David, A Man of Uncommon Character - Mattie Montgomery

[Music] Thank you for listening to the Table Fellowship Podcast. We are a present-centered church community located in Southern California that seeks to gather the family, unite in worship and establish the kingdom. [Music] The table is ready for sons and daughters. [Music] And we know the Lord is the King is our Father. [Music] We believe that the best days of this church are ahead. We believe that God meant it when he said that our life in the kingdom would be one that goes from glory to glory and from faith to faith. We believe that the Lord meant it when he inspired Isaiah to write the words that there would be no end to the increase of his kingdom and his peace. And so since we have inherited a kingdom of perpetual increase, then we should perpetually be looking forward to what's next. Because what is happening now may be good and what happened five years ago may have been great, but we know that what is to come is greater in glory and in substance than anything we have experienced today. And so my hope, if I could do anything today, my hope would be to encourage you to look over the horizon with expectation and hope, knowing that what God is going to do is going to be greater than even the things that you've so longed to return back to. And so I want to read you this quote. This is one of my all-time favorite quotes. I'm sure Pastor Nate has heard me share this quote several dozen times. It's one of my all-time favorites is from Winston Churchill. And he says this, Winston Churchill, he writes, "To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offer the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour." I want to read that again to make sure that you hear it. "To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered a chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour." You know, I'm reminded of a young lady that came to our church for a while. She was actually on my leadership team and she was single and she wasn't getting any younger and she just really had it in her heart. She wanted to get married. She moved in faith out to East Tennessee to be a part of our team, but she was looking around. And let's be honest, it's probably true here when it comes to stable, single, attractive guys, the pickings were slim. And so she's looking around and she's not really finding much. And she tells me, "You know what? I want to get married. I don't really need to live here anymore. I'm moving to California. It's going to increase my chances of finding a husband." So she, we're like, "Okay, you know, I mean if that's what you need to do, a good luck to you." You know, honestly, unless you're a real big fish, the best thing to do is just stay in a smaller pond. And so it might have been better for her to decrease the amount of competition. You know what I'm saying? But she decided to move to California. So she packs up and she moves despite against our advice. And obviously we can't control where anybody lives, but she asked if I thought it was a good idea. And I said, "I love you. And if it's what you have to do, then it's what you have to do." But if you're asking me if I think it's the right thing to do, I don't think I can tell you that. And so she, you know, against my advice, she leaves and she packs up. And she leaves town on a Thursday. On Sunday, the handsomeist single guy from our church, an entrepreneur, a phenomenal young man, beautiful blue eyes, shows up to church. And he asked me where she's at. And I said, "Oh, she actually left on Thursday." And he said, "Man, I'm praying about it all week. I was going to ask her on a date today." Just, oh, what was it? 72 hours later, we're at church. She just missed it. What a tragedy Winston Churchill says. If that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour. See, we have to have this revelation. Last time I was here, I taught on the kingdom. We have to have this revelation. Isaiah 9 says, "There will be no end to the increase of his kingdom and his peace." That means that whatever degree of the manifestation of the kingdom of heaven that we experienced five years ago in a revival or at a youth camp or two years ago at a conference, no matter what degree of the manifestation or the experiential connection that we had with the reality of God's kingdom, no matter what kind of access we had. The truth is that there is more available today than there ever was before. And there will be more available tomorrow than there even is today. There is no end to the increase of his kingdom and his peace. And today in men's prayer, Pastor Nate was talking about how we do we transform pain into progress or do we transmit pain into other people. And I think that's a really important question for us to ask. All of us experience pain or loss or disappointment, frustration or offense in one way or another or at one time or another. All of us know what it feels like to suffer. But the question that is being asked to all of us is, are we going to be able to in the midst of our suffering or on the other side of our suffering to look again to the horizon and say, I don't like where I'm at, but I know that God is good. I know that God is faithful. And I know that what is to come is beyond imagination, beyond description, beyond expectation. Ephesians 3 says that God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all we could ask or imagine. And this is the reality, man. I stood on the stage in our church in East Tennessee and I said, before we started this church, my wildest prayers, my most ambitious and audacious prayers were less glorious than the reality we're living in right now. I would not have asked God for as much as He's given us as a church over these last. We just celebrated our third anniversary as a church. Over three years, I would not have asked God in 40 years for as much as He's given us in three. He has done exceedingly and abundantly above all we could ever ask or imagine. He has blown our mind at every turn. And I don't know that it's because we're especially qualified. All the people on my staff have degrees in pastoral ministry or in youth ministry. I've got two guys that have graduate degrees in chemistry for some reason, one with a PhD and one with two master's degrees. And I, of course, got kicked out of two colleges and then joined a hardcore band, which is not maybe like the best way to get started in ministry. I wouldn't recommend it, but God can use anybody. And if there's anyone I know that is a great example of that reality, it's me. God can use anybody. And so my, my hope and what I wanted to come and encourage you with today is this that if you find yourself prepared and qualified, you might just discover that this could be your finest hour. You might just discover that this could be your finest hour, that 10 years from now, you may say that in 2023, God awakened hope in this church. And we began to believe for God's sized dreams. That in 2023, maybe, maybe I walked into a church because I saw a post on Maddie Montgomery's Facebook page about it. And I used to listen to his band. And so I thought I'd come and see if I could get a picture, but I walked into this church and I found home. And now this is the place that I've been investing my, my heart, giving my life into it because, because God has, has brought us into a family. See, if we see this rightly, if we understand the principles of God's kingdom appropriately, what we will discover is that we are always right on the verge of the greatest manifestation of His kingdom we've ever experienced. Some of us have experienced some amazing things, but if we're going to go from glory to glory, it's not to take away from the glory we've experienced. It was glory. It was glorious in every way. But man, I'm excited. If that's as important as it is, it's not. If that's how glorious the past was, I cannot wait to see how glorious the future is going to be. Amen? And so I want to talk about a young man whose faith awakened the possibility of a brighter future. I want to talk about a young man in the scriptures named David. You all ever heard of him? Maybe, maybe once or twice. Good. So David's name, you should know this about David, okay? Because this is, I'm convinced, a defining reality in David's life. Does anybody know how many brothers David had? He had twice that many. Six, is that what I heard? Your guess is good as mine, honestly. I can't remember. Thanks, bud. It's David, the youngest of seven brothers, that sounds right, he, David, the youngest of seven brothers, when Samuel the prophet comes to Jesse's house, David's father's house, because he has a word from the Lord to annoy the next king of Israel, Saul's successor. He comes to Jesse's house with a flask of oil. He's ready to annoy the next king of Israel and he says, "Jesse, bring your sons." So Jesse brings his oldest six sons and he leaves David out in the field. Now some scholars would say that they believe that's because David was actually the product of infidelity on Jesse's part, that he was only a half brother to his brothers. He was his father's son, but that he had a different mother than the rest of his brothers. And I don't know that I can speak to that specifically, but I can say this, that for one reason or another, maybe it's because he was too young, maybe it's because he was too small, maybe it's because he was conceived in a way that was in disorder to the religious standards of their time, for one reason or another, David was excluded in Jesse's mind from the possibility that he could ever be anything significant. And so when the prophet of Israel came, he was not even invited to the meeting. And yet, despite it all, David's name was beloved. So this is so interesting to me, because David, who's forgotten and overlooked and ignored and underappreciated and unrecognized in every way, he's sitting out in the field, rehearsing the fact that his name is Dahavid. It's a Hebrew word that just means beloved. His name is beloved. Despite the fact that people don't see him, despite the fact that people don't value him, despite the fact that people don't honor him and they overlook and ignore him, he's still called beloved. And if I, well, maybe we just don't move off this subject all morning, maybe I just came to tell you this morning that you may feel invisible in the world, but it does not change your name. Your father still calls you beloved. That you may feel overlooked and unused and underappreciated. You may feel invisible in the world, but you still have a father who looks at you and calls you Dahavid. Beloved. He calls you precious. He says that you are welcome, that you are valuable, that you're beautiful to him. And so this boy named beloved, he's sitting out in the field, he's taking care of his father's sheep. And he, at one point, his father sends him out to to the battlefield to bring bread to his brothers. Now, what has happened is that the Philistine army has come down to camp out against Israel. They're on the opposite side of a valley from where the Israelite army is camped. And so you essentially have one full army camped on one hill and then a valley between them and another full army camped on the other hill. And every day, the Philistines, they send out their champion. They send out their champion. His name is Goliath. Maybe you've heard this story before. And they send out Goliath and he comes down into the valley. And every day he taunts the Israelites. He insults their God. He insults their king. He insults their character. And every day, he puts forth these stipulations for conflict. He says something like he, he says, why have you come out to line up for battle in 1 Samuel 17? If you have a Bible, that's where I'm going to be today. So he's like nine foot six. He has a bronze helmet, first Samuel 17, five says he has a bronze helmet on his head and he was armed with a coat of mail. And then it goes on and describes him more. And I'll skip that part. But it says he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel and said to them, why have you come out to line up for battle? This is verse 8 of 1 Samuel 17. Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? And you the servants of Saul, choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he's able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. And so Goliath, you know, all, I don't know, nine and a half feet, 600 pounds of him. He like walks down the hill into the valley and he says, all right, here's the deal. You send out one soldier to fight me. And if that soldier wins, then we'll be your servants. But if that soldier loses, then you have to become our servants. You'll be enslaved to us forever. And so for 40 days, all of these relights, they're trembling, Saul and David's older brothers, they're all hiding in their tents, they're trembling, they're horrified of Goliath. Nobody wants to go out and fight him. And for good reason. And here's my problem with that situation is that all someone had to say to Goliath's proposal was no. See, they could have sent 25 people down into the valley to fight Goliath. Right? Someone could have just shot an arrow at him from the hilltop. Like, here's the issue. Is that Goliath, the enemy of God's people, is using the same tactic in 1 Samuel 17, that the enemy of God's people uses today. And that is this. If you lose the battle, it means you have to forfeit the war. Now, I won't make you raise your hand, but I wonder how many of you have ever felt disqualified from being a part of God's victory because of the battle you lost in the past. Maybe it's the divorce. Maybe it's the affair. Maybe it's the years you spent addicted to substances. Maybe it's the abuse that you suffered as a child, the rejection of the abandonment. Like, there was maybe there was some enemy that came against you and prevailed. And so you feel like, well, that means that I'm sideline from here on out. God can't use me anymore. I lost the battle. That means I'm just qualified from the war. But friend, I came to tell you that you have the authority to say, no deal. I might have lost a battle. That doesn't mean that I'm out of the fight altogether. Right? Listen, there may have been times that the enemy prevailed against me, but I'm back again. And in fact, I'm going to let Jesus fight this battle for me this time. I'm wiser than I was before. See, there's this impulse that we have in the church that is like the moment that we stumble, we simply remove ourselves from hope or from faith or from promise. We feel like we've disqualified ourselves from being able to receive the fulfillment of God's promises. But actually, friend, I should let you know that you didn't ever receive God's promises because you deserve them. You were never given access to the favor of God because you were good enough. It was never about you. The reason that you have access to the blessings of God, the favor of God, the provision of God is because of who Jesus is, not because of who you are. It's because of the efficacy of the cross, because the blood of the Lamb has washed away your sin. And so when God looks at you, He sees the righteousness of Jesus. When God looks at you, the Bible says that we've had the righteousness of Christ imputed upon us. That means that it's like I've put on the purity, the innocence of Jesus, like a garment. And so when the Father looks at me, He doesn't see my addiction. He doesn't see my perversion. He doesn't see my brokenness or my twistedness. When He looks at me, He calls me beloved and He says, "Over me, I see you as perfect just as if you had never sinned." See, this is the good news of the gospel. And yet we so often exchange it for this lie that Goliath was telling to God's people thousands of years ago that if you lose one battle, that means that you're disqualified from the war. Friend, that's not true at all. You may have lost in the past, but I'm telling you, there's still a place for you in God's plan today. Amen. And so for 40 days, Goliath, he walks down into the valley and he taunts the God of Israel. He insults the God of Israel, the people of Israel, the character and the leadership of Israel. And then one day, Jesse says, "Today, but your brothers have been down in the camp getting ready to fight the Philistines for 40 days. Why don't you bring them some food, bring some bread and some water, and so David packs up supplies and he brings them to his brothers." And if you're familiar with the story, you know, spoiler alert, David kills Goliath. If you didn't know, I'm sorry to ruin it for you like this, you know. But what I think is so beautiful about this moment that ultimately we know becomes David's finest hour as Winston Churchill would put it. Ultimately it becomes the defining moment of David's life. What I think is so beautiful about this is that David came into the defining moment of his life, not by looking for the defining moment of his life. David came into the defining moment of his life by honoring his father and feeding his brothers. See this is something that we, especially in my generation and the generation coming after me, we fail to recognize that we don't get honor or promotion by pursuing honor or promotion. We get honor and promotion by submitting to our father and by serving our brothers. See David didn't go looking for, you know, he didn't graduate with a degree in Empire Leadership, right? He didn't go study military strategy. He sat in the field watching his father's sheep and then he packed up some food to bring to his brothers. You know, this is what the kingdom looks like. It looks like me being able to watch for years, Pastor Nate, faithfully bring food to his brothers. He'd come in every day and just serve and celebrate the other guys that were on our staff. He would come into every staff being full of great testimonies for the Lord. I trusted this man and his wife with the souls of my children. And I did it because I watched them as they faithfully honored me and the sons that I was raising up and they faithfully brought bread to the table for those guys. See they didn't end up in this position as senior leaders of a church and of a beautiful church and beautiful Southern California because they had the best resume or because they were the most insistent when we gave the opportunity to whoever. It's not because they wanted it bad enough. In fact, I don't know that they wanted it at all. What they wanted was to be faithful to the Word of the Lord. They wanted to be faithful to honor the brothers and sisters in Christ. And when God is looking like He was in David's day, when God is looking for the kind of person He's going to use to change the world, the one He finds is someone who will faithfully submit to a Father and serve His brothers. And this is how I know you guys are right where you're supposed to be. It's because you didn't get here by ambition. It wasn't ambition that brought you here. It wasn't passion for pastoral ministry that brought you here. It was faithful submission to the Word of the Lord for your family, for your future, for yourselves, and your faithful willingness to love whoever it was that God put next to you. So Jesse tells David, "I want you to bring bread to your brothers." So David brings bread to his brothers and he shows up to the camp. He sees everybody hiding in their tents and he sees Goliath, you know, thundering down the side of the valley and taunting the people of Israel. And then this kid, you know, 13, 14-year-old David, he says, "Well, who's going to kill this guy? Somebody's got to do it." And listen, I've been a 13 or 14-year-old boy convinced I could do anything. And so all these, you know, more grown and sensible and experienced and seasoned warriors, they try to talk some sense into this dumb little kid. See, this is why Jesus says that the kingdom belongs to people who are like children, right? Because I can't think of anything more tragic than discouraged seasoned Christians talking the faith out of zealous new believers. You know what I mean? I've been walking with God for 50 years and I remember I was like you too. I'd pray for the sick and you know I'd share the gospel with everybody. And then, you know, I got older and wiser and found out that what it really means to follow God is to angrily sit in church on Sunday mornings, to scowl at the worship leader during worship time and to never talk to anyone about Jesus. Like, yeah, no, thank you. See, I remember being young in the faith and in the ministry and early on in our time in ministry, there was a conference, I'll never forget this, a conference in over in New England where some friends of mine who were in attendance at this conference said, hey, your band was a big topic of discussion. And they said, you know, the sort of the consensus that people had come to with this conference is that you guys are so forceful with the gospel. Now, if you didn't know about the band that I played and we were very forceful with the gospel, you know, people would accuse me of forcing my beliefs down to people's throats. And that's ridiculous because you can't force your beliefs down people's throats. But if I could have, I would have. It's like, listen, I, you know, if I was throwing someone a life preserver in the middle of a storm and they're floating in the water saying, no, man, I'm good, I'd be like, you're not good, you know, like, how about I just force this down your throat? You're going to, you're going to thank me later, right? I certainly would have done it if I could have. And, you know, so we're preaching the gospel every night. People are being born again and saved and healed and set free. It's this amazing ministry. God is really blessing it. And there's this topic of conversation at a conference where, you know, several hundred or maybe a thousand people are there. And apparently it's an unofficial topic of discussion. What are we going to do about this band that is like forcing Christianity on everyone? And the sort of consensus, the conclusion that they came to was, you know, nobody can burn the way that these guys are burning for a long time. Nobody can continue at this pace. And so when these guys fall, it's going to be an embarrassment to the kingdom. So it would be better if they would just be quiet about it now. And I'll tell you, I've got to be honest, guys, there were times in ministry. There's still are times in ministry that I am exhausted. I'm spread thin, I'm discouraged. I feel overwhelmed. I feel frustrated. And then I think back to all those idiots at that conference. And I think I will not give them the satisfaction. I'm going to keep going for another decade. Let's do this, man. And I'm burning brighter today than I ever have before. I'm more convinced that the gospel of Jesus Christ is what it takes to save all who would believe it than I have ever been before. I'm giving my life more fully to the cause of the kingdom than I ever have before. And so they told me that it was not possible to keep burning. And it's because they thought that wisdom and zeal were mutually exclusive. And that may be true in the world, but it's not true in the kingdom. True. God inspired, holy spirit wisdom does not dilute your zeal to the point at which you lose your zeal. No, it intensifies and focuses your zeal. It makes it so when you're young, you're zealous about everything. I'm going to be a church planter. I'm going to be a missionary. I'm going to be a worship leader. I'm going to be a Christian author. Like you can't figure out who you are. But what happens when God gives you wisdom and revelation, the spirit of wisdom and revelation is not that it turns your zeal down. It's that it tunes your zeal in to exactly what God has called you to do. It gives you the ability to say, "This is who I am and this is who I'm not. And I don't have to pretend to be anything I'm not because I know who my God is and I know why He made me." Where was I? So David and Goliath. So David, he comes down and he hears people, he hears Goliath taunting the Israelites and he thinks, "Well, we've got to do something about this." And so he starts going throughout the camp and telling everybody, "I'll fight him." You're telling me that whoever kills this giant gets a treasure from the king and gets to marry the king's daughter. That sounds pretty cool to me. Let's do it. And so everybody just thinks, "Kid, this is ridiculous. You can't do this. In fact, it goes so far as to get back to the king of Israel, Saul at the time." And Saul, he sends for David and he plans to talk some sense into him. And so I'm going to pick up the story in 1 Samuel 17 verse 31. Says when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul and he sent for him. And then David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight this Philistine." I love that line because that's like New King James IV. Don't have a heart attack. Let no man's heart fail because of him. Like, "Y'all just chill out. I'm going to handle this." You know, we have recently, just these last month or two, we have seen such a sweet and profound outpouring of the power and presence of God at our church over in East Tennessee. And just the other day we were there and we're looking around and I could look through our building and tell you he used to be on drugs and those two that husband and wife that are worshipping the Lord, dancing and worship to the Lord. They were on the verge of divorce two years ago. This guy was suicidal. Like, I could just walk through and tell you all their stories, what people have come out of. The victory that Jesus has demonstrated in their lives. And so I'm just looking around the room and I said, "Lord, we don't know what we're doing really." And he said, "Yeah." You're just children playing with fire. And I said, yeah, that's exactly it. We're just children playing with fire. And here's the thing about the power or the glory of God is that we have apparently believed that the only way to rightly steward or honor the glory of God is by being very serious about it. You know? But I remember hearing these stories about the Azusa Street revival, not too far from here, where there was a tangible cloud of the glory of God in the room so thick that the children would play hide and seek in it. And I can't help but think that there were probably guys in the back of the room in three-piece suits saying that's the child of honor. Those children shouldn't be doing that. Right? Just like the disciples were saying, get those kids off of Jesus' lap. They don't understand how serious this is. And Jesus is saying, no, let them come. These are the kind of people I'm looking for. People who don't make serious, who don't make something serious, that I just meant to be fun. Like life in the kingdom is supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be joyful. Dude, we had a Congalign in the middle of our church the other day. A spontaneous, holy spirit-led Congalign through the worship service. Is it a little uncomfortable at times? But here's the thing. I don't want to be the one that tells people you have to get really serious to honor God. Because we serve a God that is so fierce in glory that demons tremble at the mention of his name and yet so tender and love that little children will jump up into his lap. And I would rather carry myself around him like a little child than like a demon. And so let's learn from David's youthful zeal. Like he may not have known how to fight, like all these other guys did, but Saul, he calls David and he says, you can't keep saying this stuff. And David says, don't have a heart attack, man, I'm gonna handle this. And in verse 33, 1 Samuel 17, Saul said to David, you are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him for you are a youth and he's a man of war from his youth. But David said to Saul, "Your servant used to keep his father's sheep and when a lion or bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth. "And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard "and struck and killed it." And he said, "Your servant has killed both lion and bear "and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, "seeing he's defied the armories of the living God. "I've got to be honest with you guys. "If I was a shepherd and I was watching my dad's flock of sheep "and a lion took one, I would let it slide." (congregation laughing) I mean, it's probably a thousand sheep in here. Dad's never gonna notice, it's one sheep. I'm not gonna fist fight a bear to get a sheep back, right? And what we gained from this testimony that David shares with Saul is as the David was a man of uncommon character, because I think probably most of us are not very much like David in this regard. The most of us, if something, or someone had taken one sheep from an entire flock, we would say, "Man, it's not worth going to war "over one sheep out of an entire flock." But what we see in this passage is a glimpse into the character, the soul of David, that he was the kind of man who would go to battle over the little things. And when God is asking himself who he's going to send to change the course of human history forever, he says, "That's the kind of man I want." Here's what I mean. It's easy to say "Devors is bad." But God's not looking for the person who says no to divorce. He's looking for the person who says no to a flirtatious text message to a coworker. He's looking to the kind of person that'll stand up against the lingering gaze on a picture of an advertisement or some viral video that came up on your social media page. It's like, it's easy to go to war when the big things are at stake. If a lion came to take the entire flock, well, that would be easy to fight over. What if it's just one sheep? What if it's just one comment? What if it's just one text message? What if it's just one opportunity to be to kind of bend the truth on your taxes just a little bit because no one's ever going to know? Everybody does it. See, the kind of people that God uses to change history forever, not the kind of people that make a big show of their character, the kind of people that demonstrate it in secret. No one ever would have known if David were to let that lion walk away with one sheep. But he's the kind of man who will go to war over the insignificant things, the little things that other people will overlook. The little compromises and little agreements with the enemy he was called to stand against and because he refused to yield, even in the little things, when the fate of the nation was on the line, God knew who he could go. And so my hope is that the men and women of this church would take a page out of David's book and that you would recognize that it may not always look like a giant stomping down into a valley with a bronze helmet and a coat of mail and a bronze spear, like maybe what it looks like is, is just an unwillingness to be a part of a conversation at work where people are trashing that weird coworker. We're not gonna do that, man. That person's made in God's image. Maybe what it looks like is being the voice of advocacy for the people in your church, the people in your church, family who are struggling, maybe who have not arrived, they're walking through their process and other people want to say like, hey, they need to hurry up and get on down the road. I'm not really interested in having them around me. They're pretty awkward to talk to, right? But for you to be the voice that says, hey, you know what? Not only do I want that person around the church, I want that person in my life. See, what God is looking for from us is not people that are willing to step up when push comes to shove but people who step up day after day after day after day after day before the crisis ever comes. These are the people that God will use to change the world. So David shares the testimony. When a lion or bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth. And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear. And this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them. See, he's defied the armies of the living God. Moreover, David adds this tagline, I've killed a lion and I've killed a bear over a sheep. This Philistine deserves way worse than them. Let's go for it. Verse 37, David ends with this. He says, "Moreover," David said, "the Lord," everybody say, "the Lord." "Who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." So let me see if it, yeah. So the word Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that's the personal proper name of God. So Hebrew letters, "Yoad, he, vov, he," or "Yahweh," it's how we started worship, how Gina started worship this morning. And you should know about the name of God. It's in your Bible 6,800 times, more than 6,800 times. And yet, I've met Christians all over the world that didn't know God had a name, and they thought that God was God's name. It's like, you know, when my kids were little, they thought that my name was Dad. And it wasn't until they grew a little bit that they got to know that I may be Dad to them, but that's not, but I have a name entirely separated from that. A name that transcends just my role in their lives. And here's the issues that we have millions of believers in the modern church that think Yahweh is just the Hebrew word for God, or they think that, well, I serve God, and the Muslims believe in God. And, you know, there's agnostic people that think there's a God like a creator out there. And so we all essentially believe in the same thing. The truth is God is so infinitely personal that 6,800 times in His Word, He shares His personal proper name with us. And so if for no other reason, then to communicate or denote honor, it's really important that we know who it is we're talking to when we pray or worship. I remember being at a church actually here in Southern California, some friends of ours in Redlands used to say, there was a, there's no higher insult than to call somebody by the wrong name, and so they used to call the devil Stan. Instead of Satan, they used to call them Stan and they'd be like, "Not today Stan." I love that so much. I want to make sure that I'm giving honor where honor is due and that honor is due to Yahweh himself. For the first time in this entire story, 1 Samuel 17, David in verse 37 says moreover, David said, Yahweh, who delivered me from the paw of the lion, from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. So David's wondering what's going to be, what's the reward for the person that kills this Philistine? They're talking about the kind of armor the Philistine is wearing. He's going to talk to Saul. There's all sorts of characters and personalities and subplots at play in this story, but David walks into Saul's tent and he uses the name, "Yod, hey, va, hey, Yahweh." He's the one who delivered me from the lion and the bear. He's been faithful to me this far and he won't stop now. In the very next sentence, "And Saul said to David, 'Go and Yahweh be with you.'" And one of the things that has always astounded me about this story is not David's faith, it's Saul's faith. When you think about how utterly irresponsible it is for the king of a nation to send a small child out to represent everyone else under his care. Millions of Hebrew people are depending on Saul for liberty, for protection. And he sends a young teenage boy down into battle on behalf of all of them. See, David said, "I'm convinced that Yahweh will be faithful to me and it awakened something in Saul that had been dormant for God knows how long." See this is one of the beautiful things about life in the kingdom is that when your faith is weak, God will send you someone to remind you who it is that you really serve. See, when Saul's faith was weak, when he had gotten responsible, you know, when he'd gotten mature, like when Saul had become just like every other king who makes decisions based on man's wisdom and he makes decisions based on sort of conventional strategies for the success and prosperity of a nation. Saul is a normal king and God sends this kid into his tent to remind him who it is that put him on the throne and why it is he put him there. He says, "Sal, don't you remember there was a God in heaven that has favored our people. He delivered us from captivity in Egypt. He carried us through an entire generation in the wilderness. He crushed Jericho, the walls of Jericho down into the ground. Don't you think he can handle this giant down in the valley?" And something awakens in Saul, some faith, some conviction awakens in Saul. Friends, I want you to know that if your faith has faltered, God will send a voice into your life to remind you who it is who called you to begin with. I'm convinced that that's why Pastor Nate Lobdel moved his entire family out to Southern California to be that voice in your tent reminding you that Yahweh is for you and if God is with you who could possibly be against you." And so David says, "Yahweh delivered me from the lion in the bear. He'll deliver me from this philistine to and Saul said to David, 'Go and Yahweh be with you.'" So this is what happened. The next verse verse 38, "So Saul clothed David with his armor and he put a bronze helmet on his head and he clothed him with a coat of mail. Does that sound familiar?" What did we hear? Who had a bronze helmet and a coat of mail, Caleb? Goliath had a bronze helmet and a coat of mail. It said, "So he put a bronze helmet on his head and he clothed him with a coat of mail. David fastened his sword to the armor and tried to walk for he not tested them and David said to Saul, 'I cannot walk with these, for I've not tested them.' So David took them all." Now, this is, I think, an important, I hope you're not in hurry. This is, I think, an important point here. Saul clothed David and Saul's armor. He put a bronze helmet on his head and he clothed him with a coat of mail. So Goliath is standing down in the valley wearing a bronze helmet and a coat of mail. And the hand of God is on David to represent all of Israel, but Saul representing the previous generation, the generation of traditional conventional wisdom, he tells David, "If you're going to fight Goliath, you have to fight the way Goliath fights and that is not true." See, this is the, I recognize that as Christians in Southern California, you can feel like a minority group, right? Is that, I don't want to overstep my boundaries. Does it feel like that sometime? You can, I'm sure you can feel like you're getting choked out. And the temptation is if we're going to stand up against Goliath and we're going to have to stand up the way Goliath fights. And so we better, you know, we better have all the ladies in the church on button a couple more buttons, you know, and we got to have lasers and fog machines and like make our church the coolest church. It's got to feel like a nightclub if anybody's going to come to it and listen. Now I want to tell you this, you don't have to fight the way Goliath fights. Do you want to know what David demonstrates for us is the most important tool a child of God can bring to the battlefield, authenticity. David's a shepherd. He's not a soldier. Goliath's a soldier. And if David, I'm convinced if David would have tried to fight Goliath on Goliath's terms, Goliath would have mopped the floor with him. But what David walked down into the valley with was two things. Faith and authenticity. He knew who his God was and he knew who his God had made him to be. So without apology, without compromise, without hesitation, he walked down into the valley and full confidence knowing he was exactly who God had made him to be. See this is my encouragement constantly to pass tonight. It's like don't get in an arms race with Saddle Creek. Is that the name of the church? Saddle? Saddleback. Like don't get in an arms race with Saddleback or with elevation or with Hillsong. It's not, you're never going to win that. And they will do it better than you ever could. And thank God they do because they reach countless people with the good news of Jesus. We rejoice in our brothers and those churches. But if you feel like you have to be as put together as Rick Warren or Joel Osteiner or whoever to like pastor a church, you're in big trouble. It's never going to, God bless them. The people of this church are never going to be able to tie enough for you all to be able to play ball on that field. But what you have is authenticity. It's what worked for Rick Warren. It's what has worked for so many other faithful leaders in the past as authenticity. And maybe for them their authenticity looks different than you. But that's the beauty of the kingdom. You can be authentically and confidently who God made you to be and look totally different from the church down the street. And that's so that God can use you to reach totally different people than the church down the street reaches. See, this is the beauty of the dynamic nature of the kingdom. What Yahweh is doing in this place is unique to this place. The expression that's going to come out of this house is going to be unique to this house. God is bringing you together like the keys on a piano. He's tuning you to be able to release a song that only the table fellowship can release. And so David knew what so many of us forget. And that is that what God is going to use to bring victory for his people is someone who's full of faith and unapologetically authentic to who God has made them to be. So for whatever weight it carries, I give all of you permission to be unapologetically and authentically who God has made you to be unapologetically and authentically who God has made you to be. And I would say not just individually but corporately for you to be as one body unapologetically and authentically who God has made you to be. I'll say this, I hope I'm not jumping the gun here. Pastor Nathan, I have been speaking privately about how he longs to connect more like family with the people in the church. And I said, dude, just go for it. I said, if you just make all the chairs in a big circle and you all just sit around and sing kubai, I'm like, pass bread around and you know, drinks or whatever. I said, just go for it. Like in the way that you set up the chairs and the music that you play. If you need to get rid of the lights and get everybody off the stage and just being a big circle together, like do whatever you have to do. If you have everybody sitting in a table and you have a potluck every Sunday, whatever it looks like, whatever it looks like for this house to be authentically who God has called this house to be. That's what we as leaders have to protect. Is that right? That's what we as leaders have to protect as the authentic expression of this body of believers because that's where the glory is. That's where the glory is. And so David, he tells Saul, I can't. I can't wear what you have. So in verse 40, verse 17 says, he took his staff in his hand. He chose for himself five smooth stones when the broke and he put them in a shepherd's back in a pouch which he had and this sling was in his hand and he drew near to the Philistine. So the Philistine came and began drawing near to David and the man who bore the shield went before him and when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he'd disdain him. For he was only a youth, ruddy and good looking. So the Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, "Come to me. I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field." Then David said to the Philistine, "See this? A fourteen-year-old boy looking at a man whose nine-foot six with a spear twice the size of David's entire body." And David said to the Philistine, verse 45, "You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of Yahweh, Subbaoth, that is the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. This day Yahweh will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you and take your head from you." And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's and He will give you into our hands. Friends, is this good news? I want you to know that the enemy that has come against you is not your fight. It is. Can I tell you that? The depression, the injustice, the suffering, the sickness, it is not your fight. Your job, like Pastor Nate said, is to fix your eyes on Him. Look at Him. Just look at Him. And keep looking at Him. Find yourself transfixed, captivated by His beauty. And you'll find that the enemy is like a barking dog. He may sound scary, but if you just keep walking, He's going to get quieter and quieter and quieter because somebody has chained Him to the house. Friends, this is good news for us. The battle is the Lord's. So we can walk with supreme confidence in every step of the way. In verse 51, it says, David ran and after, oh, well, now let's get the graphic stuff. My kids are in the room. So verse 48, "So it was when the Philistines arose and came and drew near to meet David, and David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistines. Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone. And he slung it and struck the Philistines in his forehead so that the stones sank into his face. I know it says forehead, but face, I feel like it gives it what I'm looking for." That's the new Maddie translation. It sank into his face and he fell on his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a slaying in his stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore, David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of his sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. I love this story. And when the Philistines saw, see, this is the part they didn't read me in Sunday school growing up, you know? That was like, you just bumped him on the head and he fell over. It's like, no, no, it sank into his face. And then David went over and brought the sword and cut his head. I love the kids are coming back in during this part. Now I've never cut a head off, but I imagine it doesn't come off quick, you know? You probably, he's got a hack at it like multiple times. It probably took a while to get that thing off. Welcome back children. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. This is my favorite part of the whole story. Verse 52, check this out. This is where I'm getting, I promise I'm ending. It says, now the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted. Everybody say now that is now the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines. Let me ask you for the last 40 days, what were the men of Israel and Judah doing? Hiding in their tents, trembling in fear of this giant. See, I've got to be honest with you guys for years of my life. I read this story and I thought, God, you know, God's going to make me like David. I'm going to kill giants. But the truth is friend, I see myself much more in these men who hid in tents through the entire story. These guys who were terrified and horribly afraid until somebody else stepped down into the valley and somebody else conquered my enemy. And that somebody else has named Jesus Christ the Son of God. See, you should know, man, that the victory Jesus has won for you. It's not just for you. I love that now in verse 52, the men of Israel and Judah, they arose and they shouted and they pursued the Philistines. They found the boldness that Goliath had snatched from them for 40 days. They'd been kept held captive to fear. And then in an instant, David gets victory and everybody else finds faith. See, this is why what you're doing at the table fellowship is so critically important because it's not about you. It never was. It's not about the members of this church. It's not about the leaders of this church. It's not about the worship at this church. The missionaries from this church, what it is about, is about the church down the street, the church across town, the church across the nation, or the church across the world that are going to find faith when they say you step into the victory. God's called you to. The God's going to send you like David down into the valley to claim a victory. You have no business claiming. And when you step into the victory that you have no business stepping into, what's going to happen is that other churches are going to say, if God can do it with them, he can do it with us too. Let's go for it. God has been hiding in fear of the giants of secularism and humanism and racial tension and divides of economic injustice or whatever issue it is that has been stifling or muscling the voices of people in Southern California. What's going to happen is that God's going to see you step into glory. People are going to see you step into glory and it's going to stir faith in them. People are going to see you step into victory and it's going to stir faith in them. People are going to say everyone else is moving out of California but their family is moving into California because God is doing something historic in this land. When everybody else is running out, the heroes are the ones that run in. When everybody else is running out of a sinking ship or a burning building, the heroes are the ones that run in and we've seen heroes run into this city, run into this region of the nation to throw fuel on the fire of what God is doing. When so many people are eager to get to a place with lower state taxes and better public school systems or whatever, I'm convinced that God has a remnant in this land for such a time as this. Man and women that will say yes to the call of the kingdom to live in radical revolutionary freedom to exalt the name of Jesus and to lay their lives down to establish an advance his kingdom, whatever it costs. I see people like that all over this world. We hope this message has blessed, equipped and encouraged you. If you have been impacted today and wish to soen to our ministry as we establish the kingdom here in Southern California, please visit our website at www.thetablefellowship.com.