they just ran out

And they have to drop fresh ones

So it's going to be a few minutes

And I'm like, great

So I pull over and I'm like watching the clock

I have to get work on time

And she, the lady who I paid for also was waiting

So she pulled up next to me and she knocked on my window

And she was just broke down crying

She asked me if she could give me a hug

And so we got out and we were talking

She had spent all day yesterday

And throughout the night driving

And as you can kind of see her granddaughter was hit

In a, with five drunk drivers two nights before

She was younger

I think she said she was only 20

And they were snow-cold

And were pulling her legs for that day

So she was there for her son

Buying breakfast for her and her son

So she hit me in the hospital

And she said that she was just very touched

That she just, you know, she was just

She was there for my breakfast that day

She thought she was there to buy breakfast

And to have an encounter with God in this church

That's good stuff

Alright, we've got time for one more

One more

We're going twice

Alright, let's pray together

And then we have a pause in offering

And then farmer two and then off the children will go off to their classrooms

And we'll go to the Word of the Lord

And I'm excited about that

And so, Brother Tim

Would you be able to send this prayer?

Sure

Our Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

Thank you so much for all that you've done for us

God, it's so sweet

You've blessed us so much

In spite of what our country has become

You've still blessed us

And we are people that give you the third word

And take them to Herod the Heights

And guide us to where we need to go

Keep us growing

Teach us to give our time, our calendar, our money

Whatever we need to do to get to you

For the Kingdom

And for those who are starting with sin and sin

We have continued to reach them

And that's our hope

In other words, that sin will take our other life

And we'll continue to grow

Personally, with the very word of the name

I'm starting with sin and sin

And with the very word of the name

As the plates go round out, I'll share a praise from last night

I was intending to go to the data entry thing, but I couldn't make it

Later that night, about 7 o'clock, Becky called me crying

She blew out a tire on the highway and scared the life out of her

She was able to pull off, get off on Wills Road

And I went over there and changed her tire for her

She made a home save

She was already scheduled, had an appointment to go to Costco to get a few tires today

So, good thing, but I'm just glad she's safe

Amen

I could stop and count the steps in

Like diamonds in my hand

But those trophies could not equal to the grace

My wish I've done

In the night of the road

I'll make my choice

And find my glory in the power of the Lord

In every victory

When peace and harmony

Must hold such strength

Must hold such hope

His choice alone

In Christ the Lord where I glory

His grace I every be

And only His hand of mercy

Could reach beyond my weakness to my knees

Now I can sing no greater armor

Than just to know Him more

And to count my days well often

To the glory of God

In Christ the Lord

I'll make my choice

And find my glory in the power of the Lord

In every victory

When peace and harmony

Must hold such strength

Must hold such hope

In Christ the Lord

I'll make my choice

And find my glory in the power of the Lord

In every victory

When peace and harmony

Must hold such strength

Must hold such hope

In Christ the Lord

Must hold such strength

Must hold such hope

In Christ the Lord

There's a place

Where mercy reigns

And never lies

There's a place

Where streams of grace

Flow with life

Where all the love

I've ever found

Feels like a flood

It's flowing down

At the cross, at the cross

I surrender my life

I'm in awe of you

I'm in awe of you

Where your love and prayer

And my sin washed white

I'm all to you

I'm all to you

Jesus

There's a place

Where sin and shame

Are part of us

My heart

Where my heart

Has peace with God

And forgives

Where all the love

I've ever found

Feels like a flood

It's flowing down

At the cross, at the cross

I surrender my life

I'm in awe of you

I'm in awe of you

Where your love and prayer

And my sin washed white

I'm all to you

I'm all to you

Jesus

Where all the hope is found

On holy ground

Here I bow down

Here I bow down

Here I bow down

Here I bow down

Here I bow down

Here I bow down

At the cross, at the cross

I surrender my life

I'm in awe of you

I'm in awe of you

Where your love and prayer

And my sin washed white

I'm all to you

I'm all to you

At the cross, at the cross

I surrender my life

I'm in awe of you

I'm in awe of you

Where your love and prayer

And my sin washed white

I'm all to you

I'm all to you

I'm all to you

I'm all to you

Jesus

If faith can move a mountain

Let the mountains move

We come with expectation

Waiting here for you

We're waiting here for you

You're the Lord of all creation

And still in all my heart

You're the author of salvation

Your love is from the stars

We're waiting here for you

With our hands lifted high

We're waiting here for you

We're waiting here for you

For you

You've given everything you promised

Your faithfulness is true

And the blessed blood of your presence

All we need is you

We're waiting here for you

With our hands lifted high

You're the Lord

And if you need us all

We'll be here for you

I'm all to you

I'm all to you

In spirit with you all

We will sing our praises

Sing hallelujah

We're waiting here for you

With our hands lifted high

You're the Lord

And if you need us all

We'll be here for you

We're waiting here for you

With our hands lifted high

You're the Lord

And if you need us all

We'll be here for you

I'm all to you

Sherry and I found a new action TV show

that we've been watching, streaming

I wouldn't say binging, but streaming

I can't think of what the name of it is exactly

It's about a rescue team

It's an Australian show, produced in Australia

And on that show there was a particular episode

and there was a young lady

and she was running

She had run from some guys who were trying to abduct her

and then she explained that the reason they were trying to abduct her

was because she had written a software for a company

It was a game and she had completed it

and she turned it over to her boss

and her boss took the game and was going to release it

and make a ton of money and not give her any of the rights to it

and so they were trying to get her

because she had gotten a copy of the game on a hard drive

and they were trying to get that back

so they could make sure that she wouldn't release it as freeware

and that was the whole kind of plot of the show

One of the men who was on the rescue team

was sitting talking with her and she was getting ready to run again

and he said, if you run now, you'll be running forever

they will always chase you

and I thought about that and how that theme has reoccurred a number of times

in various police shows and watching NCIS

and all these different shows

and it's, if you run from the law, you'll always be running

if you run from those who hate you, you'll always be running

The truth is that I think we kind of inherently know in ourselves

that if we're always running from our problems

if that's your go-to method of handling whatever the difficulty is that you're facing

is to run away

to not confront the problem, not try to talk it out, work it out, ask the right questions, get to the bottom of it

if you're not trying to do that

you'll wind up running pretty much from everything for your whole life

and the end result of that is not necessarily what people think it is

for example, people think, well, I'll eventually stop running

but the truth is, once you establish a habit of running away from your problems

you pretty much never stop running

you may face certain things that really are important to you

you'll wrestle with those things because you realize that you just can't go away

but I know people who have run away from their problems for their whole life

then been diagnosed with cancer and then just ignored the fact that they had cancer

diagnosed with stage one cancer or two cancer for whatever

they totally ignored it for several years until it was stage four cancer and it was untreatable

and they ran their whole lives and then they get to stage four cancer

and they're like, well, I guess I'm going to have to treat it now because I'm going to die

and they're like, well, I guess it's too late now

because you just ran for three years from it and pretended it wasn't happening

I've known people who had a calling by God

God said, I want you to come, be the church, follow the Lord, do this for me, whatever

they had a calling by God and they ran away from it

we sang the song, the voice of truth

the armies of Israel were called out to face the Philistines

and one particular Philistine from Gath in particular

Gathite, I guess you'd call him

a great big guy was coming out and he was challenging the whole Israelite army

if any one of them would stand up against him and none of them would

and as the song says, shaking in their armors they refused

and then young David who was a kid, not even an adult

agreed to go out and stand up against him

and he said, it's not my fight, it's God's fight and I'll do it

and you think after David defeated Goliath that that entire army went home

regretting the fact that none of them had the courage to stand up and let God fight that fight?

I submit to you, once you start running, you get good at running

that's what you get good at and the end is always the same

and it isn't that you eventually stop running and turn and face the difficulties

because people will go on and they get good at running and they just keep on running

what happens is you get run down, that's what happens

you wear out your shoes, you wear out your creativity, you get old

you think I'll never have to deal with this problem

and then the problem comes upon you and you're just run down

you don't have anything left

one who runs away always instead of purposefully gets run down

if you run purposefully like I'm running training for a marathon

then eventually you might be able to run a marathon if you did that training every day

or if you run for office and you really dedicate yourself to running for office

and you find people to vote for you and you get promotions

and you get yourself aired on social media

you might eventually run office, that's running purposefully with a goal

and then you either meet the goal or you don't

and then maybe you move on to another goal

and in the process of running purposefully like that

instead of getting run down you actually get built up

but running away from everything is exhausting

so I want you to bear that in mind as we look at a scripture today

and it's a relatively short passage of scripture

and the truth is it's a relatively short message I think

but it's poignant, it speaks to us, it speaks to me in particular

and I hope it will speak to you in a unique way

so maybe give me a little hoot holler or take just a deep breath

and kind of moan if that's all you can manage

as we go to 1 Chronicles chapter 11, here we go

1 Chronicles 11 · chapter mention

Thank you, this is God's word, there's a moan out there, I heard it today

I miss the guy who used to yell Yahtzee every time we did that

I think somebody in here used to yell Uno

but anyway it doesn't matter, 1 Chronicles chapter 11

1 Chronicles 11 · chapter mention

and we're going to read then from verse 21 and following

verse 21 says, of the three in the second rank

so these are people who are, they're not the top rank

they're not the heroes if you will that everyone looks up to

but they're pretty heroic, it says of the three in the second rank

he was the most honored and became their commander

however he did not attain to the first three, didn't rise up to be the first rank

Vinaya the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel

mighty in deeds struck down the two sons of Ariel of Moab

so there's two soldiers and he went and fought them both

and they were big and mighty soldiers and he defeated them both

he also went down and killed a lion inside a pit on a snowy day

and he killed an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits tall

so cubit is generally speaking the measure from your elbow to the tip of your finger

and in most men it runs roughly 18 inches

so your height, you might be a little more or a little less

by the way if you measure that you'll never be without a ruler

at least not completely

this guy was five cubits tall that makes him seven and a half feet

alright and Vinaya defeated him

now in the Egyptians hand was a spear like a weaver's beam

so we're talking about a spear, a big very mighty spear

probably seven and a half foot long

and a weaver's beam would be about two and a half inches in diameter

so if you can picture you're talking about a spear that's about that big around

okay not talking about a beam, it's not as big as a two by four

we're talking about a big heavy spear

a spear like that will hold the weight of about a thousand

or about two thousand pounds, it'll hold a ton

you can stress it, it'll bend a little bit but it won't snap

it's a big stick okay

and it happened to be a big pointy stick

and Vinaya went out against him and defeated him

it says now in the Egyptians hand was a spear like a weaver's beam

but he went down to him with a club

those of you who are experienced in any way in melee combat

or know anything from the gaming background or whatever

realize that a club versus a spear has a problem right

what's the problem with a spear versus a club, Bron?

range on the spear

yeah, reach, right

so now he wasn't going to throw his spear

that's not that kind of a spear really

but so the spear always strikes first is the bottom line

so he went against him with a club

and snatched the spear from the Egyptians hand

and killed him with his own spear

these things Vinaya the son of Jehoiada did

and had a name as well as the three mighty men

so he didn't necessarily join the first rank

he was from the second rank

but he did incredibly and he had a name that was known

amongst all the people like the three mighty men

and we'll go one verse further

behold he was honored among the thirty of the second rank

but he did not attain to the three in the first rank

David appointed him over his guard

so he was promoted to be over the guard of King David

okay, so that's our verses for the day

there's a couple things I want you to see in here

the first is I want to talk just briefly about how it came to be

that Vinaya fought the lion in the pit on the snowy day

that's kind of a strange battle

first of all if you got a lion in the pit

you really don't have to fight him

nobody really has to fight him, right?

you can stand up at the top and throw spears at it until it's dead

so nobody really has to go down in the pit and fight the lion

that's not necessary

so why does one fight the lion then, right?

so first of all, you realize that Vinaya had prepared for just such a moment

he had prepared and certain activities in his life had prepared him for that moment

he had trained, he had trained with mighty men

he had fought, he fought the Egyptian, he fought the two brothers

or two warriors who were together, very powerful

he had fought a lot and shown up with a name

shown up with a capability, if you will

he'd spent probably every single day training

almost without exception

sometimes I wonder to myself, and we don't really know this side of heaven

but I wonder if it was the spear of the Egyptian that Vinaya took down in the pit to kill the snowy lion

might have been

the bottom line is he trained and practiced every day to be ready for that moment

also he had surrounded himself with heroic people

people who were also engaging in incredible activities similar to that which he wanted to be able to do

so he was training with other powerful warriors

he was engaging in the activities that powerful warriors engage in

and so we can get from that example

if we were going to ever arrive at a moment in our time where we're going to fight a lion in a pit on a snowy day

then we need to have the right people around us

we need to be engaged in the right activities

and we need to be training for that moment in time

now you're thinking to yourself, well I really don't want to fight a lion in a snowy pit anyway

notice also that there was a decisiveness or a seize the opportunity about Vinaya

he said, hey, here's a lion caught in a pit on a snowy day

hmm, wonder what I could do with that

wonder how I could use that

there is considerable risk here

but he responded with courage and I would say even faith

he had seized the opportunity in the past, fought the Egyptian, fought the brothers, done other things of heroic nature

he realized that when he had seized the opportunity in the past

it had benefited him

he'd come out good

he was getting promotions, he was getting recognized, he was standing out of the crowd

there were lots of mighty men

of the 30, he was on the rise to become one of the most known

he had not yet been called as the leader of David's guard

but he would love to do that

the king, that God would say that he would be the king

and that he and his descendants would reign on the throne of Israel forever

who wouldn't want to be the king, the leader of the royal guard of the God's king

who wouldn't want to do that

that would be awesome

and that yet had not happened

but in the past he had seized in major moments of triumph

he had past victories

and he realized that his past victories and his past seizing of the moment

his past courage and faith meant something in that moment

now a lion is a noble beast

a recognized warrior

and so the fact that it is a lion is something significant

the truth is, as I said, you and I would probably never fight a lion

most of us will never even be in the same room as a lion

you might see one in the circus or something

unless you get a career, a trainer, something, probably not

go to the zoo, right?

there's no lion, no physical actual real lion going to come to your house

be in your yard or in this room

it's not likely to happen

Baniah trusted God with the possibility of perceived failure

he could have failed

he could have went into the pit that day

and that lion could have killed him

and the truth is, it was a somewhat theoretically unnecessary fight, wasn't it?

the lion's down in the pit, you can kill him from up above

you don't have to go down and fight the lion

so this is Baniah decisively, courageously seizing on an opportunity

that he believes God has given him to do something

and he trusted God with the possibility of his perceived failure

Christians are to do the same thing

the Bible says, Paul writes to Timothy

that God is able to bring to completion that thing which he's begun in you

and so each day, each time you face a trial or a difficulty

it's the same kind of thing

is God going to make me succeed?

well what if he doesn't?

what if it doesn't work out?

what if you don't get the promotion?

what if you don't get the health boost?

what if you don't solve the relationship difficulty or come to the bottom of the problem?

is that the end?

it's the young and the unwise that think that every problem that is in any way, shape or unsolved is the end of life

it's just not

the end of life is the only thing that's the end of life

I remember when there was a girl who came over to my house and I was in high school

and I thought she was kind of cute

and my girlfriend that I was dating at the time

had been very aloof, very standoffish or whatever

and I thought, well this other girl clearly likes me

and the girl that I'm dating

not really into me all that much at the moment

and so I called her on the phone and I broke up with her

so that I could pursue the possibility of being with this other girl

as soon as the other girl found out that I broke up with the first girl

she left and I'm like, ah, crud

why did I do that? that was really dumb

I gave up the first relationship for the risk of the second

but the truth was, the first one wasn't any good anyway

and that's how we're living all the time

we're thinking like, oh, I lost, I failed

now I'll never get by, I'll never be okay again

and that's just not true, you have to be ready to risk failure

if you never do anything that can end in failure

you're just not really alive

and there's a lot of people that are doing that

every opportunity that they could possibly fail

they run away from it and they avoid any risk of failure

they avoid risking their money, their time, their other people's opinions of them, etc.

notice that it came to that moment in time at which Vinaya had to decide

either go down in the pit or not

and at go time, Vinaya chose to go

there were a lot of men around

and many of them could have offered to go down and fight the lion

or they could have just stood up at the top

and nobody wanted to go down and fight him

eventually they would have just stood up at the top probably

and killed him from a distance

but at that moment in time, Vinaya was ready to go

when God wants to do something amazing in your life

and you've got an opportunity

you're going to need to be ready to go

that's a problem because life is filled with a lot of distractions

there are a lot of good things

a lot of good things

and you can fill your day every single day

now the same good things that we're talking about

a lot of people use to run from opportunities

so you'll play 40-50 hours of video games in a week

or you spend your time in the kitchen or painting or in the park or whatever

you do all of these things and miss the opportunity that God gives you

at the moment God says, will you do this?

you're like, but I already have plans to do this

and you can be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ

and still find yourself in that place

you can be saying, okay God

whatever you tell me to do, I'm ready to do it

and then God says, here's an opportunity

God doesn't say go and share with this person specifically or whatever

but you already know you're commanded to do that

so here's an opportunity, God makes it obvious

and you don't take it because you've already got plans

there are so many distractions

there are so many other things that Vinaya could have done on that day

then there are inconveniences

like he could have waited for a thaw

in the snow, in the cold of the snow

holding a spear is more challenging

and a lion is perfectly equipped to fight in the snow

they're not going to have any problem

in fact lions struggle with overheating

did you know that?

one of the primary things that keeps a lion from being a long-term fighter and runner

is they struggle with overheating

they get tired, their exertion requires so much energy and so much overheating

that on a cold day, a lion is actually probably more dangerous when it comes to fatigue

and so he went down on the cold snowy day

inconveniences were nothing to him

perceived hazards, the lion itself, lions are dangerous

did you know that a well-trained warrior with a spear probably will die to a lion nine times out of ten?

they're fast and they're wary and they're intelligent

and you probe the lion, you push forward with a spear

and then all of a sudden he lunges

they come so fast and get past that spear one time

and even if you manage to spear them

unless it's specifically a boar spear that has a cross piece

the lion will slide down the spear

and its claws will rip you open completely before you can blink

even as you run it through with a spear

you've got to hit it in the head or the heart

the neck, the body's not going to do it

the paws, no, none of that's going to stop the lion from coming

and people have died many times

one-on-one versus a lion

since the beginning of history

there's no reason

no logic

no thought process

that takes him down in there

except for he sees an opportunity

and he realizes that distractions won't stop him

inconveniences are not going to stop him

perceived hazards are not going to stop him

and he says by faith I will walk

not by sight, I see this

I will do what it is that God has prepared me to do

here is my opportunity

if you do anything other than following God

you wind up taking your cues from something else

CUE, taking your cues from something else

and at best you wind up in the cue

which means you wind up in line

because the whole world is taking their cues from what they see

what they feel, what they think, what they've been through

what somebody asked them to do

what somebody said to them, what they saw on TV

what they read in a book, what they read in a magazine, etc.

and you can become one of the most learned and intelligent individuals

and take your cues from the knowledge that you have gathered

and all that's going to happen is you're going to wind up standing in line

behind people that are stronger, smarter, faster, more capable

already thought of it

back in the day I was working at Radio Shack

1990, circa 1990

and we sold resistors and transformers

and diodes and every kind of little electronic part

you could build electronics from scratch back in the day

now if you want to get that stuff at Radio Shack

it's available in extremely limited supply

you pretty much order it online, pick it up at the store

or have it shipped to you

you can probably buy most of it on Amazon or eBay

but back then we were the only place in town

we commanded the market for diodes and resistors

and I had a guy come in and he said

I'm trying to build a converter

he said in fact the world knows now

that the next rich person, the next millionaire

is going to build a converter

that you can plug into the cigarette lighter in your car

and then plug an AC outlet

like you would plug in your house, a cord

into that cigarette lighter

it does not exist

in fact science says that you cannot convert

DC electricity to AC electricity

now, has anyone ever seen one of those things?

most people have them now, right?

because you can, by certain science, convert

now the way they do it is you have to

create a device that alternates the current

it switches the positive and the negative back and forth

then takes the 12 volt and steps it up to a higher level

and that's what they built, right?

this guy comes in and he says

everybody's saying if you can just build that

you'll be the next millionaire

and a millionaire was a big thing back in that day

now I'd say probably a billionaire

and he said, so I'm trying to build one

and I know other guys who are trying to build one

and I thought, well that's the first I ever heard of it

so later that day I had another guy come in

one guy after another

after another, after another

came in to buy the necessary diodes

resistors and whatever that they needed

to build this thing

this transformer from DC to AC power

and I'm thinking to myself the whole time

they're probably going to fail

they're probably not going to build it

science says you can't make it

then you probably can't make it, right?

that's what I'm thinking to myself

and they just kept coming in

and they're buying all the same parts

my boss is now buying these certain resistors

and he's buying cases of them to keep them in stock

because everybody and their brothers trying to buy the electronics

to build the DC to AC transformer

and that's several weeks

and then at the end, at the rush ended

and it came out in the

magazines and stuff, peer review

that somebody had already built the transformer

DC to AC and already applied for the patent

and we had a box of resistors of the right kind

unfortunately they're not very expensive

sitting in the back room at Radio Shack

and when I left there a year and a half later

that box of resistors was still sitting there

what I'm saying to you, it doesn't matter how smart you are

it doesn't matter how capable you are

if you get your cues from what you see in the world

or what you think is going on

if you don't have some kind of other worldly knowledge

some kind of spiritual awareness

then all you're going to do is wind up

waiting in line behind everybody else

and that is not what you're called to

you are called to walk

your life and deal with your problems

deal with the things that you're facing on a daily basis

you are

100% equal with every

other human being, not because you have the same

skin color, same financial background

same problems you've dealt with, same capabilities

skills, training, education, whatever

that's not why you're equal

you're equal because you're unique

right? One equals one

if it's a different one it's still one

if you compare apples to oranges, an apple is a

completely different thing from an orange

but if you have one apple, one orange, you have one

so well how many you got? One

I have one whole apple and I have one whole orange

an orange and an apple are not the same thing

but I've got one

and that's what you are, you're one

and people are less than one

when they start running away from their problems and start

taking their cues from the things of the world

instead of what God created them to be

well Baniah was not going to do that

it came to be go time and he was ready to go

he crossed the line of distractions

inconveniences, perceived hazards

he walked by faith, not by sight

and he said I'm going to do this

now I know a lion

not a thing that we're going to encounter

and so fighting a lion

seems like an unnecessary skill these days, doesn't it?

except, you know who else is characterized as a lion?

interesting

in your Bibles if you're following along

we're going to go to the book of Luke chapter 10

Luke 10 · chapter mention

we talked about Luke a little bit on Tuesday

because somebody listed it as their favorite book

the week before and then we challenged ourselves

and so somebody listed it as their favorite book

and then we challenged somebody else to read the entire book

and then they gave us a little snippet

this past Tuesday that was an activity we did over the last two weeks

and it was kind of enjoyable

now in Luke chapter 10 Jesus is

Luke 10 · chapter mention

God the flesh walking on the earth

and he's teaching the disciples about God

and there's a certain moment in time

in the earlier part of Luke chapter 10

Luke 10 · chapter mention

where Jesus sent out 70 of his disciples

to combat evil spirits and demons

and they were seen healing people

and doing various things

and every time they would

cast out a demon or an evil spirit

their situation would be made better

and usually it was in health

then we get to verse, let's see

we'll start in 17

and so in 10, 17 it says

and the 70 returned with joy saying

Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name

verse 18 says

and he said to them

I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning

behold, I have given you authority to tread upon

serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy

and nothing shall injure you

and so while a lion is not mentioned here

you could see going down in a pit against a scorpion

or a serpent would be equally bad

maybe not quite equally bad but definitely very bad

and then it says all the power of the enemy is listed

and so then if you look at 1 Peter chapter 5

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

you can follow my logic here I think pretty easily

1 Peter chapter 5

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

and we're going to read in verses 8 and 9

so 1 Peter chapter 5 and verses 8 and 9

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

and it says

be of sober spirit

that means be in control of yourself

practice self control

beyond the alert

that means pay attention

understand what's going on around you

your adversary

that's the one who is against you

the devil

that's Satan

the one who God will ultimately cast into hell forever

prowls about

that means he's sneaking around the edges

like ready to ambush

like a roaring lion

that means he's scary

seeking someone to devour

so now we have an imagery where the power of the enemy

is being depicted exactly like a lion

so ultimately I submit to you

while the idea of fighting an actual lion

may not be valuable

we need to realize that it's entirely possible

that we may be fighting a lion on a daily basis

now notice that it does not say

run!

run! you're in trouble!

it says practice self control

submit yourself to what you know to be right in the Lord

practice self control

be sober minded, let's take this seriously

be alert and pay attention

because there is an enemy

and he is seeking to devour you

now he's not physically seeking to devour you

to my knowledge

I'm not sure if it's true or not

I guess it could be true in some way

but to my knowledge the devil does not eat people

he's not a cannibal

that wouldn't be a cannibal anyway

because technically he's kind of more like an angel

but he doesn't eat people as far as we know

but he certainly wants to bring your soul

down to the pits of hell with him

that is his goal

in fact he's not really even after you at all

he really wants to hurt God

now the truth is

with a little effort

you could avoid all conflicts with lions and pits on snowy days

it wouldn't take that much

all you got to do is go back and reverse the things that Baniah did

don't win any spiritual battles

in fact don't spend your time

with Christians

and don't fight in the spiritual realm

where the enemy is really proficient

if you can just avoid those things

then the truth is you'll never face Satan

or any of his tactics head on

he'll be prowling around the outside

and you'll be living your life avoiding any real trouble

in the spiritual realm

and you'll not have to face him

but what kind of person will you be

if you never win a spiritual battle

you'll be tempted

and you'll be giving in to temptation

you'll be living according to the way the world lives

taking your cues from what you know, what you think, what others have done

what they say, their example from your parents

and most young people grow up and don't want to be like their parents

while in Christian homes a lot of times young people grow up and go

I see my dad made certain mistakes

I don't want to be like his mistakes but I do want to be like his fate

but a lot of times that isn't the case

men who claim to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ

but don't practice to be ready to fight spiritual battles

their kids grow up and they want to be like them

and then they are unprepared for the spiritual battles that they face

so there is some variety there

the bottom line is if you don't want to face the enemy

one on one down in a pit on a snowy day

then don't win any spiritual battles

don't spend your time with Christians

or at least not in the active fellowship of called out believers that is the church

and don't train with the sword of the spirit which is the word of God

and by all means not jump into spiritual warfare or dabble in the spiritual

where the devil, the lion stalks his favorite prey

it's pretty easy to avoid that kind of trouble then

but if Baniah set any example for us

and if Jesus set any example for us

and the disciples set any example for us

then I don't think you really do want to avoid that trouble

what you really want to do is be ready for it when it comes

please consider that this lion has no desire to rip you apart

he actually wants to hurt God

and that desire means that if you do not once and for all overcome him

and Jesus has done that for us

then while you may escape the pit in this lifetime

you will spend eternity in the pit with the lion

and no weapons to protect yourself in the next one

that's the order of events as they unfold

when it says he is seeking to devour

it means he wants to bring you down with him

by the way that is how a lion fights

he grabs you with one paw, he grabs you with the other

and then if you've ever seen a cat fight

falls on the ground and rakes you with his hind legs

that's how a lion fights

now if you can just bite your head off in one fall swoop he'll do that

but most often they lead with their paw

just in case the enemy has some defenses

so they step up and that paw is mighty enough to literally pull your shoulder off

in a half strength swing

just go grab your shoulder blade and just rip it right off your body

while you're still standing there

that's the kind of power a lion has

and that's the kind of power this picture the enemy has

for those who will not stand against the enemy

take your stand

please consider that this lion has no desire to rip you apart

rather he really wants to hurt God

and his desire to hurt God means

that if you do not once and for all overcome him

and Jesus has already done that for us

and trusting in him will get that done

but if you do not do that in this lifetime

then you will eventually face him

or maybe you think you can run your whole life

you'll just keep running away from the fact that

God has already pronounced judgment on his chief enemy

which is Satan

and all of his enemies which are the demons and evil spirits

and all of his enemies who are humans

the Bible says that you were dead in your trespasses and sins

but it also says you were subject to wrath

we were subject to wrath

objects of wrath

which means we opposed God

when you don't believe in Jesus we don't trust

Jesus said I did not come to condemn the world

but rather you're condemned already by what you do with the son of God

why?

because there has to be a moment in time

when you wrestle with the truth

and if you will not wrestle with the truth

and come to grips with reality

and you will instead take your cues from everything you've learned

and everything you've seen in the world

then you'll always wind up standing in line

how many people are standing in line right now

and ultimately will plummet into hell for an eternity

and they're standing in line waiting for their ship to come in

they're standing in line waiting for things to go better

standing in line waiting for somebody to tell them what they need to know

standing in line waiting for somebody else to defeat their enemy

to give them that easy path to glory

a side job that can make a million dollars today

whatever they are

everybody's waiting for something

and then those people who are waiting

they get to panicking because it isn't working out

and then they wind up under the control of the enemy

and now you've got people who will vote a certain way

act a certain way

live a certain way

talk a certain way

whatever

because somebody else is telling them

that it's really urgent or important that they do that

don't take your cues from the world

take your cues from God

don't stand in line for destruction

rather stand in line for the opportunity that God has given you

whatever that is

and when it comes, be ready

be ready to fight in the spiritual realm

do spend your time with Christians

do prep yourself

do be more like Jesus each day

engaging in the activities that Jesus gave us to engage into

so that we will be more like Him

do get involved with training

do spend time with the church

do seize opportunities

and then as each opportunity is seized

and you see how God has glorified success or failure

use those things to launch yourself on new opportunities

and keep building on what you have learned

past victories mean something

they mean that God has been at work

when we got to that moment in time, Sheri and I did

where we were going to lose everything

both houses going into foreclosure

the one we couldn't sell in Ohio

the one we couldn't live in anymore in Michigan

both going into foreclosure

she called me on the phone right before that

and she said, I'm losing my job

we're going to lose everything

and in that moment I could have said anything

and almost anything I could have said

80% of what I might have said might have ruined my marriage

it might have been the end of our relationship

we might have never been together in the way that we were

in Christ ever again

but God lead me to say this

He said, all that matters is, we'll be together

now I wouldn't have said that normally

all that matters is, we'll be together

I might have said, we'll figure something out

listen, when you're faced with an opportunity

to stand down in a pit on a snowy day, don't you ever say

we'll figure something out

God doesn't want you to figure something out

God wants you to seize the opportunity

to act the way He created you in Christ

to do what it is that He's leading you to do

go on go

God says, 1, 2, 3, go

you go on go

God says, jump

you don't say how high, you just jump

God will determine how high

the difference is, you're walking by faith not by sight

so you give, you serve

you worship, you show up

you do the work of the Lord to

combat the enemy every day

I read a story

so long ago I couldn't remember

where I read it at and I couldn't

quote the person, this is not meant to be plagiarism

or anything like that, it was a story about a dog

a man got a dog

a fighting dog, and he thought, well I'm gonna

get this dog for my kids

well you know how well that goes, right, once a dog's been a fighting dog

it's hard to get a dog to ever be calm

with your kids after that, because frankly

kids are mean, and when a kid's mean to the dog

the dog's gonna respond like he would to another dog

who's mean to him, so he got a fighting dog

and he thought he was gonna, well he couldn't keep with his kids

and so they wound up when the kids were playing

in the house and stuff, a lot of times they wound up having to keep

the dog in a cage

so that their dog and the kids

wouldn't have a problem

and all the dog tried to do all the time

was a fighting dog, he was just always trying to get out of the cage

and on at the cage, where the fighting dog

is pretty big, and so fighting dog

got out of the cage

while they were gone

big dog got out of the cage

only to find out he was in a cage

now what do I mean by that?

still in the house

still in the house, right

so then he starts fighting to get out of the house

he's fight chewing up the door

busting it, finally, finally he managed

to bust a window out, or I think he pushed an air conditioner

out the window, pushed the air

conditioner out the window and got out of the house

only to find out he was still

in a cage, what do I mean by that?

he was in the yard, the yard was fenced in

he couldn't get out of the yard, so he spent all

day, all afternoon trying to

dig, and he dug under the neighbors

he dug, I found a soft spot, he dug

under the fence, into the neighbors

yard, only to find out

he was still in a cage, because

the neighbor had a fence too

you see, this is what we do, we go

from one problem to the next

and all we want to do is solve it the way the world

solves a problem, and all you do is wind up in another

cage, hear me now

your life can be one of two things

it can be moving forward

serving God, seizing the moment

to kill the beast, and take on

the opportunities and things that God has given you

to do, and the way that God would have you to do them

and how do you do that? You spend your time with Christians

you learn the way God would have you learn, you sharpen your

sword of the spirit, which is the word of God

it means you learn what the word says, and you're prepared to use it

and if you would really do this the way

it was meant to be, if Satan himself

which is unlikely to ever happen, but if Satan himself

came up to you, you would be ready

with the word of God to rebuke him just the way Jesus

did. Jesus did not rebuke

Satan as the son of God, God in the

flesh, he rebuked him as a man

who knew what God says

why? Because he was setting

an example for us to rebuke Satan

the same way. Satan if he ever

came in person, and every evil spirit you ever deal

with, and every problem you ever arrive at, you ought

to have a word for that moment in time

and you get that by perfecting your use

of the sword of the spirit which is the word of God

the point is

if you will think of it this way

there are two roads, two choices

that you can make. You can be ready

to go down to the pit on a snowy day

if that's what it takes to seize

the opportunity and do what it is that God has for you

you can do that, and you learn to do that

by those things that I'm talking about

or you can say, no, we just

kill it from a distance

take the easy road, not do

it God's way, not walk by faith

but take the easy road

running, and the easy road

running away from the problem

see a lion in a snowy pit, he's going up

somebody else will take care of it

I don't have to overcome inconvenience today

I don't have to overcome distractions today

somebody else will take care of it

I'm so sick and tired of Christians

saying somebody else will take care of it

what if you are the only person

in this room

now, I will tell you I believe in Jesus

I love Jesus, I'm following the Lord, I hope I'm going to heaven

I'm trying to live for the Lord every day

but I could be

somehow some kind of eloquent speaker

and the truth is, I could be going to hell

but even if I am, this is the

word of God, and you better figure out

what it means and apply it in your life

and be ready to go down in a pit on a snowy day

because if I'm not ready to go down in a pit on a snowy day

you still have to be ready

to go down in a pit on a snowy day if that's what the Lord

has you do. What if you're the

only person in the room who is for sure

walking into glory? You're just going to

let the rest of us go to hell?

Seriously?

If I'm not saved, I'm waiting

to be saved for sure

I want to be saved, I want to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ

and there are other people in this room, young people and

adults, people you know in your life, family members

people that you work with, people you go to

school with, that need to know about

the truth that Jesus Christ died on

the cross for sins and your sins can

be paid for and there is a once and

for all final victory in Jesus

and that as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, He

teaches us how to live so that we

are ready to go down in a pit on a snowy

day if that's what God calls us to

Now if you arrive at a pit on a snowy day

and there's a lion down there and God says don't go down there

that lion will kill you, then you'd be an idiot to jump

in the pit and fight the lion because you're going to die

even though God told you not to

God's not telling you to waste your life

He's telling you to live your life

The greatest tragedy would be that you arrive at the end of your

life, fall into the grips of Satan for eternity

not that he's going to rule over hell, he's going to be suffering

just the same as we are, but he gets

to take us with him into hell

never having lived

What a waste

Don't do it, instead

prepare yourself for those moments

and opportunities, it starts with accepting

Jesus Christ as Lord, that means He tells

you what to do when you do it

It starts with believing

in the salvation that He provided

having victory over the enemy who

would bring you down, whatever that is, your own sin, your own

temptation, the world's system, evil spirits, demons

Satan, whatever who is trying to bring you down today

having victory over that in Christ

that's where it starts at

the old you is now dead

He can go to hell

and He would have

but now He's been reborn, transformed

made new, and it's you, and you're walking

for Christ now, put the rest of it

behind you and say, okay, God sends me into a

pit on a snowy day versus a lion, I'm going

and realize that lion

is in your life

and so you're either in a cage

with Him, or

you're free

and if you're not free in Jesus Christ

then you're in a cage with that lion

right now

accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior

and say, okay, God, I'm ready at go time

but the truth is

for the big thing that God has for you

down the road, a year from now, five years from now

ten years from now if you're still here

for that moment in time, your particular

down in a pit on a snowy day

with a lion, you're not ready

right now, as you sit here right now

you're not ready, now Jesus is

and so if you went in that situation, you could be

Jesus could come as the fourth man in the furnace

and He can say, okay, I gave you ten years to get

rid of this day, it's not happening

you didn't do it, ten years, you could have studied

every day, you could have served every day, you could have

gave every day, you didn't do it, but I'm here with you

now, we're going to get through it, it's going to be fine

and that's what He promises, that's the minimum

but what He desires for you

is that when you get to that moment in time of ten years

He's there with you, and you and

Him are rejoicing through the moment

see, this lion, He's a pussycat

He can't touch me

greater is He that is in you

than He that is in the world, means

that when you arrive at the moment where you truly

have to fight, the devil

if you would, or evil spirits or temptations

or whatever it is, when you have to fight in that moment

you run roughshod right over

top of it, we're acting

like we're subject to temptation

like anybody else, you're not, you've got

the Holy Spirit in you, conviction, God's Word

spiritual gifts, you're thirsty

for chocolate, sing praises

it literally has the same effect

science will tell you, it has eating

chocolate, singing praises to God

check the endorphins in your brain, literally

the same effect

but most of us don't want to sing at all

in worship with other Christians, on the

road, we were, Ariana and I got

in the van, we were going to the YMCA

to practice basketball

and the truth is

the last couple of weeks

I've had some pretty vicious

days

days where one thing after another came against me

and I was trying, I was just

taking them on with Jesus, I'm like, Jesus

we got this, we're going to do this, we've got this, we're not going to quit

and I'm keeping a harrowing

schedule as it is

we're driving to basketball, and I thought

I'm going to put on Turbulent

Skies by Lauren Daigle, because when I did my Sabbath

two songs, Turbulent Skies and These

Are The Days, it means, Turbulent Skies

means you're going to go through some rough stuff, but it's going to be okay because

he's going to be with you, that's what the message to that song is

and the other song was, These Are The Days

means even if you're going through rough stuff, these are the days

that God has promised, something amazing, something

incredible, God is doing something

so I'm going to put on Turbulent Skies by Lauren Daigle

push the button

on my phone

and Alexa says

Amazon Music is currently streaming on another

device, would you like to stream

Amazon Music on this device instead?

Well Sherry's driving back from Columbus

so clearly she's listening to Amazon

Music, and so I said no

I'm not going to take Sherry's Amazon Music away

not anytime under the sun would I ever do that

Amazon Music might be next to nothing, not even be a big

deal to you or to anybody else, and it might not have been a big

deal if I had taken it away from her, she could have listened to something

else, but no way, I'm taking anything away

from my wife at any time if I can help it

and so I said no, and Ariana said

what'd you say no for?

and I said well because mom must be listening

to Amazon Music right now and I'm not going to take that away from her

and she said, oh, that's

nice

the rest of the way to the YMCA we started picking out

praise songs

I Will Call Upon the Lord

Sanctuary

I only know like three

I've been a Christian for 30 years and I only know like three

almost, and I only know like three praise songs

so we started picking out praise songs and singing them

and you know, as I look back

at my week this week, even in victories and talking

to other Christians and cool things going on

that moment, that drive

it feels a little bit

like down in a pit

with a lion on a snowy day

and those praise songs

feel like a little bit like

that spear

that belonged to that Egyptian

when we got to

basketball and practice and

we got some dinner

it was good

are you good?

are you better than okay?

are you facing something?

maybe this is your pit

on a snowy day

and maybe you're not ready because

the last several years you were supposed to get ready

well don't worry, Jesus is not going to

abandon you, he's going to get you through it

but learn something from it when he gets you through it

and go, okay, I probably should

be

practicing my sword of the spirit

which is the word of God, I probably

should be active in my disciplines, I should

be hanging out with Christians instead of the other things

that I'm doing, I should be serving in the church

when I have a couple hours of my schedule in the middle

of the week, I should be praising God

or studying or praying or reaching out to

somebody in the church and saying how can I help, what can I do

who can I serve, I should be going out, I should be

Caitlyn paying for the people

food behind me at McDonald's assuming I have

enough money to do so, I should be doing that

and when she says

can I give you a hug, I should be saying yes

because she clearly needs a hug

you see?

you can't do this

you can't keep living like Christians

who go, we're just going to stab it in the pit

and when it's out of the pit

we're going to run

no

you need to live like a Christian who's preparing, who's fighting in the spiritual realms

making a difference for the people

around you and winning the day

it's go time

ready to go?

I'm going to ask the praise team to come forward

and read our, sorry, sing our

final song today and as we sing

this song I'm asking you, if you're here today

and you're not in your earnest, if that's the least price of your Lord

and Savior, then all you gotta do

right now, you should be doing it right now

do I need to do this?

am I supposed to turn my light?

and you'll hear God saying, that's you

you'll feel that little tug

you may not recognize your voice very well

because you might not have a lot of experience with it, but if you're here

and you're doing that, you just listen, you'll feel it

I need to earnestly give my life

over to the Lord right now

and if you've already done that

and you realize that you've not been prepared for this fight

you've been maybe running away from your problems

or you've been

trying to stab it down in the pit rather than

taking on where God says, walk by faith

not by sight, and taking these things on by faith

then you repent today

and you turn your life over to the Lord

you commit yourself to do the things that God

has given you to do, to be the kind of person that

God has made you to be

and anything else is less

anything else is less

so as we sing this song

you respond to the Lord's leading tune, you come forward

and you say, Pastor Dan, I gave my life

to the Lord today, or, Pastor Dan, I

recommitted my life to the Lord today, I'm gonna live the way God

comparing me to whatever it is

maybe you're here today

and you say I need to be baptized, or you need to join the church

or I need to be

a local church near me that I can be part of

a fellowship with real Christians, and people really want to serve the Lord

ordinary people

screw ups

serve in Jesus and made powerful

because, not because

power or anything, but because Jesus

is Jesus

that's the kind of church we are

reaching, we like Jesus, and no matter where we're at

we're gonna be one more step

so as we sing this song, you respond to the Lord's leading tune

you do that, and you let us know what's on your heart today

great, would you stand with me and sing

the song coming up on the screen