Facing Your Giants

Mark: Good to see everybody. ⁓ I'd like to take just a minute before I get into this message to thank you for your prayers. I I got back recently ⁓ from the ⁓ six weeks over in Africa. ⁓ Pastor Tom's team there and all all of southern Africa. We do this every year now for about five or six weeks. And this year they had ⁓ organized events in in ⁓ Victoria Falls and Harari, the capital, there in Zimbabwe and also in Maputo, ⁓ Mozambique. And we did t training with leaders, preached in the churches and counsel, I think fifty or sixty, maybe more, ⁓ individuals, leaders and and executives from the organization. So it was a busy, busy, busy time every day. And ⁓ thank you for your prayers. It was very fruitful. ⁓ good after action reports coming in that God did some neat things, and I'm just thrilled to have been part of it. But today, by the way, today is the first opening. Down in the in the fellowship center. And we have people down there worshiping with us right now. So welcome you guys. Thanks for coming today. And amen. Amen. And ⁓ I have a word for you today. I'm not sure how it will how much of it I'll get done. This has been quite a journey on this particular message today. But it's something I really feel desperately important. In fact, we kind of have embraced it already here this morning. I've entitled it Facing Your Giants. How many of you know that there are opposing forces in the world that want you to be inert? They want you not to have anything to say, they want you to have a testimony that's weak, they want you to run from every opportunity to do what God's calling you to do. And I'm here today to call him out. I'm here today to talk to you about the fact that you have more authority than you realize, that your words matter. I'm thinking about the word of God, for instance. In the beginning, it all started with the word. God had many tools at his disposal, but he chose to speak into nothingness. Light be, and light sprung into being. He began to go from there. And he spoke and he spoke and he spoke and he spoke. And just as an example, the other morning I was meditating through Genesis 1. And I was reading, I I'm a I'm an ocean guy, I love the ocean. And I was in in biology and all that kind of thing in in college days. So I I studied a lot of the invertebrates, I studied a lot of the animals, the the fish, all of these things, and studied the the diversity of them. And God only said one thing let the oceans bring forth. And his word populated an innumerable host of organisms, right up to and including the whales. From a word. You never know what a word from God is going to create in you. You never know what word you bear from the Lord, spoken to another person, is going to open up. I I've watched over and over again, God would challenge me to do one thing, one thing that maybe intimidated me. If it doesn't intimidate you, it's probably not God. He's asking you to enter into his work with him. Work that cannot be done by yourself. But you're a bearer of that word. And when you do that, when you speak that word, when you give that word, when you live that word, when your life testifies of that word, something is released. And wherever it lands, something grows. I want you to know your carriers. Of the same word that began it all. We're stewards of that word. And yet the enemy wants to come to you and close your mouth. He wants to get you introspective. He wants to get you looking at yourself to the point that you do not feel worthy to do any of this. But God has called us. I have a have a more sure word of prophecy for you. We all love prophecy because we we feel like it's showing us things to come. But there is something about a sure word that's already in the scripture that promises us something in our generations that we need to take note of. And today, this is one of those. Comes from 1 Corinthians 10, 11. Speaking of those things that happened to our forefathers in the wilderness and so forth, he says, Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written. For our admonition or instruction upon whom the ends of the world have come. Now, in in reality, and in actual fact, the the Bible refers to all things after the coming of Christ as the the last times. But if those start the last times, given the signs of the times that we're seeing today, we have to understand that the coming back of the Lord Jesus is imminent. If you're not living with that awareness, let me bring you into that awareness today. Don't think it's gonna go on like this forever. When we can't figure out what a woman is. When we celebrate, when we kill babies. Come on now. Come on. And on and on it goes. This has never been like this in the world. Now we are seeing the the end of all things. That could be a hundred years from now. It could be this afternoon. God might even do it while I'm speaking today. That would that would deliver you from this experience. We're talking about in the scripture, especially in the Old Testament, things called types and shadows. When you study theology, you're going to learn about types and shadows, and they're one of the most powerful interpretation tools that we have to read the Old Testament. Types and shadows are lives that were lived, literally, that that typified what was coming. For instance, when Abram heard from the Lord that awful thing he was asked to do. The Lord says, Bring your son, your only son, and come to a mountain that I will show you and offer him there. And Abraham by faith took Isaac and made the journey. They carried the wood with them. And when they got to this mountain, he put the wood on the back of Isaac and they walked up the mountain. And Isaac said, Here's the wood, but where is the sacrifice? Abram said, The Lord Himself, He will provide Himself a sacrifice. He bound his son to that wood. Like our father, caused his own son to carry the wood up the mountain to Calvary. In fact, the very same mountain upon which Abram was instructed to bring Isaac. Types and shadows. This morning I want you to understand that all that's gone before is pregnant with reality. Pregnant with the breath of God, pregnant with instruction for us upon whom the ends of the age are coming. Today, as we talk through this, I want you to understand that the Lord is powerful. He's mighty to save. He's mighty to pulling down the strongholds in your life and mine. We're called in First Corinthians, we talk about this a lot. And it's such a beautiful scripture. Chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians, I'd like for you to turn in your scriptures today so that you know where to find this and so that you can meditate through this a bit. I find that when I read big passages of scripture, I lose track of what's been said before. You may be better at assimilating all that than I am, but I have to take small portions and study them. And this is one that I absolutely love. Chapter 10, 1 Corinthians, Paul writing says. Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea. All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food, all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. it goes on to say that God was not well pleased with many of them because they did all of that and then they didn't have faith in him. But what I want to talk to you about today is this experience that the people had walking with God in the wilderness. They were not a people. They were a group of slaves down in Egypt, and and God delivered them by a gl great deliverance through a man that was the meekest man on the face of the earth. Now you may be here today and you don't feel very important. You may feel like you're you you dissolve into the crowd and no one notices you, that you you really don't have a lot to offer. But let me tell you, God loves to find people like that. And he loves to do things through them that people would recognize that had to be God. That had to be God. So if you wonder sometimes if you're qualified to do anything, let me just tell you. You don't bring anything to the party that God can't replace. He's very interested in replacing what you brought with your flesh. It's amazing to see God take a life and turn it into something He can use. Every one of us are called to that. Every one of us are called to that in some fashion or form. God has chosen it to be that way. But I want you to notice this group of people, they were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. This is absolutely beautiful. Moses led them to the banks of the Red Sea. Type in shadows again. The Red Sea, not the Brown Sea, not the clear sea, the Red Sea. They were between a rock and a hard place. There was no way out. There was no other option. The armies of the Egyptians who had lost their firstborn of beast and baby. They'd lost them that night. God had killed them in the Passover. And they were angry. They saw that they lost their slavery. They saw that they had lost the wealth that they were gaining from the people of God. And they came after them to destroy them. They saw them caught between the mountain and the sea. They thought, we've got them now. And they come roaring down upon them with all the fury of those that have lost their loved ones. And in that moment, Moses stretches out his staff. The word of the Lord came, and the waters parted. Now a lot of people say, well, it was called the Reed Sea. It's only two and a half feet deep. And one wise guy said one time, it's a bigger miracle than I thought. God drowned a whole army in two and a half feet of water. You know. But it's the Red Sea. It divided. And the people went through dry shad. And having seen that happen, the anger of this army that came rushing down into those same troughs of water. And God closed them up on them and destroyed the greatest army upon the earth at the time. And here's the notice, notice. The people saw them dead on the seashore. I want you to think about that. That those enemies that have driven you, tormented you, used you, abused you, when you came to Christ, you like those people have been baptized unto Moses. You have been baptized unto Christ. And I want you to see your enemies dead on the seashore. They no longer have power. They no longer can raise the sword against you. They no longer have authority because they are no more. But for some they still live between your ears. Words. Words you're not worthy. Who are you? Look at you. People have tormented you over the years. Perhaps parents in anger have said things that have lodged in your spirit and they still speak. Let me tell you something. They have no authority except the authority you give them. A lot of people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime trying to deal with their demons. Deal with the voices, deal with the remembrances of who they were and what happened to them and what people said. And they they've taken that up and they clothed themselves with those false images. That literally, literally cover up your real identity. God doesn't make junk. You've been created in his image. In his image. You're to bear his image. We need to understand that when we look at ourselves, we need to understand that some of the grace of God, some of the some of the wisdom of God, some of the love of God, some of the power of God is vested in us. And as we join with others in that same fellowship. We begin to see a bigger picture of who God really is. We are his billboard to the world. We need to understand that. We need to clothe ourselves with that kind of honor. We need to walk around in the world knowing that we've got something people need to hear. I don't say being be obnoxious with it, but I just, you know, whatever's in you is going to come. And some of us fear that there's more bad in us than there is God. Now, this is not a coach's pep talk today. This is the thus says the Lord. I'm looking at people that the Father from heaven decided he wanted to send his son to redeem. He laid down the ultimate price that he might obtain you. We understand that if it were just one, he would have done it. But God has raised up a company of people. And what the scripture tells us here is that we need to remember that all these things happened to the people with Moses as examples and were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the world are come. Hebrews 4:1 says, Therefore. A promise remains of entering into his rest. Let us fear. If you want to fear anything, fear this. Lest any of you should seem to come short of it. So what I'm saying here today is: let's not come short of it. Let's understand that we've been given the greatest gift God ever gave anyone on earth. We have the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the blood of Jesus Christ that redeems us from all sin. We are people that God wants to release on the world so that people can say, I want to have what you've got. The greatest witnessing scripture ever is to stand ready always to give an answer for the hope that lies within you. But we have to be convinced that it's really hope. We have to dwell in it, we have to meditate in it, we have to walk in it. We have to realize that we are favored because Jesus has favored us. That God is looking to bless you in such a way that people would be drawn to you. Where you work, where you play, where you are in church here. Everybody comes with a gift from God who's born again. The Holy Spirit doesn't give bad gifts, but he gives severally as he wills. And can I just give you another little add on to that? If you're faithful in the little, you'll get more. We have to understand the value of what we've been given. After we've been saved for a while, we hang around with saved people. Sometimes we lose track that we're any different from anybody else. But there's one thing that makes us special, and that is the spirit of the living God in you that draws all men to Christ. And we don't want it to be camouflaged. We want it to live. We want it to breathe. We want it to express. We want it to perform. And God wants to do through you exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond all you can ask or think. You need to get your asker and your expector warmed up. There God wants to give you more than you're asking for. That's a word for somebody. You're doing a lot of complaining to him. But you need to do some asking. And follow that with some receiving. And follow that with some giving. This is this is a this is a boldness kind of scenario. Once the Lord begins to move in you this way, you begin to believe some things can really happen in life. You begin to participate in advance. If you're in financial trouble today, let me tell you, more prayer about needing, needing, needing, needing, needing is not going to get there. You need to use what you have already and invest it in the kingdom. What does the Lord say? Prove me. Come on, prove me. Prove me. See if I will not pour out a blessing on you. But God always takes what is and creates from it. He doesn't create it out of thin air. Now I've gone to meddling, I know already. But I also know this, that you unlock the kingdom of God when you invest what you have. Give him your voice. Give him your heart. Give him of your substance. Give him of your time. All of these things come back to you pressed down, shaken together, and running over. You know, from these references alone, we have to conclude that the journey to the promised land is the journey that each one of us are undertaking, whether we know it or not. I'm here today to try and make sure you know it. I can't speak for you, but I don't want to fail to reach the destination that the Lord has in mind for me. As I look back over my life, I I I I sometimes it makes me shudder. The major things that the Lord has done through me, with me, for me, have all started with the word. Do this. And sometimes it seems so outrageous because I was not talented enough to do that. I didn't have the gifting to do that. But the Lord said to do it, and I did it. And from that, it just opened up doors and and opportunities and giftings that I'd never had before. And I'm just here to tell you, it is the most exciting thing in the world to me at this point. When I sense the Lord speaking to do this. Just that obedience to go ahead and do that, he won't ask you to do what he will not equip you to do. And when you walk into that situation, you begin to walk into a kingdom of God scenario where all the assets of the kingdom of God are available to accomplish the thing whereinto he sent you. And it opens door after door after door after door, in you and for you. I I look back and sometimes what I heard the Lord say, I thought that that can't be real. That that can't be God. What? Life has never been the same. I'm telling you, there's there's just so much that God wants to share with people that are bold enough to take a foolish step. Just one. If you do what you can do, then he is free to do what he can do. And he wants to do so desperately. You know, the thing we all fight. And there's a whole body of information and scripture dealing with these amazing kind of things. But the thing we all fight are the voices. You know, let me just say first of all, rescuing us from slavery. Like he did with the the the ⁓ Israelites in Egypt, is not the ultimate goal God has in mind. Your salvation is not the ultimate goal. It's the first step toward the ultimate goal. Are you breathing? Okay. It's not the ultimate goal. God has in mind something else, in addition. But it is the essential starting point on the journey toward our destiny. Deuteronomy 6.23 states it completely plainly. He says, He brought us out from there that he might bring us in to give us the land he swore to our fathers. So you have to understand, he brought us out so that he could bring us in. There's a whole lot to that. You know, number two thing I want you to realize is along the way, you're going to encounter some well-entrenched enemies who will resist the plans God has for you. That's not much of a news flash, I'm pretty sure. But you're gonna find as you start moving toward God, you will have some pushback. There'll be some friends that don't wanna hang out with you anymore. There'll be some relatives that who do you think you are? There'll be all kinds of things that can happen, and we need to understand how to behave to keep those things from being ridiculous. But nevertheless, there are some inhabitants of the land where God is leading you, and it's pretty interesting. There are seven of them that were mentioned there in the scriptures. The first were the Hittites. The Hittites literally mean, when you translate it, terrorizers. Means to prostrate or break down by violence, to beat down, to discourage, to cause confusion or fear or dismay, sh scatter, broken, panic, crack, and annoyance. Anybody have a neighbor like that? The Gergeshites, the next group, literally means to stir up trouble. I've had ⁓ numbers of church people that were Gergeshites. I've worked with people that were Gergeshites. But we have to understand that they're there to push us back. They're there to call us to be, you know, to be afraid, even though no longer were we under their control. The Amorites In the land where God was sending them, these seven tribes were there, prominent ones, Amorites. It means to challenge with words, murmurers, talkers, slayers, Canaanites, trappers. These people bring low with words to humiliate as in depression. They're traffickers, the parasites. Lack of commitment. Lack of commitment, squatters. Big trend out west. We see in a lot of places where people are just moving into people's homes while they're gone. And the legal system won't push them out. Can you imagine the frustration of that? There are people in in the life that that will dominate you and try and try and through these kinds of means take your resources and so forth and so on. Hivites, declarers. Talkers, pronouncers, serpents, compromisers, and Jebusites. They trample down, they loathe, they subjugate, they ruin, they cause downfall, heaviness, discouragement. They trample underfoot and they pollute. Where you're going, in the land of promise, these people have set up camp. They've been there for generations. According to what the Lord is saying, they are now tilling your farms. They are now raising the cattle. They are planting the crops that I'm going to give you. Understand this, they're caretakers in areas where God wants you to be owners. They're not going to be happy about turning their goods over to you. The Lord has a plan for dealing with them. And it's kind of interesting. He also said something interesting that basically there's seven nations mightier than you. Should be noted for a fact that the Israelites as a fighting force were essentially outclassed by their enemies in significant ways. However, with the favor and the power of God leading them into battle with the enemy, they had zero options to hinder God's agenda. Their only real strategy was and is to demoralize and intimidate their victims into inaction and compromise. The truth was then and is today. That anyone who is willing to follow these procedures in spite of the attacks will be able to inherit territory the Lord has allocated to them. That's a promise. Number four, we should realize that our enemies currently occupy territory that the Lord has targeted for kingdom occupation. And he's given rules of engagement to eradicate the practices and the culture that have existed to replace them. To replace with one designed to further the culture of the holy and the set apart people. Now I know that sounds domineering, but God always wants to replace broken systems, demonic strongholds with the people of God. He wants to replace them in your life. He wants to replace them in the life of a church, in the life of a business, certainly in the life of a family, an extended family. God has plans to restore. God has plans to bring wholeness. He has plans to bring peace. And he gives us rules of engagement to deal with it on our part. The number one thing is He said, conquer and totally destroy. Make no covenants with. Give no mercy to. Don't marry them. And finally, destroy their altars, their pillars, their images. What I think you you need to see there is the culture. One of the things that alarms me, to be quite frank, in the culture of the church today, Big C, Church of the World. It's become more an entertainment culture. Then a holiness culture. It's become a place where we have adopted the principles of the world many times to build larger organizations. It's been more about gathering money, gathering fame than it has been making disciples. That hasn't always been the case. But today we have so much media, so much so much information flowing out there that we think it's normal. Let me just tell you, when what you think is normal conflicts with the scriptures, it's not normal. It's nominal. Now we need to be very, very careful. Go he said, I am the Lord, I change not. He he does he's not adapting to the world around us. He stands in sharp opposition to the culture that's broken. And the people of God need to be on the same side that he is. If we're ever going to achieve the things God wants us to achieve and become the things God wants us to become, to literally follow him into the promise, we need to make sure that his rules are our rules. It it's imperative that we do so. Otherwise we'll be judged along with the world. It's been pointed out by many Bible scholars and historians that the journey from the Red Sea to the Promised Land should have been completed somewhere, get this, between eleven days and a month. Took ⁓ forty years. In other words, if we're walking with God the way he wants us to go, there's gonna be a quick trip. We're gonna make some progress in a hurry. If we constantly are dragging behind and questioning and saying, well, I don't agree. And you know, it may be a while. You may have some pretty rough experiences along the way. But it was only like 200 miles. They could have walked there and easily. There was 2.3 million people or so in this group. God's audacious. Can you imagine calling a group of 2.3 million people that have never done anything in their life except be a slave to walk across a desert where there's no water, where there's no food, and where there's a ton of enemies. But God's audacious. He thinks he can do it. And he brought them out. And they walked in the desert. They brought their children. They brought their animals. This was a massive group of people. We heard about they were baptized into Moses in the sea. They came through that like a salvation experience. No longer a slave when you go through that. Now they're on the other side. Now they're getting ready to be baptized with Moses in the cloud. The cloud, what's the cloud? It's a picture of the Holy Spirit for one thing. But in their particular instance, it was a cloud that covered them because they're in the desert for crying out loud. It's hot, it's dry, it's inhospitable. And the cloud did two things: it covered them, comforted them, and led them. When they saw the cloud come up in the morning and moved, they said, Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered. And they moved until the cloud settled down. But before they moved, they went out into the desert and they found some stuff that looked like whorefrost is what they call it. It was like flakes on the ground. And it tasted like honey and wafers. They looked at one another and said, manna, which means what is it? But God fed him for forty years. Forty years. Out of thin air. Yeah, when God says go, there's manna. You may look at it and say, What is it? It's it's your sustenance. This is me getting you through this chapter to another chapter. There's a way when there don't seem to be a way. Bad English, but it's true. Whenever God calls you, there's always a way where you see it or not. But that's why it takes faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. I'm challenging some borders that some of you have today. I I would bet you, no way to prove it, but I will bet you that some of you have been feeling challenged of the Lord to do something radical. To you, radical. To him it looks like obedience. And you're afraid to do it because how will that work out? Manna? Cloud. You don't know I don't know where to go, I don't know where to go. The cloud knows where to go. And I'm not talking about the one use on your computer. I'm talking about the one that we're following. God has the means to communicate with you regardless of your intellectual capacity. Yes, He does. He can funnel you through circumstances. He can funnel you and lead you through heart desires that are new and powerful and compelling. He can lead you by confirmation with other people. This isn't a solitary journey. We're traveling together. When your leaders come to say we feel God leading in this direction, don't always have a question mark on your head. Say, okay, let's let's walk it out. Let's let's see. It's amazing what happens when we walk together in unity. We're gonna stumble sometimes, we're gonna mess up sometimes, but that too is a learning process. But I would rather fall forward than fall backwards. I can ask the Lord to forgive me by being too aggressive for him. I I think he's excited about that. You know, I when we taught our kids to ride bikes, if if they fell, that was to be expected. But what we didn't know is will they get back up and try it again? And it's encouraging as a parent to see you have one of those kind. Rather than the kind that are dictated to by their fears. That's right. And their sense of failure. You'll always be a failure. You know. We deal with people like that all the time. There's a there's an amazing opportunity we have, and I can't I can't spell it out for you, but I know this that God is always leading. He said, we walk in the spirit, we'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I want to be baptized in the cloud. It starts with being baptized in the Holy Spirit. So my spirit and his spirit are more on the same page. So I sense what he's trying to say, what he's doing, where he's going. I read the Bible and it comes alive to me because it was breathed by the Spirit. And now that selfsame spirit is living in me, and the interpretational capacity goes through the roof. You pray in the spirit, you pray the will of God. You know, i this is a win win deal for us. Don't be afraid of the things of the spirit. They're imperative, they're crucial. They're initiating. I want to be initiated into the world of the kingdom of God. I want to think what he's thinking. I want to say what he's saying. I want to be what he wants me to be. And I know you do too. Lots of places you could be this morning. And I'm not here to discourage you today. I am here to encourage you that there's more in God than we have yet found. He's doing amazing things in the earth. But there is a dividing coming. We're calling good evil and good and evil good now. I think I read about that somewhere. So many signs of the times that have come together in ways lately that ⁓ I never thought I'd see. Well I've been preachifying this morning and I haven't covered hardly any of my notes. You know? You know, you begin to as you get the age I am, which I'm just over forty. You begin to look back on moments that were critical. In my case, I was never gonna be a minister at all. Couldn't get in front of people, couldn't speak, couldn't couldn't bear the thought of doing it. And you know some of that residue is still there. I don't ever feel very good at it. But every time the Lord calls me to do something I've learned, just go and do it. And that process has worked over the years in some amazing, amazing ways. I I just sense the heart of God today drawing you out of the cocoon you've let be built around you. Every caterpillar starts that way. Soon there's a day when he breaks out, unfurls these things that were cramping his style, gets them aired out a little bit, and pretty soon he's floating above his environment rather than crawling over and around it. The Spirit of God will take you from where you are to where you could never go. There's only one way to get there, his way. There's only one means to make it happen, and that's by his spirit. And you have to give in to it. That caterpillar could lie on the ground and refuse to crawl into a cocoon. And he would die there. By a bird or just by being spiraling in the season. I'm just telling you, there's a lot of people that have crossed the Red Sea. and bought a condo. that moved in, feet up on the T on the T V stand, watching life go by. He brought them out that he might bring them in. He didn't just bring them out so they could sit down and rest. Why don't you stand? You know, as I was praying and preparing to come and be with you today. I just kept feeling over and over again, there's there's something. There's something that God is trying to do in lots and lots of his people right now. Life changing things. Things that you'll y you'll look back and say, I'm so glad I didn't miss that. I I invite you today, in this quiet moment right now, to just bow your head. Ask the Lord. Ask the Lord right now that He would show you His will. In little things and big. There are no really small things, but they seem smaller to us. But obediences to what the Lord is bringing up are key to progress. He knows it all. He knows where you are, and He knows where you He wants you to be. Just identify some things, if you would. Things that have been on your mind, things that have been bothering you, things that been drawing you. Submit them back to Him right now. Say, Lord, you see me. You know me completely. This morning, Lord, I open my heart once again for clarity. Let me know. It's whatever way you can, let me know. What you'd like for me to do. And then once it settles into your heart, make sure as a priority you go do that. Take a step. Take a step. It may require many steps, but take a step in that direction. Let the cloud lead you. Let him sustain you. Let him comfort you. Lord Jesus, I pray for my friends right now that you'd open the eyes of their understanding and show them what is the hope of your calling. God, give them a hunger and a thirst after it. Strengthen their hands for the war with the seven tribes. Because there is a land, there is a place that you are leading them to. A place that they can bear fruit. A place that they can be rewarded for that. God, I thank you today that your plans are good, they're powerful, they're not beyond us. They're for us. I bless these wonderful people today. I thank you for this opportunity we have with you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. And amen. God bless you guys. Have an awesome week.

Hebrews 4:1