Faithful Promises Pt. 3

Okay, well good morning. We have anybody that's visiting with us today, I just want to say hello, give you a personal hello. Anybody day visiting, one back here. All right, good to have you today.

Thank you. One in the back, all right, good to have you. Welcome. I'm Pastor Fred and we're just happy to have you with us today.

We're family here so we do not have a membership that you have to go through. If you attend here, we consider you a family, we consider you a member of our local body of Christ, so we're glad to have you with us. Just a couple announcements. For this week, tomorrow night we have 6 p.m.

We have our monthly prayer night called the Well and Curtis Pulaski will be leading that so tomorrow night, prayer night and that will be at 6 p.m. And then Tuesday night we have discipleship level 301. If you missed 101 and 201, it's okay. It's okay.

You can still come out. You don't have to. It's not like you. There's prerequisites.

I just want to thank Pastor Seth for filling the last two weeks and I've been traveling and he started it off with, I think the first lesson in 301 was the divine flow and then the second lesson was using the gifts to minister. And then this week, this Tuesday night, this week's lesson is called that the miracles glorify God. We're going to talk about the miraculous a little bit this Tuesday night. I think you'll enjoy it if you come out.

You want to learn more about miracles and how they operate. I think it'd be really good. All right, not for that. Who's ready for the word today?

Yes, I am. I am too. So last week I preached a message from a passage I never preached before which was from Daniel and Daniel, we call it Daniel in the lines then and I just wanted to pick up on a few things that Pastor Seth preached on two weeks ago and then kind of carry his series with his called Faithful Promises, Trusting God's Covenant and Keeping Ours. And so last week I got stirred up in Africa to talk about lions because I'd seen some many lions and then this week my wife and I are laying in bed and we're watching a movie called Beast 2022, probably a B movie, anybody ever seen that?

So it's a family, this guy, he loses his wife, he takes his two daughters to South Africa and they go on a safari and they encounter this lion that's gone rogue and he is really one bad dude. So not the kind of movie you want to watch as you're trying to fall asleep. That was the mistake I made, more of like a middle of the day, Friday evening talk movie, not one where you're laying in bed trying to relax. But anyway, so I got stirred up about lions again and I used the same slide and today I want to talk about David and Goliath, another passage that I've actually never preached from as far as a message, as far as I know and of course you're like well why don't you have a picture of a giant up there, anybody know why?

Because David's defeat of a Goliath actually started with a lion, it actually started when he was tending his father sheep. And so when we talk about this the Faithful Promises, Trusting God's Covenant and oh my gosh just you're blank, I'm sorry. Trusting God's promises and keeping our commitment, right? I'm sorry.

Keeping our trust in God's covenant and keeping ours. Oh my gosh, when you guys are going to help me out today, you're going to have to help me out a little bit. So when I think about David and when we look at 1 Samuel 17 we're not going to be able to read the entire chapter because it's like 50 some verses. We're going to take the middle of the story from the time that he arrives, his father sends him to the battlefield up to the very point where he engages with Goliath.

You guys all know the story that he picked up five smooth stones and it's laying and he wings it, hits the giant head and the stone sinks and he picks the sword and cuts his head off. So we're not going to get to that part. So spoiler alert, we're not going there. But I just want to talk about a few things in David's life today.

I had about eight or nine and I had to whittle it down to three. And so as you're facing giants in your life, as you're facing obstacles in your life, as you're facing the attack of the enemy in your life, there's some things about David that I just want to point out today. So what we know about David is David was not only a man of faith, like he trusted God, but he was also a faithful man. You realize there's a difference between being a man or woman of faith and being a faithful man or woman.

So I've told you this before that faith answers the question, can you trust God? Faithful or faithfulness answers the question, can God or other people trust you? So one is, can you trust God, but do you demonstrate things in your life that people would consider you faithful, that God would consider you faithful? Can he trust you to keep your word, to do what you say you're going to do?

And we see this in the life of David. So not only when David's talking to Saul, I'll go to the next slide, when David's talking to Saul, he says this, he says, I'll go out and fight, I'll fight, I'll do my part, but I also trust that God will deliver Goliath into my hand. So there's this aspect where he knows that the battle is the Lord, he knows that God is the one that he puts his faith and trust in, but at the same time he realizes there's something that he has to do. He has to step out and keep his end of what he's committed to do.

He said I'll go fight, he does his part. And a lot of times what happens, we're going to talk about covenant here in a little bit. Unfortunately the covenant of grace that we're under today is what's called a unilateral or one-sided covenant, which means if I don't keep my part, God still keeps his. That it's not dependent at all on what I do.

That's not how the old covenant worked, the old covenant worked under the law that if I did good I got good, if I did bad I got good. It was dependent on my performance, but that's not where we're under today. But here's what happens a lot of times. Even though we're under the covenant of grace, and even though we're in covenant with God, and even though it doesn't depend on us, a lot of people end up falling into, we'll call it laziness.

Or even sin. Because you're like, well, if it doesn't depend on me, then I can go do what I want. And actually you could. Paul said that's not the purpose of this, we sinned, no, we shouldn't.

But here's the thing is you still have responsibilities when you're in a covenant. When you're in a covenant with somebody, there are responsibilities that you have. Now if you drop them, God still keeps his, but that's not your excuse to drop them. See, a lot of times people just use that as an excuse.

They get lazy like, no, no, no, no, no, no, what's the matter? But I want you to see that all that David was in covenant with God. They had a relationship where God had his back. He still did what he committed to do.

He still did things that he was considered faithful. And so I want to look at three things today. I want to look at what's going to be called. We're going to look at the command.

And the command is this, is that how David submitted to, you guys are going to love this, submitted and obeyed authority. Are those in authority over him? I got two laughs out of that. Everybody else is like, oh my gosh.

Now we're going to look at command. How he submitted to and ultimately obeyed those in authority over them. We're going to look at covenant. How he saw the enemy.

He saw things through the eyes of covenant. And it'll change the way you see the battlefield. And then also the third thing we'll look at is confidence, how he spoke about the God that he served. So command, how he submitted to those in authority over him.

Covenant, how he saw the battle or how he saw the enemy. And then confidence, how he spoke about the God that he served. So if you have your Bibles, I'd encourage you to turn to 1 Samuel chapter 17. And we're going to read like verses, I think, 17 through 40.

So it's going to be a little lengthy in the passage. But I'll break it up like I did last week. So we'll read some and then we'll talk some and then we'll read some and talk some. So the first thing, the command, in verse 20 it says this before we read it, it says David rose early in the morning.

Go back. David rose early in the morning, took the things and went as Jesse had commanded him. So if we look at 1 Samuel chapter 17, we're going to start with verse 17 that says this. It says then, Jesse said to his son David, take now your brothers, an ephah of dried grain in these ten loaves and run to your brothers at the camp and carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand and see how your brothers spare and bring back the news of them.

Now Saul and they, speaking of his brothers and all the men of Israel were in the valley of the Ela fighting with the Philistines. So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with the keeper and took the things and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the camp as the army was going out to the fight and shouting for the battle. See, I don't know, they went too far.

What's the next slide? Oh yeah, there we go. So and he came to the camp and his army was going out fighting for the battle for Israel and the Philistines had drawn up in battle array, army against army and David left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper, ran to the army and came and greeted his brother. So what do we see here?

So here's David. David's keeping sheep for his dad and his dad says, I want you to go to the battle. I want you to take some cheese. I want you to take some grain.

I want you to take some bread. I want you to go to the battle. See what's going on in the back and report. And it's said and David got up early in the morning and he left his sheep with the keeper.

So here's what happens a lot of times. When we get an assignment, we drop the ball on the assignment we currently have. See, what happens is when God gives you another assignment, you need to make sure the one that you're walking away from has been taken care of properly. We just don't walk away from a job that God gave us and let things drop to the floor.

It said that David got up early, but he also made sure that his sheep were under the care of somebody else. Like he's not going to let that drop. And it says that he did exactly as Jesse had said, Jesse being his dad and said he went to the battlefield. Now think about this.

What could David have said? Do you remember what happened in 1 Samuel 16? In 1 Samuel 16, Samuel, he's weeping and depressed that Saul is no longer going to be king. God says quit your bellyache.

Now what you do in the new king says to Jesse, bring me your kids and he brings Eli of the oldest. The next one, the next one, God says none of these are the ones. Matter of fact, when Samuel sees the first one, he says oh my gosh, this guy is handsome. This is the man.

And God says don't look on the outward appearance because man looks on the outward appearance, but what God looks on the heart. He said I've actually rejected him. This is not the one. And after he goes through seven kids, he says to Jesse, he says do you have anybody else?

He says yeah, I got my son David, he keeps the sheep. He says bring him here. When Samuel sees him, the Lord says that's him. And it says he anoints him with oil in the midst of his brothers.

So here's David, he is anointed to be king. He has an anointing to be king of Israel on his life. He's been anointed publicly in front of his brothers, in front of his dad, in front of the prophet. And here's his dad, it says hey, I want you to go take cheese to your brothers.

Do you know who I am? Do you know who I am? I am the anointed one. I will be king one day.

I was anointed in front of my brothers. It also tells us in chapter 16 that Saul, when the spirit of the Lord left Saul, a distressing spirit came from the Lord and Saul couldn't sleep. And he said to his people, he said I need somebody to help him soul me and could play a harp. And they said we know a guy.

We know a guy. And they said he's a valiant man, he's a man of war. He also plays the harp and they called David. And they said David was actually Saul's musician.

Saul loved David and Saul even made David his armor bearer. David could have said this, I'm not only anointed, I'm already the king's musician. I'm already the king's armor bearer. And you want me to go serve the people that I'm going to actually lead one day.

What I learned from this is that you're anointing no matter how great in your life is never a hall pass to not submit to those in authority over you. See David was anointed at a level of kingship, not his dad, not his brothers, but when his dad who he was in submission to gave him a command, it said he obeyed. He submitted. He actually did what his dad said even though he could have made all these excuses.

See, I see in the body of Christ I see people with such great anointing sometimes, but because they step out of authority that God has placed them under, that they fumbled and faltered and never actually get to the level that God wants them to get to. So David, he has this anointing for kingship, but at the same time he still submits to his dad. See, it was submission and not following the command of the Lord that cost Saul the kingdom. In 1 Samuel 13 verses 13 and 14, if you remember the story another time when the Israelites are fighting the Philistines and they want to offer a sacrifice before the battle is getting bad.

And Samuel tells Saul he says this, he says, don't offer the sacrifice do I get back, I'll be back in seven days. David waits seven days, but he doesn't wait the whole seven days, he just waits part of the day and I'm sorry David, Saul. And Saul, it's like, well he must not be coming back, bring the sacrifice, I'm going to offer it myself. And it says, as soon as he offered it, guess who walked up?

Samuel did. And here's what he said to Saul, in 1 Samuel 13, he said, Samuel said to Saul, you made a fullest choice, everybody say that, fullest choice. You have not obeyed the commandment the Lord your God gave you. Had you done that, the Lord would have established your kingdom of Israel forever.

Do you realize that one act of disobedience of not submitting to the prophet at the time? Actually, not only cost Saul the kingdom, but his entire legacy. Like God never would have chose David had Saul of aid. It would have been that Jesus Christ of the house and lineage of Saul.

It never would have been of the house and lineage of David, because Saul was the God. Verse 14, it says, now your kingdom will not continue. The Lord has sought for himself a man who is loyal to him and the Lord has appointed him to be leader of his people, free of not abated what the Lord commanded you. Do you realize when Saul was disobedient?

God saw David's obedience on the backside of a pastor somewhere? As he said, I'm seeking a man that I've already appointed to be leader. Like he's out there. Here's David being obedient to his father from the time he's a youth.

He doesn't realize that that's what's developing him to one day be a leader of the entire nation. But God says, I saw the man, another time he says, a man after my heart or loyal to my heart or somebody loyal to me who I have appointed to be leader. I think about a lot of times. I think about why I've really been chewing on this for a long time.

So give me a little grace, okay? I'm fleshing this out publicly really for the first time. I've been chewing on why do I see people in say in church or in the body of Christ or in Christian circles who are obedient or submissive for a period of time but then sometimes when something shifts or changes or things get too tough they run. Do you know anybody like that?

Has that ever been you? Okay. So I've really been asking the Lord, why do I see people serve and serve well and submit well and honor those that they're under but then all of a sudden they break off. I really think the difference is obedience that's rooted in submission versus obedience that's rooted in surrender.

So I just want to preface this. I grew up in a Baptist church. I grew up singing the old hands of the faith. We'd stand up and sing free stands as a I surrender all to Jesus.

I surrender all to Him. I freely give. I've heard that old him. Or maybe the more modern Hillsong version is I surrender.

I want more of you. You've heard that song. But as I think about this, surrender is stopping resistance. Surrender is to stop resisting an enemy or an opponent.

Who do people serve? If you're in war, you don't surrender to your fellow warrior. Who do you surrender to when the battle is over? The enemy.

When somebody in battle surrenders to the enemy and the enemy takes them captive, then my wife she loves watching World War II movies, I humor her all the time. Jewish World War II, like that's her space. We had to watch another one the other day. She says I liked it.

But what was that one about? You don't remember? It was about the guys. I know what it was.

It was about the Japanese, the guy in Japan, the emperor in Japan that actually surrendered after we dropped the atomic bomb. So what happens when an enemy surrenders to another enemy? They take them captive and they become prisoners of war. Or if you get captured in the middle of a battle, the fight's going on, you get captured, the whole battle's not over yet.

You become a POW. I'm in prison. What am I trying to do? I may have, oh, I surrender.

But the first chance I get, what am I going to do? I'm going to run, right? I'm not staying in the POW camp. So you only surrender when you have no options left.

Let me tell you this. Jesus is not your enemy. The father is not your enemy. Even when you're unsaved, he's not your enemy.

Paul says this, he said, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their sins unto them, which means reconcile means to restore to friendship. Even when you were unsaved, God was your friend. And so I think what happens a lot of times when we obey out of surrender, which means we have no other options, it's okay. And true change can happen.

But I think obedience that's rooted in surrender because you have no other options, what happens as soon as you have other options? Obedience rooted in submission so you can't submit unless you have other options. See, if I'm going to submit to somebody, submit means to yield willingly. It means to come under, to subject myself to, to do it willingly.

It means that I don't have to. I'm not forced to, but I choose to. And so I think there's this thing of when I willingly choose to submit, when I don't have to, that it becomes a more solid characteristic in my life. See if I can learn how to submit when I have options, if more options get added, I've already passed that test.

But when I obey because I have to, as soon as options appear, then I have the tendency to go run after that option. Does that make sense? So I know we sing about surrender, but you know surrender doesn't appear in the New Testament at all, but submit appears a whole lot. I know we say it.

I know you're like, well, it's just a word. I get it. But I think words actually mean things. And I think when you speak things, they begin to take root in your life and you just, you act, you may not even know it.

You may not even know it. You might be subconscious. Look at this. It says in Hebrews, chapter 13, it says obey your leaders and submit to them for they watch over your soul.

So there's this thing about obedience and submission that David had in his life. Like he, he, he, he had options. He had options. He laid his options down and submitted to the one that was in authority over.

First Peter, chapter 5, verse 5 says this, next slide. It says, younger people submit yourself to elders, be submissive one to another and be clothed with humility. You know what? That's what it takes.

Like David could have been, do you know who I am? Do you know who you're talking to? Do you know what I've been anointed to do? He had options, but he humbled himself.

It said that, close with humility for God, resist the proud, give grace to humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. And here's the thing, God has a time for you. David had a time to be king, but it wasn't them. And until the time that God elevated him, what did he do?

He went low. We go, it's like, you know, God, it says humble yourself. Go low yourself. Submit on your own.

And it says, when you actually submit on your own, you're putting yourself under God's powerful hand. And then when you do that, he lifts you up. He'll put you there at the due season, at the right time. But until that time comes, I think the example from David is this.

That when you have somebody in authority over you, whether it's a, you know, whatever the ministry leader, your boss at work, whatever it might be, submit. You submit. You lay aside and you do the right thing. And God will, God will take care of the rest.

The covenant. So here's the way, you know, here's the big thing, really we're talking about that trusting God's covenant. So here's what David says. He says in 1st Samuel 1726, he says, who is this?

Go back. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? He circumcision.

Let me know what circumcision is. Do we need a lesson in circumcision today? We're all good. Can I get an amen?

Gentlemen. See in Genesis chapter 12, God talks to Abraham. Genesis 12, 1 through 3. He pronounces a blessing.

He says, I will bless you and you will be a blessing. I'll make your name great and through you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. And nations will come out of you. Right?

And then it goes on and Abraham doesn't have a kid. And then you get to Genesis chapter 15. And then Abraham says, what can you give me saying? I go childless.

And God says, I'm going to make a covenant with you. And then he says, I want you to bring a ram. I want you to bring a goat. I want you to bring a bull.

Some pyridal dove. Some pigeons. And I want you to cut them in half. And I want you to lay them on either side.

They didn't cut the birds. You just got the animals. And what they would do at that time, the word covenant actually comes from the word that means to cut. It means to cut.

And so if you ever heard of it, like cutting a covenant. And so what they would do, they'd cut these animals. And then the two people that were making a party. So a lot of times maybe it would be an agricultural family, like somebody that farms.

And then maybe you have a warrior family. And they would say, hey, we can protect you. And you can feed us. Let's get together and make a covenant.

And I'll bring something to the table. You bring something to the table. We're going to cut it in blood. And then we're going to walk between the pieces of animal to ratify it.

It becomes a blood covenant. And that's not like the mafia where they cut you. And you've got to do that. But they'd walk between these animals.

But when Abraham cuts the animals, that's what's called a bilateral or two party agreement. Like I'm making a covenant with you. You're making a covenant with me. I've got rights.

You've got rights. I've got responsibilities. You've got responsibilities. If I break covenant, the covenant's broke.

If you break covenant, the covenant's broke. It's a two party agreement made by two people. But the covenant God made with Abraham was this. Abraham falls asleep.

And while Abraham's asleep, God in the form of a smoking oven and a fiery torch. What does that remind you of? The children of Israel said that he was a pillar, a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. Here's God as a smoking oven and a fiery torch going through the pieces of cut animal on his own.

God made a covenant with Abraham. Abraham was asleep. And God made himself bound to the covenant to keep it on Abraham's behalf. That's called a one party or unilateral covenant.

In Genesis 17, God says to Abraham, He says, I want to ratify this and I want to give you a sign. And here's the sign of the covenant. What is it? I want you to go out and cut.

I don't know why I just did that. Like, circum means around. He said, I want you to circumcise. He said, I want you to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, not just you, but everybody in your house, your servants, and anybody that's attached to you.

And he said, circumcision will be the sign of the covenant. Every time you go to the restroom, you're going to see it. Every time you're intimate with your wife. They're going to be reminded of this covenant every day.

And I don't know if today, then circumcision was not irreversible. Maybe today, I don't know. But it's a permanent reminder. I don't know.

There's surgeries I don't even know about. I'll leave that to somebody else. So he says, I'm sure Abraham, so he's 99 years old when God says I want you to go cut the skin off. If I'm Abraham, I'll be like, well, what about Noah?

He got a rainbow. Like, can't, can't, can't, can't, can't I, can I get a rainbow? Like, it seems so much easier. God says, now you're going to circumcise yourself.

And he said that circumcision will be the sign of the covenant. It's the thing that reminds you that I made a covenant with you. The covenant is bound by me and my word, which cannot fail. And no matter what you do, I'm going to keep it.

Even if you drop the ball, I'm going to keep it because it's not dependent on you. That's the covenant. And so 1 Samuel 17 verse 23 says this. It says, then as he talked with them, there was the champion, Folicene of Gaph, Goliath by name coming up from the armies of the Folicene, and so he spoke according to the same words.

And David heard them. David heard the word. So what, here's the giant. He's saying, bring me a man.

Get a man. For 40 days. He stood out there. The armies are in battle array facing each other and Goliath steps up and says, hey, give me a man.

He and I will fight. If he kills me, we'll serve you. If I kill him, you'll serve me. And for 40 days, they've heard it.

David gets there on one day. And David hears something in one day that doesn't sit right with him. But everybody else, for some reason, 40 days, they've ignored that they have a covenant with God. It says verse 24, all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were dreadfully afraid.

I want you to get this. When they saw the man. Right? When they saw the man.

Verse 25 says, so when the men of Israel said, have you seen this man? Now, what did they do? They saw the man. And then they turned to David and said, have you seen this guy?

Well, duh. What a dumb question. Like, of course David saw the man. Here's Goliath.

He's nine foot. Nine inches tall. Nine feet, nine inches. It says that the coat of mail or his coat of armor weighed 125 pounds.

His spearhead almost. His spearhead was like it says a weaver's beam, which is think of a four by four post. If you can imagine a four by four post, how big that is, and it says the spearhead was 15 pounds almost. So if you take the spearhead and the beam itself of the spear was probably close to 30 pounds.

And he calls out for 40 days. And they said, of course, they said, have you seen the guy? Well, duh. Who hasn't seen him?

You can't miss him. It says, have you seen this man who's come up? Surely he's come up to defy Israel. And it shall be that the man who kills in the king will enrich with great ridges, will give him his daughter, give him his father's house, exemption from taxes in Israel.

That's a Benny right there. You get the king's daughter, you get a bunch of money, and you don't have any taxes. That's a pretty good deal. It says, then Daniel spoke to the man who stood by him saying, what shall be done for the man who kills the Flician and takes away the reproach from Israel?

For who is this, say this, uncircumcised Flician that he should defy the armies of living God? And the people answered him and the man are saying, so shall be done for the man. Next slide. Now, a lot of his old brother, when he spoke to him, and the lives of Angles and Rows against David, he said, why did you come down here?

With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride, the insolence of your heart for you have come down to see the battle. And David said, what have I not done? Now, some translations say, did I just ask a question?

But actually, the word there is debar, which means word. He said, isn't there a word? Don't we have a word from God? Don't we have a cause?

Don't we have a reason to do something? Like for 40 days, nobody's doing anything. And David hears this thing one day and says, hey, I'm not just asking questions for my own good. We have a reason.

There's a cause to do something. And it says he turned from them to where another and said the same things and the people answered him as the first ones did. Next slide. Now, in the words of David spoke word, the scriptable beard, before them saw, and he sent for him, and then David said to saw, let no man's heart fail because of him, your servant will go and fight with this Flician.

And Saul said to David, you are not able to go up against this Flician to fight against him for your youth. And he is a man of war from his youth. Get this. David, in talking to the men of the army, they were focused on what?

The size of the enemy. Have you seen this guy? He's not. I'm sure men do stories grow.

Fish stories. And Kristin says I typically fib in the pulpit when I tell stories about her. I call it poetic license. You know you get the stretch through it a little bit.

But no. And so they're like the story is getting bigger. And have you seen this guy? Oh, he's.

And of course David's seen. The men in the battle are looking at the size of the problem. But the king's pointing out something else. Have you seen how small you are?

Have you looked in the mirror lately David? See either way you can get in the ditch. See sometimes we turn our focus to the size of the problem and how big it is. And we get around other people who can like continue to reinforce the size of the problem.

Oh my gosh. Oh man, you're never going to get over that. You're never going to recover from that. There's no cure for that.

Did you see the size of that sickness? Did you see the size of that separation? Whatever it is. And you'll be reinforced by people who want to magnify the size of the issue.

But then there's other people you get around and they want to point out how small of a person you are. Well, you're not qualified. You haven't been to seminary. Have you only been to Christian for two weeks?

Or have you never faced anything this big in your past before? He says, if you look in the mirror David, you're but a youth. And this man's been a warrior since his years. Either way is not the way that David faced the battle.

What David said, I don't see the size of the problem. I see the size of the covenant that I'm in with God. He saw through the covenant. Because when he looked at, when he didn't say, who is this 9 foot 9 man that carries a 15 pound sword, a head of a sword and wears 125 pounds of armor.

He didn't say that. He said, who's this uncircumcised Philiste? See what's he saying? All I see is somebody, oh, by the way, Philiste means immigrant.

Who is this uncircumcised immigrant? All I see is somebody who's outside of the covenant that we have with God. I don't see a problem. I don't see 9 foot 9 inches.

I don't see the armor. I don't see the javelin. I just see somebody or something that's outside of the covenant. And the covenant that I have, the covenant that is based on circumcision is one where no matter what I do, God will do as part.

And that God signed the deal with his own blood. That's the covenant that I have. See in the New Testament, circumcision Paul talks about, it's not circumcision that saves you physically, but there's a spiritual circumcision that the Holy Spirit does when you accept Jesus that he cuts off the flesh around your heart, that he circumcises your heart, that he makes it new, that he takes off what's bad. And it's a reminder that you're in covenant with the one that can win and has won every battle.

So it says this in Ephesians chapter 2. Paul says, therefore remember you once Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by what is circumcision made in the flesh by hands. That's a little wordy, but basically he's saying you Gentiles were called uncircumcised by the Jews, and the Jews consider themselves circumcised because of the physical circumcision. So the Jews, the circumcision, we call the Gentiles the uncircumcised.

He says in verse 12, at that time, so at the time before you were circumcised, you were without Christ. Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, commonwealth means this, it means the right of citizenship. Now I get that, I probably shouldn't go here. Pray on it, Holy Spirit, just talking general terms.

When I go to another country, what's my citizenship? They always ask me when I fail in my paperwork, what's your country of citizenship? I put USA or United States, America. The rights of citizenship of the United States don't do me any good when I was in Tanzania two weeks ago because I have to be a citizen of that country.

I can be in that country, but I don't have the rights of citizenship. I'm considered an alien. Like I'm an alien, I'm illegally there, but I'm alienated. I'm separated from the rights that those citizens have.

It says before you had Christ, you were aliens from the rights of citizenship with Israel. Strangers of the covenant of promise. You didn't even know what the covenants were. There were covenants of promise that God made with Israel that you're now entitled to, but you didn't even know them.

Having no hope and without God in the world. That was the state before you got saved and accepted Jesus. But Paul says, but now in Christ you were once who were far off and brought here by the blood of Christ. Which means this, if that was then and this is now, that means now I'm with Christ.

That means I'm no longer an alien that I do have a covenantal right to the promises made that God made through that covenant. That I do have the rights of citizenship that I am with God and that I do have hope. Like all the things that were negative and verse, go back there. All the things negative and verse 12 now become positive because of verse 13.

Paul says this in Colossians chapter 2. Next slide. He says, in him dwells the fullness or dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bylates. Talk about in Christ.

In Christ is the fullness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bylates. And you, say me, me and you are complete in him who is the head of all Prince of Howlty and Paul. Like that's your covenant right.

You're in Christ. The fullness of the Godhead is in Christ. You're in Christ. There's nothing missing in your life.

See, that's the eyes with which you have to see your issues. See, people can say, look how big it is. Or look how small you are. You know what I'm saying?

I'm complete in Christ. In him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bylates. Like I'm in Christ. The fullness of the Godhead is in him and I'm in him.

And I'm complete. There's nothing missing in me. There's a whole lot missing in that problem I'm facing. And there's a whole lot missing in what you're trying to tell me that I'm not or what I used to be.

But I am right now I'm in Christ and I'm complete. And God did this. He said to seal the covenant just like you did with Abraham. It says you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hand by putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

So what do you say? I made a covenant with you. I made a covenant with you through my son Jesus. And when you accepted me, I signed it or give you a sign of that covenant the same way I did with Abraham.

And I circumcised your heart. You have a sign and a guarantee that you're in covenant with God. See, when I realize who I'm in covenant with and the rights that I have because of that covenant, the problems don't seem so significant in me. They might look like it to somebody else.

But I'm going to say this. All I see is uncircumcised cancer. All I see is uncircumcised fill in the blank. Because whatever it is is outside of the covenant that you have with Jesus.

Here's what I'll tell you before we cover the last point. Everybody on that battlefield was in covenant. You realize that? The covenant God made with Abraham was for all of Israel.

Everybody on the battlefield was in covenant. But not everybody in the battlefield was under the covenant. Think about it like this. If I give you an umbrella, that umbrella is great.

You have it. It's in your possession. But if it starts raining and you just keep walking around with it like this, you're not under it. And so everybody on the battlefield was in covenant with God, but only David actually recognized it and appropriated it and did something about it.

See, the problem with a lot of Christians is every single believer of Jesus who's put their faith in him is in covenant with Christ. But we don't appropriate what he's paid for. See, we're in covenant, but not under the covenant. It's just like when I get married to Christ in this wedding ring is not my marriage.

What is it? It's a sign or a symbol that I'm married, right? I see a lot of married men that are in covenant with their wife, but then you go somewhere on Friday night and they're not living like they're in covenant. They're not under the covenant.

They're in, but they're not under. See, the ring is just a symbol. The circumcision is a symbol that's something greater. It points to something greater.

You've got this thing that God has given you that nothing can stand against. He backs it. All right, the last one is this. Confidence.

David says, I come to you in the name of the Lord, verse 45, 46. I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, and the God of the Hamas of Israel, this David Lord would deliver you into my hand and I will strike and take your head from you. So let's read this passage. It says, David said to Saul, so this is after Saul hears that David's asking questions, says, hey, bring this guy here.

It says, David said to Saul, your servant used to keep his father's sheep and when a lion or bear came and took the lamb out of the flock, I went after it and struck it and delivered it, the lamb from its mouth. Just imagine that. I was just around lions. I've always grown up saying you don't want to poke the bear, right?

Don't poke the bear. What happens when you poke the bear? The bear gets mad. There's David.

He said, when a lion or a bear would come into my sheep fold and take one, I'd go after it and whack him. Then I'd deliver it and he would get the lamb back. But then he goes a step farther as if that wasn't enough. He stirred something up, I think, when he did that.

He said, and took the lamb out of the flock. I went after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth. And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard. No, here's the thing.

In your natural strength, you're not going to catch a lion by a beard and strike it and kill it. It's impossible. So here's a man that was anointed by the Holy Spirit that had walked in the supernatural when nobody was looking. On the backside of a field somewhere, he learned how to trust God to the degree where he could grab a lion.

Like, you're pretty close if you can grab a lion's beard. Like right here. Boom. And killed it.

Like, you can't just kill a lion with a strike. That was God. It was God doing the supernatural. Here's David trusting God.

Okay, God. I got the lion. I got a stick. Now what?

Hit it. You know, what we, like, you don't have to worry about, like, the supernatural. You do the natural. You do what God has given you to do.

He's got a stick. He's got a hand. He strikes it. And God does the super part.

He said, I went after it and delivered it out of its mouth when it rose against me. I caught it by the beard and struck it and killed it. You're serving it, killed both the lion and bear and started to circumcise. We'll be like one of them seeing he has to file the armies of the living God.

Next slide. Moreover, David said, the Lord who delivered me from the Paul of the lion and from the Paul of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this list. And Saul said to David, go and the Lord be with you. I think it's interesting when Saul, Samuel anoints David in chapter 16 and says he anoint him with the oil and the Lord was with him from that day forward.

And here's, here's Saul that doesn't recognize. He's saying, hey, the Lord be with you brother. Well, the Lord's already with me. You know, Saul didn't recognize it, but it says that the sphere of the Lord was with him from that day forward.

Saul didn't see the anointing that was on David's life, but it's amazing that he trusts David with the entire future of Israel. He did trust him to a degree. See, here's what, here's what, when David goes to Saul, he says, I know that God's going to deliver me from the hand of the flisty. How do I know?

How did David know that God was going to deliver him? Because he had delivered him. See, David had history with God. That when the lion came, God delivered him from the Paul of the lion.

When the bear came, God delivered him from the Paul of the bear. And when the flisty came, it's just another uncircumcised flisty. God's going to deliver me from the flisty. See, some of you need to have a history with God.

You need to have spent time with God in secret. Nobody saw God deliver David from the bear. Nobody saw God deliver David from the lion, but he did what God showed him to do in the secret place. See, David wasn't made on the battlefield that day.

He was revealed there. See, what was built in him took place with the lion. It took place with the bear. It took place that he built history with God.

See, what does Jesus say in Mark 4? He says, there's nothing secret or hidden that will not be revealed. See, there comes a time as you spent time doing those small things. The things that you think are insignificant.

That God's going to have a time that there's going to be a revealing. When the big test comes. Like, you don't get made in the big test. David just gets revealed in that middle of that test.

He's got some history with God. He's got, like Jesus said, if you're not faithful in that, which is least, you won't be faithful in that which is much. Like, how are you going to take on a giant, if you haven't taken on a bear, or have you taken on a lion? It takes some faithfulness.

It takes some history with God. The next thing he says, he says that to Saul. He says, let me tell you what was basically David doing. He was giving us testimony.

He was giving us testimony. Let me tell you about what Jesus did in my life. When I got up this morning, you can hear my voice is a little scratchy. I think I inhaled too much dust in Africa.

That's what the doctor told me. A lot of people inhaled a lot of things. I inhaled dust. But I could have sat at home and said, you know what, I'm not going to be able to preach.

I'm not going to have a voice. I don't know if I'm going to be able to do it. But I told Seth this this morning, I've got history with God. I know that every time I have ever opened my mouth to preach, I don't care if I've had the flu.

I don't care if I've literally had no voice one time. And God brought it back. I've got a history that I know when I stand up today, I don't care how my voice sounded when I left the house, or how much coughing I was doing. I was coughing all morning.

I haven't cough since I started preaching. Because I know that God did it in the past. And I know that God will do it again. He's been faithful.

And David had a testament. So he tells us testimony to Saul, but he prophesied to the giant. He literally prophesied to the giant. He says this, oh, there's a Psalm 71.5 that says that you're my trust and my source of confidence.

Look at that. From my youth. See, David didn't build his confidence on the battlefield that day. He built his confidence in God by having history of time spent with God, seeing God deliver him in other things.

And the confidence didn't show up when he was old. He says, you've been my source for my confidence, since my youth. And it says, David said to the flistine, you come to me with a sword and a spear and with a javelin. I come to you in the name of the Lord of Host.

So we won't talk about this today, but you've ever heard of the term the Lord of Heaven's armies or the Lord of angel armies. That's what this is. And literally talking about the Lord Jehovah that is like the warrior God. That he is over everything.

That God is a mighty warrior that's over even the angelic. It says, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled this day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you and take your head from you this day. I will give the carcasses of the camp of the flistines to the birds of the earth and the wild beasts of the earth.

Then all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all the assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear for the battles of the Lord. And he will give you. I like how he chainseth here.

He'll give you into our hands. Initially he says, he's going to give you in my hand, but since we're all on the same team, if I get this victory, it's our victory. Like because we're all on the same team. And David in the end, he prophesied to the giant.

What does God tell Ezekiel to do to the bones? He says, can these bones live? Prophesy to the bone. Like when you have an issue in your life, speak to it.

Like you have the authority. If my lungs are not clear, lungs in the name of Jesus, breathe freely. Speak to it. Prophesy to it.

You will breathe freely in the name of Jesus. He tells the giant, I come to you in the name of the Lord of Host. See, you have Jesus has given you. He's not only given you a covenant, but he's given you the right to sign a check.

Like you can sign his name to the check. If he's paid for it. That doesn't mean you can say, in the name of Jesus. Let me win the lottery tonight.

I mean you could, but he didn't pay for the lottery. He paid for your forgiveness. He paid for your restoration. He paid for your physical healing.

He paid for your deliverance. He paid for all that. So anything that he paid for, you can say in the name of Jesus to you on circumcised Philistine, you're going down today. I'm going to feed your flesh to the birds today.

Like it's a certainty because David had history, but he knew that the God that protected him and delivered in the past would be the same God that delivered him in the future. It started. It started when he was young. Let's pray.