Podcast #66 | Stand Firm

Join us as Pastor Brad Criss shares a message on 1 Samuel 17:1-50!

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SPEAKER_00 0:19

Morning, church. We'll be reading from uh 2 Samuel 17, 4 through 11. Then a champion named Goliath from Gath came out from the Philistine camp. He was nine feet nine inches tall, and wore a bronze helmet, a bronze scale armor that weighed one hundred and twenty-five pounds. There was bronze armor on his shins, and bronze javelin was slung between his shoulders. His spear shaft was like a weaver beam, and the iron point of his spear weighed fifteen pounds. In addition, a shield bearer was walking in front of him. He stood and shouted to the Israelite battle formations, Why do you come out of the line up in battle formation? He asked them, Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose one of your men and have him come down against me. If he wins in a fight against me and kills me, we will be your servants. But if I win against him and kill him, then you will be our servants and serve us. Then the Philistine said, I defy the ranks of the Israel of Israel today. Send me a man so we can fight each other. When Saul and all Israel heard these words from the Philistine, they lost their courage and were terrified. Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you will teach us to be like David here. I pray that you will give us the courage that that he had. Guide us to put all of our trust in you. Lord, I thank you for you are always with us, and I thank you that we can gather here together in a church like this. Lord, you put us all here for a reason, and I pray that we will be ready for when you are when you choose to use us, when your time is right. Lord, I pray that you will guide Pastor Brad in this sermon and that you will speak through him. I pray all these things in your name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

We're in a familiar chapter and verse. One of the reasons I had Lincoln come up and share that, he's one of our youth. And David was a youth. And so probably not a whole lot older than Lincoln, if not the same age, but here he was standing in front of you, reading scripture and praying, and David is standing in front representing Israel. And so let's not underestimate what those youth can do. He just read about this battle that's taking place. It's ready to kick off between the Philistine army and the Israelites. And as far as David knew, and as far as Jesse his father knew, this battle was rocking and rolling for a while. But there was a problem. There was a big problem. And that was Goliath. Goliath was in the way. This man is described in Greek text as six cubits in a span. Now we don't know what that means, but to us, that means that he was about nine feet six inches tall to nine feet nine inches tall. He was quite a specimen. His armor, don't pass this up, that Lincoln read, it is, it was 125 pounds, 125 to 150 pounds. Think about that, just to carry that around. That didn't count his helmet. That didn't count the shield. That didn't count the sword. And we have a picture that I found that we're gonna get up there with that sword. Look at that. As Lincoln read, the spear head itself was 15 pounds. Anybody ever bowl? Usually, if you're gonna pick up an 8 to 12 pound ball, this was the head of that spear was 15 pounds. You can see at the bottom there's sort of a counterweight. It also said that the spear itself was like a weaver's beam. So whenever they would weave, they would put a good solid piece of wood at the top so it wouldn't bow, and then they would have weights at the bottom of those strings and they would weave in between there. It was like a weaver's beam. If you would look closely at that, my hand would probably not go around it, maybe just barely go around that. That's what Goliath had. They said, in all, it was probably about 60 pounds. I was thinking, you know, if I went to war with that and I threw that spear, I'd probably stab myself in the toe, I would throw it so far. That's a heavy piece of uh equipment to deal with. And so when the Israelites saw this giant, they saw Goliath. They saw armor from head to toe. They saw the shield bearer, and they saw his weapons. And it scared them. It scared them, and their courage left them. And so I think Goliath knew a little bit of something about that. And so he went out and he knew something that we know also. If you can put fear in someone, and you're going to battle with them, you've already won half of the battle. Right? We've started football season, right? The commanders played on Friday night, and there's football on from now until what, February? And so there's constantly football. Those guys go out there and they put on their armor, their helmets, their shoulder pads, and everything, and they paint their face. And they get ready for battle and they talk. Oh boy, do they talk. They love to talk. And I've seen it from Parks and Wreck all the way up to the NFL. If a team is intimidated, and if they play in fear, it's going to impact the way that they perform. They're going to play, you'll even say it, coaches have said it, fans say it. Man, they play like they're scared. That's what these Israelites were going through. Fear can be a horrible thing. It can paralyze you. It can render you speechless. You ever been scared so bad that you couldn't even yell? It happens in dreams all the time, but you know, you get rent fear is a horrible thing. One summer night during a severe thunderstorm, there was a little boy, his mom was tucking him into bed. The thunder and lightning was cracking all around, and as she got to the door, get to ready to turn out the light, he said, Mommy, could you just stay in here in my room tonight? She smiled and went back and gave him a hug and sort of reassured him, she goes, Oh honey, I've got to stay in daddy's room tonight. There was a long pause of silence, and he finally heard that same little shaky voice say, That big sissy. You and I both know there are things that put fear in us that shouldn't. If you're a parent, you fear that something's gonna happen to your kids, and sometimes that just overtakes your life. You may have a fear that because other family members passed away early, that you're gonna get some sort of a terminal illness, and it just consumes your thoughts. Maybe you fear that you're never gonna measure up to everyone else. And so, therefore, you focus on that. Maybe it's any wide range of things that you're not gonna be able to provide for your family, or you're not gonna be there for your kids when they need you. So there are things that strike fear in us that can paralyze us. And we need to remember that God is not the author of fear. In 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 7, it says, For God has not given you a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment. The only kind of fear that God promotes is a fear of him. And that's sort of a reverential type of fear. You know, it's not a scaredy cat kind of fear. It says that, Lord, I'm in awe of you. I've been in the public schools for 36 years, either as a teacher or in the schools with fellowship Christian athletes. And whether your kids tell you or not, and kids that are here understand this, they all have the same fear. Am I going to fit in with my peers? Am I going to fit in with that person I'm sitting next to in school this week or next week, whenever they start? They worry about that. They fear not fitting in with their peers, and it's always been a big deal. It doesn't matter. Those of you that are adults know the same thing. If you're on a sports team or if you're just sitting in a classroom, you fear am I going to measure up to that person next to me? Are they going to like me? Are they going to want to talk to me? And sadly, parents, you know this. When the kids really start to worry about that, it changes the way that they act. If you have a middle schooler, they've lost their mind for a while. They come back. Our son just turned 30, he's on his way. But no. But they do, and a lot of it is because they're trying to fit in, and we'll talk about that a little bit later, but but they try to fit in. And so my question this morning is how do we make it through each day when you're facing a nine-foot-tall giant? Every day that your feet hit the floor, everyone in here has a different giant that they're facing. And so, how do you do that? Well, I have three things that if you're a follower of Christ, even if you're not a follower of Christ, you should follow. And the first thing is that you need to recognize that there's a problem and you need to step up. Now, if we jump down to verse 26 in the same chapter that uh that Lincoln was reading, it says this David spoke to the men who were standing with him, what will be done for the man who kills that Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? You see, David saw that there was a problem, and the giant had created it. He saw that, and it infilled, it put fear into the Israelites, but not to David. It made him mad. You see, David was a shepherd, and that sounds like a pretty peaceful uh profession or duty, but but it really wasn't. It was uh it could be dangerous at time at times. David told Saul, he said, Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion or a bear and it took the lamb from the flock, I went after him and I struck him and delivered him out of his mouth. You see, David attacked, when a bear attacked the flock, he killed it with his bare hands. Don't let that slide past you either. And a lion, when it came after the flock, he went after it with his bare hands. And he took care of it. He said, You think I'm worried about that giant? That's he's no problem. The Lord's gonna deliver him. He said, You see, David had already fought and killed these predators. And so David's courage wasn't something that just developed when he arrived on that battlefield. It's something that had already been developed in the pastures that he worked. God had been preparing him for this moment for years. Even though he was a young man, God had been preparing him. Back in chapter 16, Saul is looking for someone to play the lyre. Because if you remember back in chapter 16, David is anointed king. The spirit had left Saul, and now he was being tormented. And so they were looking for someone to play the lyre, like a harp for him, to soothe him. And so Saul calls in his servants and he says, We need to find somebody in the land. Well, listen to what one of his servants said. They said this about David. Said, he knows how to play the lyre. Well, that's good. He is a valiant man, he is a warrior. Now, you say, well, wait a second, I didn't think he had he was part of the army yet. Well, he wasn't. He's talking about his character as a shepherd. He's talking about his character here. He says he speaks well, he is handsome, and I think the most important thing, the Lord is with him. That's what people were saying about him. This wasn't merely a description of David's appearance. It was evidently he already had a reputation of what he could do as a young man. I would imagine if somebody in Prince Frederick kills a bear with their bare hands, down in Lesby, we're gonna say, hey, did you hear about that guy? Yeah, don't mess with him. Right? So David had a reputation. He had been faithful in a place where few people were watching. In the field, he's out there alone. Nobody else is gonna do it. He had to step up. That's a tremendous leadership principle. Listen to this. You know, uh, you know, God often develops the warrior before he ever puts him on the battlefield. Let me say that again. God will develop the warrior before he ever puts him on the battlefield. We've heard this said in this church before that he equips the called. If you're called, he's going to equip you. He doesn't always call you or equip you and then call you. Some people will tell you, no, I don't think I'm ready for that position. David never had a question about what he was going to do. He knew that God had prepared him for this time. And so he he God develops the warrior before he puts him on the battlefield. David's battlefield wasn't initially Goliath Valley. It was a pasture. The lion was training him, the bear was training him, the loneliness that he had out there was training him. The time that he spent with that sling was training him. The jobs that his father Jesse gave him around the house and in the pasture were training him. And the unseen moments he spent with God were training him. By the time David stood before Goliath, the battle wasn't really the beginning of the faith. What it was was a manifestation of what God had been doing in David's life for all of this time. He had been developing it privately. People didn't even know it. You're probably asking, if he was such a warrior, why wasn't, and he was anointed king, why wasn't he in the battlefield with them? As I alluded to earlier, he wasn't yet 20 years old. You had to be 20 years old to be to fight in the army of Israel. And so he wasn't there yet. He was too young. And that's why he was serving Saul back and forth from his home, serving his father in the fields, doing whatever his father needed around, but he wasn't able to serve in the army because he wasn't old enough. You see, you have to be a servant before God's going to crown you king. And I think that's also always important. As a former athletic director, I hired coaches, and it was tough to find people who would say, Yeah, I would like to be a junior varsity coach. Or I would love to be an assistant coach. Everybody wants the head coaching job. Nobody wants to be a servant. Everybody wants the glory that goes along with it. David wasn't that way. And so that's a tremendous leadership principle that he had. He was willing to, I guess, look at what he was doing and say, God's got a plan for me. He knew he was already anointed king. He was ready to go. And so Luke chapter 16, verse 10 says, Whoever can be trusted with small things can be trusted with big things. Whoever is dishonest in little things will be dishonest in big things too. Does that make sense to you? You do this with your own children and you don't even know it. Right? Stacy was just down in Alabama spending time with our son and our daughter-in-law and our grandson. He just turned two years old. And, you know, I talk to her different times. She goes, Well, Bradley James is helping me unload the dishwasher. Bradley James is helping me with laundry. He's helping with this. You give your kids little duties to do around the house. You know what that does? That helps develop confidence in them. That helps give them a sense of responsibility. And that's what we have to do. If you expect them to grow up and be a king, you have to give them responsibility. They have to have that servant heart. So David went out the next morning as his father had instructed him, and he arrived at the battlegrounds. He dropped off the food and he went out through the ranks to find his brothers. He finds faces painted. He hears the battle cries. He's probably getting so excited. But this just then Goliath steps out and he makes the same claim that he has for 40 days. Think about that. For 40 days they have been listening to this. And that's where we pick up in verse 26. David saw the Philistine come out and disrespect God, and it made David mad. It didn't make the rest of them mad because they were afraid of him. I believe most Americans are living their lives like the Israelites. We have that giant out there. We hear people speaking out against God. We see evil and sin in the world. We listen to direct contradictions of the truth. We hear direct contradictions of the scripture. But we're too afraid to step out and face that giant. Whatever it may be. David wrote later in Psalm 18, verse 39, he says, You have clothed me with strength for the battle. You subdue my adversaries beneath me. You see, God will be with you in the battle if you step up. God will prepare you for the battle. But you must, you must be willing to recognize that there's a problem. That's in verse 32. David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. He was saying, Don't lose hope just because of what this giant's saying. This guy is coming out and he's humiliating you and he's disgracing our Lord, and you're letting it get you down. Now, why wouldn't they listen to what God told them? We're the same way, though. We listen to what people say instead of what God says. You know, I think there's a lot of people miserable in this world because if you look at the stats, there's a lot of people that go to church, right? But they're miserable because they're a new creature in Christ, but they're living like an old creature. Right? If you take someone who's accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and let's say they come to a Wednesday night Bible study and they're coming Sunday and they come forward, they're baptized, man, man, they're new, you think they have got it going. But they go to work and they face that same giant, that same person that is next to them, cursing, using God's name in vain. And that new creature doesn't say anything to them. They keep acting like the old creature that they used to be before they knew Christ. And you know what? That makes you miserable. Because you the guilt that you feel, you're like, man, I should say something. I that's not right what he's doing. That's not right what she's doing, but but you don't do it. And you know, whenever you get a an one creature acting like another creature, all you get is anger. You don't believe me? You try to teach an alligator to do dog tricks. You're gonna have an angry alligator and you might lose a hand. So so people are miserable because maybe they're going to church on Sunday, check that off the box. Maybe they go to a Bible study, check that off the box. But what else has changed? They're still living like that old creature. Do you know when I believe that a Christian is the most happy? It's when their lifestyle is congruent with their identity. Who am I? I am who God says that I am. I'm not who the world says I am, I'm a person who died with Jesus, I'm a person who was buried with Jesus, I'm a person who is raised with Jesus and a new creation. I'm not that old man. In the New Testament, when Paul begins to talk about believers in terms, in the term that he used instead of sinner, is saint. He used that at 10 to 1, at a ratio of 10 to 1. He calls us saints instead of sinners. So after your salvation, God would rather refer to you as a saint rather than a sinner. So what do you think? You probably thought that a saint was just a dead Catholic. But it's not. A saint just went right past you. A saint is anybody saved by grace. A saint is anybody born again in the Spirit of God. A saint is anybody washed in the blood. A saint is anybody on their way to heaven. Amen. My sainthood is determined by my union with Jesus Christ and not by my performance. I tell you, if we could get that right, I think a lot of people would be liberated. My sainthood is determined by my union with Jesus Christ and not by my performance. It's not my performance, it's my trust in his performance. Because he already performed that years ago, and I can't improve on it. When I begin to see what he did in me is only a thing that he can do, just like what he did with David. I'm a new creation, I'll begin to realize that I'm not just a sinner, I'm a saint in Jesus. And that's important. You say, wait a minute, you don't know what I did last week. You don't know where I went. You don't know what I said, you don't know how I treated my husband or my wife or my friends. Listen to me. One of the most wicked churches, churches that Paul wrote about was the church in Corinth. You know, we had people sleeping with temple prostitutes. There was a brother in their flock that was sleeping with his stepmother. Even to that church, Paul writes, Paul writes in his first letter, he calls them saints in Corinth. Saints. Why? Because our sainthood is not determined by our sins or like thereof. Our sainthood is determined by our union with Jesus Christ, and that, my friends, does not change. Why is that important? Because if you go around the rest of your life just saying, well, I'm just a sinner, I'm no better than I was last year. That's what you're gonna live up to. Parents, you've probably seen it. If you have friends and they talk about their kid and they say, Yeah, he's just rotten, he's always getting into trouble, he's always doing this. He can't keep his hands to himself at school, and they just keep down and down and down. You know what? That kid's gonna live up to that or down to that. However, if you just tell them how proud you are, you know what they have done, how good they are in school, you know, what they're doing around the house, all the positive things, do you know what? That child is going to do everything they can to live up to that. Because they want to please you. And so we need to remember that. So it's important how we see ourselves. When I see myself as a saint in God that God says that I am, I can begin to live a more saintly life. But you say, Brad, is that really that significant? I believe that it is. Because we believe what people say about us. Right? Whether or not we want to admit it, you know, sticks and stones may break my bones, yeah, the words do hurt. Whether you want to admit it or not, it does matter. And we tend to believe what people are saying instead of what God's saying. I've said this before. We tend to believe the world over the word of God. And that's a problem. Let me prove this. How many of you would stand up this morning and say that you're a sinner? Probably everybody. We could even have a little group here. We have Sinners Anonymous. Hi, I'm Brad, and I'm a sinner. But how many of you would stand up if I said, I want you to line up here if you're a saint? Probably not a lot of you. A few months ago, Pastor John did something, and he said, I want you to raise your hand if you think you're righteous. Do you remember that? A few very few people raise their hand. Why is that? Because you believe what the world says about you. You believe what other people say about you. Some of you have committed crimes, and no matter how good you live, and no matter what God has done in your life, you still see yourself as a criminal. Stop it. Some of you gave yourself away before marriage, or you had a relationship outside of marriage, and so therefore, all you see yourself is some kind of fornicator or adulterer. Stop it. That's a lie. It's a lie from the pit of hell. Some of you have struggled with lying, and people say that you can't believe anything they say. You believe them. But no matter what God does for you, you still see yourself as a liar. And all that does is magnify the problem. You need to stop it and listen to what God says about you. He says that you're a saint. You gotta start acting like it and stop living like that old creature. Stop losing hope in yourself and listen to the hope that is here. Many of you remember that story I told, was it three or four weeks ago when I was up here about Mikey and how Mikey had come to church with his Aunt Shirley and he had an addiction problem, but he went through the New Testament with our church up in North Beach. And he had accepted Jesus and he went through the 40 days of promise with us, and then he told his mother, I don't believe that God can forgive me for everything I've done. That was a lie. God can forgive you. Don't lose hope. 2 Corinthians 3.12 says, Therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness. The hope that Paul's talking about is our hope in Jesus Christ and the promises he's given us. So you need to first recognize the problem, and secondly, don't lose hope. And then the third thing that we have is fight. And this is verses 45 through 49. David said to the Philistine, You come against me with a dagger, a spear, and a sword, but I come against you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel's army. You have defiled him. Today the Lord will hand you over to me. Today I will strike you down, cut up, cut your head off, and give the corpses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the creatures of the earth. Then all the world will know that Israel has a God. And this whole assembly will know that it is not by the sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord's. He will hand you over to us. When the Philistines started forward to attack him, I like this. David ran quickly to the battle line to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in the bag, took out a stone, slung it, and hit the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. Sometimes in life you've had enough. David had had enough. You know, they're gonna know that it wasn't me. It was God that brought this victory. At what point will we as Christians stop running scared and letting Goliath taunt us? When is it going to happen? In more than 40 nations around the world, people are being persecuted simply because of their faith. Hundreds of men and women are in prison as we speak, serving time. They're not criminals who have stolen something or hurt other humans. They're people who have simply claimed that they follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Christians are beaten, tortured, imprisoned, and murdered by those who are hostile to their faith in Jesus. Has anyone followed what's been happening in Michigan? This guy named Shariq Khan is a former Muslim. He's been going into Dearborn, Michigan. And it's not because he is a great American, it's not because of his loyalty to the flag. It's not because they're speaking out and saying death to America. It's because they're speaking against Jesus Christ. That's what he's doing. He's going in and sharing the gospel with a lost community. He's challenged all Christians. I've seen him on social media, he's challenged all Christians to spread the gospel, not just in Dearborn, Michigan, but in all areas. You think that's just happening in Michigan? It's coming to a city near you soon. I believe that. And so we have to stand up. That courage that you have is not going to happen when Goliath is standing in front of you. So don't wait until then. Well, what do I do, Brad? This is a good start. You're here. There's Bible studies all week. You've got a Bible? If you don't get one on the way out, we have some at the Welcome Center. Get into the Word. Pray to our living God and prepare yourself for whenever you step up to the battlefield, pray that you're ready for that. That's the only way that you can do it. We've got a lot of good servants in this church that are preparing a group of men and women to go to battle. And I don't mean a physical battle, I mean the battle that's just in our backyard. You see, this sermon covers a lot of territory. Stepping up to the challenge applies to Americans, fighting for religious freedoms. Christians speaking out against abortion and same-sex marriage. It applies to listening to a family member, maybe, who, whenever you leave here and you go to their house, they're constantly using the Lord's name in vain, and you don't say anything because you don't want to ruin your Sunday afternoon. When are you going to step up? Maybe it applies to facing an addiction. It could. Saying, never again. It's not going to happen again. And stepping up and facing that challenge. What about this one? This is one of the tough ones. Maybe it applies to you letting go of a sin that God forgave you of years ago. But you know what? Whenever your feet hit the ground, Satan hits you with it again. Hey, remember when you did this? You're no good. Why are you even going to church? You're wasting your time. Go ahead, say something at that Bible study. Watch those men laugh at you. Watch those women laugh at you. They know who you are. And so you shrink down. You hide. Just like the Israelites did. You don't want to face that giant. Let it go. If God forgave you of it, let it go. A lot of people struggle with that. We have, we all have our own battlefields, and today's message hopefully gives you some strength to fight. We didn't even discuss the fact that Saul tried to give David his armor. Parents, let me tell you this. The battlefield that your kids are facing right now, whether it's in school or on the streets or just talking with their friends, is not the same battlefield we faced. I'm glad I'm not being raised up now. It's a tough one for them. They have so many things right at their hands if they have a phone in their hands. That's quite a battlefield. And so therefore, we can't give them our armor and say, go ahead, go fight. It's not gonna work. What we didn't read is that Saul tried to give David his armor. And David put it on, it was so heavy and clanky, he's like, Man, I'll get killed if I go out there. I'm so I'd be so slow, it was so big on him. He said, No, God's giving me everything that I need. If you pray with your kids, if you get them in the word, if you give them things to do around the house that's going to build their confidence, encourage them in the word daily, then you're going to prepare them for that battle. But don't expect them to go out with your armor on. God tested David, and David gained confidence for when he stepped out on that battlefield. God is preparing you for something also. Whether you're a child here or whether you're an adult, God's preparing you for something. What is it? Many of you already know what it is that you need to step up to. So what is that? What takes you, what's it going to take for you to step up to that challenge? Now, before I close this message, I want to be very clear because there's people watching this online. Those of you that are here hopefully understand what I'm saying, but there's people online that sometimes get it mixed up. I want to clarify, this message is not a call for Christians to go out and commit violence or to physically fight anyone who speaks against God. Kids, I'm not telling you that. If somebody speaks against God, I'm not telling you to pick up a rock and hit them in the forehead. All right? We can giggle about that, but that's not what it's a call for. If you have a coworker or a friend who is not a follower of Christ, I'm asking you to step up and tell them, hey, you know, the way you've been acting, the stuff that you've been saying, that bothers me. But don't just tell them that. Don't just tell them that. Share with them the truth of God that's within you. Tell them about that. And you know what? If they reject it, remember, don't take it personal. Don't take it personal. They're rejecting Jesus. They're not rejecting you. Some of you know, I told this story before. I used to be uh part of the Gideon's International, and we we would pass out those little tracts, the New Testament Bibles, and I had just I had just spoken at a meeting up in Baltimore. And as I was leaving, man, I was I was just fired up. I was excited. The Lord was with me, and I go through the toll booth, and and you know, it's before COVID when you still had to pay at the toll booth instead of just driving through. And I go to pay the guy, and I said, Hey, would you like a free copy of God's word? And he goes, No, thanks. And I was like, Well, hey, would you like a free copy of God's word? It's it's free, it doesn't cost anything. He goes, No, I'm good. He wasn't rejecting me, he was rejecting Jesus. I wanted to take that thing and throw it at him and say, here, and then drive off. I didn't. But uh, but you know, we we have to we have to be willing to share that, Christians. When we stand around and do nothing, evil's going to prevail. It's just going to happen. Uh, the giant you're facing could be an internal battle, it could be one that God is working with you on right now. Step one, you need to admit that it is a sin. And then you need to do something about it. You need to face it. Maybe some of you today are in spiritual battles, maybe it's an addiction, maybe it's a family member who continues to use the Lord's name in vain or speak against or mock God. Uh today we need to pray that God will give you the wisdom and the words to face whatever that battle is as you go out onto the battlefield. So as our praise team comes forward, I want to tell you, you know, you may have been looking past these all the time, these battles that you're facing, and you say, Oh, that doesn't really matter that much. I've used this analogy before, but I think it's a good one. This is not real heavy, it's easy for me to carry around. I can hold on to it. Not a problem. I could have probably held this the whole service, not got tired. I can even switch it to this hand if my left arm gets tired. But there's gonna come a time in my day when I'm gonna have to set that down. Maybe it's whenever I change clothes, maybe it's I'm getting ready to go to bed, and I'm like, well, I don't want to take this to bed with me. What is it that you're holding on that you need to just set down? Because eventually this is going to become a burden, no matter how small it is, and we could even go smaller and say this. If I tell you, hey, hold this for the next six days, you're gonna eventually say, Nah, I'm gonna set it down, I'm done with that. When are you going to sit down? When are you gonna face that battle? When are you gonna face that giant? Because even though it's small, it's gonna eventually become a big problem. We all have those in our lives. So I pray that you're able to face that and have the courage this week to face it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you. I thank you for your word, I thank you for your truth. Lord, I I thank you for the example of of David and and what he stood up to. Lord, I pray that as we go from here that you give us the strength to go forward and face that giant, knowing, Lord, that you're going ahead of us on the battlefield. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.