TAKING GROUND: No More

Alright, alright, alright, church.

How you guys doing?

12 o'clock.

You guys doing good?

Yes, I'm I'm digging it.

I'm digging it, man.

I'm so so excited for where we are as a church, for where we are in this season.

Um, as Pastor Jos Pastor Justin just mentioned, we are we're entering into this the season of awakening, the season of 21 days of prayer and fasting.

And maybe you've been on this journey with us, and we want to encourage you, man, push through.

We'll we'll be finishing up on this Friday.

Just push through.

And if you haven't jumped in yet, there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

You can start this week.

Whatever it is, I just want you to create some space to kind of engage the word of God, the presence of God a little bit more.

Because I do believe that it truly can set the tone for everything else.

And so we're in this, we're in this series taking ground.

And Pastor Justin just did a phenomenal job at summing it up.

So we are looking at the life of David.

So if you didn't catch all of the messages, please go back and check it out because they do kind of build on top of one another, even though our hope is that you'll get something out of it, even if you even if you weren't here.

I'll try my best to give you some context.

So if you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in 1 Samuel chapter 30.

1 Samuel 30 · chapter mention

1 Samuel chapter 30.

1 Samuel 30 · chapter mention

While you're turning there, I'll I'll give you some context as we leave out of David and Goliath.

The the prominent battle that many of us are familiar with.

The little guy defeats the big guy.

Just this the narrative speaks for itself.

But but after David has defeated Goliath, a lot of things have happened between chapter 17 and chapter 30, where we're going to land at.

David, his his star has begun to rise.

As you can imagine, this this young boy, this teenager who's who's just defeated this giant.

Like people are beginning to talk about David.

He's recognized.

They even got songs about him, about how he slayed his 10,000s, but Saul only slayed his thousand.

There was this tension, but but David began to grow in favor.

He began to grow in influence.

He had all these followers on social media.

Like David was blowing up.

He was all over the place.

But with that success also came a little bit of opposition from somebody who should have actually been cheering him along, and that was from the current king Saul.

See, we mentioned last week how Saul knew that his time with being king was coming to an end, that God had pretty much moved on from him.

So Saul was a little bit suspicious of anybody that was starting to get a little bit of spotlight.

Anybody that was getting some shine, he kind of considered them a little bit of a threat.

So the moment comes where he kind of begins to discern that maybe David is the one that the prophet Samuel said was going to take my place.

So even though David had faithfully served Saul, even though David had faithfully been alongside of him fighting as a commander in his army, all the things that David had done for Saul, Saul, in a moment of jealousy and rage, literally grabbed a spear and tried to kill David.

On two different occasions, he threw a spear at David.

Now I want to pause here because this wasn't necessarily part of my message, but it's part of something that I believe that God wants me to share with you.

Because what we see is that David was faithful.

David was loyal.

There were moments when he could have actually responded back and killed Saul, but he didn't.

And I believe that we should learn from that.

Learning how we don't have to respond evil for evil, but we respond with good.

However, when Saul threw a spear at David, David left.

Here's the principles behind that.

Some of us may think that we're being loyal and faithful by staying in environments that are toxic and that are harmful to us.

But I want you to let you know that God has sent me here to tell you this you have permission to move on because he never intended for you to stay in an environment where someone is trying to harm you.

You have permission to move on.

We see that with the character in the life of David.

But even when David is on the run, things are working out for him.

Everywhere he goes, he's having favor and success.

In fact, as we step into this text right now, David is coming back from winning another sizable battle, something that was significant.

He's coming back with the resources, another win, another notch under his belt.

And this is where we find ourselves entering into this, coming back with the spoils of victory.

At verse number one, it says this.

Now David and his men came to Ziklach on the third day.

And the Amalekites made a raid against Degeb and Ziklag.

They had overcome Ziklag, and they burned it with fire, and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great.

They killed no one, but they carried them off and went their way.

Verse number three.

And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters were taken.

David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep.

David's two wives had also been taken captive, Ahinoim of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal.

And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him.

Because all of the people were bitter in their soul, each for his sons and his daughters.

But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

I want to I want to reread verse number four so we can understand the moment that David is in right now.

Then David and the people who were with him, they raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep.

Today I want to talk to us on a very important topic of how do you respond when you're staring eye to eye with defeat?

How do you speak when the wind has been taken out of your lungs?

How do you win after suffering a crippling loss?

David had no more strength to weep.

Today, if you're writing notes, I want you to write this message title down.

No more.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you.

We thank you for every opportunity that we can we can gather in a community and and worship you, Lord.

We don't take it lightly.

So God, I I pray, Father.

I pray that I decrease and that you increase in anything that's that's not of your word, that's not of your will, Father, that it falls to the ground.

But but everything that's you, Lord, I pray that it that it lands on good ground.

So God, we pray for open eyes that we can see you.

Lord, we pray for open ears that we can hear your truth, and Lord, we we pray for open hearts that we can receive everything that you have for us.

We come in with an expectation.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

And amen.

You know, you guys have heard me on a few occasions talk a little bit about um the season of of life that I'm in.

I I talk about it a lot because sometimes it's it's hard for me to fathom and comprehend that, like, man, like I'm a grandfather.

Now I'm reminded of that every time I go to the gym, and when I come back and I realize how sore I am, I'm like, okay, it's because you're a grandfather.

But but reality, I I often find myself like, man, I can't I can't believe this.

Like, I actually have two beautiful young granddaughters.

So it's causing me to look at things a little bit differently.

It's it's causing me to look at things through the lens of legacy and and and how to have a lasting impact.

I I want to ultimately have those those moments with my granddaughters that they could say, oh, this is something that I used to do with my grandfather.

Well, they don't call me grandfather.

My my my name for my grandfather, they call me G Pop because I kind of fist my swag, my flick.

They call me G Pop.

So this is what I do with G Pop.

This is the thing that me and G Pop would do.

And so I wasn't raised with a whole lot of like really strict traditions.

We had like rhythms and things, but now that I'm at this season of my life, I'm like, okay, I what is it, what is the thing that I want to be what I do with my granddaughters?

So I've been I've been thinking and I've been processing, and I've kind of concluded that you know what, I there's a there's a series of books that I just want to read with them.

Like, and I know that seems so small, but I want that to be like our thing.

Like, so when they get older, they will have those books and they could pass it on to their children and say, Hey, you know your G Pop, used to read this to me.

Like, I wanted to kind of have one of those moments and write little cool notes in it for each of my granddaughters.

So I've decided I want to read to my grandchildren.

It's gonna be great.

But which what am I going to read?

So I I I after much prayer, I'm in a season of praying fasting.

So the Spirit of the Living God spoke to me and said, You know what you need to read to them?

Dr.

Seuss.

Dr.

Seuss is the way to go.

Because Dr.

Seuss has got such profound wisdom.

They got they got movies about some of his books, his literature is good, it's colorful.

There's always these great teachable lessons inside of it.

So Dr.

Seuss is the direction I was going to go.

So now I'm um I'm online and I'm ordering all these different Dr.

Seuss books.

So I'm going to see my granddaughters in a couple of weeks, and I was thinking, like, should I should I read them in sequential order from all the ones that he's written, or should I just pick one?

Well, there's one that stood out to me, and I said, Man, I this is the one I'm gonna start with.

It is called Oh, The Places You Will Go.

Oh, it's it's it's such an encouraging, powerful book.

The title speaks for itself.

It's so encouraging.

I brought it out here with me today.

I wanted you guys to see it.

I'm I'm plugging Dr.

Seuss right now.

Oh, the places you'll go.

Do you see the exclamation point on the end of that?

Oh, the places you will go.

How exciting is it to think that there is an entire book that just helps you to dream and have aspirations.

And the statement is, oh, the places you will go.

It is so powerful.

I know y'all guys came here expecting to hear a word from God, but we're gonna talk to Dr.

Steuze for a second.

I got a couple passages, I gotta read it to you.

Now listen, and we're we'll get to the Bible in a minute, but but let but let Dr.

Steuze encourage you for a minute because he he got something to say.

Watch what Dr.

Steu says to us as a body of believers.

He says, Congratulations! Today is your day.

You're off to great places, you're off and on your way.

Man, I already feel excited.

You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself in any direction that you choose.

Dr.

Seuss got bars.

He's trying to let you know, like, man, you can go any direction you want to go.

And so he's encouraging us.

Dream big.

He goes on to talk about how we'll have the ability to make decisions, to avoid conflict, to avoid obstacles, and then he says, Oh, the places you will go.

I I could go on and on for for days, but there's this other one that I that I gotta show you.

He even goes on and says, You'll be way up, you'll see great sights, you'll join the high flyers, you'll soar to high heights.

You won't lag behind because you'll have the speed, you'll pass the whole gang, and you'll soon take the lead.

Wherever you fly, you'll be the best of the best, and wherever you go, you'll top the rest.

My granddaughters are gonna eat this up.

They're gonna eat this up.

I was reading this last night and I saw that.

I was inspired because I felt like Dr.

Seuss was talking to me.

And then and then I turn a page.

If I could turn a page, then I turn a page because I wanted some more of this inspiration.

He said that you're gonna take the lead, you're gonna be the best of the best.

Turn the page and it says, Except when you don't.

Because sometimes you won't.

I'm sorry to say, but sadly it's true that bang-ups and hang-ups can happen to you.

He spends the rest of this book talking about this tension of having dreams and aspirations and vision for your life, but on the other side of the pages, but sometimes it won't work out.

Dream big, but be prepared when the dreams don't come true.

He even lends in this space called the waiting place.

It's kind of like what I would envision is kind of like the sunken place.

Anybody saying get out?

Never mind.

Okay, so it's it's kind of like the the waiting place, that place where you're just you're just like a passenger in your life, just waiting for God to move, waiting for that breakthrough, waiting for an opportunity, waiting for freedom, waiting for joy.

Dr.

Seuss spends all this time helping his audience to understand you're gonna go to some incredible places, but sometimes you're not.

I that stood out to me, and and I wanted to share it with you because if I could be honest with you, there are moments in my Christian walk that I honestly thought that, oh, the places I'm gonna go.

I'm gonna reach high heights, I'm never gonna have setbacks, things are gonna always work out for me.

But the reality is sometimes we turn a page, and by the times we walk out of these doors, sometimes we're we're faced with text messages that are reminding us and saying, But sometimes you won't.

Sometimes it won't work out.

Sometimes you won't see the breakthrough right now, sometimes you won't get the promotion.

And what I want to make sure that we as a church, we're called celebration church for a reason.

We believe in celebrating the goodness of God.

We're gonna always speak truth, but we realize that you're facing a world that is that is that is desperate to bring destruction to your soul.

So we're gonna speak truth, but we want you to leave out encouraged.

We want to celebrate the activity of God.

But what can happen is we can have these moments where we can be so fixated with one aspect of it that we've we lose sight of the other side of it.

We have moments where we're gonna have to learn how to reconcile passages of scripture that are meant to encourage us, but if we're not careful, it can become a whimsical fantasy and we're not aware of what happens on the other side.

We we have to we have to reconcile those those passages like Isaiah 54, where it says that there's no weapon formed against you that shall prosper.

I quote it almost weakly.

I I speak it over my family whenever we're going through a difficult season.

There's no weapon that's formed against you, you shall prosper.

We can all be encouraged around that.

But when we turn the page, the reality is this the weapons will form, the weapons will hurt, the weapons can slow us down.

We have to reconcile passages like Philippians 4 13 that says, I can do all things through Christ Jesus that strengthens me.

All things the power of Christ, the the very spirit that raised him from the grave is the same one that lives in me.

I can do all things through Christ Jesus that strengthens me.

But when I turn the page, I also got to recognize what Jesus says to his disciples in John 16, 33.

But in this world you will have trouble.

Those moments when I recognize that there's nothing that I can't do, but sometimes there are.

Sometimes there are some limits to it.

And if we're and if we're really paying attention, it never seems to be the holistic area of our lives.

In other words, I could be winning in one area of my life while dealing with a struggling defeat in another.

I can I can be winning at work but losing at home.

I could be, I could have my marriage could be strong, but my kids are driving me crazy.

Work could be going okay, but me and my wife are sleeping in separate rooms.

Those moments when we're trying to figure out how I can win and lose at the same time.

Those moments when the doctor tells you that you have a clean bill of health, but now you're dealing with crippling medical debt.

Those moments where you're dealing with this tension of, oh, the places you will go, but then you turn a page, but sometimes you won't.

See, it's it's with this I want us to understand that this is this is the dilemma that David finds himself in.

David, a man after God's own heart, a man who had been anointed from the time he was a teenager, the man who defeated Goliath the giant, this man who had had so much success, he was in a spot where he never took a loss, ever in his life.

Like everything that David did, he was successful at it.

He was a great worship leader, he was great at fighting, he was great at battle, he was great at strategy.

Everything that was thrown at David, he was able to conquer it without a problem.

Like David's playlist was like, All I do is win.

All I do is win, win, win, no matter what.

My money's on my mind, and I can't get enough.

I come into the building, they throw their hands up, and they stay at it.

Like, okay, let's get it back.

We're running fast right now.

What I'm saying is that David he knew nothing about defeat.

All I do is win, win, win.

That's all David's motto is.

But then this one day, the winner, the champion, the man who defeated and beheaded Goliath, he comes home after winning another battle, and when he comes around a corner, he sees that his house is on fire and that his family has been kidnapped.

Not only his, but every one of his soldiers that were with him were dealing with the same dilemma.

What do you do when a champion faces defeat?

What do you do when you're used to things working out for you all the time?

But today, today is a day that you didn't.

So you have to understand for David, he had never encountered defeat before.

He'd always been able to take advantage of every situation, except this one time someone was able to take advantage of him.

The Bible tells us that David was at a place where he was completely distraught.

He he was beside himself.

There's there's no way that this could have happened to me.

God, I'm your chosen vessel.

You told me that I was going to become the king.

Why am I dealing with this anguish of my soul?

My family is gone.

Everything we've worked so hard for is gone, and I'm literally on the way back after winning one of our most biggest battles.

And that's how life can be sometimes.

We're dealing with this tension where things begin to overlap and we're celebrating in one moment and then also mourning in the next.

This is where David finds himself at.

We find out a little bit later on, so hindsight's 2020.

So we learned that it was the Amalachites who were the ones who were responsible for it.

But David in real time didn't know.

But the Amalekites, I want to talk to you for a few seconds about the the Amalekites because I think it can give some context that can help us.

Can I teach y'all something for a couple of minutes?

Y'all gonna y'all can lean in for a second?

We'll get excited at the end, but just just stick with me.

Let me tell you something about the Amalekites.

The Amalekites were the descendants of Esau.

So many of us are familiar with the promises of God because God is a generational God.

So he's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So now we know that that Abraham has Isaac, Isaac has Jacob and Esau.

So we understand he has these two sons.

Now, Esau should have been the chosen son that the Messiah was going to be born from.

It was a really big deal.

Who's gonna be the one that's gonna own the birthright and give birth to the Messiah?

He's the oldest son, he was naturally supposed to be the one that does it.

But here's what happens with Esau.

One day he's very, very hungry, just hungry.

He sees his brother Jacob.

His brother Jacob eventually ends up becoming Israel, which is how we know of the children of Israel, because his bloodline becomes the one that the Messiah comes through.

But at the time when they were younger, Esau comes back from hunting, he's very he's very hungry, and so his brother Jacob says, Hey man, I'll give you something to eat if you are willing to sell me your birthright, if you are willing to give me the opportunity to receive the blessing that the Messiah will come through.

They didn't have that context, but that's the heart behind it.

So so Esau, because he was hungry, and because he craved the desires of his flesh, he gave up his spiritual promise so that he could fulfill the desires of his flesh.

So the Amalekites, they represent our carnality, they represent flesh, they represent our sinful condition, it represents the things that we are willing to engage in and give up on the promises of God.

This is who the Amalekites are.

So the Amalekites, they tend to show up in moments that are never convenient.

The first time we're introduced to them in a battle context is in Exodus chapter 17.

Exodus 17 · chapter mention

The children of Israel has just crossed the Red Sea.

They're about to go into a place called Refidim, which means rest, and the Amalekites show up.

This is that famous battle where Moses, as long as he kept his hands up, that they were able to win the battle.

So we have the carnal, the sin, the thing that shows up when we don't expect it.

The way that you defeat it is by continuing to live a life that's surrendered to God.

So we see they show up there.

But then we have Saul, the current king.

God's main instruction for him was listen, I need you to finally get rid of all of the Amalekites, like wipe them out.

I know it sounds barbaric, but men, women, children, we got to make sure we don't leave a seed of sin left because if we don't deal with it, it's gonna deal with us.

Saul fails at this.

Saul actually leaves a good portion of them alive, which allows them to have the ability to recuperate and then come back into attack.

The Amalekites represent carnality, it represents sin.

Listen to me, church.

Whatever we don't deal with will eventually deal with us.

Whatever we put on the back burner at some point will move itself to the front when it's not convenient.

The Bible even says it this way whatever's done in the dark will be brought to the light.

What are the things that we're struggling with that we've just allowed ourselves to kind of give into?

Now please understand, I'm not talking about perfection.

There's a big difference between humanity and carnality.

Humanity is simply this all fall short of the glory of God.

None of us are perfect.

We'll never all have it all figured out until Jesus comes back.

Carnality is I'm not even trying.

Humanity is I may miss the mark.

Carnality is I'm not even trying.

And here's something that I often tell our team we can't allow our humanity to justify carnality.

You gotta resist the devil.

To struggle with something insinuates that you're trying not to give in to it.

To struggle with something means that I'm trying to stop from doing it.

And here's the thing if I don't resist it, at some point it's gonna come up at a time that's not convenient.

And what we see here is that when this sin that should have been dealt with through the previous generation, the next generation had to deal with it.

Listen to me, fathers and mothers.

Maybe there's some things that we struggle with, and maybe we've allowed ourselves to get too comfortable with it.

But as a husband, as a father, as a grandfather now, I realize that I gotta make sure I slay every single seed of sin so that my grandchildren aren't fighting battles that I should have won for them.

What are the things in our lives that we can allow ourselves to get so comfortable with that we allow it to linger too long and now somebody else has to deal with it because whatever we don't deal with will eventually deal with us.

The Amalekites were able to come back and they attack, they attack David and his camp.

And what the scriptures tell us is that they literally take everything to take everybody.

It makes sure that it helps us to understand that it takes both of David's wives, Abigail and Hinoim.

When you break down to see what their names mean, ultimately what their names mean is joy and peace.

So watch this the Amalekites, the sin, the carnal thing that should have been dealt with, it showed up at a time when it was least expected and it robbed them of their joy.

It robbed them of their peace, it robbed them of their freedom.

And what the Bible says is that David and his men had no more strength left.

Maybe maybe for some of us that's kind of where we are right now.

Keith, I've been I've been fighting this battle for a long time, but I don't have any more strength left to fight for this marriage.

I don't have any more strength left to fight for these kids.

I have no more.

I have no more peace, no more hope, no more joy, no more freedom, no more vision.

I'm just in a place where I'm living in the no more.

This is this is where David's at.

And so unfortunately, when you're faced with defeat, it causes us to want to deflect and now wants to place blame.

Because David's men, these were a bunch of men that were rejected from every other army camp, but David had collected them when he was on a run from Saul, about 600 of them.

So they're out on this run and they're winning with David, but the minute they experience loss, they now look at it all as being David's fault.

Because defeat loves to blame somebody.

See, here's the thing that happens after we face defeat.

It often leads us to a place of division.

We begin to find ourselves divided against one another.

We befind ourselves to want to place blame.

It's amazing how whenever there's a whenever there's a defeat, I love I love watching athletes because you can see the ones who see the big picture.

When you interview them and you have them talk and they're like, okay, so what do you think happened?

It's it's collective versus them saying, hey man, if we just would have rebounded the ball better, like they all take ownership.

However, you can often see those ones that are like casting a little bit of shade because we love to point the finger at somebody because somebody's got to take responsibility for this loss.

And for David's men, they're like, David, it's your fault.

We followed you.

You're the one who led us out here.

It's your fault.

If we would have, if we wouldn't have been following you, we would have been able to be home to to take care of our family.

But because we were following you, we were not, we were not there, so David is your fault.

In fact, David, we need to kill you.

The same, the same David that everybody was was preparing to become a king was now at a moment where he was about to be killed.

Because we love to place blame.

I've I've learned when I look at society and I look at the context of the world we live in, whether it be politics or just cultural, we love to point fingers at one another.

We love to place blame, we love to attach a name to every obstacle in our lives so that it can almost be a willingness to vilify and to hate.

We see this even with Adam and Eve.

From the moment that they're in the garden and the serpent comes up and he convinces Eve to take the fruit, she takes it and gives it to her husband.

God shows up and begins to do a little bit of inquiry around it, and you see what Adam's response is.

He says, God is it's the woman that you gave me.

She's the reason why we're in this sinful condition.

Did you catch what Adam just did?

He basically blamed God.

It's the woman that you gave me.

So indirectly, God, it's your fault.

So I'd appreciate it if you back up off me.

But that's my interpretation.

I read from a different translation of the Bible than you do.

God, it's your fault.

If you would have given me a woman had had maybe a little bit more strength, then I wouldn't be dealing with this.

But God, you allowed her to come into my life.

So indirectly, it's your fault.

But I I love Eve's response.

Eve, she, even in the midst of being blamed, being thrown under the bus along with God, she said, no, it was a serpent.

There's a serpent in the mix.

And here's what I believe that many of us need to begin to be aware of.

It's so easy for us to point the finger at one another.

We can point the finger at politicians and all that stuff, but the reality is there's a serpent who's trying to cause division.

And the moment that Eve was able to identify the serpent, then God dealt with the serpent and put him under his feet.

Maybe the reason why we're not walking in authority is because we haven't yet identified the thing we need to dart authority over.

We're so busy vilifying one another that we haven't recognized there's a serpent trying to cause division amongst us.

The moment that that that David is carrying this weight of being the one that's responsible for it all, he's at this other place where he's just completely discouraged.

He's faced defeat.

He's he's been he's been at this place where he's dealing with division and now he's uh now he's discouraged.

He's he's still the anointed shepherd, but he's discouraged.

You know, I've learned that discouragement doesn't have to be this thing that cripples us, but it does blind our ability to trust God.

You can you can be discouraged and be still be a person that preaches on this platform.

You can be discouraged and still sing songs about the goodness of God.

You can you could be discouraged and and still be a person that that knows how to smile and have the appropriate responses when people ask you how you're doing.

You can you could be discouraged and and and your marriage still be in the rocks.

You could be discouraged and still walk like you got it all together, but yet it's just a facade that you're faking out because it's just muscle memory.

It's possible for us to find ourselves in this place, and if we're not careful, we can get comfortable in it.

And instead of learning from it, we linger in it.

We just linger in it.

David was discouraged.

He was divided from his men.

He was deflated because he faced defeat.

But there's this moment where David said, I am not going to stay here.

Listen to me, church.

Maybe you're in that season right now, that waiting place, that sunken place where you feel like you're a passenger in your own life, that place where you're just waiting for God to show up, that place where maybe you feel discouraged, divided, deflated, all those things combined together.

But if you really want to take ground, you're gonna have to fight back.

You're gonna have to fight back.

You're gonna have to make up in your mind, I'm gonna fight back.

I know that I may have taken a loss, but I'm gonna fight back.

I know I have a significant setback, but I'm gonna fight back.

It's the difference between staying where you are and moving forward.

I may have taken a loss, but I'm not a loser.

I may have taken a loss, but I'm not a loser.

I may have fallen, but I'm not gonna stay there.

You have to make up in your mind that I am going to fight back.

I am going to take ground and I am gonna fight back.

I don't know who needs to hear this right now, but you've been a punching bag for far too long.

God has given you two arms for you to begin to fight back.

It is time for us to fight back.

That's how we're gonna take ground.

But many of us may be saying, okay, what does that look like practically, though?

How do I practically fight back in all reality?

You know what?

I'm glad you asked me that question because I have four points that I believe will help you to put into practice what does it look like to fight back?

Because God has called us to take ground.

Here's the first thing I want you to write down in order to take ground, in order to fight back, we have to talk to God.

We have to talk to God.

David is dealing with all of this defeat, David is dealing with all of this struggle, but David knew that I have to talk to God.

1 Samuel chapter 30, verse 8 says it this way.

1 Samuel 30:8

And David inquired of the Lord, that's him praying.

And he shall and he said, Shall I pursue after this band?

Shall I overtake them?

And he answered them.

He said, Pursue, for you will surely rescue them.

David talked to God.

David sought God, he he inquired of God.

Listen to me, church.

I I I've noticed this own rhythm in my life that when I wake up in the morning, there's a there's this thing where I open up my iPhone and you can go down to the search bar, and it'll often populate with the things that you typically look at when you first open up your phone.

And for for a season, I felt convicted because when I would look at the very first thing I would focus on when I wake up in the morning, it would always be my bank account, maybe a little bit of Instagram, and then like maybe like the Bible would kind of be like the third or fourth option.

So the first thing I would think about when I wake up is my money, because my mind is on my money, and my money's on my mind.

Okay, anyway, so looking at my bank account, just looking to see what these numbers look like, and then I would look at some things that was happening in the social media, and then I would kind of be like, okay, yeah, let me do my Devo now.

I think that sometimes those could be indicators of the things that we lean on the most.

How many of us are leaning on these worldly resources instead of talking to the source?

Instead of David getting opinions from everybody else, David decided to go and talk to God.

David wanted to go and talk to God.

Here's the thing: if you actually read 1 Samuel chapter 31, that exact same moment, Saul is also facing a battle with the Philistines.

1 Samuel 31 · chapter mention

He had an opportunity to pray and he wasn't getting a response, so he actually went into witchcraft in order to get some clarity.

Read both of the chapters and realize they're happening at the same time because they're actually meant to be a comparison between the difference between David and Saul.

Saul was consorting corporate resources, but David was facing the face of God.

I believe that we have an opportunity of either being a people that's going to engage and talk to God, or we're gonna end up talking to the world and getting them letting man be the thing that shapes our opinion.

God is simply saying, Would you talk to me?

What does God's word say about your situation?

What does he have to say about the season that you're going through?

I I've learned a valuable lesson in my life that I cannot outsource my intimacy with God.

I can't I can't allow man to be the voice of God for me.

I look to see what God is saying to me, and then I find people to come alongside me and believe it with me.

But we have a world now where we can become so dependent on so many resources that we don't even recognize the voice of God when it's yelling right in front of us.

David, he sought to talk to God first.

He talked to God first.

Here's here's a second one approach with confidence.

We have to approach with confidence.

First Samuel chapter 30, looking at verse number nine.

1 Samuel 30 · chapter mention

So David set out, and him and the 600 men that were with him, and they came to the brook of Basor who were with him, and they were left behind and stayed.

Let me just pause right there.

What we see here is that David has no idea.

He has no idea that that the Amalekites are the ones who are responsible for robbing his house.

He has no idea.

But yet David packs up his men and they start moving with confidence.

Now, let me be real with you.

I'm a I'm a faith-filled person, but I'm also incredibly logical.

And that's a tension that I have to manage because I have to make sure that my logic doesn't get in the way of my faith.

Because if I'm David, I'm like, okay, so God, you're telling me to go.

You're telling me that I'm going to win this battle, but I have no idea who my opponent is.

I don't know.

We just have 600 men.

I don't know if when we get on the other side, if we can defeat those men, I don't even know what direction we're supposed to go into.

So let me do a little bit of analyzing.

And I think that what can happen for some of us, we have analysis paralysis.

We end up analyzing and overthinking and overthinking so much that we actually never end up moving forward because we're waiting for all the facts.

But we don't walk by facts, we walk by faith.

We we're supposed to trust God at His word.

And so David was given instructions to go.

No idea where to go, but I have to believe that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.

And if God is telling me to go this direction, I may not know what the next 10 steps are, but I know what the next one end is.

I'm just going to do it with confidence and boldness.

What are the things that you're still waiting to get all the information on?

And God is simply saying, Would you please just go?

If you could just pursue, you have permission to move forward, but we're still waiting for all the answers.

And God is saying, That is not faith.

You're waiting for something that actually nullifies your need for me at all.

David had to move with confidence.

He had to step forward, not knowing what all the information was, but he had to do it with boldness because he was moving at the voice and at the word of God.

Here's the third thing I want us to do.

We have to keep our eyes open.

Keep our eyes open.

So we're going to talk to God, we're going to approach with confidence, but keep your eyes open.

1 Samuel 30, verse 11 says this and they found an Egyptian in an open country, and they brought him back to David, and they gave him some bread to eat, and they gave him some water to drink.

1 Samuel 30:11

They're out on this journey.

They have no idea where they're going.

And they're out in this open desert area, and they just happen to see this man wandering alone by himself.

Now, now, again, I love you guys.

I'm gonna be completely honest with you.

I'm on a mission.

God's told me that I need to go and take ground.

I'm gonna go and get my family back.

So I don't necessarily have time to go and have a rescue mission.

I gotta keep moving forward because God told me that I gotta catch my family.

And I don't know if I pause and wait, I may miss an opportunity to catch up.

So if you're talking to me, I'm like, okay, it's it's there's a guy out there off in the wilderness, but I got a mission.

I'm on a I'm on a roll.

But David and his men, they saw this man wandering out, they kept their eyes open, they saw him, and instead of ignoring him, instead of ignoring his struggle, instead of ignoring his needs, the Bible says that they went and got him and brought him in close.

They gave him something to eat, they gave him something to drink, and then and then they even gave him like an energy boost, they gave him like some coffee or something.

Like they they gave him all this energy, and then they began to ask him, like, hey man, like what are you doing out here?

Like this is an isolated spot.

That's when the man spoke and said, Man, I was actually with this group called the Amalekites.

We just came back from stealing some stuff, man, but but they left me behind because I got sick and they just didn't want to they didn't want to take care of me.

That is when David learned who were the people that were responsible for taking his stuff.

He had no idea up until that point.

So David was able to use someone that somebody else discarded.

Let me help you with this.

Keep your eyes open.

Because God loves to develop what other people discard.

He loves to use what other people deem as useless.

When we look at scripture, God has a thing for the underdog.

Moses was a murderer on a run, God used him.

David was a sheepherder who made mistakes, but God, but God used him.

Samson made some massive mistakes, but God still used him.

The disciples, the 12 disciples, you know the reason why they were available to Jesus?

Because none of them were smart enough to make it into the rabbinical school, so they had to take on a trade.

Where do we get it in our minds that we're looking for perfection if God isn't?

We're always looking for the person that's the best of the best, but God is like, I'm looking for the people that everyone else ignores.

Keep your eyes open.

Because I assure you that maybe you're in a season right now and you may not have the energy or the resources to invest in somebody, but that investment may be the very thing that leads you to victory.

Who are the people that's in your life that when you see their phone number come up, you're like, and you either ignore it, oh I didn't see it.

I'm sorry, I missed your text.

Who are those people?

Because God loves to use and develop what other people discard.

Maybe on the flip side of that, maybe that's us.

Maybe we felt discarded by people.

Maybe we felt like someone has left us to the wake side because we couldn't keep up.

Let me assure you, that's not how God sees you.

I want to let you know that you have purpose, you have value, and God's gonna do a new thing in your life, but don't you dare give up.

Make sure you continue to fight back for your identity.

Don't you allow the way that man sees you to be any indication of what you think the way that God sees you.

God loves to use what people deem as useless.

We have this moment where this man is able to lead David to the very location where the Amalekites are having a party, and as a result of that, they're able to fight and wipe them all out.

I want to close with this.

I'm gonna ask the worship team to come out and to join us.

The last one I want to share with you guys is to engage fully.

We we talk to God, we approach with confidence, we keep our eyes open for opportunities to invest, but we also engage fully.

1 Samuel 30, verse 17.

1 Samuel 30:17

David struck them all down from twilight until the evening of the next day.

That means that that when David began the battle, he didn't stop until it was done.

He didn't he didn't partially go into battle, he didn't battle just enough to get his stuff back, but he battled until it was done.

I suspect that there's some of us that that we fight long enough and hard enough just to get our stuff back.

But what if God had more for you?

What if there was more ground for you to take?

My statement that I have with my family personally is I I don't want anything more, but I'll accept nothing less than what God has for us.

And wherever you are, maybe God has more.

Don't you dare slow back, fully engage, fully engage in your marriage, fully engage with your children, fully engage at your job.

Don't leave anything on the table.

You go fully in.

What we see is God is able to use those incredible efforts from David to make sure that He's never had to deal with the Amalekites again.

Who are the Amalekites in your life right now?

Those things that that that just seem to show up at the least convenient time.

My encouragement for you is this talk to God.

Approach the word of God with confidence.

Keep your eyes open for opportunities to recognize the things that other people discard because God may use that to lead you to victory.

But once you get onto the battlefield, you go in fully.

You go hard, you don't slow back, you don't look back, you get everything that God has for you.

1 Samuel chapter 30, verse number 18, it says this.

1 Samuel 30 · chapter mention

It says, David recovered all the Amalekites had taken, and he rescued his two wives.

Everything that was taken from David, he got it back because he fought back.

Everything that he lost, he got it back because he fought back.

Everything that had been stripped away from him, he got it back because he fought back.

David went from having no more joy to no more confusion.

David went from having no more hope to not having to deal with hopelessness anymore.

I believe that our miracle is on the other side of our mess.

I believe that if we can just recognize that maybe I'm in that waiting place right now, but if I can press through and trust God through it all, my miracle is on the other side of that.

And I can go from no more what I have to no more dealing with it again.

Maybe you can go from where you are now to dealing with no more fear, with no more depression, with no more anxiety, with no more confusion, with no more division, with no more defeat, with no more poverty, with no more anger, with no more guilt, with no more condemnation.

God wants to get us to a place where we're not dealing with that stuff anymore, but you have to fully engage.

God is leading us to a place of victory.

God has a plan for all of our lives.

And sometimes these things will overlap.

We'll have victory in one season and a loss in another.

But the truth of the matter is, he wants us to fight back.

If you truly want to take ground, you got to fight back.

You know, I love this key phrase that it says that sets the whole tension of David fighting back.

That when David was surrounded by nothing but defeat, when David was surrounded by doubt and and everything else, when he's about to be killed by his own men, the Bible says, but David encouraged himself in the Lord.

There was no one else that he could rely on to do that for him.

David encouraged himself in the Lord.

His battery died, so he couldn't download the recent podcast to keep him encouraged.

David encouraged himself in the Lord.

His friends weren't coming to his side to let him know it's going to be okay.

David encouraged himself in the Lord.

I think that sometimes we're so reliant on people to be our encourager that when they fail, that means that we have to live in a place of discouragement.

But I truly believe that our input determines our outlook.

And that if we can just be people that encourage ourselves, sometimes you just gotta talk to yourself and make up in your mind.

No, get up from here, Keith.

I know that you can survive this.

Get up from here.

God's got more plans for you.

Sometimes you just gotta encourage yourself.

Man may not always be there, your spouse may not always have the words.

There may not be a pastor that can come alongside you and pray for you.

But what the Bible says is that David was able to encourage himself.

He was able to stand on God's word for himself.

And I want to make sure that you're equipped with everything you need to say that no, God says that I am more than a conqueror, God says that my family will be blessed.

God says that I am the head and not the tail.

God says that no weapon has formed against me that your brother.

God says that my family will be blessed.

God says that I shall be prosperous.

God said these things about me.

I don't need anyone else.

I'm not looking for man to be ink pim in my life.

I just need to be a highlighter because God is the only one that has the right to write anything on my heart.

I am looking at it and saying that God says it.

We gotta be a people that relies more heavily on allowing God to be the main thing that influences our lives, and we're looking for people to come alongside of it.

But I never look for man to replace the voice of God in my life, and I pray the same thing for you.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, I wanna I wanna pray for us.

Because as I was praying through this message, I found myself thinking about you, those who are sitting in our seats right now, and I and I've got the sense that many of us are sitting in that place that Dr.

Susan talked about called the waiting place.

You're just you're just waiting for the miracle, you're waiting for the breakthrough, you're waiting for God to show up, you're waiting for the clarity, you're waiting for the assignment, you're you're waiting for God to do something in your life.

And I feel compelled to pray for you.

So if that's you, you're waiting for a move of God, there's there's an area of your life that you need God to show up in.

Your miracle is on the other side of your mess.

But I want to pray for you right where you are.

I believe this can create the momentum for you to walk in what God has for you.

So if that's you, if I could pray for you, any area that you just need God to show up, would you be bold enough to lift your hands up on the count of three?

One, two, three.

Amen.

Hands up everywhere.

God bless you, amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.

Here's my second question.

Because in a room in this size, I suspect that there's some of us that are in here that we don't have a relationship with Jesus.

And when we talk about taking ground, the best thing you can do is take ground in your soul, is recognizing that Jesus died for your sins, and that apart from him you can't do it on your own.

If you're in here with us today and you want to commit or recommit your life to Christ, shifting from a place of carnality to a place of embracing grace, but also recognizing your humanity.

I want to pray for you.

So if you're in here and you want to commit or recommit your life to Christ, would you be bold enough to lift your hand up on account of three so we can pray with you but also celebrate with you?

One, two, three.

Hands up.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Church, you know that we're celebration, so we celebrate with those who are saying yes.

Come on, church, let's give it up for those who are saying yes and responding to the message of the cross.

Here's what I want us to do now.

I want us all to stand on our feet.

We're gonna go back into worship.

I'm gonna pray for us.

The Pastor Justin's gonna come out and give us some closing instructions.

But as you're standing on your feet, would you mind just lifting your hands up with an expectation that you're believing that God is gonna meet you exactly where you are?

Heavenly Father God, we thank you.

We thank you.

God, that we can look in your word and be inspired and encouraged by looking at the stories of your vessels.

So, Father, much like David, God, we may be coming off the heels of an amazing victory, but also looking at defeat.

But God, you have commissioned us to take ground, take ground in our homes, take ground at work, take ground in our personal lives, take ground in our finances.

So, Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, I pray that you show up and do amazing things in every one of our lives.

So, Father, we celebrate you, we worship you, we give you all the glory, the honor, and the praise in Jesus' name.

Come on, church, let's worship.

Thank you for tuning in to today's podcast.

For more information about Celebration Orlando or to get in touch with us, please visit celebrationorlando.org.