No Weapon

0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:07.840 Are you ready for this Elevation Nights twenty twenty two 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:13.720 Spring Tour. It's on the way. Come on, give God praise, 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:22.280 whoo shout. If you know somebody within one hundred miles 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:30.440 of these cities, the ones I'm about to name, we're 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:34.559 gonna be starting this tour on April twenty sixth, go 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:41.680 to Elevation Nights dot com and find out if tickets 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:45.879 are available in your area. It's gonna be powerful. I 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:49.519 know because we did it last year. So last year 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:51.519 when I announced it, I said it's gonna be powerful, 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.680 and I was just saying that by faith. But this 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.280 year I know by experience, because we did it. I'm 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:00.440 gonna be preaching. The team is going to be there. 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:15.120 We're gonna be in Chicago, Illinois, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Indianapolis, Columbus, Ohio, DC, Reading, Pennsylvania, Newark, 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:23.520 New Jersey, and Boston. So do me a favor. If 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:27.200 you know somebody around there, send them a lane. Elevation 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:31.200 Knights tell them, tell them you gotta do. If you 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:35.479 have to sell some shoes to get a ticket, if 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:38.800 you have to make some beds to get a ticket, whatever, 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.080 moss some lawns It'll be worth it because God is 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:45.720 gonna do an amazing thing Elevation Nights dot com that 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:49.480 starts April twenty six That's my little brother's birthday, so 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:51.640 I'm gonna fly him out. I haven't told him this yet, 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:54.200 but he watches his service every week he's in. He's 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:56.920 stationed in the Air Force in New Jersey. So I'm 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.520 gonna fly him out to New Jersey, where he already lives, 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.640 and get him a ticket to that show. You're welcome, 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:05.800 Happy birthday, I got you. I'm gonna get you a 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:08.880 backstage pass. You're gonna get to meet the pastor. I 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:14.520 want that be awesome. Oh man, well, we don't have 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.160 to wait till April twenty sixth. There is a word 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:21.080 from the Lord. The presence of God has been powerful 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:27.920 already today, and I heard from God what I'm going 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.840 to share with you, and he confirmed it through multiple sources. 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:37.040 So this is going to be absolutely life changing. In 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:42.920 Fee Samuel, chapter thirteen, it has been a while since 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:48.960 I've preached a good old Testament battle story. I haven't 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:53.960 even preached one yet this year. So what better Sunday 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:58.080 to preach about killing and slaughter than Valentine's Day weekend. 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:06.000 But I did wear a red That's good. That's good. 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:13.120 You ready for Samuel thirteen. I'm going to read a 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:21.640 long scripture. Okay, all right? For Samuel thirteen sixteen, Saul 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:24.760 and his son Jonathan and the men with them were 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:29.440 staying in Gibeah in Benjamin, while the Philistines camped at mcmash. 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:34.800 Raiding parties went out from the Philistine camp in three detachments. 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:39.520 One turned toward Oprah in the vicinity of Shul, another 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:43.840 toward Bethelron, and the third toward the borderland, overlooking the 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:49.920 valley of Zaboyem facing the wilderness. Not a blacksmith could 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.040 be found in the whole land of Israel, because the 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:58.240 Philistines had said otherwise, the Hebrews will make swords or spears. 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:02.080 So all is went down to the Philistines to have 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:07.480 their plowpoints, mattocks, axes, and sickles sharpen. The price was 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:12.480 two thirds of a shekel for sharpening plow points and maddox, 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:16.240 and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.200 axes for repointing goats. Now this is a ripoff because 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:22.080 we don't measure in shekels. But this is entirely too 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:29.400 much to pay to get your goats sharpened. So verse 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:33.960 twenty two. On the day of the battle, not a 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:39.200 soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:44.599 in his hand. Only Saul and his son Jonathan had them. 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.240 So on the day of battle, this is bad. This 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:53.520 is bad to be in a day of battle and 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:58.359 to not have a sword or a spear. On the 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:01.200 day of the battle, not a soldier with Saul and 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:05.680 Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand. Only 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:10.480 Saul and his son Jonathan had them. I want to 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:15.279 ap preach to you today from the subject no weapon, 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:24.479 no weapon. Somebody shout no weapon. In Jesus' name, you 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:31.479 may be seated no weapon. You know, usually when we 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:38.680 shout that no weapons exciting and it's a promise from 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:43.159 God that no weapon formed against you will prosper. But 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:45.359 maybe you heard it different in the context where I 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:48.880 just talked about how on the day of the battle, 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:54.680 not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword 0:05:54.760 --> 0:06:01.240 or spear in his hand. No weapon. This message is 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:07.520 for somebody who is in a war without the weapons 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:12.720 that you need for that war. I have no idea 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:15.240 what area of your life this will apply to. My 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:19.680 first thought goes to financial, My second thought goes to relational. 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:26.880 My third thought goes to emotional. Okay, I think I 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:31.920 covered everybody in those three when I said you're in 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:37.280 a war, but you don't have the weapons. And if 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.200 that has been you lately, and you have been thinking 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:47.360 things along the lines of what the am I supposed 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:53.640 to do right now? Things that you have been thinking 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.800 about lately, then this word is for you because you're 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:02.000 in a war that you don't have have the weapons for. 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:05.280 And the question I want to work with a little 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:10.480 bit today is where are your weapons? Where are your weapons? 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.000 Every once in a while, I like to revisit a 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:18.440 passage that was a part of my past, drag it 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:21.440 into my present, and see if God has given me 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:25.800 any perspective in the space between. The funny thing about 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:29.160 this passage is it's a story I've been preaching since 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:33.520 I was sixteen years old. I outlined First Samuel fourteen. 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:36.760 I know I read to you from thirteen, but I 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:41.320 preached from First Samuel fourteen for the first time when 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:44.120 I was sixteen. What brought it back to my mind 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:48.280 was that we celebrated our church as sixteenth anniversary last weekend. 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:53.840 Not only that, my oldest child is sixteen years old. 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.000 So now I got a kid that's at the stage 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.280 of life that I was at the first time I 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.160 preached this. The first time I preached it, it had 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:10.400 twelve points when I preached for it. The first time, 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:15.480 I set all twelve points and didn't make one. Now 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.040 I miss the whole thing that I can see now 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.920 some things that God wasn't able to show me at 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:24.560 the time because I wasn't ready to see it. Now, 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.240 having a son at sixteen years old that is smarter 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:34.120 than I am, more talented than I am, taller than 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:38.320 I am. See, I'm not changing out any of the 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:40.480 pictures of my family in my house from this point 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:43.280 forward because I wanted all to be right at that 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:45.920 last time that he came up to my nose, just 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:49.400 so he doesn't never think he can beat me. I 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:53.640 got to keep that mental edge, that psychological advantage. But 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:57.360 the passage that I read, do you mention as a 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:01.000 father and a son you might reckon nice to name Saul. 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.680 He was the first king that Israel ever had. He 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:07.080 was the first king that Israel had and God didn't 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.000 want them to have him, but they just had to 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:13.280 have one. Like that car you're making payments on for 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:18.520 the next seventy six years, you just had to have one. 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:20.560 I'm not going to go to the person that you 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:26.559 are sitting next to. You just had to have them. 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:33.200 Valentine's Day. But when we look at the text as 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:37.120 a father and son is really powerful because you have Saul, 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:41.960 who was the first king, Jonathan his son, who is 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.040 supposed to be king next from a human perspective, but 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:48.439 can't be king because God has chosen David and rejected Saul. 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.199 And it provides a contrast which has been eye opening 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:55.720 for me to study this week. It's been eye opening 0:09:55.760 --> 0:10:01.880 for me to study for a couple reasons. One the 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:04.960 other day, I was saying something to one of my kids, 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.600 and the Spirit of the Lord told me, nicely, shut up, 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:14.200 said it nicer than that. But the way I'm saying 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:17.720 it to you is shut up. What I was doing 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:20.800 in the middle of telling my son something was I 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:28.600 was visiting my insecurity on them and making it a 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:33.920 limitation that did not apply for their life. I was 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.920 kind of having one of those moments where I thought 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:40.040 I was telling them the way things are. But what 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.120 I realized in the middle of saying it is that 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.880 is the way things were for you. That does not 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:49.839 have to be the way it is for them. And 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:55.160 the Spirit of the Lord said, shut up. Don't say that. 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.800 Don't speak that over them. Go scream it in your pillow, 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:04.400 go tell it to a counselor go write it down 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:09.280 and scratch it out. But for God's sake, don't put 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:15.800 your stuff on them. Don't weigh them down with your 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:19.920 own unmet expectations of life so that they have to 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:24.559 carry with them your resentment about things you didn't experience, 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:27.560 but maybe I want them to. And the Spirit of 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:35.080 the Lord said, shut up, shut up. In First Samuel thirteen, 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:39.200 the Bible says there was no weapon in the hands 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:43.920 of God's people. What a horrible place to be to 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.800 have an enemy attacking you, not just from one side, 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.840 not just from both sides. But the Bible says there 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:54.280 were three detachments that had gone out from the Philistines. 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:58.440 You recognize the name Philistine from the famous Philistines in 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.960 the Bible. Goliath, but he hasn't showed up yet. He's 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:05.760 in One Samuel seventeen, and he gets killed by David 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:08.800 with a little tiny stone that he didn't think could 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:11.360 do anything to him. But he found out that when 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.920 God gets behind something, it has enough momentum to kill 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:22.640 any enemy, regardless of scale, size or strength. Phil like preaching. 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:26.040 Can I preach? Can I preach? Deliath hasn't showed up yet, 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:32.320 but he's a Philistine. Also, you might remember Delilah, Remember 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:38.560 Delilah Shah the haircut just for us, just for us, 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:45.680 and uh. But yet there were Philistines all over the 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:49.079 place in this passage, one in Orpha, one in Bethon, 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:51.199 and one in that other place. I can't remember the 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:52.720 name of it, but starts with a Z, and I 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:54.800 practice pronouncing it, but I can't remember it right now. 0:12:55.080 --> 0:13:02.000 And they're coming from everywhere against the Israelites. They're actually 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:06.400 so strategically occupied in the land of Canaan that they 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:10.880 have blocked off the passages by which the Israelites can 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:16.360 move about. They've blocked off the passages in opposition to 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:19.160 Israel's possession of the land. So when God moved his 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.320 people into the Promised Land, he didn't guarantee that none 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:26.560 of their enemies would live there too. The relevance of 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.400 this for us is God does not promise that He's 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:34.120 just going to give us everything automatically. God never promised 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:36.360 you for one moment that you wouldn't have to fight 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:40.240 for joy through the feelings of despair. God never promised 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:42.400 you for one moment that you wouldn't have to fight 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:45.880 for an optimistic perspective in the face of a negative 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:49.600 default setting. God never promised you for one moment that 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.320 you would not have to fight for influence in the 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:54.200 face of things that make you feel like who am 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:57.240 I to speak anything? Who am I to be anything? 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:01.840 Who am I to do anything? God never promise that. 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:07.760 He only said that it's possible. Shout is possible, but 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.359 the fact that it's possible doesn't mean that it's automatic. 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:16.640 Possible is not automatic. If I had never invited her 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.160 to be on my summer Impact team, she would have 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:21.760 never fallen in love with me on the bus. And 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:23.960 if she never fell in love with me on the bus, 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:26.400 we never would have walked down the aisle. And if 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:28.800 we never walked down the aisle, she could not have 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:40.560 experienced the gift of the goodness. So what I'm trying 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:43.520 to say to you is there are some things that 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.400 God has given you, but you still have to go 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:55.640 for them. Go for it, Go for it, go for it. 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.240 If God was something in your heart, you will have 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:02.440 to go for it. But but but I've got God's grace. 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:06.440 You've got God's grace to empower you to go for 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:10.880 what He's given you. That's what the grace is for. 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.240 I got my coffee this morning. I'm ready. I'm ready, 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:21.520 I'm ready. And yet, with the passage of time, I've 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:24.400 come to see this passage a little differently than I 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:29.920 did when I was sixteen. Okay, because when I was sixteen, 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:35.760 I felt like Jonathan. But twenty five years later, that's 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:41.080 a quarter of a century. I saw myself as Saul 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:46.400 this week, and I want to read you both, and 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:48.520 I want to see which one you've been acting more likelyately, 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.040 and then we'll talk about that, and then the Holy 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:54.360 Spirit will show you what he needs to show you, 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:56.960 and I'll be out of your way and I won't 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:02.840 bother you anymore for at least seven days. But first, 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:11.720 Samuel fourteen says something so interesting that one day, one day, Jonathan, 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:16.720 son of Saul, said to his young armor Beard, come 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:20.800 let's go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side, 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:24.120 but he didn't tell his father. Saul was staying on 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:27.120 the outskirts of Gibea. That's where he was from. It's 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:30.560 from the tribe of Benjamin. He never asked to be king. 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:34.880 All indications are he never fully accepted his role as king. 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:40.760 All indications are his insecurity kept him from embracing his 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:45.120 God given destiny. And this is the guy that I 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.120 felt like this week, all right, And I'm once you 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:54.600 contrasted to because it's a very powerful picture. Here Saul 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:58.040 was staying on the outskirts of giving him under a 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:03.120 pomegranate tree. In with him were about six hundred men, 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:06.639 among whom was a Hija who was wearing an ephot. 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.360 He was a son of Ichabod's brother, a high top, 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.040 son of Phineas, the son of Eli, the lord's priest 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:19.000 in Shiloh. No one was aware that Jonathan had left. 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:22.240 On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.720 cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff. One 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:30.400 was called Bozaz, the slippery one, and the other Sinna 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:35.240 the thorny one. One cliff stood to the north toward Mickmash, 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:40.240 the other to the south. Toward Geba Verse six has 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:44.720 been a source of many sermons for this preacher. Jonathan 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:47.840 said to his young armor bearer, come, let's go over 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:51.680 to the outpost of those uncircumcised men. The first time 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:55.040 he talked about him, he called them politely, the Philistines. 0:17:55.480 --> 0:18:00.119 Now he's talking trash, those uncircumcised enemies of the Living God. 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:04.840 They don't have a covenant we do. Let's go. They 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:08.520 don't have the God of Heaven fighting for them. We do. 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:15.480 Let's go. Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:20.280 Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.480 or by few. Do all that you have in mind. 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.800 As armor bearer said, go ahead, I am with you, 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:31.639 heart and soul. Jonathan said, come on there. I like 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:33.760 it when you tell me to do whatever I have 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:37.080 in my mind because it makes me feel less crazy. 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:43.720 Let's go over together, cross over toward them, and let 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.840 them see us. If they say to us, wait there 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:48.640 till we come up to you, we will stay where 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:50.800 we are and go up to them. But if they 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.080 say come up to us. If they say come up 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:58.679 to us, we will climb up, because that will be 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:01.879 our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands. 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:08.200 So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outposts. Look, 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.320 said the Philistines. The Hebrews are crawling out of the 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:15.679 holes they were hiding in. The men of the outposts 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:18.760 shouted to Jonathan and his armor bearer, come up to 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:22.520 us and we'll teach you a lesson. They need some 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:27.840 trash talking tips. This is very PG. So Jonathan said 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:31.520 to his armor bearer, climb up after me. The Lord 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:38.280 has given them, we'll give, has given them, is gonna give, 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:42.720 has given them into the hand of Israel. How do 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:46.600 you know because they threatened us. How do you know 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:51.359 because they insulted us. So the insult I'm just showing 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:55.359 you this from the Philistines is a sign to Jonathan 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:59.680 and an invitation for what God can do the impossible. 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:08.080 Just giving you some context. Jonathan climbed up using his 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:12.840 hands and feet, with his armor bearer right behind him. 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:17.320 The Philistines fell before Jonathan and his armor bearer followed 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:22.520 and killed behind him. In that first attack, Jonathan and 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:27.199 his armor bearer killed some twenty men in an area 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:33.720 of about half an acre. So that's Jonathan. He moves 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:40.560 toward the Philistines with one weapon, and let's hear it 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:47.919 for the armor bearer, he had no weapon. That's the 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:50.119 one to me in the passage who ought to be celebrated, 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:56.080 the one who had to climb behind this young man. 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:58.400 A friend of mine asked me. I told him, I'm 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:00.760 preaching on Jonathan and first Samuel forty this week, how 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:02.919 he went over to the Philistines and said, perhaps the 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:04.639 Lord will act, and how he stepped out and he 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:06.320 wasn't really sure, but he had to leave that in 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:07.800 God's hands and do what he could do. And I'm 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:09.440 appreach to people and tell them you're in a situation 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:10.879 where you're not really sure right now, and you have 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:12.560 to go through a slippery, thorny place and you have 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:14.199 to go up and you have to expose yourself, and 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:15.719 you have to be willing to be seen, and you 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:17.040 have to be willing to try something, and you have 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:18.200 to be wanting to make a move and can't just 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:19.680 sit around waiting for it. And I'm gonna talk about 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:20.760 how he made a move in that direction and God 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:22.120 gave him a miracle, but got to give a miracle 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:23.920 for me. I'm going off on my friend. And then 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:26.639 my friend said, what do you think made Jonathan able? 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:32.480 To do that, and the Lord gave me on the 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:36.560 spot and alliterated outline. What made this young man able 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:42.920 to do that? One was development. He wasn't twenty five yet, 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:50.840 and your prefrontal cortex doesn't fully develop until you're twenty five. 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:56.840 And so the first thing that Jonathan had going for 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:04.080 him was that he was dumb. He was dumb enough 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:09.040 to do something based on the assumption that God can 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.760 do anything. He felt happy when I said it. He 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:17.000 was dumb enough to do something based on the assumption 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:20.639 that God could do anything. And so everybody over twenty 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:27.000 five makes some noise because your prefrontal cortex is to 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:32.960 developed for you to step out on a perhaps because 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:37.119 your primary question is what if it doesn't work? And 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:41.359 Jonathan is like, what if it does? What if God 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:44.800 does say yes? What if God does deliver? What if 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:48.480 we do get a victory? What if something amazing does happen? 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:52.159 What if this is the time? What if this does work? 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:00.520 The second thing that Jonathan had going for him, in 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:08.000 my mind was psychological term detachment. To me, is interesting 0:23:08.200 --> 0:23:11.800 that the text says three detachments of Philistines. That's the enemy. 0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:14.680 So they go out in detachments because there's thousands of them, 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:17.920 but they go out separately. Detachments, detachments to the Bible 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:22.000 calls them. Well. Jonathan had a sense of detachment as well. 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:24.439 The major world religions all co op this term, but 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:26.680 I'm using it in the Christian sense because I am one. 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:29.560 And so there's a sense in which Jonathan had to 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:36.720 detach from the outcome and move forward by faith. How 0:23:36.720 --> 0:23:39.879 do you climb up to the enemy, how do you 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:42.720 climb out of insecurity? How do you climb past what 0:23:42.880 --> 0:23:46.720 other thing? Other people told you? What impossible? One step 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:52.480 at a time. And Jonathan understands, you know, I know 0:23:52.600 --> 0:23:59.040 God can, and I think he might. Let's go. That 0:23:59.200 --> 0:24:03.800 is some ad advanced level detachment to go all right, 0:24:03.840 --> 0:24:05.200 this one. I'm gonna do this one. We're gonna do 0:24:05.280 --> 0:24:07.160 and go up. I'm gonna show ourselves. If they say 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:10.040 we're coming down to you, we're not going up. If 0:24:10.040 --> 0:24:11.680 they say come up to us, we'll go up and 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:12.920 God to give us the victory and that'll be the 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:17.199 sign that He's given into our hands. But there is 0:24:17.240 --> 0:24:20.080 a part of this that has to be left in 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:26.000 God's hands. Detachment. But the third thing I told my friend, 0:24:26.359 --> 0:24:32.480 I said it was desperation because they had no weapons, 0:24:33.760 --> 0:24:39.280 and he knew if we stay here under this pomegranate tree, 0:24:39.400 --> 0:24:45.440 we will surely die. They will surely plunder us. Now, 0:24:45.440 --> 0:24:50.960 if we go over there, God might give us the victory. 0:24:51.119 --> 0:24:56.320 So I'm gonna move toward the might. Now, who is 0:24:56.359 --> 0:25:00.960 this for? You need to move toward the possibility of victory. 0:25:03.400 --> 0:25:05.840 And a lot of times we can't do this because 0:25:06.240 --> 0:25:10.440 while Jonathan is moving toward Philistine's enemies battles challenges. While 0:25:10.600 --> 0:25:15.000 while Jonathan is moving toward that, remember where his father was. 0:25:17.640 --> 0:25:22.040 While Jonathan is moving toward Philistine's Saul is sitting under pomegranates. 0:25:24.520 --> 0:25:27.720 I don't know if this will make sense, but I 0:25:27.760 --> 0:25:36.240 want to ask you pomegranates or Philistines. You're like, what's 0:25:36.280 --> 0:25:41.800 so wrong with pomegranates, Preacher, You've got against pomegranates. Pomegranate 0:25:41.880 --> 0:25:44.199 is a perfectly acceptable fruit, and there's nothing wrong with 0:25:44.240 --> 0:25:47.480 sitting under the tree. I agree with you. In fact, 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:50.200 I so agree with you that I want to show 0:25:50.200 --> 0:25:53.280 you a Bible verse about pomegranates. All right, So let 0:25:53.320 --> 0:25:55.800 me sit there thinking I'm hating on pomegranates. I got 0:25:55.800 --> 0:25:58.879 prejudice toward pomegranates. I love pomegranates as much as the 0:25:58.920 --> 0:26:03.600 next guy. They're messy, but I like them so much 0:26:03.680 --> 0:26:06.119 so that when the spies. Do you remember when the 0:26:06.160 --> 0:26:09.520 spies first went into the Promised Land and Moses told 0:26:09.600 --> 0:26:11.440 him bring back some of the fruit of the Promised Land, 0:26:11.440 --> 0:26:14.720 because they're coming out of Egypt. Remember when they came 0:26:14.760 --> 0:26:17.600 back carrying this pole full of the produce of canaan, 0:26:17.640 --> 0:26:19.679 the fruit of what God was giving them. And do 0:26:19.680 --> 0:26:21.719 you remember it said they brought back a cluster of 0:26:21.760 --> 0:26:24.920 grapes that they had to carry between two of them 0:26:24.920 --> 0:26:27.640 because the cluster of grapes was so big. But watch 0:26:27.680 --> 0:26:31.000 what else was on that pole? In numbers, chapter thirteen, 0:26:32.280 --> 0:26:34.960 Give me numbers thirteen, y'all. They went up through the Negev, 0:26:35.040 --> 0:26:39.280 came to Hebron, where the descendants of Anak lived. Now 0:26:39.320 --> 0:26:42.000 go on to the next first place. The next part 0:26:43.920 --> 0:26:45.720 that gave him the wrong verse? I think I gave 0:26:45.800 --> 0:26:52.399 him the wrong verse. Hold on, that's the one. Yeah. 0:26:52.520 --> 0:26:54.760 When they reached the there it is, when they reached 0:26:54.760 --> 0:26:57.359 the valley of Eshkol, they cut off a branch single 0:26:57.400 --> 0:27:00.560 cluster of grapes to them, carried it between them, two 0:27:00.600 --> 0:27:04.320 of them carried it between them and including on the 0:27:04.320 --> 0:27:10.320 pole with some pomegranates. Really don't see the need in 0:27:10.359 --> 0:27:14.000 pointing out that they were pomegranates. Pomegranates don't grow in Egypt. 0:27:15.200 --> 0:27:19.800 This is new fruit for a new place that God 0:27:19.920 --> 0:27:26.440 is taking them by faith. So when I saw Saul 0:27:26.520 --> 0:27:30.320 sitting under the pomegranate tree, it served as a reminder 0:27:30.440 --> 0:27:34.679 to me that he was sitting under something that God 0:27:35.000 --> 0:27:42.160 gave him. He was sitting under something that represented God's promise. 0:27:42.640 --> 0:27:45.720 Take this the Bible class this week, ask about the pomegranates, 0:27:45.840 --> 0:27:48.880 because the pomegranates are not only a sign of the promise, 0:27:49.320 --> 0:27:51.359 but it's what the priest wore on the edge of 0:27:51.400 --> 0:27:54.920 their ropes. There was a vestiment called an ephid. You 0:27:54.960 --> 0:27:57.560 saw them for Samuel fourteen as well, and the priest 0:27:57.560 --> 0:28:00.720 would wear the ephid with the twelfth stone that represented 0:28:00.720 --> 0:28:03.359 the twelve tribes. And he had urim and thumbium that 0:28:03.440 --> 0:28:05.800 represented the will of God. And all of this is 0:28:05.960 --> 0:28:10.200 under the pomegranate tree with Saul, long after God has 0:28:10.240 --> 0:28:13.400 brought his people into the Promised land. Can I teach 0:28:13.440 --> 0:28:16.080 you this from the Bible for a moment so you 0:28:16.119 --> 0:28:20.240 can get the background to understand what's happening in your life. 0:28:20.640 --> 0:28:24.080 Saul is not sitting in a bad place. He is 0:28:24.200 --> 0:28:29.920 sitting under something that represented the promise of God. On 0:28:29.960 --> 0:28:32.320 the edge of the road that the priest would wear 0:28:32.800 --> 0:28:36.720 was a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, 0:28:37.000 --> 0:28:42.000 alternating ab bell, pomegranate, bell, pomegranate. This pomegranate is no 0:28:42.200 --> 0:28:45.560 accidental fruit. This is not an ordinary fruit. This is 0:28:45.600 --> 0:28:49.200 not a random detail that the writer of First Samuel 0:28:49.280 --> 0:28:52.320 gives to us to let us know. He is sitting 0:28:52.640 --> 0:29:02.360 under the promise of God. And that's a It is 0:29:02.440 --> 0:29:06.240 a problem when you sit under a promise of God, 0:29:06.400 --> 0:29:15.200 when God is calling you to go forward. Now there 0:29:15.200 --> 0:29:19.040 comes situations in your life. All you can do is 0:29:19.080 --> 0:29:22.520 sitting under the promise of God. I can't heal my 0:29:22.560 --> 0:29:25.160 own body. I've just got to hold on to the 0:29:25.600 --> 0:29:28.320 fact that my life and my days are in God's hand, 0:29:29.080 --> 0:29:31.720 and that by his stripes I am healed and he 0:29:31.800 --> 0:29:33.720 can and even if he doesn't, he's gone and he's 0:29:33.720 --> 0:29:39.240 good and he's whip me. But I also have a 0:29:39.320 --> 0:29:45.520 responsibility in other seasons of my life to move toward 0:29:46.720 --> 0:29:52.760 what I'm praying for that's so anointed. What Jonathan said 0:29:52.760 --> 0:29:59.200 to the armor bearer, Let's go toward the Philistines. And 0:29:59.240 --> 0:30:02.840 you are in a sea where God is calling you 0:30:02.880 --> 0:30:10.560 to go toward something. And Saul saulus sitting under something, 0:30:13.440 --> 0:30:18.280 sitting under something with somebody. Did you notice he had 0:30:19.080 --> 0:30:22.560 one of the descendants of Ichabod with him under the tree. 0:30:22.800 --> 0:30:26.240 Ichabod was the one that was named right after the 0:30:26.360 --> 0:30:30.040 Ark was captured by the Philistines, the great grandson of Eli, 0:30:30.120 --> 0:30:32.840 the priest. I know this is a lot of Bible background, y'all, 0:30:33.240 --> 0:30:38.040 but is so significant for you to realize that where 0:30:38.080 --> 0:30:44.640 you sit, who you sit with, and what you believe 0:30:45.000 --> 0:30:49.400 about the will of God is critical to what happens 0:30:49.400 --> 0:30:57.680 next in your life. Of course, Saul was sitting under 0:30:57.680 --> 0:31:02.440 the pomegranate tree. He had just been told by Samuel 0:31:03.240 --> 0:31:05.840 that God was going to take his kingdom away because 0:31:05.840 --> 0:31:11.360 he hadn't waited to offer the sacrifice. He was disappointed. Literally, 0:31:12.040 --> 0:31:14.560 he had been appointed as king and he was going 0:31:14.600 --> 0:31:18.720 to lose what he was. He had been defeated by 0:31:18.760 --> 0:31:24.640 the Philistines in chapter fifteen. And also he didn't have 0:31:25.680 --> 0:31:32.400 the weapons. Yeah, I hear you, Ferdie this all sounds good. 0:31:33.200 --> 0:31:35.120 And if I was a preacher and I knew all 0:31:35.160 --> 0:31:38.600 these Bible verses, and I had a parafink wife lying 0:31:38.640 --> 0:31:40.880 Holly like you're only he's out there talking about how 0:31:40.920 --> 0:31:44.440 great and how perfect she is, maybe this would be 0:31:44.480 --> 0:31:50.600 good for me too. Why didn't the Israelites have any weapons? 0:31:52.240 --> 0:31:56.880 The scripture said that there was not a blacksmith found 0:31:56.880 --> 0:32:00.160 in the land of Israel. The reason there was no 0:32:00.280 --> 0:32:03.320 blacksmith found in the land of Israel is because the 0:32:03.360 --> 0:32:08.920 Philistines knew if we can keep the Israelites from taking 0:32:09.560 --> 0:32:14.000 what they have and shaping it into something that they 0:32:14.000 --> 0:32:19.600 can fight with, they will always be weak. And here's 0:32:19.640 --> 0:32:22.640 what had happened. That puts Saul under the pomegranate tree, 0:32:22.680 --> 0:32:25.400 and that keeps you in states where you don't trust God, 0:32:25.800 --> 0:32:28.320 don't think God wants to hear from you, don't pray, 0:32:28.560 --> 0:32:31.680 don't believe anything can change, just stand there and surrender 0:32:31.720 --> 0:32:38.200 to the way things are and call it faith. Trusting 0:32:38.600 --> 0:32:49.960 God without moving toward is not faith. The importance of 0:32:50.000 --> 0:32:53.880 a blacksmith is something I never saw when I was sixteen, 0:32:53.920 --> 0:32:56.960 but I see it now because I got a sixteen 0:32:57.600 --> 0:32:59.920 and I got a fourteen and I got a ten. 0:33:01.160 --> 0:33:04.760 I got three of these, And I see Philistines all 0:33:04.760 --> 0:33:08.800 around my kids. I see Philistines all around my kids. 0:33:09.160 --> 0:33:10.880 And Graham's gonna roll his eyes when I say this, 0:33:10.920 --> 0:33:13.920 because he hates when I do it. But I see 0:33:13.960 --> 0:33:19.440 social media raising a generation. And what worries me about 0:33:19.480 --> 0:33:22.320 that church? It's not about the technology scene. Yet. Understand, 0:33:22.360 --> 0:33:26.840 the Philistines had the best technology. They had learned how 0:33:26.880 --> 0:33:31.800 to work with iron. The Israelites were still working with bronze. 0:33:32.000 --> 0:33:34.560 So when it says they didn't have weapons, the reason 0:33:34.560 --> 0:33:37.120 they didn't have weapons, am I'm born, y'all. This is 0:33:37.120 --> 0:33:39.960 so deep to me. The reason they didn't have weapons 0:33:40.040 --> 0:33:42.800 the Philistines knew what to do with iron. So every 0:33:42.920 --> 0:33:47.120 time that the Israelites wanted their farming equipment sharpen, they 0:33:47.120 --> 0:33:50.200 had to go to the Philistines, which represents the world, 0:33:50.400 --> 0:33:53.920 who are not God's people, who do not have God's spirit, 0:33:54.160 --> 0:33:57.480 who do not have God's promise. So now watch this, 0:33:58.200 --> 0:34:05.520 they had to go to the world to get their weapons. Now, 0:34:05.720 --> 0:34:09.399 I talk to my kids about everything that is age 0:34:09.440 --> 0:34:13.000 appropriate to talk to them about, which includes as much 0:34:13.040 --> 0:34:18.920 as they hated sex, I talk to my kids about 0:34:18.960 --> 0:34:22.920 sex as much as it's appropriate for the age, and 0:34:23.000 --> 0:34:27.839 they hate it. But if you think I'm gonna let 0:34:27.960 --> 0:34:32.880 TikTok teach my kid, yeah I said it. If you 0:34:33.120 --> 0:34:39.000 think I'm gonna leave my kid without weapons because I'm uncomfortable. 0:34:42.200 --> 0:34:45.120 If you think I'm gonna let somebody jeez happy out 0:34:45.120 --> 0:34:47.920 of twerk and I'm not gonna talk to her about 0:34:47.960 --> 0:34:50.279 what it means to be a woman, get out of 0:34:50.280 --> 0:34:59.960 my face. Crazy. You think I'm gonna send my kid 0:35:00.200 --> 0:35:06.040 into the world to fight the devil without weapons, not 0:35:06.160 --> 0:35:07.880 just sex, not just sex, Let's get off of that. 0:35:07.960 --> 0:35:16.799 I know that's long enough. It's emotions too, because let 0:35:16.840 --> 0:35:19.640 me ask you, how many of you have lost battles 0:35:19.880 --> 0:35:24.280 because you didn't have a blacksmith? And is this not true? 0:35:24.600 --> 0:35:26.600 It's too late when you get into the battle to 0:35:26.600 --> 0:35:32.640 get a blacksmith. What do you mean It's too late 0:35:33.400 --> 0:35:36.680 until you let anger take you over and now your 0:35:36.719 --> 0:35:39.480 little lizard brain is running the show. Now you got 0:35:39.480 --> 0:35:42.520 a little lizard driving your decisions. It's too late at 0:35:42.520 --> 0:35:46.399 that point for you to learn that my emotions don't 0:35:46.440 --> 0:35:48.480 control me if I have the spirit of God insidemen. 0:35:50.760 --> 0:35:54.799 But see as much as you can know that Is 0:35:54.840 --> 0:35:58.680 that a pomegranate tree that you sit under or is 0:35:58.680 --> 0:36:02.680 it an actual process in your life that produces victory. 0:36:03.080 --> 0:36:06.359 Because there's a difference the stuff we can shout over 0:36:07.200 --> 0:36:14.399 versus the stuff we can fight with. It's one thing 0:36:14.440 --> 0:36:19.360 to have farming equipment, it's another thing to have fighting instruments. 0:36:20.480 --> 0:36:25.440 The Israelites had the raw material, they didn't have a blacksmith. 0:36:27.440 --> 0:36:30.239 Have you ever had to go to battle but you 0:36:30.280 --> 0:36:34.040 didn't have a blacksmith? Have any of you in the 0:36:34.120 --> 0:36:36.920 room had to be a dad, but you didn't have 0:36:36.960 --> 0:36:40.279 a dad who showed you along the way how to 0:36:40.320 --> 0:36:43.600 do this. That was my dad's story. I'm in utter amazement. 0:36:43.680 --> 0:36:46.279 What a good job my dad did, considering the blacksmith 0:36:46.320 --> 0:36:51.919 he never had. His dad killed himself. He did good 0:36:51.920 --> 0:36:56.399 to stay alive. And then he told me one time, 0:36:56.400 --> 0:36:58.680 he told me, he said, have you ever run anything 0:36:58.719 --> 0:37:01.040 and you start thinking you have to kill yourself? You 0:37:01.080 --> 0:37:03.200 talk to me, He said, I will drop everything I'm 0:37:03.239 --> 0:37:05.359 doing and I will go. I'll take you fishing. I'm like, Dad, 0:37:05.400 --> 0:37:07.719 I don't like fishing. He's like, whatever the point is, 0:37:07.920 --> 0:37:10.400 I will take you. You do not have to go 0:37:10.480 --> 0:37:13.759 that route. What was that he was trying to be 0:37:13.960 --> 0:37:24.680 the blacksmith that he never had. Oh that's wonderful. You're 0:37:24.719 --> 0:37:27.440 telling me to just go for it. You sound like 0:37:27.600 --> 0:37:30.200 we're a rocky movie, Pastor Steven. I can't put this 0:37:30.239 --> 0:37:33.800 into practice in my life. I know you can't because 0:37:33.840 --> 0:37:37.279 you didn't have a blacksmith. And when you don't have 0:37:37.320 --> 0:37:41.759 a blacksmith showing you here is how you navigate this 0:37:41.880 --> 0:37:46.040 emotional state, or this is how you take a scripture 0:37:46.800 --> 0:37:50.480 and actually live it out, then you'll have plenty of 0:37:50.520 --> 0:37:55.680 pomegranates to sit under, plenty of good sounding things that 0:37:55.719 --> 0:38:03.560 represent on plenty of words, but no weapons. I am 0:38:03.640 --> 0:38:09.120 seeing people go down left and right as a pastor. 0:38:09.160 --> 0:38:13.439 Right now, what else is new? And it wouldn't bother 0:38:13.560 --> 0:38:19.240 me if the devil was stronger than us. I messed 0:38:19.280 --> 0:38:22.239 up and stumbled across a verse that said, greater is 0:38:22.280 --> 0:38:25.319 he that is in you than he that is in 0:38:25.360 --> 0:38:30.560 the world. Or as Jonathan said, nothing can hinder the 0:38:30.600 --> 0:38:35.640 Lord from saving, whether by many or by few. If 0:38:35.719 --> 0:38:44.120 that is true, why are you losing? If that is true, 0:38:44.600 --> 0:38:47.799 why isn't it working? And the Lord spoke to me 0:38:48.760 --> 0:38:53.920 he didn't have a blacksmith. When you don't have a blacksmith. 0:38:53.960 --> 0:38:57.319 You don't have anybody to show you how to take 0:38:57.400 --> 0:39:02.040 the raw material and turn it into something that is 0:39:02.160 --> 0:39:06.040 useful in your life. That's why I want to be 0:39:06.080 --> 0:39:08.960 a better blacksmith than you. Man, So I don't tell you, oh, 0:39:09.000 --> 0:39:11.160 you can't do this and you can't do that. I 0:39:11.200 --> 0:39:14.239 don't want to be Saul. So you sit under the 0:39:14.280 --> 0:39:17.400 pomegranate's with me. Even if I take this to a 0:39:17.480 --> 0:39:22.440 level of Elijah's music. That boy just made an album 0:39:22.840 --> 0:39:26.720 on his computer in his bedroom over the last four months, 0:39:26.880 --> 0:39:35.160 an entire album. I never did that now, but I've 0:39:35.160 --> 0:39:37.920 been a pretty good blacksmith to him along the way. 0:39:38.760 --> 0:39:39.920 Two and a a half years ago. He didn't even know 0:39:39.960 --> 0:39:41.640 what I was doing, but I snuck a recording mic 0:39:41.719 --> 0:39:44.040 in his room at the same time he was saying, 0:39:44.239 --> 0:39:46.640 I don't like my voice. I don't want to sing. 0:39:46.880 --> 0:39:49.759 I don't like my voice. Nobody likes their voice when 0:39:49.760 --> 0:39:52.440 they're thirteen, if they're not justin Bieber. But I'm not 0:39:52.480 --> 0:39:54.439 trying to get you to love your voice right now. 0:39:54.600 --> 0:39:56.799 I'm just trying to put something that you have to 0:39:56.840 --> 0:39:59.080 trip over when you wake up in the morning. So 0:39:59.120 --> 0:40:01.680 every time you see that that might you might step 0:40:01.719 --> 0:40:04.200 on it one day, and you might sing something, and 0:40:04.239 --> 0:40:06.840 then you might sing something else. And I'm not taking 0:40:06.880 --> 0:40:18.520 credit because it's his battle, but I'm his blacksmith. I 0:40:18.560 --> 0:40:22.320 need every dad in here to change your Instagram bio 0:40:22.480 --> 0:40:26.839 to blacksmith, because if you are nothing else, I need 0:40:26.880 --> 0:40:30.360 every pastor watching this sermon to rip something off and 0:40:30.400 --> 0:40:33.120 you can preach it later, to just change your job 0:40:33.160 --> 0:40:36.440 title and put blacksmith at least for the rest of 0:40:36.480 --> 0:40:39.920 twenty twenty two. Because you have got to see yourself 0:40:40.200 --> 0:40:45.080 as someone who has been given the responsibility by God 0:40:47.440 --> 0:40:54.200 to shape and to form. I found myself this week 0:40:55.239 --> 0:40:59.719 feeling sorry for Saul because he didn't have anybody to 0:40:59.719 --> 0:41:02.400 show him how to be a king. He was the 0:41:02.440 --> 0:41:05.680 first one. He had a powerful dad, but he never 0:41:05.680 --> 0:41:10.040 been a king before he didn't have a blacksmith. Then 0:41:10.080 --> 0:41:11.880 when I was feeling sorry for Saul, I was feeling 0:41:11.880 --> 0:41:14.920 sorry for Jonathan because the one who was supposed to 0:41:14.960 --> 0:41:19.080 be his black smith was so broken that he couldn't 0:41:19.080 --> 0:41:22.760 show him how to do it either. Then I started 0:41:22.800 --> 0:41:29.279 wondering about you, and I started wondering, are you in 0:41:29.320 --> 0:41:35.399 a battle without a blacksmith? Are you in a war 0:41:35.440 --> 0:41:39.319 where you didn't have the weapons for it. That was 0:41:39.360 --> 0:41:43.440 the state of Israel, and that was why Saul was 0:41:43.520 --> 0:41:46.920 under the tree, and that was why the children of 0:41:46.960 --> 0:41:49.960 God were running to the world for their weapons. Let 0:41:50.040 --> 0:41:54.759 me bring this into a New Testament context. In Second Corinthians, 0:41:56.000 --> 0:41:59.520 Paul is talking to the church about how we fight, 0:42:00.560 --> 0:42:04.319 not if we fight, everybody has a fighting style, but 0:42:04.440 --> 0:42:09.200 how we fight. He says that, yeah, that though we 0:42:09.320 --> 0:42:13.560 live in the world, we do not wage war as 0:42:13.680 --> 0:42:18.319 the world does. We don't go to the Philistines to 0:42:18.360 --> 0:42:22.920 get our weapons sharpened. It's too expensive. We don't go 0:42:22.960 --> 0:42:25.439 to social media to get our emotional needs met it's 0:42:25.480 --> 0:42:31.279 too expensive. We don't go to the devil for our dopamine. 0:42:31.320 --> 0:42:35.759 Hit Please, devil, give me some dopamine. Made me feel 0:42:35.760 --> 0:42:37.560 good for a second, Give me pleasure for a second, 0:42:37.560 --> 0:42:40.359 make me feel something for a second. It's too expensive 0:42:40.520 --> 0:42:42.719 because you can get it from the devil. But it's 0:42:42.760 --> 0:42:45.360 too expensive. How many of you have found out it 0:42:45.440 --> 0:42:47.879 is too expensive to go to the world to get 0:42:47.880 --> 0:42:55.000 your weapons. It's too expensive because even if it works, 0:42:55.000 --> 0:42:58.920 it isn't worth it. And that's why Paul says, man, 0:42:59.200 --> 0:43:01.759 we don't wage war like the world does. We have 0:43:01.880 --> 0:43:04.440 to fight these battles. We have to live in this world. 0:43:04.600 --> 0:43:07.200 We have to be realistic, but we don't have to 0:43:07.239 --> 0:43:12.600 fight it that way. The weapons that we have have 0:43:12.800 --> 0:43:19.360 divine power to demolish strongholds. That's in the Bible, y'all. 0:43:20.320 --> 0:43:23.680 That is the spirit of Jesus inside of you. It 0:43:23.800 --> 0:43:28.640 is divine power to demolish strongholds. When you go to 0:43:28.680 --> 0:43:32.600 the world for your weapons, there's no power in them. 0:43:34.040 --> 0:43:37.200 When you go to the world for your weapons, it 0:43:37.200 --> 0:43:43.600 doesn't demolish strongholds. It creates strongholds. It creates dependence on 0:43:43.840 --> 0:43:46.960 the thing that you are going to for the need 0:43:47.040 --> 0:43:50.319 you are trying to meet. Why would you go to 0:43:50.400 --> 0:43:54.560 the devil for it when your dad has it in abundance. 0:43:54.880 --> 0:44:01.320 When you are out of God and so Jonathan's nothing 0:44:01.440 --> 0:44:05.239 can hinder the Lord. I have a covenant with Almighty God. 0:44:07.760 --> 0:44:14.120 No weapon, and he got a victory. Well, he had 0:44:14.160 --> 0:44:19.240 one weapon. The armor bearer had no weapon. And even 0:44:19.239 --> 0:44:21.640 in that the Lord spoke to me. He said, quit 0:44:21.719 --> 0:44:27.680 saying you don't have any You got one. You got one, 0:44:27.800 --> 0:44:34.440 and sometimes one is enough. I am forty two in 0:44:34.520 --> 0:44:42.480 six days. That's right in the middle. While you're not 0:44:42.520 --> 0:44:47.480 sure if that's cheerable or not like And the thing 0:44:47.520 --> 0:44:49.680 I found out is that there is only one thing 0:44:49.719 --> 0:44:51.520 in the world that I know that I'm pretty good at, 0:44:52.800 --> 0:44:54.960 other than like loving my wife, my kids, and all, 0:44:54.960 --> 0:44:59.880 that is not baseball, at least not at a professional level. 0:45:01.000 --> 0:45:02.839 Even when it comes to the things that I do 0:45:02.880 --> 0:45:05.759 in my life today, I'm not saying I'm great at administrating. 0:45:05.760 --> 0:45:07.239 I'm not say I'm horrible at it, but I'm not 0:45:07.280 --> 0:45:09.440 great at it. I'll say I'm good at managing people. 0:45:09.640 --> 0:45:13.680 I'm good at it. Sometimes i'm good at it in 0:45:13.760 --> 0:45:16.160 certain seasons, but I can't say I'm great at it. 0:45:16.800 --> 0:45:22.400 I found one thing that I can do that God's 0:45:22.400 --> 0:45:25.959 hand is on. Out of that one, which I'm saying 0:45:26.120 --> 0:45:28.960 is sharing his work. Okay, in case that's not clear, 0:45:29.360 --> 0:45:31.400 I hope it's clear. I hope that that's obvious that 0:45:31.440 --> 0:45:33.279 God gave me that gift. Maybe it's not. I don't know. 0:45:33.400 --> 0:45:35.719 Sometimes I wonder what I'm saying. I can do this 0:45:36.160 --> 0:45:39.120 and and and and God uses it right, and I've 0:45:39.160 --> 0:45:42.480 been doing it since I was sixteen. Out of that 0:45:42.560 --> 0:45:44.960 one thing that God gave me, let me let me 0:45:44.960 --> 0:45:46.960 tell you what what the what the devil will do. 0:45:47.280 --> 0:45:50.800 He will tempt you to diminish what you've been given. 0:45:54.320 --> 0:45:57.360 Because out of this one thing that I've given my 0:45:57.400 --> 0:46:00.360 life to do, I've been able to see God do 0:46:00.440 --> 0:46:05.480 amazing things. I've been all over the world doing this. 0:46:07.239 --> 0:46:09.200 I have stood in front of people that didn't even 0:46:09.239 --> 0:46:14.520 speak my language with an interpreter doing this. I have 0:46:14.760 --> 0:46:17.040 met people that I never thought i'd get to me 0:46:17.719 --> 0:46:21.360 doing this. I've seen people that came up to me 0:46:21.440 --> 0:46:24.520 and said that their life was greatly helped doing this. 0:46:25.480 --> 0:46:30.120 And yet this that I do is talking. This that 0:46:30.200 --> 0:46:34.920 I do is imperfect. This that I do. Sometimes I'm 0:46:34.960 --> 0:46:37.480 gonna be honest with you, I feel like what I 0:46:37.600 --> 0:46:40.120 do is one of the weirdest things in the world. 0:46:40.360 --> 0:46:44.920 Try to tell you what God thinks about stuff keyword try. 0:46:46.200 --> 0:46:49.400 I'm figuring it out as I go as well. But 0:46:49.480 --> 0:46:52.480 out of this one imperfect, uncertain thing that God has 0:46:52.520 --> 0:46:54.319 given me to do that I believe He called me 0:46:54.360 --> 0:46:56.440 to do, that, I believe He graced me to do that, 0:46:56.520 --> 0:46:58.359 I stand up and do no matter how I feel 0:46:58.360 --> 0:47:00.600 about it. Out of this one thing that God gave 0:47:00.680 --> 0:47:05.399 me to do, I have seen God do things. One 0:47:05.480 --> 0:47:09.400 is enough. I don't have to be good at basketball. 0:47:09.480 --> 0:47:11.960 To do this, I don't have to be good at 0:47:12.120 --> 0:47:14.200 I don't have to you know what, I don't even 0:47:14.280 --> 0:47:17.239 have to be good at counting to do this, I 0:47:17.280 --> 0:47:19.600 don't have to be good. There's a lot of stuff 0:47:19.760 --> 0:47:22.279 that I have reconciled to the fact that I will 0:47:22.320 --> 0:47:25.720 never be great at that, but standing in the grace 0:47:25.800 --> 0:47:29.680 that God gave me and doing the thing that God 0:47:29.719 --> 0:47:34.239 called me to do, this gift that I have been 0:47:34.320 --> 0:47:39.360 preaching on this boy called Jonathan for twenty five years. 0:47:39.880 --> 0:47:43.319 I have preached at least three hundred sermons on this 0:47:43.520 --> 0:47:48.160 one text, and one was enough. I preached it in Australia. 0:47:48.520 --> 0:47:51.800 I preached it in Singapore. I preached it in London. 0:47:52.160 --> 0:47:55.440 I preached it in Camden, South Carolina. I preach it 0:47:55.480 --> 0:47:58.640 in Valentine. When I'm forty two, I'll preach it. If 0:47:58.640 --> 0:48:01.759 God gives me the grace I'm eighty four, I will 0:48:01.840 --> 0:48:09.880 preach this one word one give one calling one weapon 0:48:11.360 --> 0:48:14.319 one weapon. You say there was no weapon, No, there 0:48:14.400 --> 0:48:19.920 was one. And God has always given you something. God 0:48:20.000 --> 0:48:23.600 has always given you something. The prophet asked the woman, 0:48:23.719 --> 0:48:25.920 what do you have in your house? She said, nothing 0:48:26.320 --> 0:48:30.520 except a little oil. You see that thing you almost overlooked, 0:48:30.719 --> 0:48:33.840 that thing you didn't think was worth mentioning. That was 0:48:33.920 --> 0:48:41.400 the one that the miracle was in. You mean one 0:48:41.520 --> 0:48:49.800 weapon was enough to kill twenty Philistines. It was my faith. 0:48:50.920 --> 0:48:54.520 God likes to do it like that, does. He doesn't 0:48:54.560 --> 0:48:59.439 want you given the credit to your weapons. He doesn't 0:48:59.480 --> 0:49:02.560 want you to raise your weapons. He wants you to 0:49:02.640 --> 0:49:09.560 praise him. I don't know if it's true that they 0:49:09.560 --> 0:49:12.359 didn't have any weapons. They just didn't know where their 0:49:12.360 --> 0:49:17.279 weapons were. Can I show you something? What's your name? Again? 0:49:17.320 --> 0:49:20.600 Your story inspired me, Yolanda. I was thinking this might 0:49:20.680 --> 0:49:23.040 just be for you, This whole word might just be 0:49:23.120 --> 0:49:25.839 for Yolanda. They were talking about Yolanda earlier and all 0:49:25.880 --> 0:49:28.720 that she's been through, and I thought about telling you, 0:49:28.760 --> 0:49:31.600 do you know where your weapons are? A lot of 0:49:31.600 --> 0:49:35.640 people don't. They just accept depression. They don't have a worship. 0:49:39.600 --> 0:49:43.080 I'm not saying field depression. I'm saying I don't accept that. 0:49:44.600 --> 0:49:52.000 I don't accept that as being my new default setting 0:49:52.200 --> 0:49:57.200 and the limitation of my life. We have addictions. We 0:49:57.239 --> 0:50:09.200 all have addictions. Me as you scroll, you are delusional, Yolanda. 0:50:10.320 --> 0:50:15.200 I started by calling this sermon no weapon there were 0:50:15.200 --> 0:50:18.719 no weapons with the Israelites because there were no blacksmiths. 0:50:19.840 --> 0:50:22.120 All of the ways that the enemy kept you from 0:50:22.120 --> 0:50:24.719 getting what you should have had, and all of the 0:50:24.760 --> 0:50:26.640 ways that he wants to use what you think you 0:50:26.680 --> 0:50:28.680 should have had that you don't have from keep you, 0:50:28.960 --> 0:50:30.560 to keep you from doing what God called you to do. 0:50:32.000 --> 0:50:34.600 That was my message. And it said there wasn't a 0:50:34.640 --> 0:50:39.480 weapon in the hands of Israel. In the hands of Israel, 0:50:40.600 --> 0:50:48.080 that's true. But guess who did have weapons. The Philistines. 0:50:49.560 --> 0:50:55.000 They had weapons. They made weapons, They had the monopoly 0:50:55.719 --> 0:51:02.520 on medal of making, so they were fully weaponized. And 0:51:02.560 --> 0:51:05.960 that's just the way God wanted it. I'm about to 0:51:06.000 --> 0:51:09.239 show you something that blew my mind. Oh I hope 0:51:09.239 --> 0:51:12.360 it blows your mind, because while you're sitting there thinking 0:51:12.400 --> 0:51:14.080 about what you don't have that God didn't give you. Know, 0:51:14.080 --> 0:51:15.600 he's giving you all things ritually to enjoy, and he's 0:51:15.600 --> 0:51:17.360 giving you forgiveness of your sins and salvation through the 0:51:17.400 --> 0:51:22.600 blood of His son. All that I don't have any weapons, 0:51:23.680 --> 0:51:25.319 You got the Holy Spirit, the minded spirit, which is 0:51:25.320 --> 0:51:26.759 life and peace, to show you everything you ever good 0:51:26.840 --> 0:51:33.960 perfect give what hass y'all, I remind myself of the 0:51:34.040 --> 0:51:37.239 older brother in the prodigal Son story, sitting in the 0:51:37.239 --> 0:51:40.560 father's house, talking about you never gave me a goat. 0:51:43.480 --> 0:51:46.400 You give your other son, the one you really like, 0:51:46.480 --> 0:51:49.040 the goat, and you don't give me a goat, And 0:51:49.040 --> 0:51:51.440 the Father's like, you're always with me, and all I 0:51:51.480 --> 0:51:55.719 have is yours. This is not about resource. It's about recognition, 0:51:58.200 --> 0:52:01.360 recognizing what you already have, recognizing who you already have. 0:52:03.600 --> 0:52:11.719 Everybody left me, not everybody, Not everybody is gone, Not 0:52:12.680 --> 0:52:20.040 everybody is flaky, Not everybody is a judas or a betrayer. 0:52:21.600 --> 0:52:25.239 And I love how Jonathan moved toward what was too 0:52:25.239 --> 0:52:32.240 big for him with what he had, with what you've got, 0:52:35.120 --> 0:52:39.720 If this one armor bearer, go with what you've got, 0:52:42.920 --> 0:52:46.680 if you are already past the point in your life. See, 0:52:46.840 --> 0:52:50.640 Saul didn't have to stay under the tree either. Saul 0:52:50.680 --> 0:52:53.719 had a weapon. At the end of his life, he 0:52:53.800 --> 0:52:58.319 fell on his own sword, the weapon that Jonathan won 0:52:58.400 --> 0:53:02.680 with saw killed himself. It wasn't about what they had, 0:53:02.719 --> 0:53:07.000 It's about what they did with it. There is somebody 0:53:07.160 --> 0:53:10.160 on your row that went through a divorce and lived 0:53:10.160 --> 0:53:13.200 through it and learned from it and moved forward and 0:53:13.239 --> 0:53:15.359 It did not make them. No, I'm telling you, it 0:53:15.440 --> 0:53:18.080 hurt them. It was hard for them. They wish they 0:53:18.080 --> 0:53:19.560 never would have had to go through it. They wouldn't 0:53:19.560 --> 0:53:22.440 wish it on you, but they made it through it. 0:53:22.440 --> 0:53:25.000 It is not what happens to you that defines you. 0:53:29.400 --> 0:53:32.799 Do you need me to turn Yolanda loose with the microphones? 0:53:33.000 --> 0:53:36.400 Did you hear what she went through? And did you 0:53:36.440 --> 0:53:40.400 see her worshiping? And some of us didn't worship because 0:53:40.400 --> 0:53:44.640 we didn't get the park close enough. They were saying 0:53:44.680 --> 0:53:47.319 all these things she went through and she's still worshiping. 0:53:49.120 --> 0:53:52.440 You must have read all the way to First Samuel 0:53:52.480 --> 0:53:56.000 fourteen twenty. I'm not sure if you did, but something 0:53:56.040 --> 0:54:00.880 tells me that you did. In First Samuel fourteen, the 0:54:00.920 --> 0:54:04.839 Bible says that after Jonathan, you're ready for this, this 0:54:04.920 --> 0:54:08.280 bless my whole life. Please, y'all get ready to shout 0:54:09.840 --> 0:54:13.960 that when Jonathan moved toward the enemy with his one weapon, 0:54:15.120 --> 0:54:19.520 look what God did that Jonathan could not do. Because 0:54:19.520 --> 0:54:23.160 you've been looking at what's against you, forgetting what's for you, 0:54:23.800 --> 0:54:27.520 forgetting who's for you, forgetting who's in you. But when 0:54:27.640 --> 0:54:31.400 Jonathan moved forward in the strength that he had, with 0:54:31.520 --> 0:54:34.520 the sword that he had, with the partner that he had, 0:54:34.920 --> 0:54:37.799 with the resources, the wisdom, the plan that he had, 0:54:37.840 --> 0:54:39.600 not the one he wanted, the one that he had. 0:54:39.960 --> 0:54:44.640 Watch what God did, the Bible says. Then Saul and 0:54:44.719 --> 0:54:46.880 all of his men assembled and went to the battle. 0:54:47.400 --> 0:54:59.680 They found the Philistines in total confusion. Y'all, let me 0:54:59.719 --> 0:55:05.960 do it right. But we don't have any weapons, but 0:55:06.040 --> 0:55:10.600 your enemy does. And when they got to the battle, 0:55:10.920 --> 0:55:15.680 guess what happened. The Philistines, their enemies that had kept 0:55:15.760 --> 0:55:22.040 them in hiding, were striking each other with those iron swords. 0:55:25.440 --> 0:55:29.960 So I just picture the Philistines sharpening their swords, not 0:55:30.200 --> 0:55:34.160 knowing their swords that they were sharpening were going to 0:55:34.200 --> 0:55:40.399 be the very instruments of their own demise. I want 0:55:40.440 --> 0:55:46.560 the devil to know that no weapon formed against me 0:55:48.160 --> 0:55:54.319 will prosper. Somebody shout, no weapon, So watch this, watch this. 0:55:54.640 --> 0:55:57.680 The devil's been busy, hadn't he been trying to defeat 0:55:57.719 --> 0:56:00.759 you and discourage you and get you to And he's 0:56:00.840 --> 0:56:03.920 serpent in the swords, and he planned the attack, and 0:56:04.040 --> 0:56:06.040 he thought, if I hit him here, if I hit 0:56:06.120 --> 0:56:08.880 him there, if I cut him off here, they'll stop 0:56:08.960 --> 0:56:15.360 coming What he didn't know is the weapons may be 0:56:15.480 --> 0:56:21.560 in the hands of the Philistines, but the Philistines are 0:56:21.600 --> 0:56:31.800 in the hands of God. When you move, when you move, 0:56:34.360 --> 0:56:42.040 when you move tour who when you move tour what 0:56:42.120 --> 0:56:47.880 God has called you to, you will be surprised and 0:56:48.040 --> 0:56:51.480 maybe the very weapon that you thought was going to 0:56:51.600 --> 0:56:54.560 kill you is going to be the one God is 0:56:54.600 --> 0:57:01.080 going to use to save you. There it is, there, 0:57:01.120 --> 0:57:06.480 it is. That is the prophetic word. You've been praying, 0:57:06.719 --> 0:57:09.440 You've been asking God to show you something. Some of 0:57:09.480 --> 0:57:11.360 you have been asking God to confirm. Why am I 0:57:11.400 --> 0:57:13.799 going through this? Why is this coming against me? Why 0:57:13.880 --> 0:57:16.400 can't I get past this? Why can't I move through this? 0:57:16.600 --> 0:57:18.520 Why didn't I have someone to help me with this? 0:57:18.760 --> 0:57:22.200 God said, I wanted to show you what I could do. 0:57:23.760 --> 0:57:28.960 So the thing that the enemy sharpened to kill you 0:57:30.760 --> 0:57:35.280 is going to be the thing that God uses to 0:57:35.400 --> 0:57:49.400 save you. If you move toward if you sit under 0:57:50.000 --> 0:57:57.600 the pomegranates, your faith will surely weaken. If you move 0:57:58.200 --> 0:58:01.360 toward the Philistines and talking straight into the face of 0:58:01.400 --> 0:58:05.800 your fear, straight into the face of what's fighting you 0:58:07.040 --> 0:58:09.360 in the power of God. Because the weapons we fight 0:58:09.440 --> 0:58:13.959 with don't come from the world. So I see Isaiah 0:58:15.240 --> 0:58:20.480 fifty four sixteen in a new light. Now where God said, behold, 0:58:21.400 --> 0:58:32.120 I created the blacksmith, who blows the coals in the fire, 0:58:33.080 --> 0:58:39.800 who brings forth an instrument for his work. Your enemy 0:58:39.840 --> 0:58:46.320 is God's instrument too. He uses all of that, all right. 0:58:46.520 --> 0:58:48.400 Think of the thing that you think God can't use. 0:58:48.640 --> 0:58:52.880 That's what I'm talking about. Think of the thing that 0:58:52.920 --> 0:58:56.800 makes you embarrassed. That's what I'm talking about. Think of 0:58:56.800 --> 0:59:00.120 the thing that is facing you from three different detachments. 0:59:00.240 --> 0:59:02.760 And that's what I'm talking about. When they got to 0:59:02.840 --> 0:59:07.600 the battle and used what they had, they found that 0:59:08.680 --> 0:59:14.960 God created the blacksmith. God will not permit anything to 0:59:15.040 --> 0:59:16.480 happen to me in my life that He will not 0:59:16.560 --> 0:59:23.480 use for his glory. You believe that. And nothing can 0:59:23.600 --> 0:59:27.640 hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few. 0:59:28.160 --> 0:59:30.720 I came to talk to somebody who's down to one weapon, 0:59:32.680 --> 0:59:39.400 one person, one word from God. You're moving towards some 0:59:39.480 --> 0:59:42.840 Philistines today, who are you? Wave at me, Wave at me, 0:59:42.880 --> 0:59:47.480 wave at me. The Lord said to tell you. The 0:59:47.560 --> 0:59:52.800 promise of Isaiah fifty four seventeen is that no weapon 0:59:54.080 --> 1:00:00.840 formed against you will prosper, not that it won't be formed, 1:00:04.280 --> 1:00:11.000 it's just that it won't work. The enemy was killing 1:00:11.040 --> 1:00:15.440 the enemy, the swords that they sharpened to kill the 1:00:15.480 --> 1:00:19.680 people of God. When God moved, they started. I see 1:00:19.720 --> 1:00:22.920 your enemies beginning to scatter today. I see your enemies 1:00:22.920 --> 1:00:30.680 fleeing from you seven ways today, because I like the 1:00:30.760 --> 1:00:34.360 picture what the devil thought when he was betrayed, when 1:00:34.360 --> 1:00:37.360 he was prompting the heart of Judas to betray Jesus. Oh, 1:00:37.560 --> 1:00:39.800 this is going to end it. This is going to 1:00:39.920 --> 1:00:43.000 kill the ministry of Jesus. Do you not realize the 1:00:43.120 --> 1:00:46.200 very thing the devil prompted Judas to do set salvation 1:00:46.400 --> 1:00:50.880 and motion. He killed the enemy with his own sword. 1:00:51.120 --> 1:00:54.680 Now you've got to put your own faith on this word, 1:00:55.800 --> 1:00:57.680 because if all you do is sit under this like 1:00:57.720 --> 1:01:02.760 it's another pomegranate, it won't deliver you. But if you 1:01:02.760 --> 1:01:05.600 can move forward on this word today, Lord, I pray 1:01:05.680 --> 1:01:10.280 for those who are moving toward a passageway today. And 1:01:10.320 --> 1:01:13.200 I don't know if it's the beginning of a new relationship. 1:01:13.240 --> 1:01:15.160 I don't know if it's the beginning of a new challenge. 1:01:15.160 --> 1:01:19.919 But they've been feeling it down good. I don't heh 1:01:21.000 --> 1:01:24.439 the weapons for this war. I don't know what to do. 1:01:25.560 --> 1:01:28.680 I'm not literate in this. I've never been exposed to this. 1:01:28.720 --> 1:01:32.760 I'm not experienced with this. But Lord, you have not 1:01:33.120 --> 1:01:38.320 left us without a weapon. You have given us your word, 1:01:39.280 --> 1:01:42.960 You have given us your spirit, you have given us 1:01:43.120 --> 1:01:49.160 your son, and we're going forward with what we have. Father, 1:01:49.240 --> 1:01:52.640 I thank you today that as this word has been preached, 1:01:54.880 --> 1:02:01.439 somebody's getting up from a pomegranate tree, walking away from 1:02:01.480 --> 1:02:09.000 Ichabod and moving toward what they're praying for this week. 1:02:10.280 --> 1:02:15.000 Give them the courage, the instruction, the specific prompting of 1:02:15.040 --> 1:02:19.160 your spirit to move toward something that they're praying for, 1:02:20.600 --> 1:02:23.280 something that they're hoping for. God, you know how hard 1:02:23.320 --> 1:02:25.919 it is to come out from under that tree. Everybody's 1:02:26.000 --> 1:02:28.840 under that tree. Everything we've known is under that tree. 1:02:28.920 --> 1:02:31.840 The ethot is under that tree, the priest is under 1:02:31.880 --> 1:02:38.280 that Everything is under that tree, except you, Except you. 1:02:39.800 --> 1:02:43.960 You're calling us forward. I thank you for your presence God, 1:02:45.480 --> 1:02:48.920 not only in this place. I thank you for your 1:02:48.960 --> 1:02:51.360 presence as we go forward toward the Philistines in our 1:02:51.400 --> 1:02:56.920 own life. That's where we need you, That's where we 1:02:56.960 --> 1:03:02.640 need your word. That's where we need to worship. Lord. 1:03:02.640 --> 1:03:06.640 I thank you today that your word never returns void. 1:03:08.640 --> 1:03:17.560 No weapon, no weapon, no weapon, no disease, no heartbreak, 1:03:18.640 --> 1:03:24.960 no failure, no weapon, no accusation, no virus, no weapon, 1:03:25.840 --> 1:03:30.120 no weapon, no weapon, no weapon, no weapon, no weapon, 1:03:30.800 --> 1:03:36.760 no betrayal, no pain, no trauma, no weapon, no weapon, 1:03:36.840 --> 1:03:40.080 no weapon. No weapon is greater than your word. No 1:03:40.200 --> 1:03:43.360 weapon is greater than your spirit. No weapon is greater 1:03:43.400 --> 1:03:46.400 than your presence. No weapon is greater than the covenant 1:03:46.400 --> 1:03:51.800 we have with you. No weapon that is fun self 1:03:51.920 --> 1:03:59.320 prosper somebody shop. No weapon, no weapon, no weapon. It 1:03:59.400 --> 1:04:07.480 was full, but it didn't work. No weapon, no weapon. 1:04:07.920 --> 1:04:10.680 Put it in the chat right now. No weapon, no weapon, 1:04:10.920 --> 1:04:14.080 no weapon. Tell seven people, no weapon, no weapon, no weapon, 1:04:14.120 --> 1:04:17.200 no weapon, no weapon, no weapon, no weapon, no weapon, 1:04:17.240 --> 1:04:21.200 no weapon, no weapon. And I'm gonna tell you something. 1:04:21.440 --> 1:04:23.480 If God didn't give it to you, you don't need 1:04:23.520 --> 1:04:26.160 it right now. He gave you what you need from 1:04:26.160 --> 1:04:30.400 where you're going. No weapon, no problem. I got a 1:04:30.600 --> 1:04:37.160 word from Almighty God. Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast, 1:04:37.200 --> 1:04:39.280 there are a couple things I'd love for you to do. 1:04:39.400 --> 1:04:43.720 Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You 1:04:43.760 --> 1:04:46.160 can also help us reach others by investing today at 1:04:46.240 --> 1:04:49.840 Elevation church dot org, slash give and thanks again for 1:04:49.920 --> 1:04:52.400 joining us on the Elevation Podcast