Replay | Throwback Sunday with Karl Hartman

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

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change me to 970-00. Thank you and enjoy the message.

What an honor it is to be with you here this morning, to be able to share with you what

God has laid on my heart. If you're joining us online, thank you for welcoming us into

your home. If you're joining us here for the first, second, or third time, welcome to Hub

City Vineyard. My name is Carl Hartman and I'm one of the worship leaders here with Hub

City Worship. It is my privilege to bring this message to you today as we continue our

series for the month of August, the real F words. In this series, we're taking a look

at several words that are significant to our faith with the common theme being that they

all begin with the letter F. Now in the first week, Rudy brought an awesome

message about forgiveness. Last week, Rhett knocked it out of the park with his message,

there's favor in the fire. Before we get too deep this morning, can we give these guys

a huge round of applause? They did an outstanding job and have set the bar exceedingly high.

Now I have to admit, when I first heard the series title, the real F words, I wasn't crazy

about it. I remember talking to my wife. Even as I was talking to her, God began to speak

directly into my heart and challenge my preconceived notions of what this series might be about.

As Rhett mentioned last week, when we think about the phrase the F word, there's one specific

word that comes to mind that causes great offense, but there are a lot of other really

good F words. Faith, favor, freedom, forgiveness. My wife wanted me to add fettuccine and falafel,

but some of y'all are on a low carb diet, so I figured we'd skip those. But seriously,

these other F words, they get a bad rap simply because of the letter that they're associated

with. What God drew my attention to was Jesus' ministry. When Jesus walked this earth, he

didn't surround himself with the celebrities or the famous people or the religious leaders

or even the Instagram influencers of his time. He surrounded himself with the broken and

hurting people who needed his grace. This morning, we don't want to just offer you a

clever cliche series title. We want to offer you an opportunity to be challenged by the

word of God. Now, my F word for this series is the word fight. The title of my message

is Throwback Sunday. Today, we're going to learn how to leverage God's faithfulness in

the past and his promises for the future to defeat the enemy today. We're going to look

at a familiar passage of scripture from 1 Samuel chapter 17, which is right in the middle

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

of the story of David and Goliath. Now, last week, Rhett did an awesome job of laying the

foundation for our understanding of David's anointing. But I want to move to the next

chapter in his story. And before we jump into the scripture, I want to set the stage and

provide a little context. So David was the youngest son of Jesse. He had just been to

the battlefield where he witnessed the Philistine giant Goliath making threats towards God and

Israel. King Saul, the originally elected king of Israel, had been rejected by God and

young David was secretly anointed his replacement by the prophet Samuel. What we're about to

read is essentially the pregame conversation that happens between David and Saul. 1 Samuel

1 Samuel 17:31

17 verse 31, when the words that David spoke were heard, they informed Saul and he sent

for him. And David said to Saul, may no one's heart fail on account of him. Your servant

will go and fight this Philistine. But Saul said to David, you are not able to go against

this Philistine to fight him for you are only a youth. You are only a youth while he has

been a warrior since his youth. Now I got to pause right here. Have you ever had somebody

try to limit you with an only? Because of Saul's limited perspective, he was trying

to limit David based on David's age. And David said, I might be a youth, but I'm not only

a youth. And I came here this morning to tell you that you might be a husband and a father,

but you're not only a husband and a father. You might be a wife and a friend, but you're

not only a wife and a friend. You might be a woodworker or a school counselor or an external

systems manager, but you're not only those things. You're a warrior. Look at your neighbor

and tell them there's more to me than meets the eye. Y'all need some more coffee. Pick

it up at verse 34. But David said to Saul, your servant was tending his father's sheep.

When a lion or a bear came and took a sheep from the flock, I went out after it and I

attacked it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. And when it rose up against me, I grabbed

it by its mane and I struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion

and the bear. And this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them since he has defied

the armies of the living God. And David said, the Lord who saved me from the paw of the

lion and the paw of the bear, he will save me from the hand of this Philistine. So Saul

said to David, go and may the Lord be with you. So God, I thank you for this day. I thank

you for this amazing opportunity that you have given me, God, to present this word,

Lord. And I pray that you would fill me with boldness and confidence so that I can present

this word exactly as you gave it to me, God. I ask that you would open up our hearts and

our minds to receive what you have for us today. And I pray that you would help us to

understand that in Jesus' name, we're not fighting for the victory. We're fighting from

the victory. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Now, a quick disclosure before I jump into

the message. I hope you like the person that you're sitting beside because I have a lot

of things for you to tell them today. Look at your neighbor and tell them I get to help

preach this morning. Now, as I mentioned, the title of my message is Throwback Sunday.

And this is a reference to the social media trend, Throwback Thursday. Throwback Thursday

was first used in 2006. And since its inception, it's been posted over 500 million times on

the social media platform, Instagram. Throwback Thursday, which is stylized hashtag TBT or

hashtag Throwback Thursday, offers users the ability to celebrate and relive the past by

posting humorous, often positive pictures of themselves, usually from a previous era

of their life. Now, in full disclosure, I do not have social media. But one thing that

has become painfully apparent to me as I've studied this trend is this. Some things need

to stay in the past. Fashion trends like frosted tips, hammer pants, chunky flip flops, popcorn

shirts, I don't ever need to see those again for the rest of my life. Some things need

to stay in the past. Sometimes it's not a fashion trend. Sometimes it's a bad decision.

I was flipping through my phone the other day and I came across a picture from last

November that reminded me of this fact. So last November, we had a worship team get together.

Jeff Shields, the previous league guitar player, had taken a job in Michigan and he was going

to be moving. So we decided to get together at a local restaurant to celebrate his time

in the ministry and to send him off in style. So we all gathered together at the restaurant

and we were hanging out and the servers came around to take our order. And I wasn't planning

on ordering anything, but I flipped through the menu and I thought, well, I can't go wrong

with the chicken quesadilla. So I placed my order and went back to my conversation and

30 or 45 minutes went by. Eventually the servers came around and put our plates in front of

us. Now, when I looked down, I was immediately confused because what I saw on my plate was

not what I knew to be a chicken quesadilla. So I asked my server, I said, is this the

chicken quesadilla? And he said, yeah. I said, the chicken quesadilla? He said, yeah. I said,

okay, no worries. So there's two things that I've learned about this type of situation.

Number one, my mother taught me that it's rude to not eat the food that's been placed

in front of you. Number two, my wife taught me that you always want to be kind to your

servers, particularly when you're in a large party, which we were. So I proceeded to eat

my food and went back to my conversation with Jeff and all was well for three or four minutes.

And suddenly my Jedi mind begins to sense a disturbance in the force. So I scanned the

room and halfway across the room on the other side of the table, I noticed my buddy Rhett

is talking to his server, gesticulating towards his plate. Now, because of how loud the room

was, I wasn't able to hear every word that was being said, but there are two phrases

that I picked up quite clearly. The first phrase was chicken quesadilla and the second

was not what I ordered. As it turns out, my buddy Rhett had ordered a steak fajita quesadilla

and that is allegedly what had been put on the plate in front of me. Now, since the time

of this incident, I have done extensive research and I can unequivocally say that what I had

that night was not a steak fajita quesadilla. It may have been a plain steak fajita, but

it was not a steak fajita quesadilla. Nevertheless, this night, which was solely designed to celebrate

Jeff Shields' time in our ministry has gone down in Hub City worship history as the night

that Carl Stoll Rhett steak fajita quesadilla. Somebody said it was an unfortunate case of

biblical misinterpretation. The psalmist said, you prepare a table for me in the presence

of my enemies, not you prepare a table for me in the presence of a quesadilla thief.

Some things need to stay in the past. If you're anything like me, you've probably got some

things in your past that you'd like to forget. But you know what? I bet you have some things

in your past that you've forgotten that you need to remember. See, as freeing as it was

for me to clear my conscience of the quesadilla incident, the enemy isn't interested in stealing

your lunch. He's after your potential. You are a child of the most high God and a threat

to the kingdom of darkness. And the enemy knows that he can't defeat you, but if he

can distract you long enough to get you to focus off of God's faithfulness and his promises

for your life, he can begin to rob you of your potential. And that is exactly what had

happened to the nation of Israel. The first thing that we need to understand this morning

is that Israel was guaranteed victory over their enemies, but they had forgotten. And

to understand this, we need to go backward on the biblical timeline to the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy is a book in the Old Testament that catalogs a series of speeches that Moses

gave to Israel just before they entered into the promised land. In these speeches, Moses

reviews and reinforces the covenant that God has made with his people. And I want to pick

it up in Deuteronomy 20 verse 1. When you go to war against your enemies and see horses

Deuteronomy 20:1

and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them because the Lord

your God who brought you up out of Egypt will be with you. The Lord your God is the one

who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory. Israel's

victory would not be through their own strength or power, but rather by the presence of the

Lord that went with them, leading them into battle. And God made good on his promise.

Joshua 21 says, not one of all the Lord's good promises to Israel failed. Every one

was fulfilled. Now when we were younger and somebody would make a claim that we didn't

quite believe, we'd often respond with, well, the proof is in the pudding. But I found out

with God that the proof is in the promise. See, God had proven his faithfulness to Israel

time and time again. And if Israel had taken the time to do a throwback Sunday before they

ever stepped out on the battlefield against the Philistines, they would have been posting

picture after picture of victories over enemies that always had the strategic and tactical

advantage over them. But instead of remembering God's faithfulness through the fight, they

had forgotten. And this is the condition of the nation under Saul as Saul struggles to

find someone to go up against Goliath. For 40 days, Goliath would step out to the battlefield

and he would challenge both God and Israel and look at the response of Saul in the Israelite

army. On hearing the Philistines' words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

Now I wonder, is there anybody here this morning who's got a giant that's been breathing down

your neck that just will not let up? Here's what I found out when you're facing something

that's bigger than you. It's not your perception of the size of your giant that's important.

It's your perception of the size of your God. Let me say that again. It's not how big you

think your giant is. It's how big you think your God is. See, like Israel, we are guaranteed

victory over the enemy. Colossians 2.15 says, in this way, God took away Satan's power to

accuse you of sin and God openly displayed to the whole world Christ's triumph at the

cross where your sins were all taken away. God has already disarmed Satan. Christ has

already triumphed over sin. It's already done. Look at your neighbor and tell them, it's

already done. It's already done. And if it's already done, then the enemy can't undo it.

But that doesn't mean that we won't have to step up to the battle line and claim our victory.

The second thing that we need to understand this morning is that David was destined for

battle. So we know from 1 Chronicles chapter two that David and his family were from the

tribe of Judah. And to understand the significance of this on our throwback Sunday, we need to

go back. And if we go back far enough, we're going to find two specific prophecies or blessings

that were made about Judah. The first is found in Genesis chapter 49 and it's made by Jacob.

Genesis 49 · chapter mention

So a little biblical history. Jacob was a father who had 12 sons and his 12 sons and

their families went on to become the 12 tribes of Israel. And this is how Jacob prophesied

about Judah. Genesis 49, eight. Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be

on the neck of your enemies. Your father's sons will bow down to you. Now after the 12

tribes of Israel went on to become a mighty nation and after Moses led them to the edge

of the promised land, this is how Moses prophesied about Judah. Deuteronomy 33, seven. And this

he said about Judah, hear Lord the cry of Judah, bring him to his people. With his own

hands he defends his cause. Oh, be his help against his foes. Now both of these prophecies,

they anticipate conflict. They anticipate that a fight is coming. And when the fight

came, David was ready. Look at his response to Saul. When the words that David spoke were

heard, they informed Saul and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, may no one's

heart fail on account of him. Your servant will go and fight this Philistine. When everybody

else was stepping back, David was stepping up to the fight, thus fulfilling the words

that had been spoken about Judah. And the thing that we need to understand this morning

is that like David, we are destined for the battlefield. Ephesians six encourages us to

put on the armor of God as we step out in faith to fight the enemy. I'm going to do

a quick poll this morning. Show of hands, how many people here today are in the middle

of a fight? Okay. All y'all that have teenagers better be raising both of your hands. As I

was preparing this message, I got a specific word for God for somebody who is here today,

who's in the middle of a fight. This word is not for everybody. As soon as you hear

it, you're going to know whether this is for you or not. And if this word is for you, I

want you to take out a pen and paper and write this down or take out the notes app on your

phone and write this down. As I was preparing and I was studying the generational aspect

of David's fight with Goliath, God gave me this specific word. You aren't the first one

in your family to fight this, but you will be the first to achieve victory. Let me say

that again. You aren't the first one in your family to fight this, but you will be the

first to achieve victory. I don't know who this is for this morning, but it's for somebody

here today who's in the middle of a fight. And I don't know what inheritance you've been

left by the generations that came before you, but your inheritance in Christ is victory.

So as we move forward this morning, we need to understand also number three, that David

relied on his past experience in the faithfulness of God. Verse 34, but David said to Saul, your

servant was tending his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a sheep from

the flock, I went out after it and attacked it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. And

when it rose up against me, I grabbed it by its mane and struck it and killed it. Your

servant has killed both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be

like one of them since he has defied the armies of the living God. And David said, the Lord

who saved me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, he will save me from

the hand of this Philistine. Happy throwback Sunday. David said, I've seen him do it before

and I know I'm going to see him do it again. And to understand this passage of scripture,

we need to see the parallels and understand David's logic. David said, okay, I was out

in the past. I was out in the middle of a field. The lion and the bear came along and

attacked my flock. Now notice who the aggressor is. David is not out picking a fight with

the lion and the bear. The lion and the bear have attacked his flock. As followers of Christ,

it's not our job to pick a fight with the rest of the world. It's our job to be prepared

to defend ourselves against the attacks of the enemy. So David was out in the field.

The lion and the bear came along. The aggressor came along and attacked his flock. David stood

up to defend the flock and God gave him the victory. So David says, okay, fast forward

to the present. I'm in the middle of a different field. I'm in a battlefield. A different aggressor

has came along and is attacking God's character and God's people. I'm going to step out in

faith to defend God's flock and I believe that God is going to give me the victory.

I love the way that David puts this in Psalm 18, starting with verse two. The Lord is my

rock, my fortress and my deliverer. My God is my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield

and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I called to the Lord who is worthy of praise

and I have been saved from my enemies. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my

foes who were too strong for me. It almost sounds in that last verse like David is talking

about going up against a giant. Now, when I study these passages of scripture, I often

like to look at the meanings behind the names of significant people or places within the

text and I thought this was interesting. The Hebrew word that forms the root for the name

Goliath is Gala and Gala means to uncover or reveal. As Goliath stepped out to the battle

line and challenged both Israel and God, Israel's failure to rely on God was revealed. In the

same way, David's willingness to step up and fight the giant revealed or uncovered his

faith. Isn't it true that our giants have a way of uncovering or revealing what we're

trusting in? So as we move forward this morning, we need to rely on God's faithfulness in the

past and his promises for the future. Now, at the beginning of this message, I mentioned

that my word for this F word series is the F word fight. And in my experience, followers

of Christ often adopt one of two opposing mindsets when it comes to fighting their giants.

On one hand, there are those of us who have received salvation in Jesus, but we wrongly

believe that between now and heaven, God can't be bothered to help us fight our giants. So

we're going to fight them in our own strength. On the other hand, there are those of us who

believe that God has already overcome the enemy. So we're content to sit back and do

nothing. But I want to challenge both of these beliefs this morning because I believe that

there's a better thought pattern. We aren't responsible for the victory, but we still

need to respond to the enemy when the enemy tries to push us around. So this morning,

I'd like to teach you how to respond to the enemy. I'd like to teach you how to spiritually

stick up for yourselves. I think we can all relate to this talk when we think about facing

our giants. And it's worth noting that when I talk about giants, I'm not talking about

literal giants. I'm talking about areas of spiritual conflict where the enemy is causing

division or distraction in our lives. I don't know what your giant is this morning, but

I know what it's not. Your giant is not your spouse, but it may be your attitude towards

your spouse. Your giant is not your bank account, but it may be some habits that you have that

impact your bank account. Your giant is not your standard of living, but it may be the

pride that goes along with your standard of living. I want to get vulnerable with you

guys this morning. Last year, my wife bought me an air fryer for my birthday, and over

the last year, I have come to the conclusion that I am pretty sure that one of my giants

is Mini Tater Tots. And I have furthermore become convinced that another one of my giants

is Chick-fil-A sauce. And I have noticed that late at night, these two giants like to get

together and try to tag team me to try to take me down. I'm still learning how to fight

my giants. I get up in the morning, I'm like, oh my gosh, did somebody force feed me a bag

of marbles? Good grief. And then I get worried. The panic sets in, and I think that I slept,

walked into my son's room and consumed his entire Lego collection. Oh man, they call

them Tater Tots. They should call them Later Tots because you always pay for them later.

Listen, I don't know what your giant is. When I first wrote this outline, I had a lot of

easy answers like addictions, habits, health situations, financial problems. And to be

sure these are giants that we all have the potential to face. But I've learned as I've

studied these passages of scripture that the enemy works in a much subtler way in many

of our lives. Somebody here today is facing the giant of expectation. Somebody here is

facing the giant of performance or perfection. Somebody here is facing the giant of preference.

How about the giants of compromise or the giants of comparison? I said, I don't know

what your giant is, but here's the reality. The reality is we don't always get to pick

our giants. We don't always get to pick our battlefield. And we don't always get to pick

the timing of our fight, but we do get to pick our weapon. And our weapon is the promises

of God and the knowledge of his faithfulness. And while all of our giants may be different,

the strategy that we use to defeat them is the same. Now I got to be honest, I've been

thinking about this idea of a throwback Sunday for probably a little over a year. And when

Chris asked me to preach during this message, I immediately knew that this is what I wanted

to talk about. And I kind of had a general idea of the direction that I wanted to head.

But things really came together for me in March of this year. In March, my wife and

I walked into one of our Sunday morning gatherings and we were both carrying some pretty heavy

burdens. We were facing a giant, if you will. And I remember that Jess was preaching, it

was during the She Said Yes sermon series. And as Jess was preaching that morning, God

began to overwhelm me with this incredible sense of peace about the giant that I was

facing. Not only did God give me a sense of peace, he directed my attention toward David's

physical strategy that he used to take down Goliath. See, I believe that there's a beautiful

spiritual parallel between how David approached his giant and how we need to approach the

giants in our life. And to understand this, we need to move on in the text to verse 40.

Then David took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them

in the pouch of his shepherd's bag, and with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

Meanwhile, the Philistine with his shield bearer in front of him kept coming closer

to David. Come here, he said, and I'll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals.

Spoiler alert, this is fake news. David said to the Philistine, you come against me with

sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the

God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. As the Philistine moved closer to

attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and

taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone

sank into his forehead and he fell face down on the ground. So David triumphed over the

Philistine with a sling and a stone. Without a sword in his hand, he struck down the Philistine

and killed him. Now, David picked five smooth stones. So we're going to look at five action

steps that we can employ as we daily step out in face to fight our giants. And the first

action step is this. Number one, we need to pay attention. We need to pay attention first

and foremost to the promises found in God's word. Colossians 3, 16 says, let the message

of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom.

And I love the imagery here that the message of Christ, the promises of God would dwell

among us like a living breathing entity. We need to allow the promises of God to come

alive in our spirit. We also need to pay attention to the things that God is doing in our lives.

God is doing unique things in each of our lives that form the foundation of our testimony

and allow us to witness to his goodness and his faithfulness. The problem is if we fail

to pay attention to what God is doing and we forget the ways that he's been faithful

in our lives, it's way too easy to begin believing that God has done working. So last week Rhett

preached about Joshua and the battle of Jericho. And I want to pick up with a story right where

he left off. Under Joshua's leadership, Israel experienced a series of victories. And this

is found in the book of Joshua in the Old Testament. Joshua chapter 12, the author takes

Joshua 12 · chapter mention

a break from the action and instead focuses on the names of the kings and the cities that

God has given to Israel. And I'm going to look at these verses, Joshua 12, starting

with verse nine. The king of Jericho won. The king of Aad, Ner-Bethel won. The king

of Jerusalem won. The king of Hebron won. And it goes on and on and on like this. It

is almost like the author of Joshua is tallying up the victories that God has given to Israel.

I saw this and it just blew my mind. Joshua 13, one, when Joshua had grown old, the Lord

said to him, you are now very old and there are still very large areas of land to be taken

over. God said, listen to me. I walked you into the promised land and I gave you victory

over your enemies one by one, by one, by one. But notice what I didn't say. I said one by

one, but I didn't say done. How many people here today know that the list of victories

that God is writing over your life is not finished. It's incomplete. It's not done.

We need to pay attention to the things that God is doing in our life and the ways that

he's being faithful as well as the promises found in his word. Number two, we need to

pick it up. When we see what God is doing in our lives, when we see the promises found

in his word, we need to pick up and hold onto them with both hands. Hebrews 10, 23 puts

it this way. So let's do it full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and

out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word.

Now one practical way that we can pick up and hold onto the promises of God and the

knowledge of his faithfulness is simply to write it down. When we see the things that

God has done in our life, when we see the promises found in his word, write them down.

Earlier in the message I gave a specific word for somebody here today who's in the middle

of a fight and I challenge you to write that word down. I want to further challenge you.

If that word was for you, I want you to post that somewhere where you can see it every

day this week. Allow that word that is uniquely from God, specifically for you to begin to

build confidence in your spirit. Now I want to give a personal example of what it means

to pick up on the promises of God. So a couple of weeks ago I was reading through the gospel

of Luke and I came across Luke 10, 19. In Luke chapter 10, Jesus sends out 72 of his

Luke 10 · chapter mention

followers to the surrounding towns where they are to prepare the way to heal the sick and

to minister to people. And they came back and they were so excited because they had even

been able to drive out demons. And Jesus responds with these words in Luke 10, 19. Look, I have

given you authority over all the power of the enemy and you can walk among snakes and

scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. Now when I read this passage of scripture,

God showed me two specific things about it and I immediately wrote both of them down.

And I want to share both of them with you today. The first thing is this. You don't

have to take it. Jesus freely gives you the authority over the enemy. It's not something

that you can earn. There's not a check box that you can mark off. There's not a ritual

that you need to follow. Jesus freely gives you the authority over the enemy. You don't

have to take it. The second thing I saw is truly a game changer. It's this. You don't

have to take it. When the enemy starts to push you around, you have authority over him.

You don't have to take it. Come on. I feel the spirit of the Lord on this word this morning.

You don't have to take it. You don't have to take it when panic attacks. You don't have

to take it when temptation tries to take you down. You don't have to take it when comparison

calls. You don't have to take it. Look at your neighbor and tell them, you don't have

to take it. Yeah. I could camp here all morning, but we got to move on. Number three, put it

where it belongs. Then David took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from

the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag. David picked five smooth stones. And

I want to ask you this morning, what are you carrying into battle? See, I believe that

we need to seek the promises of God and the knowledge of his faithfulness securely in

our hearts as we move forward. And as I was preparing this message for this point, God

drilled into my head this word over and over and over and over again, the word familiar.

Look at your neighbor and tell them, you look familiar. Now, do you think that the first

time that David picked up his sling was when he was walking out to the battle line to meet

Goliath? No, God prompted David to use the weapon that he was familiar with to take down

his giant. In our fight, we have one very powerful weapon and that is the word of God.

How familiar are you with the promises found in the word of God? Now, some of y'all don't

like me because you just found out that this lesson plan comes with homework. Listen, the

time to get familiar with your weapon is not when you can feel the enemy's breath on your

neck. The time to get familiar with your weapon is right now. I love the way that Chris put

this when he talked during our last month during our grace bomb series, when he talked

about spiritual muscle memory and he talked about how we step out in faith and we begin

to repeat those positive spiritual habits, those habits begin to become our natural reflex.

When you feel the enemy's breath on your neck and you hear his words speaking into your

mind, our response should be a natural reflex. And we see this in David's natural reflex

in his response to Goliath when he says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine? And I want

to focus on the wording here. Circumcision was required of every Israelite male. Circumcision

was a sign of God's covenant and his promise with his people. When David pointed out the

fact that Goliath was uncircumcised, what he was really saying was, I'm covered by a

promise, but you're not. You might be bigger than me, but you're not bigger than my God.

Remember, it's not your perception of the size of your giant that's important. It's

your perception of the size of your God. So recap, number one, we got to pay attention.

Number two, we got to pick it up. Number three, we got to put it where it belongs. Number

four, now it's starting to get good. We got to partner with the Holy Spirit to create

potential. Malcolm Gladwell in his book, David and Goliath, points out a nuance in Goliath's

challenge, come to me. Goliath wanted David to come close to him where he could engage

him in hand to hand combat, where Goliath surely would have had the upper hand. David

however favors speed and maneuverability and the use of his sling. Isn't it true that David

could have simply reached into his shepherd's pouch and lobbed a stone at Goliath's forehead,

but instead he chose to use his sling to create greater inertia and greater momentum, thus

releasing greater potential. Gladwell goes on to say that Eden Hirsch, a ballistics expert

with the Israeli Defense Forces, recently did a series of calculations showing that

a typical sized stone hurled by an expert slinger at a distance of 35 meters would have

hit Goliath's head with a velocity of 34 meters per second, more than enough to penetrate

his skull and render him unconscious or dead. Friends, the reality is this, the enemy wants

us to fight him on his terms. He wants to draw us in close where he can engage us in

a long close hand to hand combat, where he can wear us down emotionally, mentally, physically

and spiritually. Don't fight the enemy on his terms. David stood in the distance, he

put the stone in his sling and he began to swing it around, creating greater momentum

and thus greater potential. As we pay attention to what God is doing in our lives and the

promises found in his word, as we begin to meditate on them around and around in our

mind, those promises begin to build potential. Look at Joshua 1, 8, and don't for a minute

let this book of the revelation be out of mind. Ponder and meditate on it day and night,

making sure you practice everything written in it. Then you'll get where you're going.

Then you'll succeed. So I'm going to pull an elementary school teacher card here. One,

two, three, eyes on me. I need you to see this. Okay. I need you to see the parallel

between David's physical strategy that he used to take down Goliath and how we need

to approach our giants. Number one, just like David, we got to pay attention. Number two,

just like David, we got to pick it up. Number three, just like David, we got to put it where

it belongs. Number four, just like David, we got to partner with the Holy Spirit to

create potential. And in case y'all thought that Throwback Sunday was just a cliche reference

to a popular social media trend, I came here this morning to tell you that there is another

reason why I titled this message Throwback Sunday. Because after you partner with the

Holy Spirit to create potential, when the enemy comes for you and he will, you need

to allow the promises of God to become a projectile that takes down your enemy. Number five, you

need to throw it back. You need to throw it back. Come on, somebody say, throw it back.

Yeah. Before David hit Goliath in the head with a stone, he hit him with the word of

God. Verse 45, David said to the Philistine, you come against me with sword and spear and

javelin and weapons formed by human hands that cannot overcome the power of the Almighty

God, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of

Israel whom you have defied. David said, I have a provider and a protector and his promises

are good. And when the enemy starts to talk in your life, you simply need to respond with

the promises of God. No enemy, you can't have my children for his love endures forever and

his faithfulness continues through all generations. No enemy, you can't have my future for I know

the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to

give you a hope and a future. No enemy, you can't have my emotions for God has not given

us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and a spirit of love and a spirit of sound

and if God gave it, then I've got it and if I've got it, then you can't have it. Come

on, somebody give the Lord a shout of praise for the promises that he's given us over the

enemy. Jesus was familiar with the concept of a throwback Sunday, Matthew chapter four,

Jesus was led into the wilderness where he was tempted by the enemy. And every time that

Satan tempted him, Jesus responded with the same three words, it is written. Jesus knew

that the promises found in God's word were more than enough to take down his enemy and

he didn't even have to lift a finger. Ephesians six puts it this way, stand firm then with

a belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place

and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition

to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows

of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the

word of God. Now, when I read this passage of scripture, I see six things that we are

encouraged to take with us as we daily step out in faith to fight our giants. Five of

them are designed to help defend us against the attacks of the enemy. One of them is designed

to help us launch a counter attack. That is the sword of the spirit, which is the word

of God. And I want to ask you this morning, how familiar are you with the promises found

in the word of God? Now, I want to invite you to stand as we close out this throwback

Sunday. I want to be perfectly clear this morning. David did not defeat Goliath in his

own strength. David's job was to hold the sling. God's job was to guide the stone. And

if you don't hear anything else that I've said this morning, I want you to hear this

one thing. God cannot guide what you have not released. So this morning, we're going

to release some things back to God. One powerful way that we can practice releasing God's promises

is simply to praise him for the victory that we have in Jesus. So in a minute, we're going

to close with worship. But before we do, I didn't share this with the first gathering.

I want to share this with you guys. You get the extended version of the message. So there's

some of you here today that may not be able to relate to this message because you're not

facing one giant thing, but you're facing a lot of little things. And the thing that

really struck home for me back in March is that God specifically drew my attention to

the stream where David picked up his stone. And I saw the rocks in the stream and over

time the sand was just moving through the stream, wearing them down, making them smooth,

wearing them down and making them smooth. And I believe that there's some people here

this morning who've got a lot of, you don't have one big giant, you've got a lot of little

things that are wearing you down. And I want to tell you this morning that God is not wearing

you down. He's making you smooth and aerodynamic so that when you are released towards your

purpose, you can follow a straight path to exactly what it is that God has for you. Those

things that you think are wearing you down, they're just smoothing out the rough edges

so that God can use you to your full potential. So if that's you, if you aren't facing one

giant, you're facing a lot of little things, I want to ask you to be bold this morning

and raise your hand because I want to pray with you. God, I thank you for this day. Lord,

I thank you for the promise that's found in your word. God, we know that as we step out

in faith, we may come up against diversity and conflict. And God, we also know that everywhere

that we've placed our foot, you've already gone before and prepared the way for us. So

God, I ask that right now that you would encourage somebody here this morning who's struggling

in their faith, who's struggling to believe that they're worthy, who's struggling to believe

that you're good because of all the little things that are distracting them and wearing

them down. And God, I ask that right now that you would just fill them with a spirit of

love and a spirit of grace and a spirit of peace about the things that they're facing.

Father, I thank you for this word. God, you're not wearing us down. You're making us aerodynamic.

God, I thank you.

God, I thank you.