Knowledge is Power

Hello everyone and thank you so much for joining me today. My name is Roderick caesar the third on the lead Pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle in Jamaica queens new york. And I’m so excited that you decided to join me for the full Gospel hour. Right here on Global seven. My prayers that you will be blessed, You would be encouraged and inspired by this message. Thank you so much for joining And God bless. Thank you Lord, I’ll be reading today from the Book of First Samuel chapter 17 verse 44 through 51. 1st Samuel chapter 17 There’s 44 through 51. I think it’s inappropriate texts given uh huh The fact that everyone goes through battles in life. Everyone goes through fights in life, difficult situations, difficult circumstances. First, Samuel chapter 17 verse 44 The philistine said to David, come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field. And then David said to the philistine, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with the javelin. But I come to you and the name of the Lord of hosts, the god of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled this day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the year into the wild beasts of the earth and that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel and that all this assembly may know that the Lord God saves not with the sword and a spear for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand. When the philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle to meet the philistine, and David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the philistine on his forehead. The stone sunk into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. So David prevailed over the philistine with a sling and with a stone and struck the philistine and killed him, and there was no sword in the hand, David. And then David ran and stood over. The philistine took his sword, drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. Dear Lord, we thank you so much for this time. I thank you for your people. I thank you for who you have called us to be, how you’ve called us to live what you’ve called us to here today. I pray you would hide me behind your cross and that you would do what only you can do through this message. Do what only you can do through this service. We thank you for who you are. Thank you for who you called us to be in jesus name, We pray these things. Amen Amen Amen The title of this message today is called Knowledge is Power. Knowledge is Power. There was this uh, I think it was in the 70s, this TV show to help kids learn some things about education called Schoolhouse Rock. And they would always say, oh, you know, uh it’s great to learn cause knowledge is power and I wasn’t around then, but you know, with reruns and stuff, I was able to take part in what was going on. Um So that’s kind of the the idea that knowledge is power, the more, you know, the more, the more power you have. Um and this, this particularly comes when, when this, this takes takes root this concept, specifically when it comes down to fighting, the more you know about your technique, about how to respond. When you do get punched in the face, the more you know how to, you know, take a hit ah the more maybe you know about your opponent, the more of a leg up you have, when it comes down to obtaining victory over the individual that you’re fighting. Um, No one likes getting punched in the face. It’s not a pleasant experience. So usually if you see the hit the punch coming, you can avoid it. But oftentimes that comes with knowing how to avoid and how to avoid, how to avoid. Excuse me, the counter punch that’s coming. Um, David we see was in a situation where he had a fight, but it wasn’t a fight that he wanted to uh he didn’t pick a fight. He was in a situation where he found himself in a fight, but it just stemmed from him being a good son, being obedient. Just some context. Here, Israel is at war with the Philistines. They have a king named Saul and Saul was was king and they’re at war with Israel is at war with another nation of the Philistines and David’s brothers. David is the youngest of his brothers, and his brothers are going out to fight in the war and his father says, hey, your brothers must be hungry, I’m gonna give you some food, you can go, you know, deliver this food to them. And so, David is simply being an obedient younger, an obedient son, he’s being faithful to the season to the uh, position to where he’s called being an obedient son. The father says, Jesse says, hey, take this this food and go deliver it to your brother, he’s going to bring them some food. And as he uh, goes to bring them this food, what we see taking place is that the giant Goliath comes out and instead of it just being a war that all of the Israelites versus all the Philistines. The Philistines have a secret weapon, I have a giant Goliath and Goliath comes out and for days after days after days, he’s hurling insults and curses at Israel and Israel’s God and he says, look, I’m the philistine strongest person. You send out Israel’s strongest person to fight me and whoever wins that fight wins the war. You know, why, why must we should all this blood today? Let’s have your strongest man against me, philistine philistine, strongest man. No one will fight this man. They’re looking to Saul, they’re looking to all of the supposed heroes in the Israel’s army and everyone’s like looking at the next guy. So you’re looking at me to fight him. Now, looking at the next guy. And so what we see here is David shows up and he hears what’s going on. He hears these these curses being hurled and says, what, who’s this guy cursing out the armies of the living God, this uncircumcised philistine, that’s that’s coming at me. And and and and my God and and and our people this this cannot stand. And so he’s very upset. And so he says, I will go and fight him. He said, I’ll do it. I’ll go and fight him. Now. David was not someone that you would think would be familiar with battle on a battlefield. He was not a soldier, but he was a warrior in his own right. And David last week we talked about using what you have to get what you need. We talked about the Blind Bard armies and how he said, jesus son of David have mercy on me because he wanted his sight. He didn’t have his sight. But he had his voice and he used his voice to obtain the the uh, the attention from jesus to ultimately received his healing. And we realized that David may not have been a soldier on the battlefield, but there are some skills that he had. There’s a depth of relationship with God that he has that we see. The others were lacking and he used what he had to got to get what he ultimately needed. So he says, I will go and fight him, David, this young boy, this young shepherd boy, because now ready to go and fight this giant. And when it comes down to uh fighting, it’s important for us to be spiritually prepared for the battles that are to come. What we realize is that David did not know this battle was coming. He did not know that he was walking to this battle, but he was prepared for it anyway. And for us in our lives, we must be prepared for the battles that we don’t even see coming. We must be prepared for the battles that, you know, we don’t even see around the corner and down the block. David was minding his business, being faithful to what he was being called to do. And then the battle rose up and he said, oh, I’ve I’ve got to do this. I’ve got to be the one to handle these situations. I will go and fight him. And what we see here is as he goes to approach and fight Goliath, we must see our giant, We have giants in our lives. If you tell them you don’t have a giant. If you don’t tell me, you don’t have a situation that’s looming, you don’t have a circumstance or or whatever the situation may be. You know, maybe you’re in a really good season right now. But giants do creep up from time from time to time. They do come stomping in and the ground begins to shake around you when you look and you say it was that and there’s a giant looming coming your way. You may not have one right now, but one may come or you may come in the vicinity of one. You have to know how to how to handle an approach that situation. You have to know your Giant. So let’s take a look at Goliath here. The first thing to know your giant, you have to see your giant, your circumstance, your situation, the valley that you’re in, the Giant that is looming. You have to see it. Goliath had armor. Goliath had weapons. First, Samuel 17 verse four, it describes Goliath, there was a man from the camp of the Philistines. A champion. Not just you know, somebody that’s trying out for one or one or two fights, this is a champion. Someone that’s established. Someone that has has taken lives and spilled blood on the battlefield. A champion named Goliath whose height was six cubits and a span that’s roughly about nine ft. He had a helmet of bronze on his head. He would, he was armed with a coat of mail and the weight of the coat was about 5000 shekels of bronze. So this is no easy coat to put on. This is something that’s heavy and he had bronze armor on his legs, A javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders and the shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam and his spear’s head weighed 600 shekels of iron and he had a shield bearer that went before him. So he’s like, I’m not carrying my shield, I have somebody else to carry my shield for when I’m ready to fight. And this guy is using both hands to carry something that Goliath is using one hand to help to guard himself with. He has all of these big weapons, This big shields for defense and it’s very intimidating. And so for us, when a giant appears in our lives or a situation, we get a negative, a negative report from the doctor or we’re going through some financial crisis or our our Children are acting up or there’s some difficulty in the home or some situation comes up, you have to realize and assess your giant for what it is. It’s not gonna come in a in a, it’s not gonna come looking like it’s easy to conquer. It’s going to come looking like. It’s something that is difficult. Don’t want to come looking like. It’s something that’s impossible. You have to see what its defenses, see what its strengths are, see what uh its plan of attack could be and how it affects you. Your giant will not go down without a fight. Your giant will not go down without a fight and your giant is going to trigger you. Your giant is going to try and push your buttons. Your giant is going to try and knock you off. Course, your giant is going to try and strip you of the strength that you have. The situation is so big, so grand. It’s going to try and deplete you of the energy that you have to fight it. Goliath had words. He didn’t just show up in a grand posture, so he had armor, he had weapons. He also had words, you guys hear the phrase sticks and stones may break my bones, but words never hurt me. Couldn’t be a bigger lie, right? It sounds like a fun little thing, but I don’t know. Words carry weight, they carry weight and they stick to you for years and years. The word could just be chipping away, chipping away and until you really do some soul searching, do some, some council do some looking through and realize, okay, this is not true, what’s said about what was said about me and how I’m living as a result of what was said, You know, all these years, I have to now undo what’s been done or what’s been said. And so Goliath knew, Hey, uh, what every great trash talker in basketball knows if I can get in your head, I win the game. If I can get in your head and talk so much trash to knock you off your game, I’m good. Right. So Goliath stands up and for days on end before David shows up when he’s just saying, look, your best man against my best man for days on end, he’s just standing there and shouting against the ranks of Israel, why have you come out to draw for battle? I am not a philistine. He hurls curses against them, curses against Israel curses against their God, curses against their way of life. Probably talking bad about against all their mothers probably talking derogatory comments against their wives. He’s going in hurling curses and then watch this before David. As David shows up. Goliath even speaks to David. And in 1st Samuel, Chapter 42 he says, when the philistine looked and saw David, he disdained David because he was just a youth. He was ready and handsome in appearance. And the philistine said to David, he belittled him. He said, am I a dog that you come at me with sticks. Talking to Israel here. He’s like, what’s what’s what’s what’s going on? I told you to send me your greatest warrior to fight me. You send me a boy with a slingshot. Come on, am I a dog that you bring me? This, this this stick, there’s no weapon here, There’s no sword in his hand, there’s no spear, there’s no shield. Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? And he cursed David by his gods. So by the God of the rain, I curse you by the God of the War. I curse you! By the God of this, I curse you. And the philistine says to David something else. He says, you come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the Air and to the beasts of the field. So he says, you come to me, you come at me, you come to fight me and it’s gonna be over for you. I’m going to give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field. So you’ll become food for the animals if you come to me. So, he tries to get in David’s head and talk down to him. And then, uh first Samuel chapter 17 verse 16 before David steps up for 40 days, Goliath comes forward, takes his stand morning and evening And hurls curses against Israel so morning and evening for 40 days. You’re hearing you’re no good Morning and evening for 40 days each day. You’re hearing, there’s no way you can win Morning and evening for 40 days. You’re hearing you’re not gonna make it out of this alive and your Giant will intimidate you. Your Giant will try and bind you up. Your Giant will try and defeat you before you even pick up your weapon, your Giant will try to get in your head and distract you and remove your confidence. Your Giant. We’ll try to silence you. Your Giant will try to silence you. We’ll try and take away your voice will try and take away your power. We’re trying to take away your will to fight. We’ll try and leave you dejected and leave you defeated Before you even swung your first punch. Your Giant will try to leave you on the side depressed and sad about life. Your Giant will try to silence you. But it’s up to you to silence your giant. It’s up to you to silence your giant. We have to speak to the giants in our lives. We have to speak to the situations in our lives. David said, uh he said, who is this? Uncircumcised philistine that defies the armies of the living God. He says this and then he goes before uh Goliath after Goliath says, look, I’m going to feed your flesh to the birds of the air to the beasts of the field. He says, look, this day, Goliath, the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines, not just you, but the other Philistines that will kill after you’re dead, they will go to the birds of the Year. They will go to the Beast of the Earth, that all of the earth may know that there is a God in Israel proverbs says what life and death or in the power of the tongue. You need to hear yourself speak life into your situation. You need to hear yourself speak hope. When there’s just darkness looming, you need to hear yourself rise up in the confidence that you have as a son or a daughter of God. You and your giant need to know that the God in you is greater than the giant in front of you. You need to know that Saints of God. Don’t be afraid to speak it out. Don’t be afraid to use the voice that the Lord gave you and say, this will not be my end. Don’t be afraid to use the voice that the Lord gave you and said, God is going to turn it around for my good. Don’t be afraid to use the voice that the Lord gave you to silence the Giant in front of you. So we need to no, our giant and to look at the Giant, look at what the armor. Look at the the weapons. We need to silence your Giant because the giant’s gonna be talking to intimidate us and and and to weigh us down. But we need to rise up in faith and speak in faith and silence the giants in our lives. And then thirdly, we need to slay the Giant. Now I know this is a gap here we go, from silencing to slaying and there’s things that are done in between. But let’s look at what David does and how this giant gets laid. This is arguably one of the most famous uh, stories in scripture. Everyone knows the story of David and Goliath, the boy that killed the Giant. It’s used outside of church sort girls for so many different things because David put his hand in his back, I got a stone and he slung it and it struck the philistine on the forehead and the stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground. So David prevailed over the philistine with a sling and the stone and struck the philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. Remember we said that David stepped on the scene with unconventional weapons. It didn’t look like something that Goliath was accustomed to fighting. It didn’t look like something that a soldier on the battlefield would fight with. And sometimes the weapon that the Lord gives us is is something that’s, that’s odd. It’s something that’s strange. It’s something that uh, would, it wouldn’t be a normal route to go about winning a specific battle. But God gives us specific tactics. He gives us a specific gift. Things he gives us a specific way to to pray and to seek his face. That’s going to help us in the long run. So I want to help us in the long run. So we need to slay the giant. The Giant gets hit and falls to the ground and dies. But that’s not enough for David. Usually that’s where the story ends. In sunday school junior church and kids class, you say, oh David hit the hit the, hit the head of the Giant and he fell and he died. Hooray! If we read just one more verse, it gets real game of Thrones out here, right, he goes and it says David ran and stood over the philistine. There was no sword. He took Goliath’s sword with his own sword, he took his sword and drew it out of the sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it, just to be sure. And just to know that to let everybody know to let Israel know and to let the Philistines. No, that on this day, this boy that was led of the Lord that was bold enough to step up to a giant was the one that obtained the victory. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, what they do? They fled, they ran off, they ran off, they had to run off when they saw that their champion was dead. They fled many of us we we may kill giants. We may wound the giants and the lives but in our lives. But we need to do something to let ourselves know that this this thing is gone. This giant in front of us is is looming, it’s gone. It’s no more. We need to have a statement. We need to have a an example or something that’s equivalent to cutting the head off of the giant when you’re in some financial debt and you make your way out of it, you say, okay, great. Yeah. And you just move right on to the next thing. No, no, no, no. Cut the head off of the giant. You have to do something that lets you know and let the spiritual powers that be know. That’s the last time you’ll be in that that situation. Mhm. You need to do something that’s equivalent to cutting the head off of the giants in our lives. So we need to slay your giant and there was no sword in the hand of David. The the tactics that we may be well versed in may not be common ones, but they are ones that can yield great results If we submit them to the Lord David was a shepherd. David watched sheep yet experienced with a slingshot. Not much experience with a sword and a shield. And so this goes into the next part where so we first need to know our giant when it comes down to knowledge is power and knowing things, we need to know our giant. No, no, the the armor that are giant is coming in. We can see our giant when he’s coming down down the road. When the steady things in our life begin to shake when the giants speaks against us and begins to deflate the confidence that we once had, we need to silence the giants, Speak up in power, speak up and authority and silence the Giant. And next we need to slay the Giant easier said than done. But how do we do that? We need to know ourselves, know your giant, but also know yourself, know your giant, but also no yourself number one. You need to know your strengths, know your strengths. Then David. So David goes up, this is before he kills Goliath. When he says, I’ll do it, I’ll fight the Giant. And everyone’s looking at him like, you know, he says, no, I’ll do it, I’m serious. And the brothers, his brothers are like David, what are you talking about? What do you want now? What’s going on? And so he somehow, he gets an audience with Saul the king and he says, I’ll fight this giant. And Saul says, no, no, no, you you can’t do this, but David convinces him. And and he says, if if this is something you really want to do, then you have to go out in this armor in my armor. Saul clothed David with his armor. He’s wearing the armor of a king, the armor of a king. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and he clothed him with a coat of mail. And David strapped his sword over his armor and he tried in vain to go for he had not tested. He was not familiar with that type of battle. He was not familiar with the sword strapped to his hip and the helmet on his head and the coat of mail around him to protect him. He was not familiar with that. And David says to Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them. I don’t know how these work, so David put them off. So then he took his staff, He took his staff in his hand and he chose five smooth stones from the Brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the philistine. He chose five stones. He only used one. He said, look just in case. All right, he chose five smooth stones. But I love this because he says, look, I can’t go out and fight this. How you want me to fight this. I can’t use the tactics that work for you because I’m not you and I haven’t tested the road that you’ve taken. I can only do what I know. I can only do the strength that God has gifted me with no your strength. He took his staff, his shepherd’s staff, the staff that has been with him when he was guiding the sheep, when he was walking the sheep, when he was defending the sheep, he took his sling, the sling that was with him when he was guiding the sheep, when he was walking the sheep, when he was defending the sheep and he took the stones and went out to fight Goliath. What I love about David is he was not afraid to speak up, he was not afraid to speak up. Many of us, we go out and fight our battles and other people’s armor, the way that somebody else said to do it, the way that this works for me. This work for for them. God is nowhere in the equation. But, you know, there’s work for me this way, I work for them this way, I work for that this way. But but how is God calling you to approach the situation? How is God calling you to to approach this giant in your life? And so we realize here that David speaks up and says, I can’t do this. He didn’t fake it. He didn’t go out and Goliath and said, okay, I got this sword, No, no, he he said straight up, I can’t do this, for I have not tested them. So you have to know your strengths, secondly, you have to know your stats, No, your stats, no, uh what you’ve accomplished and what God has done in and through your life in the battles in the past. When David is speaking with Saul about going, he says, look, I can go, I can fight this giant. He says, let no man’s heart fail because of this giant, your servant me. I I will go and fight the philistine and Saul says to David, you are not able to do this is before he puts the armor on him, before he persuades assault to go this direction. So, Saul said to David, you are not able to go against the philistine to fight with him because you’re just a child. You’re just a youth. And he has been a man since his youth, a man of war since his youth. You’re just a child. And he’s been fighting since he was a child. But David says, look, your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion or a bear, it took the lamb from the flock and I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he rose against me, I caught him by the beard and struck and I killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears. And this uncircumcised philistine shall be like one of them. For he has defied the armies of the living God, mm hmm, now watch this, this is important. You have to listen. You have to be careful of who you allow to speak over your life. David was ready. Davis. I can do this and here comes salt. You can’t do this. You can’t do this. Look at your situation. Look at what you’re going through. Look at what, look at what’s happening in in on the battlefield right now. You have a giant that’s been fighting since he was your age, real battles your age and you you just started, there’s no way you’re gonna win this. But David doesn’t even he doesn’t even entertain what he’s saying. He goes back and says the same god that was with me in this season, the same god that sustained me when the lion came. The same god that gave me strength when the bear came is the same principle applies. It’s gonna be the same god that’s with me with this philistine. And because it’s the same god, I’m going to have the same outcome. Victory will be my portion. Victory will be my portion. Why? Because he’s coming against me. No, because he is defying the armies of the living god. Our God is not a god that is dead or God is not a god that is dead or God is not a god that is dead. He has risen. He is living, he is active and back then with with this with David’s perspective was an old testament perspective. So his perspective is more so they’re worshiping idols. I’m worshiping the true and living god. Whereas our new testament perspective is we’re worshiping the true and living God that died but lived again. And so we see here that he didn’t take this wisdom from Saul. He instead banked on the experience that he had with the Lord. The intimacy that he had with the Lord. So the question I’ll ask you all, or even myself today is what battles have we been through that have prepared us for the battles we’re facing today. What giants or what lions and bears have we faced that have prepared us for the Goliaths that we’re facing today with goliaths have we struck down that are prepared us for the new Goliaths that have maybe popped up in our lives today. The third piece is, we need to know our stature, no our stature, no your stats, but then also know your stature. Watch David’s posture. David says, let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight against the philistine. It’s very important Saints of God that we understand this, how we see ourselves as a great determining factor in the outcome of this battle. How you see yourself, it can determine whether or not you win or lose. How you see yourself, We see this all throughout scripture. We see uh, Israel. When the Lord told them to go into the promised land and conquer it. He said, I’m with you go conquer the land. It’s yours. Take it, they go spy out the land. They see giants in the land And out of the 12 spies, 10 come back with a negative report and they say we were like grasshoppers in their eyes so there’s no way that we can win this Joshua and Caleb stand strong and they say we can do this, we can win this fight. But the 10 they spread, spread a negative report and everyone starts a mourning and grieving. How did they know they were like grasshoppers in the eyes of the inhabitants of the promised land. They didn’t have a conversation with them and say, how do you guys perceive us? So we kinda oh you guys are like grasshoppers. Okay, let’s go tell moses. No, no, no, that’s how they saw themselves. And they went and spread a negative report which cost them their portion of the promised land. When Saul, a couple of chapters before David rises up in this moment and kills Goliath Saul was given a task to be obedient to the Lord instead of being obedient. When Samuel, the Prophet of God goes and confronts him, he says, oh, I I was afraid of the people and instead of listening to the word from the Lord, I did what the people wanted me to do. And Samuel’s response is though, you are small in your own eyes. The Lord has tasked you with being king over all Israel. So despite how you see yourself, you still have a responsibility to carry out and how you see yourself can determine the outcome of that responsibility. And so what we realized is Saul had the kingdom stripped from him and the text says it was going to be given to another soul had the kingdom stripped from him, which would have been eventually given to David. So we see here that how you see yourself as extremely important. And that’s why the giant can come and speak these things against you to get you to see yourself in a different light as a son, as a daughter of God. The enemy speaks against us, the sins of our past speaks against us. Uh, the accuser of the brethren is what he’s called. He accuses us and tries to tear us down, praise be to God who continues to uplift us and says, you are a son, you are a daughter and that no weapon that’s formed against you will prosper. Let’s take a look at David. We see that he shows up on the scene confident he shows up on the scene saying, what’s this? This, who’s this guy that defies the armies of the living God. And this is in Chapter 16. But if we go a little bit earlier, we realized that David was forgotten. David Was forgotten in earlier in Chapter 16. Uh, this is Chapter 17. Earlier in Chapter 16, we realized that David was forgotten. Samuel, the prophet of God, comes to Jesse’s house and says, Hey, let’s uh, the Lord says that one of your sons will be king. David Parade, excuse me, Jesse parades around six of his sons and says, what about this one? What about this one? What about this one? What about this one? He says no to all of them. He says, don’t you have another son? He says, oh yeah, that’s David. But he’s just in the field. It’s just, he’s just watching the sheep. It’s just David. It was a lowly position. He said, oh, it’s just, it’s just David. No big deal. Just forgotten he was left out. He wasn’t even considered, he was not even considered, but he had a relationship with God. He had a relationship with God. While he was watching those sheep, he was playing his instrument. He was writing to the Lord, he was being led of the Lord just as uh, he was leading the sheep when he walks in. So, Samuel says, that’s him. The Lord says, don’t look at their appearance because man looks on the outward appearance. But the Lord looks at the heart. And then at that moment, Samuel breaks out the oil and anoints David as the new king of Israel, soon to be new king. So David has a bit of a different feel. Now we see him coming on the battlefield to give this this bread. And even though he was forgotten by his father, he was remembered by God. Even though he was forgotten by his father and his father saw us. Just David, forget about him. God said, I see you, David, I see you one of the first Yeah, yeah. And it’s so important for us to realize that when he walks into the situation, he walks with the confidence that you can’t buy, he walks with the confidence that you cannot buy. He walks in and says, who is this guy? No, I got this. I’ll handle it. I’ll take care of it. And if you look at how he approaches the people that are speaking against him and the the situation that’s coming up, if you look at how all these things take place and take shape, we can ask ourselves the question, who is the real giant here? Who, who is the real giant here? Goliath would be fooling ourselves to think that Goliath is the only giant in this story or the biggest giant in this story. It’s actually David. David, I would argue that David is the giant in the story. Why? Because he saw himself, how God saw him and he knew that God was on his side. So he came in literally heads and shoulders above everyone. People tried to talk down to him. He stayed on focus. People tried to say, oh, you can’t do this. He stayed on target. People tried to say, oh, fight my way, I can’t do it. Your, your armor is too small for me. I’m fighting differently now and he fought God’s away. Who’s the giant in this story? And we can ask ourselves that question when it comes down to our lives in our lives, the giant tries to loom itself. It tries to deflate our energy. It tries to to say, you know what you you you you’ll never get out of this. But I believe the reason why David stood tall as the giant. And the story was because he not only knew his giant, he not only knew himself, but he knew his God. He knew his god. David said, who is this that defies the armies of the living god. You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin. But I come to you in the name. Listen, I’m not saying I come to you with a slingshot and some stones. I come to you in the name and the name of the God, the Lord of hosts the god of the armies of Israel whom you have defiled. The name is greater than the weapons. If David just came with the weapons he would only get. But so far David said, look, I have weapons and I have the name and because the name is on my side I can win this thing. No weapon that’s formed against us shall succeed. Every tongue and judgment that rises up against us. The Lord shall refute Philippians. Chapter two for us worshiping now in in this day and age. The Lord Jesus the Christ says that the name of Jesus every knee and every every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue shall confess that jesus christ is Lord. But all the assembly may know. David said that the Lord saves not with a sword and a spear for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand. David was the giant and he was able to realize that he was not gonna lose because he realized it wasn’t his battle to lose. It’s the Lord’s battle. He said, look this is this battle is the Lord’s. I may be the vessel he’s using to get the victory, but this is his battle and it’s going to go his way. He trusted the Lord as he walked onto that battlefield and he won the battle, he walked onto that field slingshot in hand, he told that giant, I will kill you where you stand. Not because I’m the man, but because my God is king, not because I’m the man, but because my God is king. Mhm. And that’s the posture that we have to take because often we can look at the giants, we can look at the situation and we can say, oh you know, we got this ha ha I don’t know it’s our God, that’s king and you defeated that giant with the stone and with the sling. And so for us, it’s important to know, to know our giant, to know ourself to know our God in the midst of everything that we’re facing in the midst of the giants that are looming. I know that God is with us. God is for us because he’s with us, because he’s for us, we are more than conquerors and we can walk into any situation with the same confidence that David had. That confidence was not just David’s because oh, he’s in the bible. So he has to No, no, no, the same God that was with David is the same God, that’s with us. And our giants may not. Yeah, we can give God praise for that are Giants may not be physical giants that we may face. Uh, looming figures in in in a big battle. But the same principle applies maybe in spiritual battle, it may be an emotional giant. It may be a physical uh, physical ailment and maybe some financial trouble that maybe some relational trouble. But God is for us. God is with us. But we need to take that we need to take the time to know, to know our giant know our situation, know what we’re in. We’re dealing with some things that we need to be be uh, take the steps to better understand what we’re dealing with. So, no, your giant. Don’t just say, oh, this little struggle is what I’m doing. And and you do no research on it. You do know, uh, looking on how to get out of financial hardships. You know, And I think it’s important for us to say, okay, we need to know this, know your giant, know yourself, know your strengths. But then also one of the things that I didn’t say here was your weaknesses as well, know your weaknesses as well. And they know your God take your time to invest in the study of scripture and in having their relational depth. That the thing that separated David from the rest of the pack was his intimacy with the Lord. He may not have been the strongest warrior on that field that day, but he knew that his God was with him because he had been tested. He had a relationship with the Lord. And that was what not only saved him, but Israel that day. So for us, let’s understand that knowledge is power. And let’s walk out in that Amen man. Let’s give God praise. Thank you Lord, thank you father. Dear God, I thank you for who you are for who you have called us to be, be our strength as we fight the battles. You’ve called us to fight. Help us to know that you are more than able to give us the victory. More than able to silence the giants in our lives more than able God to give us hope beyond the grave, the last enemy to be defeated, his death. So God, I thank you, father. That we can live this life with no fear that we can live this life knowing that you are more than able to sustain us. More than able to rise us up to be the giants, the men and women that you’ve called us to be the sons and daughters, you’ve called us to be. I pray Lord that we would surrender to you. We thank you, we praise you. We give you praise honor and glory. We ask all these things in jesus name and everyone said Amen, Amen and amen. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you if you’re listening or you’re here and you don’t know, jesus christ I’m gonna ask you to raise your hand. If you’re here, you don’t know jesus or you can send a text to saved. So the number at the bottom of your screen you can text saved to the number at the bottom of your screen. If you here, you don’t know jesus anyone here. Alright dear God I thank you so much for your people. Sons and daughters be with us, strengthen us, help us to do the work to know that you are with us that you are for us. We thank you praise you. We give you glory. We ask all these things in jesus name. Amen and Amen. God bless you. Thank you. Hello again and thank you so much for tuning in to the message at Global seven. Once again my name is roderick caesar the third, the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle. My prayer is that you were blessed and encouraged by the message. And if you want to contribute and give to the ministry, you can text b g t f i 277977 again, you can text 277977. We’re so thankful for you and my prayer is that God will continue to strengthen and empower and encourage you as you listen to this message, we hope you tune again later and God bless you. Thank you so much.