Running with the Giants

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

It's great to be at Gateway.

There's no place like this place, anywhere near this place.

So this must be the place.

Amen.

And I'm excited about your series this summer of giants.

And in fact, when I saw the series and had the opportunity to come and teach, I thought I want to do a lesson for you entitled Running with the Giants, okay?

Um and it's inspired by the passage in Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

And it's going to come on the screen and we're going to look at it and I'm going to then apply it to your life and my life.

Are you ready this evening and tomorrow?

Are you ready to be encouraged?

Are you ready?

How many of you just could handle a little bit of encouragement?

My father was a great encourager.

One time I asked him, I said, Dad, how do you know people need to be encouraged?

He said, Oh, that's simple, son.

If they're breathing.

They need to be encouraged.

He said, now, if they're not breathing, don't waste your time.

You're about to be encouraged, and this is a fantastic passage of scripture in Hebrews 12.

It's after the Hall of Fame of Hebrews chapter 11, all the men and women that walk by faith.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

So it's on your screen.

Let me just read it right now.

Do you see what this means?

All these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on it means we'd better get on with it, strip down, start running, never quit.

No extra spiritual fat, no parasite sins.

Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race that we're in.

Study how he did it.

Because he never lost sight of where he was headed, that exhilarating finish in and with God.

He could put up with anything along the way, cross, shame, whatever.

And now he's there in place of honor, right alongside God.

And when you find yourself flagging in your faith, you get, in other words, worn out a little bit, go over the story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility that he, Jesus, plowed through, and that will shoot adrenaline into your souls.

The Hebrew writer says that as you and I are running this race of life right now, we're surrounded by an incredible crowd of men and women who have gone before us in faith.

And that they're cheering us on.

So think about it.

Abraham is cheering you on today.

Think of going into an arena where people are just so excited and they're pulling for you and they want you to finish.

Now, when you go into a crowd, you know they're cheering for you.

You can feel that, but you really don't know what they're saying because they're, you know, thousands of people.

One voice gets muffled in the sound of another voice.

But what would happen if these great men and women could step out of the crowd and join us on the track?

What would happen if they could run one lap with us?

And in that lap that they could run with us, they would give us what they considered the most important lesson that they learned in their own spiritual journey with God.

What would happen if they just had a short time just to give us a word, a sentence, just a few words of encouragement?

What would they say to us?

That is the question.

And today, we're gonna pull out three or four of them out of the crowd.

And we're gonna hear what they would say to us as they summarize their life and what God taught them.

So let's start with Noah, okay?

If Noah could, if Noah could step out of the crowd, I mean, if he could, if he could come out and he could join the track with us and he could run one lap with us, I know what Noah would say.

He'd look at you and me, and to encourage us, he would say, one person can make a difference.

One person.

You don't have to have a team.

Groups are great, teams are great, crowds are great, but but Noah would say one person, one person can make a difference.

Look at the scripture on the screen, because we have the story right there.

And as we see it, the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

So the Lord said, I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created, and with them the animals, the birds, and the creatures that move along the ground, for I regret that I made them.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

One person.

Not many, but Noah.

And as Noah is running with us, he would tell you that you can make a difference.

You see, I think high morale in the Christian walk is saying, I'm making a difference.

I think lower mouse, low morale is when we think we don't make a difference at all.

And as Noah is walking with us, as he's running this lap, he's looking at you and he's looking at me and he said, I want you to know that one person can make a difference.

They can make a difference for their family.

His family was saved, they could make a difference for future generations.

I mean, what did God promise?

God put a rainbow in the sky and he promised, he said, I want you to know that because of Noah, well, I'll never destroy the earth with the flood.

So, I mean, when you do your like your evening prayers and you go through that whole process, I want you, you know, when you're thanking the Lord for the family and everything, why don't you at the end of your prayer just put a little PS on it and say, and Lord, thank you for Noah.

For Noah, I wouldn't even be here.

One person can make a difference for generations.

And if Noah were here, as he's running that lap with us, he would tell us without any doubt, he would say to us, God will see you.

God will see you when you stand out, God will see you when you live a righteous life.

God will, he will, he will look and find you.

That's how important you are to him.

This is just absolutely huge.

Noah would say, Don't be afraid to stand out in front of a crowd.

Because he did stand out in front of a crowd.

The rest of them made fun of him.

Noah would say, Don't be afraid to do something for the first time because he built the boat, the ark, on dry ground, and it had never rained up to that day.

So people were laughing at why would you why would you build a boat on dry ground?

There's nowhere to float the boat.

Noah said, It's okay, it's okay.

Just just obey God.

It just makes all the difference.

It just makes all the difference.

Okay.

Look at your neighbor and say to your neighbor right now, you can make a difference.

Go tell him that right now.

And by the way, by the way, look at him and say, Noah said you can make a difference.

Oh, come on.

It made a lot, it was carried a lot more weight when we said Noah, didn't it, huh?

When I say you can make a difference, yeah, yeah, you tell me that all the time.

But but Noah, Noah says you can make a difference.

Let's bring, let's bring Rebecca out of the crowd.

The girls like that, don't they, huh?

Come on, let's bring Becky out, huh?

Let's bring her out.

Let's bring her out of the crowd.

And if Rebecca, if she stepped out of the crowd and she started to run one lap with you and me, I know what she would say to you.

I know what she would say.

She would say, serve others generously.

In other words, do more than just give, be generous in everything that you give.

And I know that that's what Rebecca would say to us because the story is told of Abraham, very wealthy, coming to the end of his life, and he brings his most trusted servant to him, and he says, I'm going to send you on the most important mission that I've ever sent anybody on.

I want you to go to my homeland, and I want you to find a wife for Isaac, my son.

And the servant knew this was a big mission.

And by the way, I sure love that idea of the parent picking out the spouse.

I really believe we need to get back to the Bible on some of these things, just some of these things.

And the trusted servant, of course, now he's saying, Oh my gosh, he says it's huge.

This is the most important mission I've ever been on.

So he's now going back to Abraham's homeland and he's praying a prayer because he's nervous as can be, because he doesn't want to miss this.

I mean, you don't want to bring the wrong one home.

You could hear about that for a generation.

So he's praying and said, Oh God, oh God, I gotta get this right.

And so he put out a fleece.

He said, now when I get to the town, if I ask for a drink of water, the the young lady that I asked for a drink of water, may she say yes.

And he felt kind of good about that.

And then he thought, I don't think that is a big enough prayer because this is a big mission.

So he said, and God, just P.S.

One more thing, God.

Not only may she say yes, but may she may she offer my camels water to drink.

Now I know that doesn't sound any big deal, but that's a big deal because you know what?

Abraham had ten camels.

Those camels were loaded down with gifts from Abraham to the young lady that was going to be the bride of Isaac.

And so he's got ten camels, and he said, May she not only offer me something to drink when I ask, I'm gonna ask, so I'll initiate it, but may she on her own look at the ten camels and say, I would like to give them water to drink also.

Now let me explain what that prayer means.

Ten camels after a day's journey, drink twenty gallons of water.

For you that are a little slow in math.

That's 200 gallons.

So he's asking that this woman who has never seen him, a total stranger, would not only say, Well, yes, I'll be glad to give you something to drink, but then he would look at the ten camels and say, May I give your camels something to drink?

Now, now get the picture.

200 gallons.

Let's say she had a five-gallon jar.

She's got to go to the well and she has to put that jar down forty times.

And go over to the watering trough and put the water in the trough.

Forty times.

Let's just say, let's just say, and by the way, it was in the evening, there were other women at the well, so it's not like she had the well to herself where she could just go over there and drop it down and go over there to the watering trough.

In fact, let me just pick you up with the scripture.

In Genesis 24, it so happened that the words were barely out of his mouth.

This is the servant who's praying.

When Rebecca, the daughter of Bethel, whose mother was Melkah and wife of Naor, Abraham's brother, came out with a water jug on her shoulder, and the girl was stunningly beautiful, a pure virgin.

She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came back up.

And the servant, this is Abraham's servant, ran out to meet her and said, Please, can I have a sip of water from your jug?

And she said, Certainly, drink.

And she held the jug so that he could drink.

And when he was satisfied his thirst, she said, Oh my, he didn't ask for this.

I'll get water for your camels too, until they have drunk their fill.

It's not a sip.

She promptly emptied her jug into the trough and ran back to the well to fill it, and she kept at it until she had watered all of the camels.

And that phrase this, I love this phrase, I won't come back to it in a moment.

And the man watched silent.

Really?

Now, now let's get the picture.

She has to go to the well 40 times.

Go to the watering trough, put it in 40 times.

There's other women around.

It has to take her three minutes per trip.

It just has to.

So for two hours, for two hours, to this stranger she doesn't even know, Rebecca is drawing water for his ten camels, 200 gallons.

And the Bible says the servant watched and never said a thing.

Oh, come on.

I'm going to tell you, if I was the servant, I would have encouraged her a little.

I said, Becky.

If you knew what I knew, if you knew where I came from, if you knew what those camels were carrying.

Listen, girl.

Get him, girl.

Come on.

You're getting close.

Oh my gosh, it's been an hour.

You're halfway there.

Oh my! Woo! Come on, wouldn't you?

Wouldn't you have been in car two hours?

And the servant said nothing.

He trusted God more than me.

I'd have helped God out a little.

I just would have just come on backy, way to go, girl.

You're getting close.

Do you ever play the hot and cold game?

You're hot.

You're getting there.

You're hot.

You see, if Rebecca were running that lap with us, what she would say is very simple.

Extra blessings come from extra effort.

Well, what what Rebecca, what Rebecca would say to you and me, without any question, is that it's the extra effort that God always blesses.

You don't just walk the first mile, you walk the second mile.

You see, in a culture that we live where people are trying to get by with as little effort as possible, come on now.

In a world that basically says, well, maybe I'll do that, but what am I going to get for it?

Rebecca teaches us a whole different style, a whole different way to live.

And she's basically saying, be extravagant.

Give more than is ever expected you.

Not only meet expectations, exceed expectations.

Oh yeah.

I'm glad Michelangelo didn't say, I don't do ceilings.

And I'm sure I'm glad Noah didn't say I don't do boats.

I'm glad Moses didn't say I don't do rivers.

Aren't you glad David didn't say I don't do giants?

And how about Mary?

Oh.

When the angel came to Mary, aren't you glad that she didn't look at the angel and say, Excuse me?

I don't do virgin births.

Aren't you glad John the Baptist didn't say I don't do baptisms?

Aren't you glad Peter didn't say I don't do Gentiles?

Aren't you glad Paul didn't say I don't do letters?

And aren't you glad Jesus didn't say I don't do crosses?

Rebecca would tell us that when we give generously, it always blesses our loved ones.

Now, while she's pulling the water, she doesn't know that her family's going to get all these incredible generous.

She knows nothing.

What's so beautiful about the story, what's so beautiful about the Rebecca principle is she does, she's not doing anything for something.

She's just serving generously.

Rebecca didn't know because of what she did that day.

Hang on now, that she would become the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great.

Grandmother of Jesus.

She had no clue.

And if she could run one lap with us, she would speak to our heart.

And she would speak to us doing more than people ever expect from us.

And and and caring more and loving more and serving more and walking that.

Rebecca would just encourage all of us to serve people generously.

Wow.

There's two kinds of people on earth today, just two kinds of people.

No more I say, not the bad and the good, for it's well understood that the good or half bad and the bad or half good.

No, there's two kinds of people on earth today.

There's two kinds of people on earth I mean people who lift and people who lean.

You want to be a lifter.

You want to be an encourager.

Look at your neighbor and tell them, Rebecca says, serve people generously.

Go ahead and tell them that.

Serve people generously.

Yeah.

Oh, this is so good.

Let me, I gotta ask you before I go on.

Are you starting to get encouraged?

They're coming out of the crowd.

Are you are you are they starting?

Are they starting to hey?

Aren't you kind of now, aren't you kind of now kind of running the lap looking up there, kind of who's gonna come out next?

Who's gonna who's gonna who's gonna be the next one to step out?

Let's bring Esther out of the crowd.

Let's bring Esther out because if Esther, if she cut, if she comes out of the crowd, Esther's gonna say to you and me, God has a place for you.

Oh, this is huge.

God has a place for you.

In fact, He has a place for you that no one else can fill except you.

This is beautiful.

Now, Esther grew up her entire life honestly feeling out of place.

Her parents died when she was very young, and so she was adopted into Uncle Mordecaiah's family.

So she grew up knowing that she was adopted.

Not only that, but she was living in a different country.

The children of Israel were now in captivity, so they were in a place with different customs, different culture.

Everything that she kind of knew as a child had been taken away from her.

And so she kind of she kind of fell out of place where she lived, and she was adopted in that whole process.

And she was a simple Jewish girl.

It was amazing.

What happened was the king in this strange country decided to have a beauty contest.

And one day Esther and her friends were at the mall.

A little bit of the Maxwell translation.

And they saw the brochure that there was a beauty contest, and they all looked at Esther and said, You're so pretty.

Won't you enter the contest?

And kind of on a whim, she entered the contest, and lo and behold, she won.

And if you won, you became the queen of the country.

The king married you.

So all of a sudden, Esther is now really out of place.

I mean, she's around wealth and she has people to take care of her, and she's never been here.

And she's just saying the longer I live, the more I feel out of place.

But little did she know that there was a conspiracy in the land.

And a man named Haman had, with the king's approval, drawn up a plan to kill all the Jewish people, and Uncle Mordecaiah knew about the plan.

And so he sent word to Esther about it.

He said, Esther, we got a problem here.

And Esther said, I can't approach.

The king.

And I haven't, the king hasn't asked me to come in his presence for 30 days.

And if if you approach the king without him asking you to come in his presence, you could be executed.

And so Esther said, I can't go to the king because he's not yet opened up the door.

He's not giving me permission.

So she said, no.

So a messenger, now we're going to look at the scripture in Esther chapter 4.

Esther 4 · chapter mention

When Hatter told Mordecaiah what Esther had said, Mordecai sent her this message.

Don't think that just you because just because you live in the king's house, you're the one Jew who will get out of this alive.

If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else.

But you and your family will be wiped out.

Who knows?

Here's the phrase maybe you were made queen for such a time as this.

And all of a sudden, Esther realized God had a place for her.

God had a plan for her.

Listen to me very carefully.

You may be sometimes just feel out of place.

You kind of sometimes wonder, does God really have a plan?

And is there a time for me to really make a difference?

And I and I just want you to just go along with Esther and let her talk to you for a moment.

Look at the scripture in verses 15 and 16.

Esther sent back her answer to Mordecai, go and get all the Jews living in Susa together, fast for me, don't eat or drink for three days, either day or night.

And I and my maids will fast with you.

And if you will do this, I will go to the king, even though it's forbidden.

If I die, I die.

Now, what would change her?

What would all of a sudden make her passionate to do something that she was unwilling to do?

Everything changed when she realized that God had a place for her and God had a plan for his life.

And listen to me, my friend.

You may go years like Esther and not understand your place.

You may go years and never understand your plan.

But don't you worry, God created you for a purpose.

And your day will come.

Your time will come.

Your place will be found.

Trust me, my name is John and I am your friend.

It's only a matter of time.

It's, it's, it's.

Oh, close.

Oh yeah.

Look at your neighbor, would you?

And say, Esther said, God has a place for you.

Tell him that right now.

God has a place for you.

Wow.

This is so good.

This is so good.

Noah said, one person can make a difference.

Rebecca said, serve people generously.

Astor says, God has a place for you.

I'm just curious before I go to the last person.

Oh, there are so many more, but this will be the last one.

They have a clock on me.

I have a dream someday of coming to Gateway.

No clock.

You can feel it, can't you?

You can feel it.

You can just feel it with me right now.

But there's a clock.

Let's bring one more.

Okay, my gosh, there's so many.

There are so many.

Okay, okay.

David steps out of the crowd.

And as David starts to run that lap with you and me, you know what David says?

Hang on.

You can overcome the limitations that others place on you.

I know we call him King David, but in his younger years, nobody thought he was going to be king.

As he grew up, he had people place limitations on him.

He had people put him in a box.

Remember?

Remember the story of Samuel the prophet?

One day, Sam called Jesse.

Now Jesse's the father of David.

Jesse picked up the phone and do you ever read the scriptures with any imagination at all?

And Jesse, Jesse said, Sam, how you doing?

And Sam says, Oh my gosh, I got great news for you.

I'm coming over to your house tomorrow.

One of your boys, God's told me it's going to be the next king of Israel.

Jesse says, You're kidding me.

Sam says, Have your boys ready.

I'm coming over tomorrow.

Get them in the lineup.

I gotta tell you which one's gonna be king.

So Jesse and his wife, you know exactly what they did as parents.

They got around the table.

Jesse says, Oh my, Sam called a moment ago.

One of our boys is gonna be the king.

This is huge.

Huge.

Which, hey, they played the parental game.

Which one will it be?

And I think Jesse's wife said, Oh, well, I think it'll be our oldest son because, you know, in our culture, the oldest boy kind of basically gets everything.

And so they got their legal pad out and they put the name of their oldest son and just I don't think so.

You know, the third one down.

I think he's gonna be the one that Sam picks.

I mean, think about it, honey.

Ever since he's been born, he thought he was the king.

Tells us what to do, lines us up, kind of tries to run everything.

I it's gonna be the third one.

I tell you, all evening, they couldn't sleep that night.

He tossed and turned.

Who's gonna be the king?

Next day, Sam comes to the house.

He's got the boys lined up, they got their suits on.

Sam goes to the lineup.

You know the story.

He gets to the end of the line, he says, Jesse, we've got a problem.

So what's the problem?

He said, None of these boys are gonna be king.

Do you do you have any other boys?

Oh my.

Yeah, I got one kid here.

I don't know how to tell you this, but he's he kind of is out there watching the sheep.

Sam says, go get him.

Now you have to understand, while David's out watching the sheep, he knows what's happening at the house.

He knows his brothers are in a lineup to be a king.

And he knows that the father and the mother didn't think he was king material.

They called him in.

David's gonna be king.

If David was running with you and me, he'd say, That wasn't the only limitation put on me.

He said, When the Philistines were in battle with the children of Israel, dad gave me some food to take to my brothers who were soldiers in the army, and said, Here, take them food and get some news and bring back them.

Let me know what's happening.

And so David was eager, and he'd never seen a battle before, and he gets there and he gets there, and all of a sudden he realizes that's no battle at all.

There's nobody fighting because there's a real big guy, big boy from the fiddles.

They call him Shaq.

Shaq Goliath.

And he is just a mean sucker.

And he is intimidating the children, and he comes out every day and he hollers and they all run to their tent.

And David says, What's wrong?

And I said, Well, he's they got the big boy.

And David hung around, and his brothers were saying, You need to go home.

There's a battle going on.

David says, There's no battle going on.

I don't see any battle.

The big boy comes out and Shaq scares you guys, and you go back in the tent.

And David stayed long enough that he heard that whoever took on the big boy, whoever took on the big boy would be paid handsomely, in other words, get a lot of money, and secondly, could marry the daughter of the king.

And David said, I can live tax-free on the land.

Gotta make a bunch of bucks.

I get a married, I'm gonna be the son-in-law of the king.

His brothers were so disgusted, they didn't see him as having warrior potential.

But it was too late because he already volunteered and somebody went to the king's song and said, hey, we we finally, after days, we finally got somebody to take on the big boy, and we got good news and bad news.

And well, what's the good news?

Well, we got the we got yeah, yeah.

We got this kid that he'll he'll take on Shaq Goliath.

Well, what's the bad news?

They said, bring him into the tent.

And Saul looks at David.

Oh my gosh.

Saul's six foot six weighs 255.

David's five foot six, he weighs 145.

He said, Oh, this is not good.

This is not good.

No, no, no, you don't want to do this.

No, no, no.

This is this is not good.

And David said, Excuse me, excuse me, Mr.

King.

No one else seems to be volunteering.

And I just want you to know that I'm a shepherd and and I have, I've I've uh out when I'm watching the sheep, I've killed a bear and I've killed a lion, and I'm kind of ready to expand my potential and go to another level.

I'd like to volunteer to take on the big boy.

And now Saul's panicked because he knows that, oh, this is gonna be terrible.

And so he can't talk him out of it.

So he says, I'll tell you what, you can have my armor.

Now get the picture.

Saul's armor on David.

They put it on him, he can't even see out of it.

He's just staggering around, he's staggering around the tent.

Get this armor off of me.

Oh, by the way, the reason Saul offered David his armor is because Saul wasn't going to use it.

So David gets the stones, got a sling, and stars up, starts up the hill to take on the big boy.

Shaq Goliath sees him coming, starts cussing.

He's so ticket.

What are you, what is this?

This is this is a mockery.

This is a mockery.

What is they're mocking me?

Come up here.

He I oh he can hardly wait to just crush David.

You see, the whole army of Israel, they're looking at it, they're looking at Shak Goliath and they're saying, he's so big, he's gonna hurt us in David as he's charging up the hill.

He's saying, he's so big I can't miss.

You know the story.

He took on the big boy, killed him with a stone.

Gets a little gruesome from there.

Cut off his head.

He just wanted to let the army of Israel know it was a done deal.

Oh, they began to sing songs about David, and one day he became a king.

You see, we've only brought four people out of the crowd.

But the Hebrew writer says there are thousands of them.

And they all have a story, and they all have an idea, and they all have a thought, and they all have a sentence of encouragement for you.

So just think about these people and be encouraged in your soul tonight because they're cheering you off.

Lord, we're encouraged tonight because your word talks about this audience of great men and women who have gone on before us, and they have a story of encouragement for us.

May we be encouraged by just four of the saints tonight in Jesus' name and everybody's head.

Amen.

God bless you.

Great to be with you.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.