[SPEAKER_01]: First, Samuel chapter 17, I'm a read on the screen today, so I don't mess this up.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, says the Philistines gathered their forces for war at Soka in Judah and can't be between Soka and Azika in Ephraim's Demon, Saul and the men of Israel gathered and camped in the valley of Allah, then they lined up and battle formation to face the Philistines.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Philistines were standing on one hill, and the Israelites were standing on another hill with the ravine between them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then a champion named Goliath from Gath came out from the Philistine camp.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was nine feet, nine inches tall, as a big man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next slide, go down to verse 26.
[SPEAKER_01]: David spoke to the man who were standing with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: What will be done for the man who kills that Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?
[SPEAKER_01]: Just who is this unsurcomsized Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?
[SPEAKER_01]: Next slide, jumping to down to verse 34.
[SPEAKER_01]: David answered so, your servant has been tending his father's sheep.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock, I went after it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Struck it down and rescue the lamb from its mouth.
[SPEAKER_01]: If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its fur, strike it down, and kill it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your servant has kill lions and bears.
[SPEAKER_01]: This uncircum-sized Philistine will be like one of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: For he has defined the armies of the living God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then David said, the Lord who rescued me from the Paul of the lion and the Paul of the bear will rescue me from the hand of the Philistine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, so may I say amen right there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Saul said to David, go and may the Lord be with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then Saul had his own military clothes put on David.
[SPEAKER_01]: He put a bronze helmet on David's head and had him put on armor.
[SPEAKER_01]: David strapped his sword over on over the military clothes and tried to walk, but he was not used to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't walk in these.
[SPEAKER_01]: David said to Saul, not used to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: So David took them off and said he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the water and put them in the pouch and his shepherd's bag.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jump down to verse 48.
[SPEAKER_01]: When the Philistine started forward to attack him, David ran quickly to the battle line to meet the Philistine.
[SPEAKER_01]: David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone, slung it and hit the Philistine on his forehead.
[SPEAKER_01]: The stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground.
[SPEAKER_01]: David defeated the Philistine with a sling and a stone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though David had no sword, he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen, come on somebody.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're taking notes this morning, the title of today's message is the God of momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: The God of momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: How many you believe we serve the God of momentum?
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, how many beliefs we serve the God of momentum?
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a big God.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a great God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he is a God of momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's pray real quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: Father, we thank you, Lord, for your Word.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you, Father, for teaching us something new today.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you, Father, for just insight and revelation and wisdom to come forth today from your word.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, we're so grateful for your presence today.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're so grateful for the power of your spirit today.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Lord, I know it this time together.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we spend time in your presence, as we spend time with you, Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we just thank you for it, Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love you with trust you this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: So last week we began this series and we started talking about great momentum and we talked about the story of David and I broke it down a little bit of his story.
[SPEAKER_01]: But remember great momentum means that it's above average, it's a abundant kind of momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: The key to having any kind of momentum, remember though, is that there has to be some
[SPEAKER_01]: Without any movement, there's hardly any momentum, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Just like your car or just like a machine or anything else, there has to start having some movement in order to build up some momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, as I told you last week, we can't just sit back.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on now, we can't just sit up on the sideline, we can't just wait around, we have got to be moving, we have got to move.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if you remember, I told you that we've got to be so careful that we don't get caught up in the tradition of church that we lose our yes and we lose our why.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our yes that we gave to Jesus when He saved us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are yes when he called us into something?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why we believe what we believe?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why we stand for what we stand for?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why we worship the way we do?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why we honor him like we do?
[SPEAKER_01]: All of those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's our yes and it's our why that will keep us in that constant state of forward motion, that constant state of momentum, amen, where we can really experience the things of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that comes not just remember in our vision, or our vision goals, or what we believe for as a church, and all that kind of stuff, but remember, first and foremost, it comes at keeping God's presence.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number one, if you want to experience momentum in your life, in 2026, you have got to keep the presence of God, number one.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have got to keep him first, yes, we know that, but it's there's something special about being in his presence.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's something special about spending time with him and allowing him to begin to speak to you and allowing him to begin to move on your behalf.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's one of the things that, if not the number one thing that I love most about worship, it's just that we can be in his presence and seeing something to him and lift up something to him, lift up a sound to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when we do that, we're building momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: and something is moving, something is changing, something is shifting, things are operating at a different level than when we came in.
[SPEAKER_01]: So because we understand this, because we understand that this momentum comes when things are moving and we're putting the spirit of God first and the presence of God, the forefront of everything that we do, that's why we can experience what we experienced last Sunday.
[SPEAKER_01]: when great momentum literally hit the room.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the best part about that is that we can experience that every single week.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on now.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just a one-off thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was my prayer last week.
[SPEAKER_01]: When we left here, Laura, let this not be a one-time thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: But let this be a continuation, and let this be a time of momentum where we constantly see you at true, true at work and moving and operating in our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I taught you three keys to great momentum from first annual chapter 17.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you remember and you look back on your notes, number one is that you have to know the ground you're standing on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, David went to the battle with the understanding of his people's covenant with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody understood the covenant that they have a God except for David.
[SPEAKER_01]: How do we know that to be true?
[SPEAKER_01]: He was the only one that would face the giant.
[SPEAKER_01]: If they understood their covenant, they wouldn't have worried about how big he was, how scary he was, and what kind of weapons he had.
[SPEAKER_01]: If they would have understood their covenant with God, they would have been able to defeat the Philistine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because David knew the ground he was standing on.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knew that they were standing in the land of Judah, the land that belonged to his family.
[SPEAKER_01]: The land that belonged to his ancestors and in the Israelites.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you can't enfringe upon God's territory.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't infringe upon God's ground because God won't allow it.
[SPEAKER_01]: What God gives you, God don't take it away.
[SPEAKER_01]: If that's the kind of theology you've learned, if that's the kind of stuff that's been spoken to you, that God will give you something, but he can take it away, that's false.
[SPEAKER_01]: God don't take away nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: People say that sometimes when people go to heaven, when they transition and pass on, they'll say, oh, oh, you know, God gives and God takes away.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, he don't take away, he does not.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we believe that false line, you gotta understand that, we have covenant with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Much like David understood that he had covenant with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if God gave them that land and that land belonged to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it doesn't matter what kind of enemy came upon that land.
[SPEAKER_01]: David knew he was going to win because he wasn't covenant with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number two is that we have to remember what God has already done.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we have to know the ground we're standing on but then we have to remember what God has already done.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, first Samuel chapter 17 verse 40, we just read it a second and go as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: It said that he took his staff in one hand and he took his sling and stones in the other hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, I taught you last week that there was a reason why David took his staff.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's because it is believed that at that time that the shepherds would carve their history, they would carve special moments of time into their staff.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a time where they would be able to log in and carve out and jot down certain things that have happened over the course of time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe special words that God spoke to them directly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe encounters with God that they had or whatever it may be.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there was a reason why he took his staff.
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't take his staff to take the giant out with his staff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or else he would have never picked up the stones and never taken the sling.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the staff was not taken with him
[SPEAKER_01]: The staff was taken with them as a purpose to remember what God has already done, where he can stand there in front of that giant, with the staff in his hand and the sling in the other, and he can look at that staff, and he can say, yep, there's the picture of the lion that I took out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's the picture of the bear that I took out, who is this un-circum-sized
[SPEAKER_01]: So number two, you got to remember what God has already done.
[SPEAKER_01]: And number three, remember your momentum is in your hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why did David not choose a sword?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why did he not choose a spear?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why did he choose a sling?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he knew where he was from.
[SPEAKER_01]: And remember, Judah is translated beyond the word praise.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you dive deeper into the true definition of the word Judah, you find out that at the core of what it means is the one who throws the stone.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he was from the land and the territory of the one who throws the stone.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knew that this is who I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is who my people are.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't need a sword right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't need a fancy weapon.
[SPEAKER_01]: All I need to do is remember who God called us to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he stepped into that place, he stepped into that position, really, a position of authority, a position of understanding, a position of understanding his covenant, once again, with God, and he was able to defeat the giant.
[SPEAKER_01]: So today, what's a dress what God has to say about momentum?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I believe that God wants us in a place of momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wants us to experience great moments of this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I really believe that firmly.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm already seeing it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm seeing it and our lives, I'm seeing it, and some of your lives already.
[SPEAKER_01]: how just since the first of the year that there is great momentum that's happening and it's gonna get greater church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, do you believe that with me this morning?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's gonna get greater and you're gonna begin to experience momentum at a greater level.
[SPEAKER_01]: You may say, well, I'm not seeing it yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you just buckle up baby, because it's coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's going to get greater.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to get stronger, but the greater momentum is coming to each and every one of us, amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just decree and I declare that right now in Jesus' name that we are going to see a shift in the area of momentum in our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So before we begin, let me just tell you something that you can't have momentum if you don't know your assignment.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't have momentum if you don't know your assignment.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's your assignment, your mission?
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me say it that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: The mission, the purpose, the plan that God has placed upon your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Too many people get caught up and stuff that God never even called them, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's vital that we understand in that you and I understand that you are assignment.
[SPEAKER_01]: puts you in a position of momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you understand your true assignment and when you are operating your assignment, you are put into a position of great momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can experience momentum when you are aligned with what God says about you.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you are aligned with God's purpose and is heart for your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when it comes to this in 2026 for us as a church
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to make it very clear and have a clear understanding that you can't experience momentum, but you can experience momentum in your home, in your job, come on now.
[SPEAKER_01]: You name it 80 area of your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can experience great momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I say this on Sunday mornings, right now for the next couple of weeks, I'm not talking about great momentum just on Sundays.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not talking about great momentum just on at a church service.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking about in every area of your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can see a shift in the area of momentum where you will begin to see God work and move at a greater and greater and greater level, amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, if you believe that for yourself, say amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: So in order to see that kind of unfold and to walk it out, again, you have to understand your mission.
[SPEAKER_01]: And listen, your mission is not about keeping you happy.
[SPEAKER_01]: But your mission is about God, thrusting you out into the world, and when he lost people to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, a first and foremost, beyond anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is to win the lost.
[SPEAKER_01]: to see people set free by the power of the gospel of Jesus and He does it through you and I.
[SPEAKER_01]: He does it as us understanding our place and our position with Him and knowing that when we open our mouth, we can see God operate through us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we have to take advantage of every moment that we have like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we don't know what the other person is going through.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know what people are dealing with.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't know the challenges and the struggles of the one that you accidentally bumped into at the grocery store.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know the situations that people are walking through.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when you begin to declare the name of Jesus, when you begin to operate in your mission, which at the forefront should be to win the loss
[SPEAKER_01]: And all that kind of thing, you will see how God will begin to move.
[SPEAKER_01]: God will begin to move.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you see, this is why, as a church, we must remain mission-minded.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not just to our mission statements, back there on the wall, but we have to remain mission-minded to what God has called us to do as a church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Has God called us to come in here on Sundays and be pumped up and worship and hear a word and then go and leave and go home and be miserable?
[SPEAKER_01]: No!
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a place where you can come, and you can get equipped, and you can get trained up, and you can spend time in the presence of the Lord, and you can engage with one another and fellowship with one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Bible says, do not forsake the assembling of the brother, coming together and enjoying that time together.
[SPEAKER_01]: But ultimately what we're called to do is go out and reach the lost, go out and
[SPEAKER_01]: encourage one another and lift up one another and all that kind of thing that doesn't mean you have to just go walk on the street and turn and just try to you know figure it all out and try to walk until you find somebody but that means when you go to your job tomorrow morning that you can share the love of Jesus that you can say can I pray for you about that situation that you're going through you know and you can really begin to be on mission
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, that's the way we should be living our lives, anyways.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mission-minded, mission-purpose, amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when we're aligned to that, when we stay in that alignment of our mission, we will experience momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because when we're focused on the mission, it becomes less about us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it becomes more about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it becomes more about those that are hurting and that are lost and that are dying out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as a church, we are here to love one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're here to meet the needs of one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the most important thing to us as a church that we could ever do is to see soul saved.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's to see families restored again.
[SPEAKER_01]: is to see addicts radically set free.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those that are hopeless and hurting that they can find peace again in their lives, that they can find joy in their lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the mission.
[SPEAKER_01]: So in 1 Samuel chapter 17, King Saul is saying, hey, we can't defeat this giant.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the whole army is looking to feed it and feeling defeated and they're talking
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're saying, we can't take out this giant.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can't defeat this, this, this, this Philistine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at him, look how big he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at his armor, look at, look at it, look at all this stuff, his sword is taller than I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and you can only imagine what they're doing and how they're conversating.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Bible says that they were up on one side of a hill and the Philistine army was up on another side.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can just imagine them sitting there looking
[SPEAKER_01]: How is this even going to work?
[SPEAKER_01]: God, are you real?
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're sitting there looking across at the face of the giant.
[SPEAKER_01]: And already in their minds, they were defeated.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were defeated before they saw him.
[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't wear the defeated before he even began to speak.
[SPEAKER_01]: They made up in their mind that there was no chance
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you look at the story, that is before Goliath showed up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then Goliath shows up and they're like, great.
[SPEAKER_01]: We knew we couldn't then and now look.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where did they get that thing from?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that even real?
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're sitting there defeated and David's family.
[SPEAKER_01]: When David says, I can do this, I can take him out, even David's own brother says, go back home.
[SPEAKER_01]: Go back over to the hillside and take care of the sheep, David.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you ain't going to do nothing about this?
[SPEAKER_01]: But David believes otherwise.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because David is on a mission.
[SPEAKER_01]: David understands the mission.
[SPEAKER_01]: And David understands that he serves the God of great momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have enough soldiers that we don't have better weapons.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have a giant to fight the giant.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we certainly don't have no guts around here.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what we do have is a shepherd boy with a little bit of history with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on now.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have a shepherd boy from a hillside who doesn't know how to fight in battle but believes he can win.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's never swung a sword, but he is an expert with a sling.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't match the credentials and the certain things that we would need in the army to be able to fight and go out on the battlefield, but he's got some boldness.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got an understanding that nobody else does that I can take this guy out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the battle is one, immediately.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Philistines look, oh my god, he took out our best warrior.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know that the Philistines outnumbered the Israelites?
[SPEAKER_01]: And it took one to outnumber them.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's amazing how God flips this whole thing around.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it all comes from one purpose, and one person who understood that purpose, and one person who stood in that mission and said, I know who God has called us to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know who I am and Christ Jesus, and if he put me in this position, and if he has called me to do this thing, I know I'm gonna overcome, I know I'm gonna win.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that goes to teach us this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't matter what you are looking at.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't matter what you are facing in your life right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you are on mission and you say a lie with God and you say a lie with His word and the purpose that He has over your life, it all matter how big the giant is, you will win and you will overcome.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So all we got is a shepherd boy.
[SPEAKER_01]: but it was a shepherd boy on a mission.
[SPEAKER_01]: You might not have anything to show for.
[SPEAKER_01]: You might feel like you are unequipped, ill-equipped.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you got the mission, then that's all that matters.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because let me tell you what the mission is, the mission is the heart of the Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you've got the mission, you've got the heart of the Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if God is for you,
[SPEAKER_01]: then who can be against you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, somebody.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're taking notes this morning, there's two truths that I want to teach you of how God will begin to shift momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: Two truths of how God will shift momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number one is that God always works with what you have.
[SPEAKER_01]: God always works with what you have.
[SPEAKER_01]: God does not work with what you don't have.
[SPEAKER_01]: God works with what you do have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Say, well, I don't have much of anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Perfect.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm reminded of stories all throughout the word of somebody who had just a little bit and God was able to do something with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about the little boy, which is the field little fishies and the field little pieces of bread and God was able to multiply it and feed all of those thousands of people.
[SPEAKER_01]: a story after story after story of God putting his great momentum behind something and seeing a complete change, but God always works with what you have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hear me today church, God will never get to work with what you don't have, but he will always start working with what you do have.
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you waiting on?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because listen, the longer you wait around, the longer that there are souls out there that are starving for the truth, the longer you wait around, the longer that your lights is hidden from the world that needs to be exposed to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in here, me this morning, church, if you're going to see momentum, if you're gonna see a shift in the area of great momentum in your life, you don't need all the answers.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't need all the gear, you don't need all the resources.
[SPEAKER_01]: You just need what God has given you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that alone is enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: I told you last week, it's already in your hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's already in your hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: People say, I don't have enough money.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have enough gifts.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have enough this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't need, I don't have enough that.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, you have what's already in your hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: David didn't have the fanciest of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't have any kind of training, but he had God, and he had boldness, and he had a sling, and he had five smooth stones.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know what that teaches me today?
[SPEAKER_01]: That we need to stay in a place of pure gratitude with what we do have and never become ungrateful for what we don't have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the second we become ungrateful, let me tell you, is the second that we limit God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, God is without limits, Pastor God is with, no, no, when we, when we are ungrateful for what he has already given us, we are limiting him to what he can do all the more.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have got to be grateful for what he has provided, not ungrateful for what we think we're missing out on.
[SPEAKER_01]: because God can do so much with just a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember what it says in the word, he only needs a mustard seed of faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_01]: He don't need you to have 500 scriptures memorized and understand all these theological things and have all of these certain revelations and all this kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I just take what is very little and I turn it into something great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because hear me, I believe this will do all my heart, gratitude and thanksgiving are the currency of heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: Gratitude and thanksgiving are the currency of heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: What are the angels doing right now?
[SPEAKER_01]: Worshiping, giving thanks to the Father, day and night, holy, holy is the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: in a constant state of gratitude for how good, how powerful, how magnificent, how glorious he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe that that's the currency of heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we want to get in sync with what heaven wants for our life, and what heaven is trying to do, and what heaven is trying to accomplish in our personal lives, but also in the life of this church, let me tell you, you gotta get grateful.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, I thank you for what you have given me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It may not be as much as my neighbor.
[SPEAKER_01]: I may not know as much as my neighbor.
[SPEAKER_01]: I may have less than my neighbor.
[SPEAKER_01]: I may feel like I have less than my neighbor, but what you have given me God is more than enough because you are the God of more than enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you are the God that takes a little bit and you put your great behind it and it magnifies all the more.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so God always works with what you have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't let me God of what you don't have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Trust them with what you do have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: And number two is this.
[SPEAKER_01]: God doesn't waste anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is not a wester.
[SPEAKER_01]: If wester is a word.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is not a wester.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't take the scraps left on your plate after you're done eating and throw it out in the trash.
[SPEAKER_01]: God's various strategic, he says, how do I use this now?
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me work this out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me figure out a way to work these things together, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: God is not a God that he should waste anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't waste moments, he doesn't waste opportunities, he doesn't waste challenges in our lives, he doesn't waste anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's true that God is a God of abundance, and he is the God of more than enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is the God of over and above, but even beyond those things, he is a God that waste not.
[SPEAKER_01]: He waste not the challenges in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: He he waste not the darkest times in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: He he waste not the hell that you've walked through.
[SPEAKER_01]: He he waste not those moments.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've always been fascinated with why David chose five stones.
[SPEAKER_01]: When all he needed was one, David chose five.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know that the Bible says he reached into his shipments bag, his little pouch, and he pulled out the one stone, and he loaded up his sling, and he took it, and he slung it at the giant, and that one stone was able to penetrate his head enough to be able to knock
[SPEAKER_01]: What are those stones, were they just there, just for the sake of being there?
[SPEAKER_01]: Were the stones there because maybe David was scared like, well, if one don't work, I've got another one and then maybe I'll grab another one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe I might need to sling multiple or maybe another giant will come out of nowhere and I got you, no, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever wondered why?
[SPEAKER_01]: If you ever want to why it only took one stone to take out one giant, but yet he had five to choose from, which means he had mathematic magicians in here.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had how many left?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, who said six?
[SPEAKER_01]: Praise the Lord, glory to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Give the Lord a hand clap.
[SPEAKER_01]: I praise this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just kidding.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, there was five.
[SPEAKER_01]: He used one five minus one four.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, he had four stones left.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, we know that five is the number of what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Grace, five is the number of grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we could say that David chose five stones and he was grazed in that moment to be able to take out the giant.
[SPEAKER_01]: That sounds really, really good.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It maybe it has a little bit of something to do with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do like that, but I believe it goes beyond the fact that David was graced in the moment for momentum to be able to take out the giant with five stones in his pouch, five being the number of grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want us to go further in time, skip ahead in history a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: chapter 21.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because in second Samuel chapter 21, beginning in verse 15, it actually starts telling of another story where we can begin to find out why David had five stones.
[SPEAKER_01]: Starting in verse 15, it says this.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of names here by the way, and I'm just going to put you there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just going to tell you right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Philistines again waged war against
[SPEAKER_01]: So here they are again, as if they didn't learn their lesson the first couple times, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: David went down with his soldiers and they fought the Philistines.
[SPEAKER_01]: And but David became exhausted.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then ishspeeb and ob, that's a name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your grandchild, you know, future grandkids, maybe I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the descendants of the giant, oh, wow, one of the descendants of the giant, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whose broad spear weighed about eight pounds and who wore new armor intended to kill David.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Abbas' eye, Son of the Rui, came to his aid, struck the Philistine and killed him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then David's men swore to him, you must never again go out with us to battle, you must not extinguish the lamp of Israel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next slide.
[SPEAKER_01]: After this, there was another battle with the Philistines at Gobb.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Philistines just liked to fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: At that time, Zibikai, the Husha Thait, killed Saph, who was one of the descendants of the giant.
[SPEAKER_01]: Once again, there was a battle with the Philistines at God.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Elhanon, son of that guy, the that thing, killed Goliath the Githite.
[SPEAKER_01]: The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam.
[SPEAKER_01]: At Gathar was still another battle.
[SPEAKER_01]: A huge man was there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Was six fingers on each hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: My Lord, it's getting weird now.
[SPEAKER_01]: These giants are getting weird as it comes back.
[SPEAKER_01]: And six toes on each foot, 24 and all.
[SPEAKER_01]: That guy knew how to swim.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could tell you that.
[SPEAKER_01]: He too was descended from the giant.
[SPEAKER_01]: When he taught to Israel, Jonathan, Son of David's brother, Shemai killed him.
[SPEAKER_01]: These four were descended from the giant and gath and were killed by David and his soldiers.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see church?
[SPEAKER_01]: God doesn't forget anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: God doesn't waste anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was believed that at that time that stones were used as a marker, to remember the goodness of God, to remember how God helped someone to overcome or to win or to be successful in any kind of way.
[SPEAKER_01]: They would often place a stone in a position to be able to reflect and remember and bring their children and their grandchildren, their great grandchildren and the descendants would
[SPEAKER_01]: at some point of time.
[SPEAKER_01]: So not only did David defeat Goliath, when he was just a shepherd boy, but now he has been elevated into a position of authority and it's years and years down the line and God allows David to lead the Israelites into defeating four more giants.
[SPEAKER_01]: How many stones did he have left in his pouch?
[SPEAKER_01]: Four, and how many giants were just killed?
[SPEAKER_01]: Four, and when you dive deep and you look into the history of who these giants were and who these men were, you see that they were the brothers of Goliath.
[SPEAKER_01]: When David went down to that stream and he picked up those five stones,
[SPEAKER_01]: Or was it God that said, don't just get one, get four more.
[SPEAKER_01]: And David probably wondered, why do I need four additional stones when there's only one giant?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's because God was thinking about what was coming down the line.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is not a God that he should waste.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if God told David to get five stones, let me tell you, it's because God was going to put to use every single one of those stones.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those four other stones get used to actually take out the giant, like a diggoliath, no?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not what scripture teaches us.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I believe that there is a whole lot of symbolism.
[SPEAKER_01]: that David didn't know in that moment that he would also be the one to later face these other men.
[SPEAKER_01]: These other giants.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I was David, I'm thinking, man, we got one to take a hell.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want his done.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, God.
[SPEAKER_01]: David had no clue that there were more giants coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: But God did.
[SPEAKER_01]: God did not waste a single stone.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let me tell you, God knows the things that are yet ahead of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows the things that are yet ahead of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God don't waste nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if God is leading you out of a situation right now, and he taught you something through that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me tell you, it's for the next time.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is always working behind the scenes in a way that we don't even understand that we don't even see in the moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: But God is working what the Bible says all things out for our good.
[SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't stop in a moment of time, but that continues on.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if God says take five stones, you better be obedient and take five stones because what you don't see is the four
[SPEAKER_01]: But God does.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God says, I know you're going to take out this one, but just in case there's another that's coming, you've got to remember you still have an extra stone in your pouch because I don't waste anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a God that waste not.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if when David went down to that stream
[SPEAKER_01]: He was choosing out his rocks because certainly he didn't just reach and grab and stuffed his pouch and had five stones.
[SPEAKER_01]: Certainly he picked out what he would want because David had a lot of time to practice singing stones as he was out on the hillside and shepherding and protecting the sheep.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can imagine as the sheep were all laying there, David would take his sling and his stone and just practice hitting targets.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, hitting a spot on a tree, just boom.
[SPEAKER_01]: David was so skilled with the sling.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why he was able to take out the giant the way he did.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that means that there was a lot of practice.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a lot of time where David was spending where he was sling in that thing and he
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that when David reached down and he went into that stream and he was choosing his stones, that maybe just maybe the Lord said the first one is for Goliath, but the other for her for his brothers.
[SPEAKER_01]: His brothers, I've thought only need to take care of one.
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you talking about?
[SPEAKER_01]: and God didn't waste a single thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't think that God is interested in the details of your life, you're mistaken.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is interested in the smallest of things to the biggest of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why the Bible says, and I was thinking about this last night, I was laying in bed, and I remember, I thought about this, I was like, wow, yes, Lord, even the singular hair on my head.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what the Bible says.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows the amount of hair on your head.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows you down to your DNA, to the core of who you are, to the smallest of the intricate things of your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is so invested in all of those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if he's so invested in in that on your physical body, let me tell you it goes far beyond that.
[SPEAKER_01]: and he is interested in the most finest details of your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: From the littlest of things to the biggest of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not only is he interested in the giant that's trying to take you out, but he's equally interested in taking out the giants that are going to try to come later in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this should help some of you today and should encourage you today that God is the God of great momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: because God has not only given you what you need right now, but he's also equipped you for what you need down the road.
[SPEAKER_01]: He not only has provided with what you need right here and right now, but he's also given you exactly what you need in a year from now, and five years from now, and 25 years from now, glory to God, because he's already there.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's already thinking about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's working all things out for your good.
[SPEAKER_00]: For more information about Church of the City, head on over to www.cotcdfw.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: And until next time, remember this, the best is yet to come.