Leaping at Lions

Welcome to this week's message from the Church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

Got a Bible this morning, turn that to 2 Samuel chapter 23.

2 Samuel 23 · chapter mention

And uh want to bring to you a passage this morning.

That's kind of an obscure passage that you might have looked at and read over and seen before.

But actually, this Christmas break, I picked up a book, and um and the book title was In a Pit or Chasing a Lion in a Pit on a Snowy Day.

And I thought, well, that's kind of a strange title.

I really didn't know what that meant, but I got reading it, and it's it's a scripture in the Bible.

So 2 Samuel chapter 23, Mark Batterson is the writer of that book, and um so I have to give credit, a lot a lot of inspiration to what uh I'll be preaching.

2 Samuel 23 · chapter mention

Started at reading that book and then getting into digging into the word of God.

And so um, 2 Samuel chapter 23.

2 Samuel 23 · chapter mention

I want to read to you this scripture, and then we're gonna jump right into things this morning.

2 Samuel 23, starting at verse 20, it says this Beniah was the son of Jehoida, the son of a valiant man from Kebzeel, who had done many deeds.

He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab.

He had also gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day.

And he killed an Egyptian, a spectacular man.

The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, so he went down to him with a staff, wrestled the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear.

These things Beniah the son of Jehoiada did and won a name among three mighty men.

He was more honored than the thirty, but he did not attain to the first three, and David appointed him over his guard.

Now, okay, you heard it in that version.

You heard what you read through, and before it is kind of like a census of David's mighty men, and maybe you've seen that scripture.

Well, now let's read it like it's in high definition.

Like you're watching it at the movies.

First of all, we're not told why Beniah was out in the woods, but we see immediately is a gut reaction decision that maybe ranks as one of the most improbable by a man in scripture.

Usually, when the image of a man eating beast travels through the optical nerves of your eye and registers with your brain, one message resounds.

Run! That's what normal people do when they see lions, they run.

But not Benia.

To leap after a lion, you'd have to be wired differently.

So picture this as the scene.

Out of the corner of his eye, Beniah spots a lion crawling.

Their vision may be obscured by some of the falling snow.

Maybe there's a moment when the lion and Benia's eyes lock, pupils dilate, anticipation's running high, muscles tense, adrenaline and the heart is beating.

Then Beniah does the unthinkable.

He runs, but he's going the wrong direction.

And as sure as you thought you had this script figured out, the lion runs away from Benia.

And lions can run up to 35 miles an hour.

Not even Usain Bolt can run that fast.

Lions weigh near 500 pounds.

As Benia gives chase to this steaming beast, locomotive, the ground gives way and falls into a pit.

Great win for Beniah, right?

End of story.

I chased a lion.

Wait until he goes back and tells the camp.

I chased a lion, he ran from me and he fell into a pit.

That'd be a great story.

Nope.

Baniah inches forward, has a moment to collect himself and regain his composure.

Inching up, he looks down in a pit and probably sees these neon yellow eyes staring back.

Have you ever had a moment when you lost it?

Maybe lost yourself.

Parents went off on the kids, and you said, Who was that yelling?

Sound like my parents.

You've had a moment and then you regained yourself.

Reality hits, and Baniah maybe thinks, normal people don't leap after lions.

So as Baniah turns to walk away.

If we were watching this, we all breathe a sigh of relief.

Whew! He made it.

But he wasn't walking away.

He was backing up to get a little running room.

And as he does it, he runs back and he jumps into a pit with a lion on a snowy day.

And then as you watch this unfold, you hear a blood-curdling roar.

As you expected, the crazy man went down and he was lunch.

But the next thing, the unthinkable, happens.

Boniah with fresh claw marks on his arm and maybe his face.

New wounds and some blood dripping, walks out of a pit with a great deep breath, a lion slayer.

Let's pray together.

Father, I pray that you would use this scripture to motivate us.

God, I pray that you would use this scripture to draw us closer to you, to learn something from a mighty man long ago.

God, I pray that you would use this to draw our hearts closer to you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

So how did a man begin to leap at lions?

Well, I want to explain to you three things this morning how that happened.

Number one, Beniah had a great background.

Look at verse 20 again.

It says that Benia was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel.

So in the Bible in scripture, names mean something.

And so when we sing about the name of Jesus, that means something.

And when you look this up and look up the background, the son of Jehoida, Jehoidah was a valiant man.

Jehoida, the name Jehoida means God known.

God known.

That was Beniah's dad, a person who was God known.

And it says not only that, but Jehoida was a valiant man.

You look at the word valiant, it means heroic and determination or courage.

That was inspired.

Let me speak to the dad for just a second.

That we can give to our sons.

Don't we believe that it's time that the man wines and takes the stones?

It's time.

We've got to take back our stones from the group of Satan.

It's time we do some things that are not easy.

It's time we do some things that are not comfortable.

You know, it's not easy to parent.

Okay?

I've been a parent for nine years, okay?

I I I'm learning, so please come teach me.

Okay?

But it's not easy.

It's not easy to fight with my kids about rules.

And that's what it is, because they're flesh like we're flesh, and we're trying to do a spiritual thing.

And so it can be like this.

And if they ain't coming along spiritually at my rate, then it can be like this, okay?

And so it's a fight.

And you want to fight.

There's certain things that you need to fight for.

It's easy to invest in the football.

It's easy to go to work and to your job and say you're providing while your house is empty and in need.

We need some men that are gonna leap after lions who look hard things in the face and say, I'm not going away in the name of God and my family.

I'm coming after you.

And I'm gonna see this thing through.

Amen, church.

Fathers, let's let our sons be God knowing and valiant, man.

That's what we need.

Well, not only did Beniah have a great background because of who he came from, but let's look at letter B there, where he came from.

The citizen of Kazbeel.

Kazbeel, the name Kazbeel means the gathering place of God.

That's a pretty good start.

My father's God known and valiant, and I'm from a place known as the gathering place of God or the congregation of God, or let me put it this way, the church.

So, Benia comes from a place that equates to church.

People were getting together and they were congregating together in the name of God.

I come from a place called Newark, which we break down the English word, it's New Work.

They started a new work.

And in New Work, uh there's not a whole lot great about Newark.

There's three signers of the Declaration of Independence that came from there: George Reed, Thomas McKean, and I think the third is named James Smith.

Uh, the biggest thing in the last century that is known from New Ark, New Ark, in 1951, the Chrysler Company built a 4.5 million square foot company and tanked in 2008.

My dad worked there, that's why I know a lot about it.

And uh also, fun side fact, in the 1960s, Bob Marley worked there.

Okay.

I don't have a lot from Newark.

The place now is 49% religious.

I don't really know what that means to be religious as a as a as a town, but it's 49% religious.

29% of that 49 is is Catholic.

5% of my hometown is considered Baptist or Christian in its background.

So 5% of 49%.

Okay.

I'm shocked when I look back over that that I ever even heard a clear gospel presentation, right?

I'm probably lucky from the place I came from, but Jehoida and Beniah come from a place called the Congregation of God.

Okay?

I don't know where your town is, where you came from.

Okay.

But to be a citizen of Kasbiel, to be a member of CCW, listen, I hope that means something to you, to be a member of the church.

Okay.

I love the church.

The Bible says how amiable are thy tabernacles.

We are to love the church.

And if you don't love church, I got a news brief for you.

In heaven, it's going to be a whole lot like this.

And so if you don't love praising God and sitting under God's presence, you're in for it's not going to be good.

Okay?

If you don't love it now.

Amen.

Citizen of Casbiel.

Well, it wasn't just where he came from, but he also had a name of his own, and that name was the name of God's deliverance.

The name Beniah means God delivers.

Let's put that together for a second.

God known from a place called the Congregation of God, and God will deliver.

Proverbs 22 in Ecclesiastes 7 says, a good name is better than great riches.

A good name is better than anointment.

A good name is better to be had.

Your family name is important.

The name Benial was important.

Listen, Richard is an English name that actually means powerful ruler.

It does.

Look it up.

And um, I almost wasn't named Richard, though.

That's kind of a funny story.

Uh when I was born, my mom had a name picked out for me, and it was on the birth certificate.

I can't remember the middle name, but my first name was Austin.

And I'm kind of glad the other one worked through if your name's Austin.

It's okay, but Austin means majestic, and that wouldn't have worked so well for me this morning.

I like powerful ruler.

Okay.

So I could have been majestic.

And while my mom fell asleep after birthing me, my dad ran down to the birth certificate, changed my name to Richard, which is his name, and that wasn't just like another name he liked.

He gave me his full name.

So I am Richard Noel Wright Jr.

And I did say Noel, okay?

That's right.

He changed my name, but now my name means powerful ruler, okay?

Your name means something, okay?

I look back, your name means something.

But Naya, his name means God delivers or Yahweh delivers.

Listen, those are all great things, but I want to tell you something.

It's not enough just to come from good people.

It's not enough just to come from a good place.

It doesn't mean that Beniah all of a sudden was problem-free.

Boniah still had to make some choices, and I want you to look over a few chapters back in 1 Samuel chapter 22 to see a little background about Beniah.

1 Samuel 22 · chapter mention

Okay?

In 1 Samuel 22, verses 1 and 2, look at what it says.

1 Samuel 22:1

David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adjolom.

So when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.

And everyone who was in distress, listen to these words, everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him, gathered to David.

So he became captain over them, and there was about 400 men with him.

This was the beginning of David's army.

And later on, where we caught up already when we're describing David's mighty men, Beniah, this was the beginning of that.

So Beniah was a part of a faction of people who were discontented, distressed, or in debt.

That's who Beniah was.

Okay?

And he meets up with David, and listen, there were some things maybe going on with King Saul that he didn't agree with.

Maybe he was discontented with that in the right way.

Okay, we're not saying he was just out and a bum, but he was discontented with things in his life, and that's where we it's not enough.

Listen, you better not be living off of grandma's Sunday school teaching as your salvation.

You better not be living off of somebody's religious coattails in your life as your way to heaven.

Listen, John 14, 60 says, I am the way.

And so Beniah was disgruntled, and he runs into David, and that's when he becomes a part of his men.

Listen, it's not enough.

We have to we have our backgrounds, but that's not enough.

He was distressed in debt.

You may have a long line of pastors and someone else.

That may be your family and someone else's family may have a long line of addiction.

Your choices and your life is what's vital.

And this next part is what was vital in Beniah's life.

Roman numeral number two.

Beniah had great beliefs.

He didn't just come from a great place, he had great beliefs.

And in 1 Kings chapter 1, verse 36, we get another insight.

1 Kings 1:36

You say, Well, how do you know Beniah had great beliefs?

How do you know this about him?

Uh we know that he was a mighty man and we've seen what he did with the line, but how do you know he had great beliefs?

We have this little scripture that gives us a little insight to it.

1 Kings chapter 1, verse 36 and 37.

1 Kings 1:36

It says, Beniah the son of Jehoidah answered the king and said, Amen.

May the Lord God of my Lord the King say so too.

As the Lord has been with my Lord the king, even so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of the Lord King David.

See, David was about to pass away, and his kingdom was going over to Solomon, and they had Beniah there.

And David had described what he wanted to happen, and Benia says, May the Lord do it so.

May the Lord the God that we've seen work with you, do it so.

Amen.

May the Lord do that.

And so Beniah had these great beliefs.

Where did his beliefs come out of?

Well, we know a couple of things.

Uh Beniah learned from a giant slayer.

That's letter A under that.

He learned from a giant slayer.

He learned from King David.

In verses 22 and 23, we see kind of what happens to him.

These things Beniah the son of Jehoida did and won a name among thirty or three, yes, three mighty men.

He was more honored than the thirty, but he did not attain to the first three.

And David appointed him over the guard.

So Beniah became captain of the guard.

So look at it this way.

Right?

We all just watched the inauguration, or some of you watched the inauguration, you've seen, if you watch any of that parade, how uh President Trump walking down the street and he had secret service everywhere.

Okay, there was people at every level there to protect the new president, and somebody was the head of that.

We don't know who the head of that was, but Benia became the head of David's guard.

Okay, David, a giant slayer.

David saw something in Beniah that made him the head of his guard.

And he was with David.

He had been with David.

Now, if you go even further back in scripture in 1 Samuel 18, we see some things that he would have learned from David.

David believed in the book.

Because when his men, it says his men with him, went with him into the cave, and into the cave, this is when Saul had been chasing.

Saul chased David and his men for four years.

I don't know if you've been chased by something or had something hound you, but four years he's being chased by the king who has a lot at his hand, and David's going and running and fleeing, and his men are going with him.

And he has a chance two times to kill King Saul.

And his men are seeing this with him, but he says, he says to him in a scripture, he says, It won't be so.

I'll not take the Lord, what the Lord has put in authority in my hand.

And he has this chance to get rid of his issue and his problem, but he doesn't.

Picture these guys trading stories later on in life.

Didn't you see it?

David's like, Benaya, you should have seen it when I was 14.

I was just sitting around in this pasture herding sheep.

It was boring.

Boring.

And I got me a slingshot and I started playing with that thing.

And you won't believe what happened one day, Beniah.

So I was playing my slingshot, and all of a sudden a bear came up.

And it was trying to get one of my sheep.

And so when that bear came up, you know what I did?

Guess what I did, Beniah?

I took that bear and I killed that bear.

Bare hands.

No pun intended.

And he said, you know what else happened?

A little while later, a lion.

Beniah's like, oh, I know about lions.

I'm listening.

He said, a lion came up, actually got one of my sheep in his mouth.

The scripture says that.

And so I took that lion by the beard and I smote him to death.

That's what scripture says.

That David took a lion by the beard and smote him to death.

Okay.

And Beniah's like, oh man, let me tell you, I had a similar experience.

And they go back and forth, and then David says, Well, one time there was this nine-foot-tall giant, and he was yelling at my people, and my brothers were over there quaking in their boots.

And the king was even a little scared.

And guess what I did?

I went out to that giant and I told him that he wasn't going to defy my God.

And I took, I took five, but I only need one.

Took my stone, threw it up, killed that giant.

Then I went over to him and I took his weapon out of his hand and sliced his head off.

And Beniah's like, Huh?

You won't believe this?

There was an Egyptian man who had a weapon in his hand, and I had a little stick.

And I ran up to him and I took his weapon out of his hand and killed him with his weapon.

How about that?

And so these guys had a camaraderie that I don't know if the scripture really brings to.

And so Beniah watched David and lived with David through the darkness in the cave before he was king and watched God's hand of anointing on this man.

You remember, it was the prophet who came to Jesse and said, God is anointing this son of yours.

And so he was God anointed.

And Beniah got to be side by side from the pit all the way up to the palace with David.

And he watched God's anointing in hand and watched David act as a crazy man before this other king.

And had saliva running down his face.

And the king let him go.

This was the man, the king from Gath, the town where he killed Goliath in.

Let him go because he watched God's anointing on these crazy things.

And when you see the hand of God do miracles, you have to believe.

Have y'all seen a miracle of God before?

It makes you believe.

Baniah had great belief.

No doubt about it, he had great belief.

Letter B under that is great belief.

You learn from a giant's letter, but he learned never to settle.

You see, Beniah could have stopped at chasing the lion.

He could have stopped right there, and it would have been a good story.

And I think for some of us, sometimes when the Holy Spirit calls, and we feel prompted by God to do something, there's something that happens that'll stop a man in his tracks.

It's called fear.

Fear makes us settle.

Some people get paralyzed with fear and it makes us settle.

Let me tell you some scripture.

2 Timothy 1 7 said, God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but a power and love and of a sound mind.

That's not from God.

If you're afraid of doing what God's calling you to do, if you've got paralyzing fear in your life, let me tell you something.

You're entertaining something that is not of God.

That's not from God.

1 John 4.18 said this perfect love casts out fear.

And perfect love, there's only one picture of perfect love that we have and we know, and it was seen at the cross.

We've been given perfect love.

It's already been settled, and it casts out all fear, our darkness, all death, all of that.

It's all been done and paid.

But we still become paralyzed with fear.

You're born with two fears.

Psychologists say you're born with two fears, not the Bible.

Falling and loud noises as a baby.

And everything else is learned or conditioned.

Church, if you can learn or condition it, you can unlearn and uncondition it.

Y'all hearing me today?

You can unlearn and uncondition it.

It's not from God.

Let me tell you top ten fears.

Number one, flying.

Can I?

Listen, I've had a few prayers on a plane before.

You just get in your head those crazy thoughts.

What if?

And people say, well, you have more danger in a car, but you feel a little more in control, don't you?

Maybe I'll fall out of this thing and roll through the highway if I fall out of this.

Okay.

Okay.

Hope it's in the water.

Alright.

Flying.

Second one, public speaking.

Alright.

Third one is heights.

The dark.

Fourth one.

Intimacy.

People are so afraid of letting people in.

I seen someone break that word down.

Into me, I see.

Death.

Rejection.

Failure.

Spiders and commitment.

Okay?

People are afraid.

If you can learn it, you can unlearn it.

God hadn't given that to you.

I want you to understand that.

That's not a God-given thing.

Okay?

Baniah wanted more.

You understand?

I'm sure that there was some sort of rush, that there was a moment that could have paralyzed him in fear.

I'm telling you, if I were alone with a lion, I'd be paralyzed with fear from the gate.

But Beniah had that moment, but he wanted more.

I'm afraid in our life sometimes more is not in our agenda.

Those who leap after lions are not concerned with breaking even.

But I believe there's a sect of religious people who are bent on breaking even.

If I do this, I'll be okay.

And if I don't do that, I'll be okay.

And if I live by this guideline, and if I live by that guideline, I'll be okay.

And it'll be when did okay become the goal?

Because I believe the Bible says we're to play offense.

We're given this sword of the Spirit.

Amen.

Christian, when did it become about being okay?

Patterson said this: We don't die when our hearts stop beating.

We die when our hearts stop skipping a beat in pursuit of passion.

Amen.

Amen.

We die when our hearts stop breaking.

We are more, Scripture says.

We're more than conquerors.

It says he is able to exceedingly do abundantly more than we can ask or think.

It says, his ways are higher.

It says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

We are ambassadors for Christ.

Now that doesn't sound like, oh, I have to do my daily devotions.

I'm gonna have to pray some today.

It's Sunday and I haven't been for two weeks.

Pastor Danny might come searching me out.

I better go.

Oh.

No, we do this because we're preparing to jump into a pit with a lion on a snowy day and we're getting ready for an adventure.

Listen, if you are a bored Christian, excuse me, but you're stupid.

If you look up the word bored in every other language than English, there's only one equivalent in every other language, and that word is stupid.

Here in America, we got amusement parks because we're bored.

We got to go be scared to death to have a little bit of fun.

If you're bored, that's true.

The equivalent of the word is, and what I'm telling you, God made this thing to be something exciting.

And I'm gonna tell you what CCW is not gonna be.

We're not gonna be that safe church.

We're not gonna be the social club for the saint.

We're gonna be the hospital for the wounded.

We're gonna drag people out of their marital divorce and their sin.

We're gonna jump into the pit with the drug addict.

We're gonna jump into the pit with that marriage that's falling apart and grab that thing by the beard and kill it.

We're not gonna act like everything is okay and bless God, shake your hand and put on a fake face.

It's not okay to settle.

You with me, church?

It's not okay to settle.

Listen, do this with me.

Point to the person next to you, point to him in your face and say, no settling.

Now point to your second choice, the other person.

Say, no settling.

I'm ready to preach.

I hope y'all are ready to hear.

We're not gonna settle.

Let her see.

He learned to seize opportunity.

Galatians 6 9 says, As we have therefore opportunity, do good unto all men.

Seizing opportunity, he learned, he watched from David, he saw when opportunity, he learned to seize opportunity.

Um my wife, we've got three kids, and so through her pregnancies, I kind of learned something, maybe somewhere in the middle of the first one segment, but she would wake up in the middle of the night, like two in the morning, with these terrible calf cramps.

Y'all ladies that have been pregnant, y'all know I'm talking about?

These things from hell would come up into her leg and she'd be and I hear, ah, I'm I'm dead asleep.

And I'm like, what's what's happening?

You know, three months in, I'm like, is this a baby?

No.

She's like, my leg, my leg.

I'm like, okay, so I don't know if it was the second child or third child, but I had my mind had conditioned itself.

If a scream happens at two in the morning, I knew what to do.

I'd done this a few times.

So I was ready, and she something came out, and I jumped up and I went immediately down for that calf.

And I'm I'm digging into that thing, trying to rub it out, whatever she got going on.

And she's like, I'm like, I got it, I got it.

I'm rubbing, she said, wrong one.

I gave her a second cramp.

Listen, I was ready to seize that opportunity.

I was ready to go to work.

I knew I was gonna help my baby.

Listen, some of us are so waiting.

We're waiting for so-and-so to do whatever's available.

You're gonna miss a whole lot of blessing in your life if you keep saying somebody else.

Somebody else.

But Naya learned never to settle.

R.T.

Kendall said sometimes the greatest opposition of what God wants to do next comes from those who are on the cutting edge of what God did last.

Let me say it again.

Maybe you miss it.

That's right.

Sometimes the greatest opposition of what God wants to do next comes from those who were on the cutting edge of what God did last.

God didn't just used to do great things.

It wasn't just in your parents and your grandparents' generation because he is still that same God.

Listen, but we gotta see some opportunities.

I'm afraid we've been sitting back a little too much.

A young soldier and his commanding officer got into a train together, and the only available seats were across from an attractive young woman.

She was traveling with her grandmother.

As they engaged in pleasant conversation, the soldier and the young woman kept eyeing one another.

The attraction was obviously mutual.

Suddenly the train went into a tunnel and the car became pitch black.

Immediately, two sounds were heard: the smack of a kiss and the whack of a slap across the face.

The grandmother thought, I can't believe he kissed my granddaughter.

But I am glad she gave him the slap he deserved.

The commanding officer thought, I don't blame the boy for kissing the girl, but it's a shame she missed his face and hit me instead.

The young girl thought, I'm glad he kissed me.

But I wish my grandmother hadn't slapped him for doing it.

And as the train broke into sunlight, the soldier could not wipe the smile off his face because he just seized the opportunity to kiss a pretty girl and slap his commanding officer in his face.

Seize opportunity.

Listen, church, we can't get overwhelmed by the size of the lion.

You can't get overwhelmed by the size of the dream.

We've got to focus on the next step.

What is your next step?

There's some folks here, you may not have been baptized.

That's the next step.

You need to get faithful in your devotions before you dream that take the next step.

Get involved.

What's the next step?

Win that step.

Win that step.

Win the day.

Listen, he may have never had the courage to be a guard for the king if he hadn't first looked at a lion.

He may never had that chance.

As God speaks to you, you've got to seize the opportunity.

You don't know what future dream you're squelching if you don't seize the opportunity today.

You see, James said, faith without works is dead.

Beniah had to marry his belief with actions, and we see the result in Roman number number three.

Beniah had great bravery.

He had great bravery.

Look at verse 20 and 21 again.

What kind of man can do this?

Only a brave man.

Beniah, son of Jehorta, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel, who had done many deeds.

He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab.

He had also gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day.

And he killed an Egyptian, a spectacular man.

The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, so he went down with a staff, wrestled the spear out, and killed him with his own spear.

He had great bravery.

To have great bravery, you've got to know a couple things.

Number one, you gotta know your enemies.

Or letter A underneath of that.

We're given three pictures of enemies.

The first one is lion-like men from Moab.

Now I don't know what Scripture just describes them that way, so I don't know what they looked like or how ferocious they were or if they had a black belt in Jiu Jitsu or what they were, but these were lion-like, they were fighters.

And it took enough account in Scripture to call them out as lion-like men, so they had to be something great or fierce.

And listen, we have an enemy like that.

You see, the Moabites were closely related to the Israelites.

They weren't a far-off country.

In fact, they were like their backyard.

And so I want you to think about this.

We have an enemy closely related to us.

In fact, within us, the New Testament calls it the flesh.

It lives in the back room of our life.

We can't get rid of it.

We can't get it out of the basement.

We try to pack its bags and send it away, but it's it rears its head.

It comes upstairs every now and then.

And we got that flesh.

And you got to know that enemy.

In 2 Corinthians 5, it calls it the old me.

The old me, the old man.

And we're to put that old man away.

And every day as we wake up, we've got to fight that battle.

Because I'm saying at the pit, when you're getting ready to go in, if that old man rears its head, you're walking away.

You won't seize that opportunity.

The flesh, you got to know who your enemies are.

And so Benia decimated these two men.

And it's this picture.

To live that long and live that well amongst a man who's running and amongst a man who's in caves, and then he becomes the guard.

He had to have something inside of him.

He had this great bravery, and he was able to suppress that flesh.

The second enemy that we see in verse 21 is an Egyptian giant man.

Now, Egypt was a picture for the Israelites of worldly power.

Egypt had vast armies, tremendous temples.

It was a place of great array, superficial impressiveness.

A picture of what the world has to offer.

It was Israel's old world.

The second enemy you have is the world.

We've got the flesh and we've got the world.

The world is trying to put a message in your ear that you'll come to it, that you'll live for it, that you'll give your all to it, that you'll put your family on the altar of it, that you'll spend all your time with it, and the world wants that, and it doesn't care how you feel.

That's an enemy that we have in the world.

It says, get your prestige, get your power, get your money, get your comfort.

And the people rubbing elbows with you in the job place and the workforce say, You gotta have this, you gotta look at that.

What about?

And God says, all that stuff's gonna fade.

It's all gonna fade.

It's but rubble.

All moth and rust doth corrupt.

Thieves break through and steal.

But we're gonna build a temple of it in our lives for those things.

Is that lion in a pit in a snowy day?

1 Peter 5:8 says this, like a roaring lion, he walketh about seeking whom he may devour.

1 Peter 5:8

The devil is real.

You know a lion is able to, with one blow of his paw, smash the human skull like you would break an egg.

I don't know what kind of stuff Benah knew.

He could slap you, and your face would literally cave in.

And the bones of your skull are among the strongest structure you have.

A crunch of his jaws could break through any human bone.

And to face off with this ferocious beast at close quarters is tremendously daring.

I want you to know we've got an adversary.

And he's seeking you, and he's looking for your weakness.

He's looking for you when you're tired, he's looking for you when you're already upset, he's looking for you to agitate you, he's looking to build on it.

He's looking to get into your family, into your home.

He's looking to get into our schools, he's looking to fight.

And if you're not ready for that fight, you better look out.

Amen.

It's only one way to be ready for that fight.

We gotta be armored up in the Lord.

Okay?

That's the only way we fight that thing.

Are we armored up in him?

He had great bravery.

He faced the flesh, the world, and the devil.

Why do we think both David and later we find out Solomon would put Benia in a high and mighty place?

Why had they chosen Beniah?

Well, I think it's some of the scars.

Maybe the marred hands had settled it.

Maybe he had those working man's hands.

Maybe when David was looking through the applications, uh, was in Jerusalem, went to the school of Jerusalem, okay, passed.

Oh, fought a lion in a pit on a snowy day.

Throw the rest away.

I've got my guy.

This is the one.

I believe he's our guy.

He looked at his hands and looked at these marb prints and he said, That's our guy.

That's the guy I want to jump in front of a spear.

If he's a bodyguard, he's gonna guard my body.

That's what he's gonna do.

That's my guy.

And later on we find out that Solomon would make him captain over all of his army.

He was captain of the bodyguard, the secret service.

He became head of that.

And David's son said, Oh, we got much greater for Beniah.

He he protected my dad.

He was my dad's first guy.

He's gonna be over all of my army.

Secondly, to have great bravery, you gotta know enemy territory.

He went after a lion in a pit.

We see some things in scripture about pits.

Remember when Joseph and his brothers came at him?

They sought him to kill him, but instead they succumbed to throwing him in a pit.

Joseph was thrown in a pit.

Daniel, because he prayed, was thrown into a pit with guess what?

Lions.

He's put into a pit.

Jeremiah was cast into a pit.

Paul was cast into a prison.

And I don't know what Satan is trying to put in your life, but I'm sure you either have been in a pit or you might be going into a pit, but pits are all around and they're discouraging, and there's something that wants to suck the life out of you, and Satan is ready to clip you and let you fall into that pit to be there.

And whether it be through the flesh or the world or through Satan, he wants you to be in a pit.

You gotta know where enemy territory is.

You gotta know, you gotta be on guard.

We don't have to stand though.

Sometimes it's a test.

But Joseph, you understand, got out of the pit.

Jeremiah got out of the pit, Daniel got out of the pit, and Paul got out of the pit.

And I want to tell you, CCW, when your pit comes, you can get out of the pit.

But you gotta grab on to the rope of hope.

With Jesus holding on to it, and you've got to pull out of that pit.

Enemy territory was in a pit on a snowy day.

An obstacle to vision.

Snow.

On a snowy day.

You see, God made you with a purpose, and he's got a plan for you.

And some of y'all, it might have been 20 years ago that he spoke some dream in your heart.

Something came tumbling down, an obstacle to vision.

Something happened that threw your life off course and became an obstacle to vision.

Listen, God doesn't want what he planned in your heart to not happen.

In fact, in Philippians 1.6, he said, Be confident in this very thing.

He who hath begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.

He will be faithful.

The next thing, he knew enemy territory, but he knew his allies.

He knew his allies.

Let her see.

But Niah had great company.

The mighty man of valor.

There was David, there was Solomon.

In that scripture, a few verses back, you can see some descriptures of some guys you won't see any other place.

Not a whole lot.

There's a man named Eliezer, who was one of David's three mighty men.

And Eliezer, it says, I don't know how this happened.

In my mind, I can, but it says, he fought in one setting and killed 800 men.

I don't know what that fight looks like.

Y'all seen some Bruce Lee movies and stuff, but you know, maybe 15.

But 800 men he went into battle with and killed them.

That was Eliezer.

I like Abishai.

There's a guy named Abishai.

It says he fought for so long and so hard in battle that his sword froze in his hand.

He couldn't get his sword out of his hand that it was clear.

Into his grip.

And he was spoken of as one of David's three mighty men.

And then there was, I'm sorry, that was Joshua killed 800, Abishai to kill, Abishai killed 300 men, and Eliezer was the man who had the sword stuck.

He had mighty men next to him.

He learned from David.

He learned from he learned with Solomon.

Let me ask you a question.

Who are your five closest friends?

Listen, if Nancy Negative and complaining Carl's on the list.

Listen.

Who are you spending your time with?

Who are you spending your life around?

Closest friends.

The second king Benaih worked for penned this scripture.

He said, Iron sharpeneth iron.

Iron sharpens iron.

Are you being sharpened by the company you keep?

Are they an ally to you?

Are you being dull?

Listen, if somebody isn't encouraging you to come to that place, the tabernacle of God where there's power, the praise of the people, if that's not within the conversation of your friendships, you might start looking.

If all you hear your friend say is what we heard a little while ago, well, I better go.

Spend a few weeks.

If that's your close friends, if all you hear people do is complain about the work, or complain about their life, complain about their, listen, complaining breeds more complaining.

Excitement breeds excitement.

Love breeds love.

Hate breeds hate.

Okay.

What are you spending your time with?

Well, Beniah had five mighty men.

This guy was killing 800.

This guy had a sword in his hand all the time.

David killed Goliath.

Ain't no wonder he jumped into a pit with a lion.

Are you kidding me?

What are we doing?

He knew the great company he had.

And that was definitely a resource to his bravery.

And secondly, he knew the most high king.

He knew the most high king.

See, church, my God is El Olam, the eternal God.

He's El Elian, the most high God.

He's El Shaddai, the all-sufficient God, El Ramah, the God who sees.

He's called Jehovah Jirah, the Lord who provides, Jehovah Nisi, the Lord of our miracles, Jehovah Shalom, our peace.

Jehovah Rahi, the Lord our deliverer.

He's called our shield, our strength, our rock.

There's no one like our God.

Who's your ally in this life?

He's the first and last, the beginning and the end.

He's called the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

There's no one like our God.

He's indescribable, incomprehensible, incomparable.

He's invincible.

There's no one like our God.

Scripture says, He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Isaiah 40, 28, listen to this verses.

Have you not known, have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God, creator of the end of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary.

His understanding is unsearchable.

Listen, he is a great big God, and there's no one like him.

Job said this in Job 26: Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways.

But a small whisper we hear of him, the thunder of his power, who can understand it?

We can't even fathom it.

He is a great big God.

Psalms 147, 5 says, Great is our Lord, David Penn, and abundant in his power.

Moses said in Deuteronomy, the Lord is God of gods and Lord of Lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God.

Thank you, Lord.

Church, Beniah.

His greatest ally was his God.

His greatest ally.

God had a love for the impossible.

You think he can't use me.

He won't use me.

Remember Rahab the harlot?

Gideon the hiding warrior, Moses the stammerer, David the teenage shepherd, fishermen, tax collectors, nobody uses them.

And a Christian murderer.

God wants to use you.

God has a love for the impossible, but he also has the love for obedience.

But Niah was faithful, that's the bottom line.

So he went from outcast, remember, disgruntled, distressed, to overseer.

Outcast to overseer.

Be careful not to hear that and say, yes, because he was obedient, God loved him.

That's not it.

It is because of God's love that obedience followed.

He's not asking you to earn his blessing and leap after lines and then he'll love you.

He loves you first.

And it is his desire that obedience would follow.

And that's loving him back.

He said, if you love me, I already love you, that's done.

But if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.

He loves you.

He loves you.

I want to close with this illustration.

There's a young orphan boy who was living with his grandmother, and their house caught fire.

Grandmother trying to get upstairs to rescue the boy passed away in the flames.

The boy began to cry out for help, crying and crying and screaming, and no, no one answered.

Finally, a man from outside climbed up an iron drainpipe.

Burning ferociously, the drain pipe was.

He climbed up nearby the flame and he came back down with a boy hanging around his neck.

Several weeks later, a public hearing was held to determine who would receive custody of that child.

A farmer showed up, a teacher showed up, one of the town's wealthiest citizens showed up, and they all gave reasons that they should be chosen to give this boy a home.

But as they talked, the lad's eyes just remained focused on the floor.

Then a stranger walked to the front of the courtroom.

And slowly he took his hands out of his pockets, revealing severe scars from a drain pipe.

As the crowd gasped, the boy cried out in recognition: This was the man who saved my life.

His hands had been burned when he climbed that pipe.

The boy leaped and threw his arm around the man's neck and held on for dear life.

The other men silently walked away, leaving the boy and his rescuers alone.

See, those marred hands had settled the issue.

Baniah jumped into a pit on a snowy day.

Some 2,000 years ago, Jesus left heaven's glory and charged into the pits of hell, never looking back.

He jumped into that pit and he took your nails and he took my nails.

He took on my cat of nine tails, he took on my cross and he took on my punishment.

And three days later he came up out of that pit, and Scripture says, O death, where is thy sting?

O grave, where is your victory?

And the enemy someday will be cast into the lake of fire.

His marred hands have settled the issue.

This morning.

See, he jumped into that pit for you.

Maybe today, if you're honest, you have believed that Jesus existed for a long time.

But maybe you've never received him.

You haven't seized that opportunity, and as the Holy Spirit has pounded on your heart time and again, you've been on the edge, but you haven't jumped in.

You're on the edge of fire, and only one man, the Son of Man, the God man, is holding out his marred hands to save you.

Well, there are plenty of people that would like to take your life.

This world would like to take it.

But there's only one set of hands that settle the issue.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

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We hope you have a wonderful day and again, God bless you.