Transcription
A master builder's true purpose is transformation. A master builder uses every tool in the toolbox.
A master builder embraces change. When you get better, people will demand that you get bigger. A master builder is a master relationship builder. They'll come to you for what you can do. They'll only stay with you for who you are.
The psalmist says, "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised." Here's my iteration: I should be able to tell how great your God is by how great your praise is. If He's an okay God, give Him okay praise. If He's a good God, give Him good grace. But if He's great, incredible, phenomenal, fantastic, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He's redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
You know what you hear this scripture said in church often: "He teaches my hands to walk." And I know the writer's talking literally there, but there is also some metaphorical implications. When I'm praising, I'm not just screaming, I'm fighting. Because you go to the next level head first. And every time I praise Him, I'm winning the war in the ground of my mind.
What an incredible gathering! I want to pray really quickly. It's okay if I do that. I want to pray very specifically for something though. I learned this from Dr. Peter Wagner, former director of church growth at Fuller Seminary. He talks about the importance of strategic prayer, not aimless praying, smart bomb, sniper-like prayer, praying with precision. And I've been praying over this event and my contribution there. There is a term we use in the personal development and coaching space that I want to appropriate and pray for in our time together tonight. I want to pray for what's called quantum leaps.
And it's a term that's used in the realm of metaphysics to describe how one particle explosively moves from one place to the next in the blink of an eye. And when it comes to personal growth and spiritual development, it describes an explosive and exponential leap in your growth where God allows you to skip steps. Well, "the first shall be last and the last shall be first." That's a quantum leap. And I know God does some things incrementally, but I want to tell you, He does some other things exponentially. He does it suddenly. He does it quickly. He does it explosively. And I want to pray for a quantum leap tonight.
Father, I thank You that You're a change specialist. You're Jehovah Macadis, You're the Lord who sanctifies. You change. And we pray tonight, strategically, specifically, simply. We pray for quantum leaps. Father, I pray that we skip some steps. That You move us from where we are to where You've called and positioned us to be. I thank You for the part that You've given me to play in this. I pray for the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, the anointing to remove burdens and destroy yokes. You're the only one that can speak to all of us and say something different to each of us at the same time. So I pray for Your word to find people where they are. May You speak with them, to them, with such specificity that they feel seen, loved, and known by You. And knowing You like we know You, we already have what we've asked You for. So we thank You for these things in the incredible name of Jesus. If you agree, say amen. If you got any praise left, come on, give it to Him in the house.
Well, listen to me. Can we very quickly, before you take your seats, can we pause for the cause of celebrating God's gift to us? Can we pause for the cause to celebrate, first of all, His genius and the uncommon IQ God's given him? Can we celebrate His genuineness? Because every time He stands on this platform, He doesn't just bring His gifts with Him, He brings His heart with Him. We feel it. Can we celebrate His generosity? He gives of Himself, His relationships, His influence. Can you help me thank God for a general in the kingdom, the inimitable Bishop T.D. Jakes?
We celebrate you, Bishop. We love you here. We appreciate you. We value your contribution. And you've made numerous contributions to all of us. But the most consequential ones you've made to my life have been your challenges. I learned to take your challenges as a compliment because a leader doesn't challenge anybody they don't see something in. And we celebrate you. And can we, can we double crank it up and make a major noise for the forever First Lady, the effervescent, the virtuous? She's a vibe all by herself. Come on, make some noise for First Lady Serita Jakes. We love you. We're so grateful for you. Your thoughtfulness, your kindness. I love your vibe. I love listening to Bishop preach, and I love watching you and Cora watch Bishop preach. So we, we celebrate you and love you so much.
And I also want to thank, I met this young lady, I think I was 20 years old, 19, 20 years old in college in Mississippi, and we've been together like 22 years. We've been married, right there, 21 years. My wife and the mother of my children, Shamika Daniels. Love you. So grateful to God for you.
All right, you can be seated. You can be seated. Listen, I really want to, I'm really excited about the word tonight and I want to jump right into it. But just, just a couple of things I feel like I want to lift up really quickly that might be able to add some value to you. You know, the prophet Hosea says this: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Whatever area I'm uninformed in is the area I suffer in. And I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this, but if you're serving in the spiritual space, we're dealing with an epidemic of biblical illiteracy. I'm not quite sure if you've come across some of the data that's speaking to people's interest in the Bible and the way people see the Bible. But we're not living in the age and in the era that many of us grew up in. And when people are not anchored in truth, they can be tossed to and fro by all types of different ideologies. And so this means those of us who are serving this present age are those that are going to have to deal with different kinds of challenges and different kinds of questions. Nowadays, we have to be able to do more than teach the Bible, we need to be able to defend it.
I remember one time recently, I was in the barbershop getting a haircut, and my barber proceeded to ask me a question. And he was asking me a question about eternal life. And he's a believer, but he's asking me a question about eternal life because he's exposed to all of these, these different things, and he's trying to wrestle with the reality of what we call eternal differentiation, that we will live forever, but there's there's differentiation, that people will have different experiences. And he's wrestling with that and saying, "How can a good God do something like that?" And I explained to him, I said, "Bro, hell is just a place where evil is quarantined. Thank God for a God that will quarantine evil. I said it wasn't even made for us, it was made for the devil and his angels." I said, "But bro, why would God force somebody to be with Him eternally who has made a decision they don't want to be with Him temporarily?"
So is God actually giving people what they want? And the look I saw in his face, I'm telling you, it shifted things for me. Because I thought, well, in my experience, people who are asking questions like that were kind of looking for an argument. But what I saw in his face was, it was almost like relief. He wasn't being combative, he was just confused and he needed an answer. And Peter says, "We should be ready to give an answer." The word answer, defense, apologetics. We should be able to give an answer for any man that ask us a reason for the hope that is within us. And serve this present age, we need to be equipped in unique ways. And so we put together this program, this course, about two years ago, where I literally took the best of what I've learned in my 20 years of theological learning, my time at seminary, at Princeton, my time at Fuller, my time teaching at Princeton, and say, "How can I take the, because everything I read didn't help me, but how can I take the best of what I learned and put it in everyday language so that people can apply to their everyday lives? How can I help people better understand, better interpret, better apply, and better explain the Bible?" So we created this course, we called it Everyday Seminary. And the registration for this, well, the experience that people have had in this has been mind-blowing. It's changed lives literally all over the world. I've run into some of you in the room already who have been through Everyday Seminary. And we decided that we wanted to make it available for those who say, "You know what, I want to take that, and I want to apply it to my life, and I want to be better equipped to serve this present age." It's literally on demand. You can watch it whenever you want. You got lifetime access to it. They're going to put a graphic up on the screen. It's going to have a QR code. You can use your phone to do that if you like, or you can go to everydayseminary.com/ils. Now, if you don't do the ILS, you won't be able to access the program because the registrations close. But we want to bless you. We want to add value to you. And we believe God's going to use this to equip people to turn the world upside down. Somebody clap your hands all over the house for that. If you're ready for the word, say yes.
There's a scripture I want to read, found in the book of First Samuel, chapter number 17, beginning at verse number 48. First Samuel, chapter number 17, beginning at verse number 48. As is the custom of this house, the custom of our Bishop, come on, let's stand in honor of the reading of God's Word. First Samuel, chapter 17, verse 48 says, "As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag," somebody say, "Stay in your bag." Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground. And David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone. Without a sword in his hand, he struck down the Philistine and killed him. This ends the reading of God's Word. I want to tag a title to this text in our time together tonight. I want to talk from this subject: He Won't See It Coming.
Before you take your seats, would you just encourage three people and tell them, "He won't see it coming"? He, he won't see it coming. He won't, he won't see it coming. As we prepare to swim in this sermon extreme tonight, I'd like to argue that this passage is a powerful picture of a principle that I think is extremely important, yet often overlooked. It's a principle I've affectionately entitled the principle of exception. And this principle simply suggests that what happens with them does not dictate and determine what happens with me. What happens with them does not dictate and determine what happens with me. In other words, previous patterns are not always accurate indications of future possibilities. You can't look at what happened with most people and come to conclusions about what's possible for me. Can't look at what happened with most people my age and tell me what's possible for me at my age. Can't look at what happened with most people my gender and tell me what's possible for me with my gender. Can't look at what happened with most people with my race and tell me what's possible for me with my race. Can't look at what happened with most people in my family and tell me what's possible for me in my family. Can't look at what happened with most people in my city and tell me what's possible for me in my city. Because when I read my Bible, I see that my God is the God that orchestrates exceptions.
An exception, family, an exception is an aberration. It's an anomaly. It's a deviation. It's a rule breaker. It's when something happens that couldn't happen, shouldn't happen, wouldn't happen unless God made it happen. And the Bible is a book that is inundated with examples of exceptions. Most women in their 90s don't have babies, but with Sarah, God made an exception to show you and to show me that I will empower you to give birth to a thing in a season where other people think it's too late. Did you hear what I just said? No, they can say it's too late for them, but you can't say it's too late for me. Because my Bible says my God redeems time. That means He buys it back. It doesn't mean He gives me more time. It means He takes the time I got left, and He does so much in the time I got left that it makes up for the time I wasted. And if you never wasted time, be quiet. If you've never blown any opportunities, be quiet. But if you need God to spin the block and do it for you one more time, open your mouth and make some noise.
Men don't go in lion's dens and come out unscathed and unscarred, but with Daniel, God made an exception. You can't go in the fiery furnace and come out and not even smell like smoke, but with the Hebrew boys, God made an exception. You don't walk around the wall once a day for six days, seventh time on the seventh day, then shout and the wall fall flat, but with Joshua, God made an exception. Birds don't feed people, people feed birds, but with Elijah, God made an exception to show you, I'll make a thing change its nature when I get ready to bless you. I'll make a taker become a giver. I'll make a hater become an elevator.
I gotta go. I grew up Baptist, so I gotta give you this one. Men don't walk the Via Dolorosa, be crucified on a hill called Calvary, buried in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb, stay there all night Friday, stay there all day Saturday, stay there all night Saturday night, and early Sunday morning, get out of the grave. But with Jesus, God made an exception. And if He did it for Sarah, if He did it for Daniel, if He did it for the Hebrew boys, if He did it for Elijah, if He did it for Joshua, if He did it for Jesus, He can do it for you.
And am I talking to anybody in this room that's got the anointing of the exception on your life? If I'm talking to you, shout, "I'm next!" I'm next to break a barrier. I'm next to shake up my city. I'm next to do what they say it couldn't be done. That's why I came here. I had to get here because something on the inside of me told me, "I'm next." And I will not wait until I get it. I won't wait until I see it to praise Him, but I'll praise Him right now. I'm next. I'm next. I'm next. I got to be next. After all I've been through, next is all on me. Look at somebody and say, "You look like next." That's what you, you look like next. It's all over you. Next. It's all on you.
You've been called, created, commissioned to be the exception. I can say this with confidence because if you objectively examine the majority of the words that the scriptures use to describe the believer, "normal" ain't one of them.
Did you hear what I just said? "Salt, light, royal, chosen, peculiar, head not tail, above not beneath, lender not borrower" are all words that the scriptures use to describe the believer. And God's intention that His people be exceptions. But I got a question. I said I got a question. Yeah, it's a key question. It's a quintessential question. It's a consequential question. I got a question: If I am that, why does God seem to go to such great lengths to keep telling me I'm that? I mean, if I already am, won't I automatically be it? But God seems to regularly and repeatedly and obsessively and incessantly keep reminding you, keep reminding me, "You ain't normal."
And if the actions of God are intentional, they are. It means that everything He does, He does for a reason. So if He's repeating Himself, He's repeating Himself for a reason. And He's not repeating Himself because He needs to say it again, He's repeating Himself because I need to hear it again. He's repeating Himself because He understands something you and I must embrace. And that is, you will always behave in a way that is consistent with the way you see yourself. Did you hear what I just said? You will always behave in a way that's consistent with the way you see yourself. Solomon put it this way: "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." So God says, "I got to keep telling you this because I'm engaging in mental warfare with what you think about you versus what I think about you. So I keep trying to tell you what I think about you so that what I think about you overrides what you think about you. Because when you, when I need you to behave, I need you to behave in a way that's consistent with what I think about you and not what you think about yourself." Listen to me. So how far you go and how much you grow is not just based on what you believe about God. I'm in the book. I said I'm in the book.
How far you go and how much you grow is not just predicated on what you believe about God. It is equally impacted by what you believe about you.
In Numbers 13, Israel did not possess the Promised Land not because they saw God wrong. They didn't possess the Promised Land because they didn't see themselves right. They said, "We are as grasshoppers." So their problem wasn't the giant in the land, their problem was the grasshopper in their head. And I came to tell somebody, your grasshopper is bigger than your giant.
Their imposter syndrome entrapped them to the degree that they talked themselves out of a fixed fight. I feel a prophetic unction right there. I said, they talked themselves out of fighting the fight that was already fixed. The only way they could not win is if they did not try. And the devil used the grasshopper, not the giant, to talk them out of a fight that's fixed. I don't know who's in a fight in here. I don't know who's in a battle in here. I came to tell you that the fight is fixed. But what's in the way? In the giant? It's the grasshopper. So they settled for the wilderness when they could have had Canaan. Not because they saw God wrong, but because they ain't seen themselves right. And this is what's said: God let them settle there because He will let you live on whatever level you settle for. Did you hear what I just said? If you just settle for a pie in the sky, if all of your theology is just eschatology, and all of the transformation you're going to experience is in the over and then, and none in the here and now, that's what you'll experience. But if you believe your God can do exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or think or imagine, you can experience that right now. And I believe I'm talking to some people that are saying, "Ain't no settling in me." Not in this season of my life. I've done all the settling that I'm going to do. I've tried too much to settle. I prayed too long to settle. I fought through too much to settle. I didn't make it through COVID to settle. I'm ready to step into everything that God's got for me. I'm sorry, I grew up a little old school, and this just hit me. Lord, I'm running. Y'all ain't grow up in church trying to make a hundred.
I'm sorry, I'm from Mississippi. Ninety-nine and a half.
Somebody open your mouth and say, "I want it all!" I want it all. But if I'm gonna get it, I gotta deal with an enemy called inadequacy. I believe God showed me something here that in charismatic circles, not exclusively, but specifically in the western part of the world, we have become so obsessed with confronting and correcting people who think too high of themselves that we have ignored the work of the enemy in causing people to think too low of themselves. I want to tell you, the same devil that causes arrogance is the same devil that causes inadequacy. And inadequacy has destroyed just as many destinies as arrogance.
I got Bible. I said I got Bible. When you look at some of the people that God used the most, you will see Him attempting to get them to accept their assignment. He had to talk them out of their own inadequacy.
When He called Moses, Moses' inadequacy responded, and Moses said, "I'm slow of speech." When He called Jeremiah, Jeremiah's inadequacy responded, and Jeremiah said, "I'm but a youth." When He called Gideon, Gideon's inadequacy responded, and Gideon said, "I'm the least in my family." And what's scary is there's no evidence of inadequacy in these men until they got introduced to their assignment. Because your assignment will trigger inadequacy.
And God wants to use that sense of overwhelm not to cause you to shrink back from Him, but to lean into Him to say, "I know You." Watch this, because whenever they spoke about their inadequacy, notice God didn't argue. He didn't tell Moses, "You're not slow of speech." He just said, "I'ma send you some help." Good God Almighty. Somebody open your mouth and say, "Help's on the way!" I don't have it all together, but some of the ways, I don't have the degrees, but help's on the way. I don't have the building they have, but help's on the way.
He had to talk them out of their inadequacy because when they're introduced to their assignment, they're feeling like, "I don't have what most people have who do this." Not realizing this is a trick of the enemy. It is the way he disrupts destinies. Listen to me, because the scriptures teach that gifts and callings come without repentance. So the devil can't un-gift you. I'm gonna go this side. Did you hear what I just said? I said, gifts and callings come without repentance. So the devil can't un-gift you. So the only way he can render your gift ineffective is when it takes, when he can't take your competence, he takes your confidence.
And I know you came to ILS to get a lot of things back, but one thing you're going back home with is your confidence. Good God. I'm like, you already got the competence. God's already put it on the inside of you. But the devil's got you second-guessing what's on the inside of you. He's got you second-guessing whether or not your slingshot will work. But I came to tell you, this is the season to work your rock. And if you work your rock, you're gonna knock your Goliath down. Somebody makes some noise in the house.
And the text I've been preaching, the theme of the text, and the text I haven't used the words of the text, but I've been preaching the theme of the text. The text is a powerful picture of what I'm attempting to articulate. We picked up this story in First Samuel 17, but we cannot understand the content without understanding the context. Because text without context is a pretext. And where there's pretext, it leads to eisegesis and not exegesis. And when there's eisegesis and not exegesis, you don't have orthodoxy. And if you don't have orthodoxy, you don't have orthopraxy. So some of our practices are off because our doctrine is off. And some of our doctrine is off because we're eisegesis instead of exegesis. And we're icing instead of exegeting because we're trying to understand content without context.
So we picked up in First Samuel 17, but contextually, we need to look at First Samuel 16. Because First Samuel 16 begins with God asking Samuel a question. He says, "How long will you mourn over that which I have rejected?" Don't miss this. "How long are you going to continue to nurture an emotional connection to something I'm finished with?"
He's saying, Samuel, just because you're still emotionally attached to it doesn't mean I'm done with it. Saul is who he's referring to. And Saul represents an individual, and Saul represents an era. It's an era of leadership. So how long are you going to be emotionally attached to an era I'm done with? How long are you going to keep talking about how good it used to be? It was good. It's not bad. I'm just done with it.
Did you hear what I just said? He's saying, it's almost, it's almost like, it's almost like, Samuel, you need to trust me that if I'm done with it, I'm done with it for a reason. You need to trust that if I'm done with it, I'm done with it for a reason. I know something you don't know. I see something you don't see. And tell me, if you're gonna move with me, you got to master knowing how to move on.
Because when I'm done with it, I move on. "I had angels bury the body of Moses." He says, "You don't love Saul more than me. You don't know Saul better than me. And you can't help Saul more than me. So if I moved on, what you waiting on?" He says, "Fill your horn with oil." And go down to Jesse's house. He said, "Samuel, you frustrated not because you don't have oil, you're frustrated because you've been pouring it on something I'm done with."
And Lord, we might waste a lot of things in our life. We've wasted time, we've wasted money, but this is not the season to be wasting oil. You either want my oil or not. I'm not trying to talk you into letting me help you. I'm not trying to talk you into seeing I'm anointed. If you don't want my oil, I'm going to Jesse's house. And they, hey, I said I'm going to Jesse's house. He said, "Fill your horn with oil and go to Jesse's house." If you stop crying about what was, I'll show you what's getting ready to be. If you stop crying about who left, I'ma show you who's coming. If you stop crying about what you missed, I'ma show you what's on the way. Go down to Jesse's house.
So Samuel goes down to Jesse's house, and he asks Jesse to assemble his sons. And his oldest son, Eliab, walks out. And Samuel says, "Surely this is the Lord's anointing." He's feeling his vibe. He's looking at his aura. He's looking at his makeup. He said, "Surely this is the Lord's anointing." And God has to correct the seer who can't see.
Because his emotional attachment to the past is impacting his ability to discern in the present. He can't see who's in front of him because he's so attached to who's no longer with him. God says to Samuel, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart." Here it is. He's saying, "Samuel, I don't use the criteria you think I use when I determine who I use." Are y'all ready for this? Are you sure? "Samuel, my criteria might even confuse you." Are y'all ready for this? "You might even feel like my criteria is at times contradictory to my moral standard." Stay with me, because Samuel, you have no idea the man you are about to replace Saul with is morally inferior to him. Sit with that a little bit. Don't sanitize the scriptures. When you sanitize the scriptures, you rob the scriptures of their richness. If you just objectively look at what Saul did and then look at what David did, you cannot within reason argue that what David did was far more egregious than what Saul did. Don't sanitize it. Those things that are written for our learning. Don't sanitize it. When you look at what Saul did, and he lost his job. And when you look at what David did, and he kept his job, you can't tell me that makes sense. But the Holy Spirit showed me, say, "Darius, I can use people that aren't perfect. I just don't use people I can't trust." And David is a fool, but I can trust him. David does some dumb stuff, but I can trust him. David goes places he shouldn't go, but I can trust him. And there are some people that are looking at your life and they are confused as to why God is using you the way He's using you and blessing you the way He's blessing you. They don't realize He can trust you. You say the wrong thing sometimes, but He trusts you. Your temper gets the best of you, buddy, trust you. Is there anybody here that's glad He trusts you? This is why you ought to be a radical praiser. Because I'm not praising God 'cause I've been good to Him. I'm praising God 'cause He's been good to me.
So Eliab, come on. Then Abinadab, come. That second son. God said, "That ain't it." Then Shammah comes, that third son. God said, "That ain't it." Seven of Jesse's sons come before Samuel. None of them are it. I'ma say it again. Seven of Jesse's sons come before Samuel, and none of them. I'm gonna say it again. Seven of Jesse's sons come before Samuel, and none of them. Now, if you're into numerology, seven is the number of completion, which means this thing should be over. But when God's got something for you, He'll break His own rule to get it into your life.
He said, He said, uh, uh, "These are your sons." He said, "I got one more." But I know, yeah, I got one more. "There got a king in this house and don't even know." Yeah. Samuel says, "Call for him. We won't sit down till they get here." David comes. Holy Spirit says, "That's it." I want you to miss what happened. Seven of his brothers get to Samuel before David. Seven other brothers get to the opportunity before David. Seven of the brothers get close to the oil before David. I don't think you're tracking with me. Seven of the brothers put a bid on the building before David. Seven apply for the opportunity before David. They all get there before David. But the oil wouldn't move because when God's got something for you, it don't matter who get there first. He'll hold it in place until you get there. They can apply first, they can meet them first, they can put the bid out first. But when God's got something for you, He's got your name on it, and He'll hold it in place until you get there.
Don't you look what the text says. First Samuel 16:13: "So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him." But that's not all. Text says, "Don't miss this. It anointed him." Look how detailed the writer is. "In the presence of his brothers." The same ones that didn't think enough of him to invite him. The same ones who you read later in the narrative were hostile toward him. The same ones who didn't see a king on the inside of him are the same ones that had to watch the oil being poured on him. This is a powerful picture of divine recompense. Vengeance is mine.
But vengeance isn't always God punishing your enemies. That's not the text. Vengeance is God preserving your enemies and then putting them into close proximity where they have to watch you win in spite of what they did to you. Their punishment is watching you win. And God's getting ready to punish some people in your life. Oh, they looking. They watching. They watching. They like the photo, but they, they watching. They didn't comment on the post, but they watching. They text you about it, but they watching. They watching, and they mad. They big mad. But God will prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Yes, yes. Yeah. But that's not what the text says. First Samuel 16:13, that, that's not what the text says. Text says this: It says, First Samuel 16:13, "He anointed him in the presence of his brothers." Don't miss this. "And from that day on, the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David." That didn't confuse me. That makes sense to me. This next clause is what confuses me. Samuel then went to remark, "Wait a minute, I'm confused now because you just anointed David to be king. When you called him, he was tending to his dad's sheep. But then you leave and you don't take him with you. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day on powerfully. So he's got a king's anointing, but he's still got a shepherd's responsibility." What do you do when your oil and your season don't match? Uh, uh. Come on. I'm trying to find some people in the room that's honest enough to say, "I've been in seasons where I'm like, my oil is greater than this. Lord, I know my oil is greater than this."
His ability and his responsibility don't match. His anointing and his influence don't match. I call this the God gap. It's intentionally orchestrated by our eternal God because He wants to use the distance as development for the backside of the blessing. Your oil prepares you for the front side, but it don't prepare you for the backside. "To whomsoever much is given," front side, "much is required." Backside. More of anything means more of everything. And God's like, "Your oil is ready for the front side. I just don't know if your heart is ready for the back." I'm holding you up not because of your oil. I'm holding you up because I gotta deal with your heart. 'Cause this promotion is gonna bring persecution. Promotion, that's front side. Persecution, the backside. He says, "Not that you're not ready for promotion, because you're not ready for the persecution. Because David, when you get to that palace, you got to dodge spears, and I need to make sure you developed enough not to throw them back."
Because I know you, David. You will throw it back. I know you. You looking for a fight. You like, "I wish a king would." You got you, you different, David. I know you. So I got to take a little time. And most of the time, when we rush in God, we are rushing God because we want the front side.
He said, "No, I got to get, I got to get you ready for the backside." Y'all all right? I'm getting ready to wrap up. You got it. Here he did. Samuel's gone. David has no idea now how he's gonna possess the promise. So he's got a promise with no plan. He's got a word with no route. He's wondering now, "How I'm gonna get to this palace?" He has no idea God is orchestrating a distressing spirit on the life of Saul. And his counsel or cabinet begins to have conversations about how to manage it. And they recommend music. And so somebody who's unnamed in the text, I'ma say that again, somebody who's unnamed in the text, we don't even know his name, said, "I know somebody." "Son of Jesse, he's a brave warrior, and he's a fine musician." Now watch this. This wasn't the king who said it. We don't even know the name of the person that said it. So this person wasn't the man, but this person had the ear of the man. And that's why people have to be careful how they treat you because you don't know who I know.
David is in the sheep field, confused. He's in the pasture, confused, not knowing conversations are being had about him in the palace. He's confusing the pasture, but they're having conversations in the palace. I want to tell you, your haters ain't the only ones talking about you. Those are the ones the devil lets you hear.
Did you hear what I just said? Those are the ones that the devil makes sure get back to you. But they're not the only ones talking about you. God's floating your name around in some rooms that you don't even know about yet. People are doing recon on you, and you have no idea that God's about to take you from the pasture to the palace. And if I were you, I wouldn't wait until I get in the door. I'd praise Him in the hallway. Somebody give Him a hallway praise right here.
So they thought they were bringing David in for one reason. They have no idea he's about to own that thing. They're like, "You sit right there. That's where you play." They have no idea he's like, "This whole thing, man." Saul likes him so much, he makes him his armor bearer. I'm not gonna bother this, but David gets elevated, yet he still does not abdicate his responsibility at his father's house. The text says he will still go back and tend to the sheep, to a man who ain't even see a king in here.
It's like he's saying, "I don't care how much God blessed me outside the house, I'm gonna stay in the house." So one day, Dave is bringing food back, going back, he he's tending to the sheep. He's going back to work. His daddy say, "Take some food to your brothers on the front line." And when David goes to take some food, he starts hearing this rant from this giant, from death, that is tormenting and insulting Israel. So David, delivering the food, he's hearing these rants. And the text says, "When Goliath would show up, Israel would flee." So he's hearing these rants, he's looking around, saying, "Don't nobody hear this?" No, no, no, no. Did you hear what I just said? Israel's not saying anything. David's delivering food. He's door-dashing it. And he said, "Hold up, wait a minute. Y'all don't. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that dares to demand?" Hold up, hold up. Come on. See, some of you trying to get rid of that, and God just wants to redeem it. Don't lose your sauce, just let Him redeem your sauce, 'cause you're gonna need that sauce to fight some fights everybody else is scared to fight.
He said, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine?" This is what I call unique agitation. See, purpose is an answer to a problem. Therefore, God uniquely agitates you with the problems you've been created to solve. So me and you can walk in the same room, and we can see the same problem. It bothers you, and it don't bother me. And it bothers you because you've been assigned to do something about it. So the reason David was uniquely agitated with Goliath is because he's assigned to it. And the things that are agitating you are often the things you're anointed for.
Everybody else is talking about the size of the Philistine. David is talking about his circumcision. David says, "I don't care how big he is, he's not circumcised." Circumcision was a symbol of the covenant. So he said, "He got a sword, he got a spear, he got a javelin, he got armor, but he don't have a covenant." And I got an agreement with God that I will not fight for myself.
He says, "What shall be given to the man that defeats this Goliath?" He understood his value. That's a different conversation. Whole different conversation. Oh, that just shook your theological tree right there, didn't it? 'Cause we like to think that had nothing to do with David's motives. What, shout out, "What shall I be given to the man?" He said, "I'll fight him." Saul gets word of it. Saul calls David. He says, "You won't do what I want to fight." David, walking around, "What you mean to me? I'm here. Hannah, they scared. All these, they got all these swords, they scared. I'm like, bone crusher, I ain't never scared. I got to go on my time." Here it is. Saul says, "Okay, all right. I'ma let you go. But at least I want you to take my tunic, take my armor, take my weapons." David is a man of honor, so he tries them on. He doesn't disrespect what's worked in eras past.
He doesn't disrespect what has worked for centuries before him that actually preserved Israel. Because sometimes we distance stuff that preserved us. We talking about the old way, and it's the old way that prayed you through. When I was asking for people to pray for me for this conference, I called my friend's mamas. See, y'all, I'ma leave that. That's, I said, "Tell your mama to pray for me 'cause I know she knows how to lay hold to the horns of the altar and get a prayer through." It's not that that armor doesn't work. It's David knew it didn't work for him. So he says, "I can't go in these." So David gets his slingshot, gets five grace smooth stones, sanctification from the stream, filling of the Holy Spirit, and puts them in a sling and goes toward the Philistine. Now, I've been, I've been in church since before I was alive. I was in church in my mama's room. I grew up in Sunday school, Vacation Bible School. I've been reading this story all my life. But I saw something differently that I've never seen before. To my friend, Pastor Keon, and Don, and I were talking about culture and scripture and reading scripture through Western eyes, and I saw some here. David is coming, fighting Goliath, and Goliath feels like David's at a disadvantage. And we feel like David's at a disadvantage. Saul felt like David was at a disadvantage. And Goliath did have some advantages, but Malcolm Gladwell suggests that Goliath was not as advantaged as we thought because a large part of his advantage we attribute to his size.
He was a giant, nine feet tall. And some medical experts have suggested that Goliath had a medical condition that gave him his strength and his weakness. It's a medical condition called acromegaly. And it is a benign tumor on the pituitary gland that causes the pituitary gland to overproduce HGH, the human growth hormone, causing enormous growth in individuals who suffer with this issue. The tallest man in modern human history is attributed to having this issue. His name was Robert Wadlow. He was eight feet 11 inches tall, died in 1940. But if you like me, and you grew up on wrestling, you might not know Robert Wadlow, but you know Andre the Giant. And Andre the Giant had acromegaly. Seven feet four, over 500 pounds. And so Gladwell suggests that like Robert Wadlow, and like Andre the Giant, Goliath had acromegaly, which produced his giantism. So I hear you, you're saying, "Darius, how is that a weakness? That seemed like a strength." Gladwell points out three things in the text that won't seem abnormal to us because we're reading through Western eyes. Gladwell says Goliath's weakness is in the text. We've never seen it, but it's in the text. We don't talk about it. It's in the text. Three things. See, the first thing is the text says Goliath has a shield bearer, which would not be uncommon for a king, but it would be uncommon for a man who is about to do hand-to-hand combat. But it's not uncommon to us because we're reading the scriptures through Western eyes. Second thing, Gladwell says, is he calls David's slingshot a stick. "Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?" We've interpreted that metaphorically. He's arguing something different. And the third one is, Goliath in no way seems to duck or engage in any defensive maneuver. I'ma tell you why this is weird. Because he's not unfamiliar with the slingshot. See, when we read the scripture through Western eyes, we think this little slingshot. But there were three types of infantry during those days. Though there were people who were on horses and chariots, there were those who were on foot and engaged in hand-to-hand combat, and then there were those that engaged in distance, archers and slingers.
So he's not unfamiliar with the slingshot. So you mean to tell me David is doing all of this, and you don't duck? You don't tuck and roll? You don't do anything? This is why they're arguing that his strength, giantism, was his weakness. I got to go. Amount of time. But a common side effect of acromegaly is vision problems. I got to.
I said, a common side effect of acromegaly was vision problems. So Gladwell says the shield bearer was also his guide. He called the slingshot a stick because he couldn't see it. And he didn't duck because he didn't see it.
I got to get out of here. I said, I got to get out of here. But I came to tell somebody, your slingshot has been perfectly designed to take out the weak spot of your giant. And I came to tell ILS, two words: Sling it. Go home and sling it. Sling it until doors open. Sling it into your heaven ball. Sling it until your city is turned upside down.
Until doors open, I'ma sling it. Until heaven falls, I must linger. Until God opens up the windows of heaven and pours me out a blessing I don't have room enough to.