Speaker 1: Are you ready for this Elevation Nights twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: Spring Tour. It's on the way. Come on, give God praise,
Speaker 1: whoo shout. If you know somebody within one hundred miles
Speaker 1: of these cities, the ones I'm about to name, we're
Speaker 1: gonna be starting this tour on April twenty sixth, go
Speaker 1: to Elevation Nights dot com and find out if tickets
Speaker 1: are available in your area. It's gonna be powerful. I
Speaker 1: know because we did it last year. So last year
Speaker 1: when I announced it, I said it's gonna be powerful,
Speaker 1: and I was just saying that by faith. But this
Speaker 1: year I know by experience, because we did it. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be preaching. The team is going to be there.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be in Chicago, Illinois, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Indianapolis, Columbus, Ohio, DC, Reading, Pennsylvania, Newark,
Speaker 1: New Jersey, and Boston. So do me a favor. If
Speaker 1: you know somebody around there, send them a lane. Elevation
Speaker 1: Knights tell them, tell them you gotta do. If you
Speaker 1: have to sell some shoes to get a ticket, if
Speaker 1: you have to make some beds to get a ticket, whatever,
Speaker 1: moss some lawns It'll be worth it because God is
Speaker 1: gonna do an amazing thing Elevation Nights dot com that
Speaker 1: starts April twenty six That's my little brother's birthday, so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna fly him out. I haven't told him this yet,
Speaker 1: but he watches his service every week he's in. He's
Speaker 1: stationed in the Air Force in New Jersey. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna fly him out to New Jersey, where he already lives,
Speaker 1: and get him a ticket to that show. You're welcome,
Speaker 1: Happy birthday, I got you. I'm gonna get you a
Speaker 1: backstage pass. You're gonna get to meet the pastor. I
Speaker 1: want that be awesome. Oh man, well, we don't have
Speaker 1: to wait till April twenty sixth. There is a word
Speaker 1: from the Lord. The presence of God has been powerful
Speaker 1: already today, and I heard from God what I'm going
Speaker 1: to share with you, and he confirmed it through multiple sources.
Speaker 1: So this is going to be absolutely life changing. In
Speaker 1: Fee Samuel, chapter thirteen, it has been a while since
Speaker 1: I've preached a good old Testament battle story. I haven't
Speaker 1: even preached one yet this year. So what better Sunday
Speaker 1: to preach about killing and slaughter than Valentine's Day weekend.
Speaker 1: But I did wear a red That's good. That's good.
Speaker 1: You ready for Samuel thirteen. I'm going to read a
Speaker 1: long scripture. Okay, all right? For Samuel thirteen sixteen, Saul
Speaker 1: and his son Jonathan and the men with them were
Speaker 1: staying in Gibeah in Benjamin, while the Philistines camped at mcmash.
Speaker 1: Raiding parties went out from the Philistine camp in three detachments.
Speaker 1: One turned toward Oprah in the vicinity of Shul, another
Speaker 1: toward Bethelron, and the third toward the borderland, overlooking the
Speaker 1: valley of Zaboyem facing the wilderness. Not a blacksmith could
Speaker 1: be found in the whole land of Israel, because the
Speaker 1: Philistines had said otherwise, the Hebrews will make swords or spears.
Speaker 1: So all is went down to the Philistines to have
Speaker 1: their plowpoints, mattocks, axes, and sickles sharpen. The price was
Speaker 1: two thirds of a shekel for sharpening plow points and maddox,
Speaker 1: and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and
Speaker 1: axes for repointing goats. Now this is a ripoff because
Speaker 1: we don't measure in shekels. But this is entirely too
Speaker 1: much to pay to get your goats sharpened. So verse
Speaker 1: twenty two. On the day of the battle, not a
Speaker 1: soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear
Speaker 1: in his hand. Only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.
Speaker 1: So on the day of battle, this is bad. This
Speaker 1: is bad to be in a day of battle and
Speaker 1: to not have a sword or a spear. On the
Speaker 1: day of the battle, not a soldier with Saul and
Speaker 1: Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand. Only
Speaker 1: Saul and his son Jonathan had them. I want to
Speaker 1: ap preach to you today from the subject no weapon,
Speaker 1: no weapon. Somebody shout no weapon. In Jesus' name, you
Speaker 1: may be seated no weapon. You know, usually when we
Speaker 1: shout that no weapons exciting and it's a promise from
Speaker 1: God that no weapon formed against you will prosper. But
Speaker 1: maybe you heard it different in the context where I
Speaker 1: just talked about how on the day of the battle,
Speaker 1: not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword
Speaker 1: or spear in his hand. No weapon. This message is
Speaker 1: for somebody who is in a war without the weapons
Speaker 1: that you need for that war. I have no idea
Speaker 1: what area of your life this will apply to. My
Speaker 1: first thought goes to financial, My second thought goes to relational.
Speaker 1: My third thought goes to emotional. Okay, I think I
Speaker 1: covered everybody in those three when I said you're in
Speaker 1: a war, but you don't have the weapons. And if
Speaker 1: that has been you lately, and you have been thinking
Speaker 1: things along the lines of what the am I supposed
Speaker 1: to do right now? Things that you have been thinking
Speaker 1: about lately, then this word is for you because you're
Speaker 1: in a war that you don't have have the weapons for.
Speaker 1: And the question I want to work with a little
Speaker 1: bit today is where are your weapons? Where are your weapons?
Speaker 1: Every once in a while, I like to revisit a
Speaker 1: passage that was a part of my past, drag it
Speaker 1: into my present, and see if God has given me
Speaker 1: any perspective in the space between. The funny thing about
Speaker 1: this passage is it's a story I've been preaching since
Speaker 1: I was sixteen years old. I outlined First Samuel fourteen.
Speaker 1: I know I read to you from thirteen, but I
Speaker 1: preached from First Samuel fourteen for the first time when
Speaker 1: I was sixteen. What brought it back to my mind
Speaker 1: was that we celebrated our church as sixteenth anniversary last weekend.
Speaker 1: Not only that, my oldest child is sixteen years old.
Speaker 1: So now I got a kid that's at the stage
Speaker 1: of life that I was at the first time I
Speaker 1: preached this. The first time I preached it, it had
Speaker 1: twelve points when I preached for it. The first time,
Speaker 1: I set all twelve points and didn't make one. Now
Speaker 1: I miss the whole thing that I can see now
Speaker 1: some things that God wasn't able to show me at
Speaker 1: the time because I wasn't ready to see it. Now,
Speaker 1: having a son at sixteen years old that is smarter
Speaker 1: than I am, more talented than I am, taller than
Speaker 1: I am. See, I'm not changing out any of the
Speaker 1: pictures of my family in my house from this point
Speaker 1: forward because I wanted all to be right at that
Speaker 1: last time that he came up to my nose, just
Speaker 1: so he doesn't never think he can beat me. I
Speaker 1: got to keep that mental edge, that psychological advantage. But
Speaker 1: the passage that I read, do you mention as a
Speaker 1: father and a son you might reckon nice to name Saul.
Speaker 1: He was the first king that Israel ever had. He
Speaker 1: was the first king that Israel had and God didn't
Speaker 1: want them to have him, but they just had to
Speaker 1: have one. Like that car you're making payments on for
Speaker 1: the next seventy six years, you just had to have one.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go to the person that you
Speaker 1: are sitting next to. You just had to have them.
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day. But when we look at the text as
Speaker 1: a father and son is really powerful because you have Saul,
Speaker 1: who was the first king, Jonathan his son, who is
Speaker 1: supposed to be king next from a human perspective, but
Speaker 1: can't be king because God has chosen David and rejected Saul.
Speaker 1: And it provides a contrast which has been eye opening
Speaker 1: for me to study this week. It's been eye opening
Speaker 1: for me to study for a couple reasons. One the
Speaker 1: other day, I was saying something to one of my kids,
Speaker 1: and the Spirit of the Lord told me, nicely, shut up,
Speaker 1: said it nicer than that. But the way I'm saying
Speaker 1: it to you is shut up. What I was doing
Speaker 1: in the middle of telling my son something was I
Speaker 1: was visiting my insecurity on them and making it a
Speaker 1: limitation that did not apply for their life. I was
Speaker 1: kind of having one of those moments where I thought
Speaker 1: I was telling them the way things are. But what
Speaker 1: I realized in the middle of saying it is that
Speaker 1: is the way things were for you. That does not
Speaker 1: have to be the way it is for them. And
Speaker 1: the Spirit of the Lord said, shut up. Don't say that.
Speaker 1: Don't speak that over them. Go scream it in your pillow,
Speaker 1: go tell it to a counselor go write it down
Speaker 1: and scratch it out. But for God's sake, don't put
Speaker 1: your stuff on them. Don't weigh them down with your
Speaker 1: own unmet expectations of life so that they have to
Speaker 1: carry with them your resentment about things you didn't experience,
Speaker 1: but maybe I want them to. And the Spirit of
Speaker 1: the Lord said, shut up, shut up. In First Samuel thirteen,
Speaker 1: the Bible says there was no weapon in the hands
Speaker 1: of God's people. What a horrible place to be to
Speaker 1: have an enemy attacking you, not just from one side,
Speaker 1: not just from both sides. But the Bible says there
Speaker 1: were three detachments that had gone out from the Philistines.
Speaker 1: You recognize the name Philistine from the famous Philistines in
Speaker 1: the Bible. Goliath, but he hasn't showed up yet. He's
Speaker 1: in One Samuel seventeen, and he gets killed by David
Speaker 1: with a little tiny stone that he didn't think could
Speaker 1: do anything to him. But he found out that when
Speaker 1: God gets behind something, it has enough momentum to kill
Speaker 1: any enemy, regardless of scale, size or strength. Phil like preaching.
Speaker 1: Can I preach? Can I preach? Deliath hasn't showed up yet,
Speaker 1: but he's a Philistine. Also, you might remember Delilah, Remember
Speaker 1: Delilah Shah the haircut just for us, just for us,
Speaker 1: and uh. But yet there were Philistines all over the
Speaker 1: place in this passage, one in Orpha, one in Bethon,
Speaker 1: and one in that other place. I can't remember the
Speaker 1: name of it, but starts with a Z, and I
Speaker 1: practice pronouncing it, but I can't remember it right now.
Speaker 1: And they're coming from everywhere against the Israelites. They're actually
Speaker 1: so strategically occupied in the land of Canaan that they
Speaker 1: have blocked off the passages by which the Israelites can
Speaker 1: move about. They've blocked off the passages in opposition to
Speaker 1: Israel's possession of the land. So when God moved his
Speaker 1: people into the Promised Land, he didn't guarantee that none
Speaker 1: of their enemies would live there too. The relevance of
Speaker 1: this for us is God does not promise that He's
Speaker 1: just going to give us everything automatically. God never promised
Speaker 1: you for one moment that you wouldn't have to fight
Speaker 1: for joy through the feelings of despair. God never promised
Speaker 1: you for one moment that you wouldn't have to fight
Speaker 1: for an optimistic perspective in the face of a negative
Speaker 1: default setting. God never promised you for one moment that
Speaker 1: you would not have to fight for influence in the
Speaker 1: face of things that make you feel like who am
Speaker 1: I to speak anything? Who am I to be anything?
Speaker 1: Who am I to do anything? God never promise that.
Speaker 1: He only said that it's possible. Shout is possible, but
Speaker 1: the fact that it's possible doesn't mean that it's automatic.
Speaker 1: Possible is not automatic. If I had never invited her
Speaker 1: to be on my summer Impact team, she would have
Speaker 1: never fallen in love with me on the bus. And
Speaker 1: if she never fell in love with me on the bus,
Speaker 1: we never would have walked down the aisle. And if
Speaker 1: we never walked down the aisle, she could not have
Speaker 1: experienced the gift of the goodness. So what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say to you is there are some things that
Speaker 1: God has given you, but you still have to go
Speaker 1: for them. Go for it, Go for it, go for it.
Speaker 1: If God was something in your heart, you will have
Speaker 1: to go for it. But but but I've got God's grace.
Speaker 1: You've got God's grace to empower you to go for
Speaker 1: what He's given you. That's what the grace is for.
Speaker 1: I got my coffee this morning. I'm ready. I'm ready,
Speaker 1: I'm ready. And yet, with the passage of time, I've
Speaker 1: come to see this passage a little differently than I
Speaker 1: did when I was sixteen. Okay, because when I was sixteen,
Speaker 1: I felt like Jonathan. But twenty five years later, that's
Speaker 1: a quarter of a century. I saw myself as Saul
Speaker 1: this week, and I want to read you both, and
Speaker 1: I want to see which one you've been acting more likelyately,
Speaker 1: and then we'll talk about that, and then the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit will show you what he needs to show you,
Speaker 1: and I'll be out of your way and I won't
Speaker 1: bother you anymore for at least seven days. But first,
Speaker 1: Samuel fourteen says something so interesting that one day, one day, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: son of Saul, said to his young armor Beard, come
Speaker 1: let's go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side,
Speaker 1: but he didn't tell his father. Saul was staying on
Speaker 1: the outskirts of Gibea. That's where he was from. It's
Speaker 1: from the tribe of Benjamin. He never asked to be king.
Speaker 1: All indications are he never fully accepted his role as king.
Speaker 1: All indications are his insecurity kept him from embracing his
Speaker 1: God given destiny. And this is the guy that I
Speaker 1: felt like this week, all right, And I'm once you
Speaker 1: contrasted to because it's a very powerful picture. Here Saul
Speaker 1: was staying on the outskirts of giving him under a
Speaker 1: pomegranate tree. In with him were about six hundred men,
Speaker 1: among whom was a Hija who was wearing an ephot.
Speaker 1: He was a son of Ichabod's brother, a high top,
Speaker 1: son of Phineas, the son of Eli, the lord's priest
Speaker 1: in Shiloh. No one was aware that Jonathan had left.
Speaker 1: On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to
Speaker 1: cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff. One
Speaker 1: was called Bozaz, the slippery one, and the other Sinna
Speaker 1: the thorny one. One cliff stood to the north toward Mickmash,
Speaker 1: the other to the south. Toward Geba Verse six has
Speaker 1: been a source of many sermons for this preacher. Jonathan
Speaker 1: said to his young armor bearer, come, let's go over
Speaker 1: to the outpost of those uncircumcised men. The first time
Speaker 1: he talked about him, he called them politely, the Philistines.
Speaker 1: Now he's talking trash, those uncircumcised enemies of the Living God.
Speaker 1: They don't have a covenant we do. Let's go. They
Speaker 1: don't have the God of Heaven fighting for them. We do.
Speaker 1: Let's go. Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf.
Speaker 1: Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many
Speaker 1: or by few. Do all that you have in mind.
Speaker 1: As armor bearer said, go ahead, I am with you,
Speaker 1: heart and soul. Jonathan said, come on there. I like
Speaker 1: it when you tell me to do whatever I have
Speaker 1: in my mind because it makes me feel less crazy.
Speaker 1: Let's go over together, cross over toward them, and let
Speaker 1: them see us. If they say to us, wait there
Speaker 1: till we come up to you, we will stay where
Speaker 1: we are and go up to them. But if they
Speaker 1: say come up to us. If they say come up
Speaker 1: to us, we will climb up, because that will be
Speaker 1: our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands.
Speaker 1: So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outposts. Look,
Speaker 1: said the Philistines. The Hebrews are crawling out of the
Speaker 1: holes they were hiding in. The men of the outposts
Speaker 1: shouted to Jonathan and his armor bearer, come up to
Speaker 1: us and we'll teach you a lesson. They need some
Speaker 1: trash talking tips. This is very PG. So Jonathan said
Speaker 1: to his armor bearer, climb up after me. The Lord
Speaker 1: has given them, we'll give, has given them, is gonna give,
Speaker 1: has given them into the hand of Israel. How do
Speaker 1: you know because they threatened us. How do you know
Speaker 1: because they insulted us. So the insult I'm just showing
Speaker 1: you this from the Philistines is a sign to Jonathan
Speaker 1: and an invitation for what God can do the impossible.
Speaker 1: Just giving you some context. Jonathan climbed up using his
Speaker 1: hands and feet, with his armor bearer right behind him.
Speaker 1: The Philistines fell before Jonathan and his armor bearer followed
Speaker 1: and killed behind him. In that first attack, Jonathan and
Speaker 1: his armor bearer killed some twenty men in an area
Speaker 1: of about half an acre. So that's Jonathan. He moves
Speaker 1: toward the Philistines with one weapon, and let's hear it
Speaker 1: for the armor bearer, he had no weapon. That's the
Speaker 1: one to me in the passage who ought to be celebrated,
Speaker 1: the one who had to climb behind this young man.
Speaker 1: A friend of mine asked me. I told him, I'm
Speaker 1: preaching on Jonathan and first Samuel forty this week, how
Speaker 1: he went over to the Philistines and said, perhaps the
Speaker 1: Lord will act, and how he stepped out and he
Speaker 1: wasn't really sure, but he had to leave that in
Speaker 1: God's hands and do what he could do. And I'm
Speaker 1: appreach to people and tell them you're in a situation
Speaker 1: where you're not really sure right now, and you have
Speaker 1: to go through a slippery, thorny place and you have
Speaker 1: to go up and you have to expose yourself, and
Speaker 1: you have to be willing to be seen, and you
Speaker 1: have to be willing to try something, and you have
Speaker 1: to be wanting to make a move and can't just
Speaker 1: sit around waiting for it. And I'm gonna talk about
Speaker 1: how he made a move in that direction and God
Speaker 1: gave him a miracle, but got to give a miracle
Speaker 1: for me. I'm going off on my friend. And then
Speaker 1: my friend said, what do you think made Jonathan able?
Speaker 1: To do that, and the Lord gave me on the
Speaker 1: spot and alliterated outline. What made this young man able
Speaker 1: to do that? One was development. He wasn't twenty five yet,
Speaker 1: and your prefrontal cortex doesn't fully develop until you're twenty five.
Speaker 1: And so the first thing that Jonathan had going for
Speaker 1: him was that he was dumb. He was dumb enough
Speaker 1: to do something based on the assumption that God can
Speaker 1: do anything. He felt happy when I said it. He
Speaker 1: was dumb enough to do something based on the assumption
Speaker 1: that God could do anything. And so everybody over twenty
Speaker 1: five makes some noise because your prefrontal cortex is to
Speaker 1: developed for you to step out on a perhaps because
Speaker 1: your primary question is what if it doesn't work? And
Speaker 1: Jonathan is like, what if it does? What if God
Speaker 1: does say yes? What if God does deliver? What if
Speaker 1: we do get a victory? What if something amazing does happen?
Speaker 1: What if this is the time? What if this does work?
Speaker 1: The second thing that Jonathan had going for him, in
Speaker 1: my mind was psychological term detachment. To me, is interesting
Speaker 1: that the text says three detachments of Philistines. That's the enemy.
Speaker 1: So they go out in detachments because there's thousands of them,
Speaker 1: but they go out separately. Detachments, detachments to the Bible
Speaker 1: calls them. Well. Jonathan had a sense of detachment as well.
Speaker 1: The major world religions all co op this term, but
Speaker 1: I'm using it in the Christian sense because I am one.
Speaker 1: And so there's a sense in which Jonathan had to
Speaker 1: detach from the outcome and move forward by faith. How
Speaker 1: do you climb up to the enemy, how do you
Speaker 1: climb out of insecurity? How do you climb past what
Speaker 1: other thing? Other people told you? What impossible? One step
Speaker 1: at a time. And Jonathan understands, you know, I know
Speaker 1: God can, and I think he might. Let's go. That
Speaker 1: is some ad advanced level detachment to go all right,
Speaker 1: this one. I'm gonna do this one. We're gonna do
Speaker 1: and go up. I'm gonna show ourselves. If they say
Speaker 1: we're coming down to you, we're not going up. If
Speaker 1: they say come up to us, we'll go up and
Speaker 1: God to give us the victory and that'll be the
Speaker 1: sign that He's given into our hands. But there is
Speaker 1: a part of this that has to be left in
Speaker 1: God's hands. Detachment. But the third thing I told my friend,
Speaker 1: I said it was desperation because they had no weapons,
Speaker 1: and he knew if we stay here under this pomegranate tree,
Speaker 1: we will surely die. They will surely plunder us. Now,
Speaker 1: if we go over there, God might give us the victory.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna move toward the might. Now, who is
Speaker 1: this for? You need to move toward the possibility of victory.
Speaker 1: And a lot of times we can't do this because
Speaker 1: while Jonathan is moving toward Philistine's enemies battles challenges. While
Speaker 1: while Jonathan is moving toward that, remember where his father was.
Speaker 1: While Jonathan is moving toward Philistine's Saul is sitting under pomegranates.
Speaker 1: I don't know if this will make sense, but I
Speaker 1: want to ask you pomegranates or Philistines. You're like, what's
Speaker 1: so wrong with pomegranates, Preacher, You've got against pomegranates. Pomegranate
Speaker 1: is a perfectly acceptable fruit, and there's nothing wrong with
Speaker 1: sitting under the tree. I agree with you. In fact,
Speaker 1: I so agree with you that I want to show
Speaker 1: you a Bible verse about pomegranates. All right, So let
Speaker 1: me sit there thinking I'm hating on pomegranates. I got
Speaker 1: prejudice toward pomegranates. I love pomegranates as much as the
Speaker 1: next guy. They're messy, but I like them so much
Speaker 1: so that when the spies. Do you remember when the
Speaker 1: spies first went into the Promised Land and Moses told
Speaker 1: him bring back some of the fruit of the Promised Land,
Speaker 1: because they're coming out of Egypt. Remember when they came
Speaker 1: back carrying this pole full of the produce of canaan,
Speaker 1: the fruit of what God was giving them. And do
Speaker 1: you remember it said they brought back a cluster of
Speaker 1: grapes that they had to carry between two of them
Speaker 1: because the cluster of grapes was so big. But watch
Speaker 1: what else was on that pole? In numbers, chapter thirteen,
Speaker 1: Give me numbers thirteen, y'all. They went up through the Negev,
Speaker 1: came to Hebron, where the descendants of Anak lived. Now
Speaker 1: go on to the next first place. The next part
Speaker 1: that gave him the wrong verse? I think I gave
Speaker 1: him the wrong verse. Hold on, that's the one. Yeah.
Speaker 1: When they reached the there it is, when they reached
Speaker 1: the valley of Eshkol, they cut off a branch single
Speaker 1: cluster of grapes to them, carried it between them, two
Speaker 1: of them carried it between them and including on the
Speaker 1: pole with some pomegranates. Really don't see the need in
Speaker 1: pointing out that they were pomegranates. Pomegranates don't grow in Egypt.
Speaker 1: This is new fruit for a new place that God
Speaker 1: is taking them by faith. So when I saw Saul
Speaker 1: sitting under the pomegranate tree, it served as a reminder
Speaker 1: to me that he was sitting under something that God
Speaker 1: gave him. He was sitting under something that represented God's promise.
Speaker 1: Take this the Bible class this week, ask about the pomegranates,
Speaker 1: because the pomegranates are not only a sign of the promise,
Speaker 1: but it's what the priest wore on the edge of
Speaker 1: their ropes. There was a vestiment called an ephid. You
Speaker 1: saw them for Samuel fourteen as well, and the priest
Speaker 1: would wear the ephid with the twelfth stone that represented
Speaker 1: the twelve tribes. And he had urim and thumbium that
Speaker 1: represented the will of God. And all of this is
Speaker 1: under the pomegranate tree with Saul, long after God has
Speaker 1: brought his people into the Promised land. Can I teach
Speaker 1: you this from the Bible for a moment so you
Speaker 1: can get the background to understand what's happening in your life.
Speaker 1: Saul is not sitting in a bad place. He is
Speaker 1: sitting under something that represented the promise of God. On
Speaker 1: the edge of the road that the priest would wear
Speaker 1: was a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate,
Speaker 1: alternating ab bell, pomegranate, bell, pomegranate. This pomegranate is no
Speaker 1: accidental fruit. This is not an ordinary fruit. This is
Speaker 1: not a random detail that the writer of First Samuel
Speaker 1: gives to us to let us know. He is sitting
Speaker 1: under the promise of God. And that's a It is
Speaker 1: a problem when you sit under a promise of God,
Speaker 1: when God is calling you to go forward. Now there
Speaker 1: comes situations in your life. All you can do is
Speaker 1: sitting under the promise of God. I can't heal my
Speaker 1: own body. I've just got to hold on to the
Speaker 1: fact that my life and my days are in God's hand,
Speaker 1: and that by his stripes I am healed and he
Speaker 1: can and even if he doesn't, he's gone and he's
Speaker 1: good and he's whip me. But I also have a
Speaker 1: responsibility in other seasons of my life to move toward
Speaker 1: what I'm praying for that's so anointed. What Jonathan said
Speaker 1: to the armor bearer, Let's go toward the Philistines. And
Speaker 1: you are in a sea where God is calling you
Speaker 1: to go toward something. And Saul saulus sitting under something,
Speaker 1: sitting under something with somebody. Did you notice he had
Speaker 1: one of the descendants of Ichabod with him under the tree.
Speaker 1: Ichabod was the one that was named right after the
Speaker 1: Ark was captured by the Philistines, the great grandson of Eli,
Speaker 1: the priest. I know this is a lot of Bible background, y'all,
Speaker 1: but is so significant for you to realize that where
Speaker 1: you sit, who you sit with, and what you believe
Speaker 1: about the will of God is critical to what happens
Speaker 1: next in your life. Of course, Saul was sitting under
Speaker 1: the pomegranate tree. He had just been told by Samuel
Speaker 1: that God was going to take his kingdom away because
Speaker 1: he hadn't waited to offer the sacrifice. He was disappointed. Literally,
Speaker 1: he had been appointed as king and he was going
Speaker 1: to lose what he was. He had been defeated by
Speaker 1: the Philistines in chapter fifteen. And also he didn't have
Speaker 1: the weapons. Yeah, I hear you, Ferdie this all sounds good.
Speaker 1: And if I was a preacher and I knew all
Speaker 1: these Bible verses, and I had a parafink wife lying
Speaker 1: Holly like you're only he's out there talking about how
Speaker 1: great and how perfect she is, maybe this would be
Speaker 1: good for me too. Why didn't the Israelites have any weapons?
Speaker 1: The scripture said that there was not a blacksmith found
Speaker 1: in the land of Israel. The reason there was no
Speaker 1: blacksmith found in the land of Israel is because the
Speaker 1: Philistines knew if we can keep the Israelites from taking
Speaker 1: what they have and shaping it into something that they
Speaker 1: can fight with, they will always be weak. And here's
Speaker 1: what had happened. That puts Saul under the pomegranate tree,
Speaker 1: and that keeps you in states where you don't trust God,
Speaker 1: don't think God wants to hear from you, don't pray,
Speaker 1: don't believe anything can change, just stand there and surrender
Speaker 1: to the way things are and call it faith. Trusting
Speaker 1: God without moving toward is not faith. The importance of
Speaker 1: a blacksmith is something I never saw when I was sixteen,
Speaker 1: but I see it now because I got a sixteen
Speaker 1: and I got a fourteen and I got a ten.
Speaker 1: I got three of these, And I see Philistines all
Speaker 1: around my kids. I see Philistines all around my kids.
Speaker 1: And Graham's gonna roll his eyes when I say this,
Speaker 1: because he hates when I do it. But I see
Speaker 1: social media raising a generation. And what worries me about
Speaker 1: that church? It's not about the technology scene. Yet. Understand,
Speaker 1: the Philistines had the best technology. They had learned how
Speaker 1: to work with iron. The Israelites were still working with bronze.
Speaker 1: So when it says they didn't have weapons, the reason
Speaker 1: they didn't have weapons, am I'm born, y'all. This is
Speaker 1: so deep to me. The reason they didn't have weapons
Speaker 1: the Philistines knew what to do with iron. So every
Speaker 1: time that the Israelites wanted their farming equipment sharpen, they
Speaker 1: had to go to the Philistines, which represents the world,
Speaker 1: who are not God's people, who do not have God's spirit,
Speaker 1: who do not have God's promise. So now watch this,
Speaker 1: they had to go to the world to get their weapons. Now,
Speaker 1: I talk to my kids about everything that is age
Speaker 1: appropriate to talk to them about, which includes as much
Speaker 1: as they hated sex, I talk to my kids about
Speaker 1: sex as much as it's appropriate for the age, and
Speaker 1: they hate it. But if you think I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: TikTok teach my kid, yeah I said it. If you
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna leave my kid without weapons because I'm uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: If you think I'm gonna let somebody jeez happy out
Speaker 1: of twerk and I'm not gonna talk to her about
Speaker 1: what it means to be a woman, get out of
Speaker 1: my face. Crazy. You think I'm gonna send my kid
Speaker 1: into the world to fight the devil without weapons, not
Speaker 1: just sex, not just sex, Let's get off of that.
Speaker 1: I know that's long enough. It's emotions too, because let
Speaker 1: me ask you, how many of you have lost battles
Speaker 1: because you didn't have a blacksmith? And is this not true?
Speaker 1: It's too late when you get into the battle to
Speaker 1: get a blacksmith. What do you mean It's too late
Speaker 1: until you let anger take you over and now your
Speaker 1: little lizard brain is running the show. Now you got
Speaker 1: a little lizard driving your decisions. It's too late at
Speaker 1: that point for you to learn that my emotions don't
Speaker 1: control me if I have the spirit of God insidemen.
Speaker 1: But see as much as you can know that Is
Speaker 1: that a pomegranate tree that you sit under or is
Speaker 1: it an actual process in your life that produces victory.
Speaker 1: Because there's a difference the stuff we can shout over
Speaker 1: versus the stuff we can fight with. It's one thing
Speaker 1: to have farming equipment, it's another thing to have fighting instruments.
Speaker 1: The Israelites had the raw material, they didn't have a blacksmith.
Speaker 1: Have you ever had to go to battle but you
Speaker 1: didn't have a blacksmith? Have any of you in the
Speaker 1: room had to be a dad, but you didn't have
Speaker 1: a dad who showed you along the way how to
Speaker 1: do this. That was my dad's story. I'm in utter amazement.
Speaker 1: What a good job my dad did, considering the blacksmith
Speaker 1: he never had. His dad killed himself. He did good
Speaker 1: to stay alive. And then he told me one time,
Speaker 1: he told me, he said, have you ever run anything
Speaker 1: and you start thinking you have to kill yourself? You
Speaker 1: talk to me, He said, I will drop everything I'm
Speaker 1: doing and I will go. I'll take you fishing. I'm like, Dad,
Speaker 1: I don't like fishing. He's like, whatever the point is,
Speaker 1: I will take you. You do not have to go
Speaker 1: that route. What was that he was trying to be
Speaker 1: the blacksmith that he never had. Oh that's wonderful. You're
Speaker 1: telling me to just go for it. You sound like
Speaker 1: we're a rocky movie, Pastor Steven. I can't put this
Speaker 1: into practice in my life. I know you can't because
Speaker 1: you didn't have a blacksmith. And when you don't have
Speaker 1: a blacksmith showing you here is how you navigate this
Speaker 1: emotional state, or this is how you take a scripture
Speaker 1: and actually live it out, then you'll have plenty of
Speaker 1: pomegranates to sit under, plenty of good sounding things that
Speaker 1: represent on plenty of words, but no weapons. I am
Speaker 1: seeing people go down left and right as a pastor.
Speaker 1: Right now, what else is new? And it wouldn't bother
Speaker 1: me if the devil was stronger than us. I messed
Speaker 1: up and stumbled across a verse that said, greater is
Speaker 1: he that is in you than he that is in
Speaker 1: the world. Or as Jonathan said, nothing can hinder the
Speaker 1: Lord from saving, whether by many or by few. If
Speaker 1: that is true, why are you losing? If that is true,
Speaker 1: why isn't it working? And the Lord spoke to me
Speaker 1: he didn't have a blacksmith. When you don't have a blacksmith.
Speaker 1: You don't have anybody to show you how to take
Speaker 1: the raw material and turn it into something that is
Speaker 1: useful in your life. That's why I want to be
Speaker 1: a better blacksmith than you. Man, So I don't tell you, oh,
Speaker 1: you can't do this and you can't do that. I
Speaker 1: don't want to be Saul. So you sit under the
Speaker 1: pomegranate's with me. Even if I take this to a
Speaker 1: level of Elijah's music. That boy just made an album
Speaker 1: on his computer in his bedroom over the last four months,
Speaker 1: an entire album. I never did that now, but I've
Speaker 1: been a pretty good blacksmith to him along the way.
Speaker 1: Two and a a half years ago. He didn't even know
Speaker 1: what I was doing, but I snuck a recording mic
Speaker 1: in his room at the same time he was saying,
Speaker 1: I don't like my voice. I don't want to sing.
Speaker 1: I don't like my voice. Nobody likes their voice when
Speaker 1: they're thirteen, if they're not justin Bieber. But I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to get you to love your voice right now.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to put something that you have to
Speaker 1: trip over when you wake up in the morning. So
Speaker 1: every time you see that that might you might step
Speaker 1: on it one day, and you might sing something, and
Speaker 1: then you might sing something else. And I'm not taking
Speaker 1: credit because it's his battle, but I'm his blacksmith. I
Speaker 1: need every dad in here to change your Instagram bio
Speaker 1: to blacksmith, because if you are nothing else, I need
Speaker 1: every pastor watching this sermon to rip something off and
Speaker 1: you can preach it later, to just change your job
Speaker 1: title and put blacksmith at least for the rest of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Because you have got to see yourself
Speaker 1: as someone who has been given the responsibility by God
Speaker 1: to shape and to form. I found myself this week
Speaker 1: feeling sorry for Saul because he didn't have anybody to
Speaker 1: show him how to be a king. He was the
Speaker 1: first one. He had a powerful dad, but he never
Speaker 1: been a king before he didn't have a blacksmith. Then
Speaker 1: when I was feeling sorry for Saul, I was feeling
Speaker 1: sorry for Jonathan because the one who was supposed to
Speaker 1: be his black smith was so broken that he couldn't
Speaker 1: show him how to do it either. Then I started
Speaker 1: wondering about you, and I started wondering, are you in
Speaker 1: a battle without a blacksmith? Are you in a war
Speaker 1: where you didn't have the weapons for it. That was
Speaker 1: the state of Israel, and that was why Saul was
Speaker 1: under the tree, and that was why the children of
Speaker 1: God were running to the world for their weapons. Let
Speaker 1: me bring this into a New Testament context. In Second Corinthians,
Speaker 1: Paul is talking to the church about how we fight,
Speaker 1: not if we fight, everybody has a fighting style, but
Speaker 1: how we fight. He says that, yeah, that though we
Speaker 1: live in the world, we do not wage war as
Speaker 1: the world does. We don't go to the Philistines to
Speaker 1: get our weapons sharpened. It's too expensive. We don't go
Speaker 1: to social media to get our emotional needs met it's
Speaker 1: too expensive. We don't go to the devil for our dopamine.
Speaker 1: Hit Please, devil, give me some dopamine. Made me feel
Speaker 1: good for a second, Give me pleasure for a second,
Speaker 1: make me feel something for a second. It's too expensive
Speaker 1: because you can get it from the devil. But it's
Speaker 1: too expensive. How many of you have found out it
Speaker 1: is too expensive to go to the world to get
Speaker 1: your weapons. It's too expensive because even if it works,
Speaker 1: it isn't worth it. And that's why Paul says, man,
Speaker 1: we don't wage war like the world does. We have
Speaker 1: to fight these battles. We have to live in this world.
Speaker 1: We have to be realistic, but we don't have to
Speaker 1: fight it that way. The weapons that we have have
Speaker 1: divine power to demolish strongholds. That's in the Bible, y'all.
Speaker 1: That is the spirit of Jesus inside of you. It
Speaker 1: is divine power to demolish strongholds. When you go to
Speaker 1: the world for your weapons, there's no power in them.
Speaker 1: When you go to the world for your weapons, it
Speaker 1: doesn't demolish strongholds. It creates strongholds. It creates dependence on
Speaker 1: the thing that you are going to for the need
Speaker 1: you are trying to meet. Why would you go to
Speaker 1: the devil for it when your dad has it in abundance.
Speaker 1: When you are out of God and so Jonathan's nothing
Speaker 1: can hinder the Lord. I have a covenant with Almighty God.
Speaker 1: No weapon, and he got a victory. Well, he had
Speaker 1: one weapon. The armor bearer had no weapon. And even
Speaker 1: in that the Lord spoke to me. He said, quit
Speaker 1: saying you don't have any You got one. You got one,
Speaker 1: and sometimes one is enough. I am forty two in
Speaker 1: six days. That's right in the middle. While you're not
Speaker 1: sure if that's cheerable or not like And the thing
Speaker 1: I found out is that there is only one thing
Speaker 1: in the world that I know that I'm pretty good at,
Speaker 1: other than like loving my wife, my kids, and all,
Speaker 1: that is not baseball, at least not at a professional level.
Speaker 1: Even when it comes to the things that I do
Speaker 1: in my life today, I'm not saying I'm great at administrating.
Speaker 1: I'm not say I'm horrible at it, but I'm not
Speaker 1: great at it. I'll say I'm good at managing people.
Speaker 1: I'm good at it. Sometimes i'm good at it in
Speaker 1: certain seasons, but I can't say I'm great at it.
Speaker 1: I found one thing that I can do that God's
Speaker 1: hand is on. Out of that one, which I'm saying
Speaker 1: is sharing his work. Okay, in case that's not clear,
Speaker 1: I hope it's clear. I hope that that's obvious that
Speaker 1: God gave me that gift. Maybe it's not. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I wonder what I'm saying. I can do this
Speaker 1: and and and and God uses it right, and I've
Speaker 1: been doing it since I was sixteen. Out of that
Speaker 1: one thing that God gave me, let me let me
Speaker 1: tell you what what the what the devil will do.
Speaker 1: He will tempt you to diminish what you've been given.
Speaker 1: Because out of this one thing that I've given my
Speaker 1: life to do, I've been able to see God do
Speaker 1: amazing things. I've been all over the world doing this.
Speaker 1: I have stood in front of people that didn't even
Speaker 1: speak my language with an interpreter doing this. I have
Speaker 1: met people that I never thought i'd get to me
Speaker 1: doing this. I've seen people that came up to me
Speaker 1: and said that their life was greatly helped doing this.
Speaker 1: And yet this that I do is talking. This that
Speaker 1: I do is imperfect. This that I do. Sometimes I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be honest with you, I feel like what I
Speaker 1: do is one of the weirdest things in the world.
Speaker 1: Try to tell you what God thinks about stuff keyword try.
Speaker 1: I'm figuring it out as I go as well. But
Speaker 1: out of this one imperfect, uncertain thing that God has
Speaker 1: given me to do that I believe He called me
Speaker 1: to do, that, I believe He graced me to do that,
Speaker 1: I stand up and do no matter how I feel
Speaker 1: about it. Out of this one thing that God gave
Speaker 1: me to do, I have seen God do things. One
Speaker 1: is enough. I don't have to be good at basketball.
Speaker 1: To do this, I don't have to be good at
Speaker 1: I don't have to you know what, I don't even
Speaker 1: have to be good at counting to do this, I
Speaker 1: don't have to be good. There's a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: that I have reconciled to the fact that I will
Speaker 1: never be great at that, but standing in the grace
Speaker 1: that God gave me and doing the thing that God
Speaker 1: called me to do, this gift that I have been
Speaker 1: preaching on this boy called Jonathan for twenty five years.
Speaker 1: I have preached at least three hundred sermons on this
Speaker 1: one text, and one was enough. I preached it in Australia.
Speaker 1: I preached it in Singapore. I preached it in London.
Speaker 1: I preached it in Camden, South Carolina. I preach it
Speaker 1: in Valentine. When I'm forty two, I'll preach it. If
Speaker 1: God gives me the grace I'm eighty four, I will
Speaker 1: preach this one word one give one calling one weapon
Speaker 1: one weapon. You say there was no weapon, No, there
Speaker 1: was one. And God has always given you something. God
Speaker 1: has always given you something. The prophet asked the woman,
Speaker 1: what do you have in your house? She said, nothing
Speaker 1: except a little oil. You see that thing you almost overlooked,
Speaker 1: that thing you didn't think was worth mentioning. That was
Speaker 1: the one that the miracle was in. You mean one
Speaker 1: weapon was enough to kill twenty Philistines. It was my faith.
Speaker 1: God likes to do it like that, does. He doesn't
Speaker 1: want you given the credit to your weapons. He doesn't
Speaker 1: want you to raise your weapons. He wants you to
Speaker 1: praise him. I don't know if it's true that they
Speaker 1: didn't have any weapons. They just didn't know where their
Speaker 1: weapons were. Can I show you something? What's your name? Again?
Speaker 1: Your story inspired me, Yolanda. I was thinking this might
Speaker 1: just be for you, This whole word might just be
Speaker 1: for Yolanda. They were talking about Yolanda earlier and all
Speaker 1: that she's been through, and I thought about telling you,
Speaker 1: do you know where your weapons are? A lot of
Speaker 1: people don't. They just accept depression. They don't have a worship.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying field depression. I'm saying I don't accept that.
Speaker 1: I don't accept that as being my new default setting
Speaker 1: and the limitation of my life. We have addictions. We
Speaker 1: all have addictions. Me as you scroll, you are delusional, Yolanda.
Speaker 1: I started by calling this sermon no weapon there were
Speaker 1: no weapons with the Israelites because there were no blacksmiths.
Speaker 1: All of the ways that the enemy kept you from
Speaker 1: getting what you should have had, and all of the
Speaker 1: ways that he wants to use what you think you
Speaker 1: should have had that you don't have from keep you,
Speaker 1: to keep you from doing what God called you to do.
Speaker 1: That was my message. And it said there wasn't a
Speaker 1: weapon in the hands of Israel. In the hands of Israel,
Speaker 1: that's true. But guess who did have weapons. The Philistines.
Speaker 1: They had weapons. They made weapons, They had the monopoly
Speaker 1: on medal of making, so they were fully weaponized. And
Speaker 1: that's just the way God wanted it. I'm about to
Speaker 1: show you something that blew my mind. Oh I hope
Speaker 1: it blows your mind, because while you're sitting there thinking
Speaker 1: about what you don't have that God didn't give you. Know,
Speaker 1: he's giving you all things ritually to enjoy, and he's
Speaker 1: giving you forgiveness of your sins and salvation through the
Speaker 1: blood of His son. All that I don't have any weapons,
Speaker 1: You got the Holy Spirit, the minded spirit, which is
Speaker 1: life and peace, to show you everything you ever good
Speaker 1: perfect give what hass y'all, I remind myself of the
Speaker 1: older brother in the prodigal Son story, sitting in the
Speaker 1: father's house, talking about you never gave me a goat.
Speaker 1: You give your other son, the one you really like,
Speaker 1: the goat, and you don't give me a goat, And
Speaker 1: the Father's like, you're always with me, and all I
Speaker 1: have is yours. This is not about resource. It's about recognition,
Speaker 1: recognizing what you already have, recognizing who you already have.
Speaker 1: Everybody left me, not everybody, Not everybody is gone, Not
Speaker 1: everybody is flaky, Not everybody is a judas or a betrayer.
Speaker 1: And I love how Jonathan moved toward what was too
Speaker 1: big for him with what he had, with what you've got,
Speaker 1: If this one armor bearer, go with what you've got,
Speaker 1: if you are already past the point in your life. See,
Speaker 1: Saul didn't have to stay under the tree either. Saul
Speaker 1: had a weapon. At the end of his life, he
Speaker 1: fell on his own sword, the weapon that Jonathan won
Speaker 1: with saw killed himself. It wasn't about what they had,
Speaker 1: It's about what they did with it. There is somebody
Speaker 1: on your row that went through a divorce and lived
Speaker 1: through it and learned from it and moved forward and
Speaker 1: It did not make them. No, I'm telling you, it
Speaker 1: hurt them. It was hard for them. They wish they
Speaker 1: never would have had to go through it. They wouldn't
Speaker 1: wish it on you, but they made it through it.
Speaker 1: It is not what happens to you that defines you.
Speaker 1: Do you need me to turn Yolanda loose with the microphones?
Speaker 1: Did you hear what she went through? And did you
Speaker 1: see her worshiping? And some of us didn't worship because
Speaker 1: we didn't get the park close enough. They were saying
Speaker 1: all these things she went through and she's still worshiping.
Speaker 1: You must have read all the way to First Samuel
Speaker 1: fourteen twenty. I'm not sure if you did, but something
Speaker 1: tells me that you did. In First Samuel fourteen, the
Speaker 1: Bible says that after Jonathan, you're ready for this, this
Speaker 1: bless my whole life. Please, y'all get ready to shout
Speaker 1: that when Jonathan moved toward the enemy with his one weapon,
Speaker 1: look what God did that Jonathan could not do. Because
Speaker 1: you've been looking at what's against you, forgetting what's for you,
Speaker 1: forgetting who's for you, forgetting who's in you. But when
Speaker 1: Jonathan moved forward in the strength that he had, with
Speaker 1: the sword that he had, with the partner that he had,
Speaker 1: with the resources, the wisdom, the plan that he had,
Speaker 1: not the one he wanted, the one that he had.
Speaker 1: Watch what God did, the Bible says. Then Saul and
Speaker 1: all of his men assembled and went to the battle.
Speaker 1: They found the Philistines in total confusion. Y'all, let me
Speaker 1: do it right. But we don't have any weapons, but
Speaker 1: your enemy does. And when they got to the battle,
Speaker 1: guess what happened. The Philistines, their enemies that had kept
Speaker 1: them in hiding, were striking each other with those iron swords.
Speaker 1: So I just picture the Philistines sharpening their swords, not
Speaker 1: knowing their swords that they were sharpening were going to
Speaker 1: be the very instruments of their own demise. I want
Speaker 1: the devil to know that no weapon formed against me
Speaker 1: will prosper. Somebody shout, no weapon, So watch this, watch this.
Speaker 1: The devil's been busy, hadn't he been trying to defeat
Speaker 1: you and discourage you and get you to And he's
Speaker 1: serpent in the swords, and he planned the attack, and
Speaker 1: he thought, if I hit him here, if I hit
Speaker 1: him there, if I cut him off here, they'll stop
Speaker 1: coming What he didn't know is the weapons may be
Speaker 1: in the hands of the Philistines, but the Philistines are
Speaker 1: in the hands of God. When you move, when you move,
Speaker 1: when you move tour who when you move tour what
Speaker 1: God has called you to, you will be surprised and
Speaker 1: maybe the very weapon that you thought was going to
Speaker 1: kill you is going to be the one God is
Speaker 1: going to use to save you. There it is, there,
Speaker 1: it is. That is the prophetic word. You've been praying,
Speaker 1: You've been asking God to show you something. Some of
Speaker 1: you have been asking God to confirm. Why am I
Speaker 1: going through this? Why is this coming against me? Why
Speaker 1: can't I get past this? Why can't I move through this?
Speaker 1: Why didn't I have someone to help me with this?
Speaker 1: God said, I wanted to show you what I could do.
Speaker 1: So the thing that the enemy sharpened to kill you
Speaker 1: is going to be the thing that God uses to
Speaker 1: save you. If you move toward if you sit under
Speaker 1: the pomegranates, your faith will surely weaken. If you move
Speaker 1: toward the Philistines and talking straight into the face of
Speaker 1: your fear, straight into the face of what's fighting you
Speaker 1: in the power of God. Because the weapons we fight
Speaker 1: with don't come from the world. So I see Isaiah
Speaker 1: fifty four sixteen in a new light. Now where God said, behold,
Speaker 1: I created the blacksmith, who blows the coals in the fire,
Speaker 1: who brings forth an instrument for his work. Your enemy
Speaker 1: is God's instrument too. He uses all of that, all right.
Speaker 1: Think of the thing that you think God can't use.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm talking about. Think of the thing that
Speaker 1: makes you embarrassed. That's what I'm talking about. Think of
Speaker 1: the thing that is facing you from three different detachments.
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm talking about. When they got to
Speaker 1: the battle and used what they had, they found that
Speaker 1: God created the blacksmith. God will not permit anything to
Speaker 1: happen to me in my life that He will not
Speaker 1: use for his glory. You believe that. And nothing can
Speaker 1: hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.
Speaker 1: I came to talk to somebody who's down to one weapon,
Speaker 1: one person, one word from God. You're moving towards some
Speaker 1: Philistines today, who are you? Wave at me, Wave at me,
Speaker 1: wave at me. The Lord said to tell you. The
Speaker 1: promise of Isaiah fifty four seventeen is that no weapon
Speaker 1: formed against you will prosper, not that it won't be formed,
Speaker 1: it's just that it won't work. The enemy was killing
Speaker 1: the enemy, the swords that they sharpened to kill the
Speaker 1: people of God. When God moved, they started. I see
Speaker 1: your enemies beginning to scatter today. I see your enemies
Speaker 1: fleeing from you seven ways today, because I like the
Speaker 1: picture what the devil thought when he was betrayed, when
Speaker 1: he was prompting the heart of Judas to betray Jesus. Oh,
Speaker 1: this is going to end it. This is going to
Speaker 1: kill the ministry of Jesus. Do you not realize the
Speaker 1: very thing the devil prompted Judas to do set salvation
Speaker 1: and motion. He killed the enemy with his own sword.
Speaker 1: Now you've got to put your own faith on this word,
Speaker 1: because if all you do is sit under this like
Speaker 1: it's another pomegranate, it won't deliver you. But if you
Speaker 1: can move forward on this word today, Lord, I pray
Speaker 1: for those who are moving toward a passageway today. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's the beginning of a new relationship.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's the beginning of a new challenge.
Speaker 1: But they've been feeling it down good. I don't heh
Speaker 1: the weapons for this war. I don't know what to do.
Speaker 1: I'm not literate in this. I've never been exposed to this.
Speaker 1: I'm not experienced with this. But Lord, you have not
Speaker 1: left us without a weapon. You have given us your word,
Speaker 1: You have given us your spirit, you have given us
Speaker 1: your son, and we're going forward with what we have. Father,
Speaker 1: I thank you today that as this word has been preached,
Speaker 1: somebody's getting up from a pomegranate tree, walking away from
Speaker 1: Ichabod and moving toward what they're praying for this week.
Speaker 1: Give them the courage, the instruction, the specific prompting of
Speaker 1: your spirit to move toward something that they're praying for,
Speaker 1: something that they're hoping for. God, you know how hard
Speaker 1: it is to come out from under that tree. Everybody's
Speaker 1: under that tree. Everything we've known is under that tree.
Speaker 1: The ethot is under that tree, the priest is under
Speaker 1: that Everything is under that tree, except you, Except you.
Speaker 1: You're calling us forward. I thank you for your presence God,
Speaker 1: not only in this place. I thank you for your
Speaker 1: presence as we go forward toward the Philistines in our
Speaker 1: own life. That's where we need you, That's where we
Speaker 1: need your word. That's where we need to worship. Lord.
Speaker 1: I thank you today that your word never returns void.
Speaker 1: No weapon, no weapon, no weapon, no disease, no heartbreak,
Speaker 1: no failure, no weapon, no accusation, no virus, no weapon,
Speaker 1: no weapon, no weapon, no weapon, no weapon, no weapon,
Speaker 1: no betrayal, no pain, no trauma, no weapon, no weapon,
Speaker 1: no weapon. No weapon is greater than your word. No
Speaker 1: weapon is greater than your spirit. No weapon is greater
Speaker 1: than your presence. No weapon is greater than the covenant
Speaker 1: we have with you. No weapon that is fun self
Speaker 1: prosper somebody shop. No weapon, no weapon, no weapon. It
Speaker 1: was full, but it didn't work. No weapon, no weapon.
Speaker 1: Put it in the chat right now. No weapon, no weapon,
Speaker 1: no weapon. Tell seven people, no weapon, no weapon, no weapon,
Speaker 1: no weapon, no weapon, no weapon, no weapon, no weapon,
Speaker 1: no weapon, no weapon. And I'm gonna tell you something.
Speaker 1: If God didn't give it to you, you don't need
Speaker 1: it right now. He gave you what you need from
Speaker 1: where you're going. No weapon, no problem. I got a
Speaker 1: word from Almighty God. Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast,
Speaker 1: there are a couple things I'd love for you to do.
Speaker 1: Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You
Speaker 1: can also help us reach others by investing today at
Speaker 1: Elevation church dot org, slash give and thanks again for
Speaker 1: joining us on the Elevation Podcast