Brother Doug Bates "Even The Warriors (6-25-23)

Welcome to Life City. This podcast was created to celebrate what God is doing

and what protect us. Our vision is to reach the hungry, the hurding,

and the hopeless. God has given us our heading. Join us today

as we listen to the Word, and we pray that God speaks to you

in this message. And these were recorded in the genealogies. In the days

of Jotham, King of Judah, and in the days of Jeribum, King

of Israel, the Rubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manassa had

valiant men who carried shield and sword and drew the bow, expert in war.

Forty four thousand, seven hundred and sixty able to go to war,

and they waged war against the Hagrites Jetar, Napish and no dab. It's

my initials no Doug. They were waging war against no Dug, and when

they prevailed over them, that means the other people were winning. The no

Dugs were winning. The Hagites and all who were with them were given into

their hands, for they cried out to God in battle, and he granted

their urgent plea because they trusted in him. They carried off their livestock fifty

thousand camels, two hundred and fifty thousand sheep, two thousand donkeys, and

one hundred thousand men alive. For many fell because the war was of God,

and they lived in that place. The members of the half tribe of

Manassa lived in the land. They were very numerous, from Bashan to Belle

Hermann, Sannair and Mount Herman. And these were the heads of the Father's

house. Efor Isha Ela Ezra Jeremiah will stop there. Thank you for standing

in reverence to the word of the Lord. You may be seated this morning.

I know that was lengthy, but like I said, I promised,

there's a reason. There's a certain level of trust you put in things each

and every day. Consider this this morning, when you got up, if

it was dark, you probably walked over to a light switch. You flipped

that light switch on, and as long as you paid your bill and there

wasn't a storm last night, more than likely when you turned that switch on,

the light came on. You didn't really think this morning about the work

that it goes into to generate electricity. You didn't think about the lines of

electricity, the power lines that had been driven all the way to your house.

The electrician that put the wires in your house, and the circuit breaker

panel and all the light switches and all the fuses and everything that goes into

making that light work. You just trusted when you flipped that switch, it

would come on. You probably didn't even think about it. It was just

flipped a switch up lights on time to get ready for church. You put

a lot of trust in that. You probably didn't think this morning as you

turned on that hot water what it takes to actually get water into that shower

head so that you can take that hot shower in the morning. You just

trusted it was gonna work. You trusted the water heater. You trusted there

was no leaks or your house, and I hope there's not. This morning.

After your shower, you went ahead and put clothes on, and I'm

thankful you did. And when you did, you went ahead and trusted the

manufacturers of those clothes that those clothes were gonna survive today's one hundred and twenty

seven billion degree heat. You trusted it clothes wouldn't disintegrate. And you step

out of the building after church. You trusted the manufacturers and the mechanics,

the many, many, many parts and bolts and screws and everything that goes

into that vehicle. You trusted when you push that button or turn that key,

that that thing would fire up and bring you safely to church. You

trusted, as Pastor mentioned already this morning, you trusted the other drivers on

the road this morning. That takes a lot of trust, I tell you.

With some of the crash reports I read, you trusted the drivers a

lot this morning that you would make it here safely. There's a lot of

trust you're trusting in all these things each and every day that you don't even

think about. It's just come part of our life that we trust that it's

gonna work. And yes, sometimes those things do break down, but most

often they get fixed again and you trust them to work again. Unless you're

like me, a crazy worried person, you don't worry every time you go

out to your car that it's going to start or not. You probably don't

do that. You just trust that it's gonna start. So I ask you

this morning, if we can trust in all these things that are made and

manufactured and created and built and grown by people, how much more should we

be able to put our trust in the Lord in for text, I read

skipping to the very end of verse twenty. It says he granted their urgent

plea because they trusted in him. He granted their urgent plea because they trusted

in him. A man by the name of Ben wrote this story. He

said, in the winter of nineteen eighty eight, three friends and I climbed

Mount Lyle, the highest peak in Yosemite National Park. Two of us were

experienced mountain climbers, two were not. I was not. He said.

Our base camp was two thousand feet from the peak, so on the climb

to the or the day of the climb to the peak, we were to

climb all the way to the peak and back down on that same day.

As the hours passed, the two mountaineers with experience began to get a lot

further ahead of me and my companion, and so I decided to find a

shortcut. I never thought for a second as to why the experienced climbers in

front of me didn't decide to try to get to this outcropping across the glacier,

But I decided I was going to try to do it. Much to

my dismay, thirty minutes later, I found myself stuck looking down several hundred

feet a sheer slope of ice pitched at a forty five degree angle, ten

feet from the safety of the rock. One slip and I wouldn't make it.

I was stuck. I was scared, Ben wrote. He said,

it took an hour from my experienced climbing friends to find me standing on the

rock that I wanted to get to. My experienced friend reached over with his

axe and chipped out two small holes. He says, Ben, this is

what I want you to do. I want you to reach out with your

first foot and put it in that first hole, and then immediately reach out

with the second foot and put it in the second hole, and I'll reach

out with my hand and pull you to safety. To me, Ben wrote,

that sounded like a fabulous, easy, simple idea. Two steps and

I'm safe. But then my experienced friend, Ben said, told me some

advice I didn't like. He said, But if anything, Ben, when

you do it, do not lean towards the mountain. He said. If

you lean towards the mountain, it's much less or much more likely that your

feet will fly out from underneath you and you will start sliding down the mountain.

Down the glacier to the valley below. He said, if anything,

lean away from the mountain when you step. Ben said, I don't like

precipices, and when I'm on the edge of a cliff, my instinct says

hug the mountain. Many of you sounds like you agree with that. But

his friend is saying to do the exact opposite. He thought, is there

any reason why I can't trust my experienced climber friend. I looked at him

real hard. I thought about it, and then I followed his instructions.

I leaned away from the mountain as I toast two steps, and in two

seconds I discovered my faith in my friend was well founded as he pulled me

to safety. You see, oftentimes in life, you're going to feel the

spirit leading you to do things that are the opposite of your natural inclination.

There's going to be times that you're going to feel the spirit leading you to

do something that doesn't always make sense. But this morning, I've come here

to tell you that you have a god. You can trust it. You

have a God that you you hat going to leave you hanging. He's not

going to leave you in a place where you're going to fall he's gonna be

able to be there with you the whole way. He's gonna stand with you,

and you can trust in him this morning. He's not gonna let you

down, he's not going to fail you, he's not going to lead you

astray. You can trust in him this morning. I believe there's a problem

in our lives with a lack of trust. We try to take matters into

our own hands and do everything ourself. Maybe it's just me, but I

tend to try to do things on my own. I tend to try to

figure it out on my own. A problem comes and I tend to try

to figure out the solution by myself, forgetting the fact that I have someone

I can count on. You see, when it comes to spiritual matters and

issues involving the eternity, trust is critical. Without trust, you will destroy

your own self by your own hand. Absolute trust in God is essential in

order to successfully navigate this life. You see, there's gonna be times when

you're not gonna understand what's going on, and there's gonna be times you're not

gonna be able to see the solution to the problem, and there's gonna be

times that you're not gonna understand why things are happening the way they're happening.

And it's times like that where you need to remember to keep trusting. It's

times like that you have to keep unremembered to keep on pressing forward, to

keep moving forward, not to slide back and slide down the mountain, but

keep moving forward, to keep pressing forward. Because you can trust in him.

You can rely on him. You don't have to worry if he's gonna

be there or not. You can trust in him. There's a champion out

of the camp of the Philistines that Ronnie sung his name this morning. He

was a big man. He was nine foot six, almost as big as

Justin. Just kidding Justin. Justin's not nine foot six. But Goliath had

a big helmet of brass on his head. He had an armor coat on

that weighed five thousand shekels of brass. He had a spear that was like

a weaver's bean. He was a big man. And Goliath most you know

the story, but if not, I'll spend the next two hours telling it.

Goliath challenge the armies of Israel, and so Goliath would go out to

the field and say, hey, choose you someone to come fight me,

and if they win, we'll serve you. And if I win, you'll

serve me. And everybody looked at this nine foot six tall guy. Remember

nine six that's my birthday. I'm gonna keeps it to get in green.

So everyone kept looking at this nine foot six giant and say, oh,

that's a scary giant. They were sore afraid. The Bible tells us.

And so Goliath did that in the morning, and he did that at night,

and he did that at the morning, and he did that at night.

Keep calling out, send you a man to come fight me for forty

days, twice a day. And then at the end of forty days,

there was this boy by the name of David, and his dad said,

hey, David, your brothers have been down there for way too long.

Go down to the camp to see what they're up to, to check in

on them. And while you're there, bring them. This is the weirdest

thing. Bring them grain, bread, and cheese. That's the three things

that Jesse told David to take when he went to go check on his brothers.

At least if he would have brought some butter, they could have make

grilled cheese too. I don't know. But so he brought the bread and

the grain and the cheese down to his brothers. And while he was talking

to his brothers, that happened to either be morning or evening, And so

Goliath came out again and repeated his thing about send me a man. And

David, when he heard that and saw that all the men were afraid,

he said, the Lord delivered me out of the paw of a lion.

He said, the Lord delivered me out of the paw of there. He

said, the Lord delivered me out of paw patrol. Oh no, no,

he didn't say that one. He said, the Lord delivered me out

of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear.

And the Lord will deliver me out of the hand of this philistine. So

David, most of us know the story. I'm gonna speed up, don't

worry. He went and took the five stones, put them in the shepherd's

bag. He went to the philistine. The philistine came to him, mocked

him for being just a little kid of youth. And David said, you

come to me with a sword and a spear and a shield, but I

come to you in the name of the god of the armies of Israel,

whom you have defiled. So David took that stone, put it in the

slingshot, hit the giant in the head, and realized, oops, I

forgot to bring a sword. So he runs on over, grabs Goliah sword,

cuts off Goliath's head with his own sword. This passage of very familiar

scripture, very familiar in scripture. Many of us have heard this story dozens

and dozens of times. In Sunday school, they talk about this story.

When I was a youth pastor, I used to bring it up all the

time because I like to talk about how David was a youth and he took

on this big giant man. David was a youth and he took on this

big giant, this big enemy that was coming against a children of Israel.

But I didn't really ever think about the fact that David might have been the

tool that was used to take out Goliath. But David didn't go on his

own and take out Goliath. David didn't say I took down that bear,

I took down that lion, and I'm going to take down this philistine.

Now David recognized and realized that he couldn't win the battle by himself. David

recognized and realized he couldn't do it by himself, so he put his trust

in God. He said, hey, God, help me get over that

lion, and but for that bear. So I know God's gonna be there

and help me conquer this philistine. I'm gonna get the victory because I'm going

in the name of the Lord, because i put my trust in the Lord.

Because David put his trust in the Lord, That's why he was able

to conquer that giant. That's why victory came for the children of Israel.

Isaiah fifty four seventeen says, no weapon formed against the shell prosper. We

can trust in him, we can put our trust in him. Nothing can

stand against us when we're with him. Nothing can stand against us when we're

walking in a nice path. Nothing can stand against us when we rely fully

on him, when we count on him, when we put our faith in

him, when we trust in him completely. Nothing can overcome when you're with

him. First Chronicles, chapter five, verse twenty, going back to where

we started, it says the hay Gits and all of them who were with

them, that includes no dub, no doub We're given into their hands,

for they cried out to God in battle. When I was in high school,

I worked the opening shift at McDonald's on Saturday mornings. And one Saturday

morning, I had stayed up the entire night before because I was young and

I could do that, and I had gone to a youth event the night

before, and as I was at that youth event, I stayed up the

whole night at that youth event. And then I was gonna go work full

day at work. I no more, and I went to leave the youth

event. And as I left, I noticed that it had snowed the night

before about six inches. Nothing major. I know, y'allo freaking out.

Maybe not, but I grew up in Minnesota. If you didn't know that,

so six inches up there is nothing major. And so they have a

huge budget to clear all the roads. They plan on clearing all the roads

all winter long, so they're cleared. So even though it had snowed six

inches overnight, I pulled out the church parking lot and I was already on

cleared roads. The roads were already plowed. So I was driving down the

road. I get on the highway, driving down the highway, I wasn't

driving ninety down the highway, but I wasn't driving ten either, because the

roads were already cleared, and I was going along through construction. Same everywhere

you go, it's always construction. I love it. Me employed. And

I was driving along and there was a car on the left of me.

There was two lane highway car on the left of me. Nice concrete rail

down the side there looks like it was put up well. Actually have no

idea if it was. I wouldn't have known if it was or not at

that point. But I was driving along and the roads were clear, and

there was no lighting because it was a construction zone on the highway, and

I noticed right in front of me it looked like maybe there had been a

car that had been parked there that the plows had gone around. Thankfully,

the car was not there at this point, but by the time I saw

it, I couldn't stop in time. I couldn't get over because there's a

car next to me. I couldn't go the way unless I wanted to hit

a wall. And nobody wants to hit a wall. Well, I hope

not. And so I did the only thing I could do. I took

my hands off the wheel and closed my eyes. That was good, good

advice right there. Please don't do that. But after I did that,

I did the smart thing to do. After I did the not smart thing

to do, and that was I just yelled one simple word with my hands

in the air my eyes was Jesus. When I hit that snowbank, I

was driving a knee on. I don't know if you've ever seen a knee

on, but the ground is closer to the ground than the front of a

knee on is. And so I hit that snow and snow came flying over

the top of the car because of the bank. Just flew over the top

of the car, and my car started swerving. But the second I yelled

Jesus, the car went perfectly straight through that snow bank. I ended up

on the other side, driving back down the plowed road as if nothing had

happened. I cried out to the Lord. I cried to the Lord when

I needed him. I was in a situation that I realized there was nothing

I could do, and there was in a situation I realized there's no way

I could possibly win on my own right. I was in a losing situation

with a car to my left and a wall to my right, the snow

in front of me. But when I cried out to him, he worked

the miracle. When I cried out to him, he was able to move

and to work a place where I couldn't do anything on my own, a

place where I realized I couldn't make it without him. When I cried out

to him, he delivered and brought the miracle right to me, right where

I was, right when I needed it. He's a kind of God that

when you cry out to him, he's going to be He's a kind of

God that's gonna come running at the mention of his name. He's a kind

of God that when you call upon him, he's gonna come to your rescue.

You can cry out to him, Samuel, I'm gonna use you the

first time you get used in a serving. Yay Samuel. As a baby,

as you guys probably know. If you didn't, you do now you

know. Babies they can't really do anything themselves. They can't feed themselves,

they can't change themselves, they can't do anything themselves. So what do they

do when they need something? They cry. It's a baby's instinct when they

need something to cry. Humans start as a baby, in case you didn't

know that, that's a fact. Man, I'm just loaded with information today.

And we start like a baby where we cry out to our guardian,

whoever is watching us, our parents, whoever, every time we need something.

But as we grow into adulthood, we begin to lose that mentality and

we begin to try to think we can do it ourselves. We're determined that

we can solve every problem on our own, that we can overcome any obstacle

or any situation, that there's nothing that we need help on. So we

try and try and try some more, and that where you can't do it

on your own. No matter what we try to do, we can't find

the victory. Perhaps that's because we lost our first instinct. Perhaps it's because

we lost that first instinct we had when we were a baby that we could

cry out for help. We've tried to do too much on our own that

we've forgotten that we can cry for help. We've forgotten that we can call

for help. We've forgotten that we have a God who's right there that said

he'd never leave us nor forsake us. We've forgotten at all we have to

do is ask we've forgotten that first instinct that we had to cry out to

the Lord. We've forgotten that instinct that we can call upon him whenever we

need anything. You can cry out to him, you see, when you're

lost. You can cry out to him. When the bills are coming and

there's no money. You can cry out to him when you've lost hope.

You can cry out to him when you're in trouble. You can cry out

to him when you're sick. You can cry out to him when you're lonely.

You can cry out to him when you're discouraged. You can cry out

to him no matter what you're fighting, no matter what the situation is,

you can cry out to him. You don't have to do this alone.

You don't have to try to solve everything by yourself. You can cry out

to the Lord. This morning we started with some text and I'm almost finally

to my title slide. Mun y'all excited that I found very fascinating. And

I'm gonna tell on myself to tell you why I find it so fascinating.

So, when I was probably six seven years old, my parents started having

us read through the Bible every year. Every year we read through the Bible,

and so I've read through the Bible many times, and Chronicles happens to

be one of those books. I'm telling myself now more than probably read it

like I should. Now you might have saw why, as I mispronounced five

hundred people's names, Chronicles was filled with names that's difficult to pronounce. Chronicles

has a lot of repetition that was in Samuel and Kings that you've already read.

But however, here between the children of Abbahail in verse fourteen and the

members of Manassa in verse twenty three, at first Chronicles chapter five, we

read a few verse It said the Rubenites, the Gaddites at the beginning with

verse eighteen, and the half tribe of Manassa had valiant men who carried shield

and sword and drew the bull boom expert in war forty four seven hundred and

sixty. Able to go to war, they waged war against the Hagerites and

Jettor and Nabbish and no Dug. And when they prevailed over them, the

Hagerites and all that were with them were given into their hands, for they

cried onto God in battle, and he granted urgent plea because they trusted in

him. Consider, for a second, nestled here between two different genealogies,

just a few verses. Nestled here in Second Chronicles, Chapter five, nestled

here in a place that I might normally skim over more than I should read.

We find out about an army. We find out about an army of

forty four thousand, seven hundred and sixty men. It's a big army.

Scripture tells us these men were valiant. Scripture tells us that these men were

able to bear shield and sword. Scripture tells us these men could shoot with

a bow and an arrow. Scripture tells us they were experts in war.

That sounds like an awesome army. That sounds like the kind of army I'd

want to be part of. Except them, the army would be four forty

four thousand and seven hundred and sixty one, four hundred, forty four or

four thousand whatever. One of them would not be an expert. Is where

I'm trying to go with that. All forty four thousand, seven hundred and

sixty could all use a shield, all use a bow, all use a

sword, all were experts in war. That's a good army to be part

of this morning, though, Verse twenty tells us something very important. Verse

twenty starts out telling us they were losing. Forty four thousand, seven hundred

and sixty men, all experts in war were losing the battle. They couldn't

win. They couldn't do it by themselves. What sounded like a winning or

winning connection, a winning solution was not. So they could not win.

But then something happened. The Gadites and Rubenits and the half tribe of Manassa,

they cried out to God, and it says, and he granted their

urgent, true urgent plea, because because they trusted in him, they cried

out to him, and when they put their trust in him, he granted

their urgent plea. On the surface, it looked like forty four, seven

hundred and sixty experts in war would be a winning army. But they only

won because they cried out to God. They only won when they put their

trust in him, and then God granted their urgent plea. No matter how

big or however small, all the battle is. You can try to do

it on your own, But why why try to go through it on your

own? Why try to do it by yourself? Why try to fight through

it by yourself. When you can trust in Him, no matter how big

or small the circumstance might be, you can trust in him, You can

cry out to him, you can trust in him. Let's stand this morning.

I ask you this morning, do you that you're going through Do you

want to find the healing or peace that you desire? Do you want that

financial blessing that you've been deeply desiring and deeply need? Do you want to

find the victory for your situation? Then? I say it this morning,

maybe it's time you cry out to the Lord. Maybe it's time you put

your trust fully in him. Even the warriors, I told you, make

it to my title. Even the warriors knew that they needed him. Even

the warriors understood that they could cry out to him. Even the warriors realize

that they needed to trust in Him to be victorious. Even the warriors recognized

they couldn't do it on their own. They began to trust in Him and

they cried out to him and God granted their urgent plea. So this morning,

I ask you, what situation is it that you're dealing with? What

circumstances it that you're trying to get through? Even the warriors realized they couldn't

do it by themselves, and they began to cry out to him. So

I ask you this, these altars are open. Is there a situation that

you need the Lord to move in? Why don't you find a place today

to cry out to him? Why don't you find a place today to seek

his face? Why don't you find a place today to put your trust fully

in him? Be like the warriors. The warriors saw victory because they cried

because they trusted in him. Hallelujah, cheese as. Thank you so much

for being with us today. We hope you were blessed in some way by

the message. To learn more about us, check out www dot my Life

City Church dot org, or you can contact us at info at my Life

City Church dot org. Thank you once again for joining us, and we

hope you have a great week.