Big Ask Sunday // Pastor Chuck Colegrove // Nov. 2

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
What's up, free church?
Oh man, come on, give let's giveit up for that band.
Just wow.
I told him back there while Iwas getting my mic on.
I was like, hey, I wish y'allwould, I wish you guys would put
a little effort into it.
Like, come on, get in, get intoit a little bit.

(00:22):
Let's get to work.
Come on.
But man, what a powerful moment.
And Lord.
I know, I know I say this a lot,but guys, just what happened,
just one second in the presenceof God like that can do more

(00:45):
than anything you've tried inyour entire lifetime.
And um I would just say, likethe way you usher in the
presence of God through worship,we come into his house with
thanksgiving.
We enter his courts with praise.
Praise is when we're talkingabout God, how great he is, how

(01:10):
big he is, all the things he'sdone.
Like God doesn't forget whathe's done in your life, but he
sure likes to hear you say, Man,God, what you've done for me.
And honestly, in all the otherareas of life, it's kind of like
a what have you done for melately lyric.
But no, I don't ever want thatto be my the tenor of my heart.

(01:32):
Like, God, what you've done.
And so when we enter his courtswith praise like that, then that
affords us the opportunity wherethe presence of the Lord moves
in.
And um, when you're listeningI'm, I mean, we're definitely
not perfect parents.
We have four kids, now we havefive because of marriage, and

(01:54):
having a daughter changed ourlife.
Like that was we had all boys,and boys don't talk very much,
but having a daughter, theconversation at the table and in
the house changes.
And you know, like when the boysare going out, they'll come and
just say, Hey, we're gonna goget something to eat.
And it's like, okay.
And she'll come in and say,We're gonna go get something to

(02:14):
eat.
And she's she looks cute, andwe're gonna say, You look so
beautiful, and she just lightsup, and I know.
And but when those kids start totell us how much they love us,
it really is in the moment whereI'm like, Whatever, what do you
need?
What do you want?
Whatever you want, whatever youwant is yours.

(02:34):
What do you need?
You need gas money, you needfood money, you need what do you
need?
You need a transportation.
What is it?
What do you need?
And I feel like sometimes in themoment that we just have, when
you're just telling Jesus howmuch you love him, he's like,
Listen, what do you need?
You've worshiped me, you'vepraised, you've given your
heart, you've given your soul,your mind, your strength.

(02:57):
What do you need?
And I was thinking about as wewere worshiping, and sometimes I
know it gets, it seems like it'sit's an expression.
But I think about on the side ofthe road when Jesus is coming
into town and there's a blindman, and he cries out, Jesus,
have mercy upon me.

(03:18):
And everybody around decidedthat's too loud.
This is Jesus coming throughhere.
You need to be, you need tohonor, you need to be reverent,
you need to be quiet.
Hush.

unknown (03:30):
Shh, shh, shh.

SPEAKER_00 (03:31):
And the Bible says he cried out all the louder.
Jesus, have mercy.
In moments like we've justexperienced, listen, ask away.
You don't have it because youask not, you don't have it
because you're not knocking, youdon't have it because you're not
seeking.
And in the moment, Jesus says,just ask whatever it is, ask.

(03:54):
And when people tell you no,it's too loud, just say, Listen,
it's not for you.
This is for him.
And I just want to encourage youto lean in.
He says, anything you ask in myname.
I'm back.
In fact, I'm gonna preach amessage in a few weeks.
Maybe we gotta get throughChristmas and into the new year

(04:17):
and the year of relationships,but I'm gonna preach a message
about prayer and learning how topray the kind of prayers that
Jesus answers.
But I think I want to justencourage you, just in those
moments, don't be ashamed orafraid to cry out to Jesus for
whatever is in your heart.
Because he wants to meet thatneed.
Pastor Matthew said that he seesyou, he knows where you're at,

(04:38):
he wants to meet that need, andthere's something that happens
that engages when our faith isactivated in a response to ask
in the name of Jesus.
The promises of God are yes andamen through Jesus Christ.
Amen, church.
All right, well, amen.
Well, that sounded better to methan I thought, but I guess
we'll we'll just move on.

(05:03):
Hey, listen, if you're a guesttoday, thanks for joining us.
I know our team has welcomed youand celebrated you.
We're so glad you're here.
We know you can be a lot ofplaces.
Thanks for being at Free Churchtoday, family.
Let's welcome our guests with usand had an amazing nine o'clock
service, and let's close thisout.
I'm ready to preach God's word.
Are you ready to receive ittoday?
The year was 2011, and we werestill in Houston at the time,

(05:28):
although we had already made ourdecision that we were moving to
Oak Park to plant free church.
At the time, we did not have aname for the church yet, and uh
we were going through thatprocess, just praying and
believing God would show us aname, and um and and then we
word started to get out that wewere moving from Houston to

(05:50):
Chicago area to plant a church,and literally had people say,
like, what are you doing?
And we had this dream in ourheart that back in like 2006,
2007, we know God was calling usto plant a church, but there was
just this long space of timewhere we knew we were engaged in
what was happening in churchlife, and there was there was

(06:10):
just like it was not the righttime, but we had this dream in
our heart and we were justserving, and and so we're
serving, believing God, whateveris gonna be, and this dream that
we could come to an area likethis that when we would tell
people in Oak Park, like this isthe kind of church we want to
see, a church that representsOak Park, the diversity of Oak
Park.
It looks like Oak Park, it hasyoung and old and every nation

(06:33):
represented, and people wouldtell us that church just doesn't
exist here.
And we were like, no, we'regonna, this is the church we
see, this is the church we'redreaming about.
And and so when we were tellingpeople around the Houston area,
we just had so many people likeif you have a great big dream,
I'm gonna tell you sometimespeople people are like the
worst, they are the worst.

(06:53):
Uh like they're people areterrible if you have a big
dream.
I'll just say it.
Like people are like, wait, whatdo you what do you mean you uh
you're moving from Houston toChicago?
Whoa, why would you do that?
And we're just like, well no,we're moving, we're moving to
Oak Park.
And they're like, Oak Park?

(07:13):
Why would you go there?
And people literally say, like,shouldn't you go like way out in
the suburbs somewhere where it'syou know maybe kinder and
gentler?
And and furthermore, whywouldn't you start a church in
the Bible Belt where all thechurches are?
And I was like, because wedon't, we're not, we don't have
a dream of planting a churchwhere all the Christians are.

(07:35):
We have a dream of goingsomewhere where people need
Jesus.
Why would you do that?
And then and then finally,somebody um on our team in
Houston at the church we wereserving on our home church, they
they just finally said, Why, whywould you ever leave this place?
You got it made, you got a greatjob.

(07:55):
This the church is growing,you're you could be here
forever, you just got comfortzone, like you're crazy for
leaving.
And as soon as that word cameout of his mouth, I knew I was
in the right spot to be calledinto a ministry in an area that
everybody else thought was crazyfor us to go to.
It's the year I learned when youhave a God-sized dream, you're

(08:18):
gonna have a lot of people tostand in front of you and try to
block you, but you just need tokeep defeating one giant after
another and just determine inyour heart, listen, if God's
with me, I can do anything.
Amen.
Do I need to switch mics?
Is it is it okay?
We're getting it?
All right, okay, let's get itright.
All right.
Turn to your neighbor whilewe're getting our mic right.

(08:40):
Turn to your neighbor and justtell him, hey, I got a God-sized
dream.
And then come on.
I know you've been ignoring thatother person all service long,
but just tell him you better getout of my way.
Don't get in my way.

(09:05):
Napoleon said, imagination rulesthe world.
And Einstein said this.
He was like, imagination is moreimportant than knowledge because
knowledge actually just sits inthe space of what we know and
understand, but imaginationembraces the entire world and
it's limitless.
There's something about having apowerful, God-sized dream that

(09:31):
it actually allows us to becomecreators of the Almighty
Creator.
It allows us to walk in thatimage.
And I would say today, Big AskSunday, I would say, my big ask
for you is this do you have alife dream?
Do you have a God-sized lifedream that you're pursuing and

(09:52):
living out?
It's larger than life itself andlarger than anything you know,
and you know that you cannotcomplete it on your own, so it
must be a God-sized dream.
And if the answer to that isyes, I'm gonna tell you that on
the way from here to the promisebeing fulfilled in your life,
there are gonna be giants in theway that try to stop you from

(10:12):
realizing and living in thepower of that realized dream.
Nothing great is everaccomplished without great
opposition.
And if you've ever seen a childflying a kite out in the park,
I'm gonna let you know that thatkite did not go up to the
heights because it traveled withthe wind.
It goes up because it goesagainst the wind.
And sometimes that's the wayit's gonna feel in your life,

(10:34):
that you have a dream God's puton you, and you're gonna feel
like you're going against thewind the entire time.
But with God with you, the HolySpirit in you.
That's why the Holy Spirit, thethe Greek word there's ruach,
it's a breath of fresh wind.
It's just enough wind in you tohelp you to come against what's
against you.
So, luckily in scripture, wehave we have plenty of stories

(10:56):
we could look at that would helpus shape this into something
real life experience for us.
And I'm gonna use probably oneof the more popular stories in
scripture.
It's the story of David versusGoliath.
And I just want to read thispassage of scripture to you.
We've probably heard this storythousands of times, and uh, but
I want to read this passage ofscripture to just kind of set up

(11:17):
the moment and and the reallyscale of what you're facing in
life.
So look at this.
1 Samuel 17, verse 1 says, ThePhilistines now mustered their
army for battle and campedbetween Sokah and Judah and
Azekah in Ephesedimim, somethinglike that.
And uh, Jesus, that wasn't inthe first service.

(11:39):
Where'd that come from?
We just changed.
Dear God, we're reading it inHebrew.
What in the world?
I got a marketing degree.
We like to say things easy.
Give me the give me the messageversion, please.
Uh Saul and uh Saul countered bygathering his Israelite troops

(12:03):
near the valley of Elah, so thePhilistines and Israelites faced
each other on opposite hillswith the valley in between them.
Now let me just set this up realquick.
On the hillside in the mountainsis where all the mainstays of
Israel are Jerusalem, Bethlehem.
That's they are they are theyare they are it's they're
establishing the kingdom of thekingdom of God on God's

(12:27):
mountain.
And then on the plains, wayplains towards the sea, is uh
what we now know as Palestine.
That is where the Philistinesare coming from, the plains, and
they camp out across from eachother, and in between there's
valley and ridge area, and andin order to go defeat the enemy,
you would have to go down intothat valley and then back up to

(12:51):
the heights to actually reachthat army.
The problem is when you go down,then you're on your way back up
and you become vulnerablebecause you're in a position of
weakness in terms of war andbattle.
And um, and so you they theybasically would just stand
across the valley from eachother and just shout at each

(13:11):
other how cool they are and howbad they are.
And I can prove it in the nextverse.
Then Goliath, a Philistinechampion from Gath, came out of
the Philistine ranks to face theforces of Israel.
He was over nine feet tall.
He wore a bronze helmet and hisbronze coat of mail weighed 125
pounds.
He also wore a bronze leg armorand carried a bronze javelin in

(13:35):
his shoulder, and the shaft ofthe spear was as heavy and thick
as a weaver's beam, tipped withiron.
The spearhead weighed more than15 pounds, and his armor bearer
walked ahead of him carrying ashield.
I feel sad for that guy.
This guy's nine foot tall, hasyou know, has a spear that

(13:57):
weighs as much as uh theweaver's beam, which that just
sounds heavy.
The tip of his spear is like 15pounds, and that guy can't carry
his own shield.
He's like, you carry it.
Can you imagine being that guy?
Like, I mean, I think these arethe things I think about when I
read scripture.

(14:18):
Like, who wants to carry that?
But he had to.
And uh the Bible says every dayGoliath would step out onto that
spot and try to pick a fightwith the Israelites.
I dare somebody to come intothis valley, man versus man, to

(14:38):
fight me.
And if you beat me, then Israelcan take all the spoils of the
war.
But if we beat you, you're gonnabe our slaves.
Come on, who's willing to fightme?
By the way, I'm nine foot tall.
I am all that, and the bag ofchips.
So who is willing to step intothis field?

(15:00):
And when I defeat you, I'll feedyou to the dogs and to the birds
of the air.
Like who's willing to step outon?
And uh, we know the story.
If you've ever heard the storyof David, you know eventually
David does step out and conquersGoliath, and the Israelites win
the battle, and they win thatwar.
But I'm gonna tell you, longbefore David ever fought that

(15:21):
giant, there were four giants hehad to defeat.
And you may never face a Goliaththat's nine foot tall in your
life, but I can tell you thisyou'll face these four giants on
your way to seeing the dreamfulfilled in your life.
And I'm gonna give them to you,and then we're gonna talk about
how to defeat them.
You ready?
Here we go.
Number one, the giant you'regonna face, the first giant
you're gonna face is this it isthe giant of delay.

(15:44):
In 1 Samuel 16, God sendsSamuel, the prophet, to anoint a
new king of Israel.
And he says, You're gonna go tothis family, to Jesse, and he's
got a boy there that's gonna bethe next king.
And he says, he's actually aperson after my own heart.
And so Samuel shows up and it'squite a spectacle, and he goes

(16:05):
to Jesse and says, Jesse, one ofyour boys is gonna be the next
king.
I need to meet your boys.
And he said, Great, great.
I have I have I have some boys,let me bring them in.
And he brings seven out of eightboys into this meeting, and
Samuel sees the first brother,it's Eliab, the oldest brother,
and he's like, Oh, this has gotto be the king.
He's tall, he's handsome, he'she looks strong, he seems like a

(16:29):
big warrior.
Man, this is the king, and Godsays, That's not the king.
And the next brother, numbertwo, walks in, and he's like,
No, that's not the king.
And the third brother comes inand still not the king.
The fourth, the fifth, thesixth, all the way to the
seventh.
And Samuel's like, I'm sorry,the none of these.
This is not who I'm looking for.
Jesse, do you have any othersons?
And Jesse's like, Oh, I doactually have one more son.

(16:52):
He's out in the field, but Ipromise you, he's not your king.
And Jesse calls for his sonDavid to come in, and when David
walks in, the anointing falls onSamuel.
He says, This is your king.
And he anoints David to be kingthat day.
David, by the structure, isaround 15 years old at the time.
It's another 33 years, it'sanother 18 years before David

(17:14):
becomes king of Israel.
And I'm gonna tell you this whenGod puts a dream in your heart
that's bigger than your liferight now, you know what?
You may want it to come to passtomorrow, but there is gonna be
some delay in it.
And the question is, what areyou gonna do during that delay?
David, David is immediatelyanointed to be king.
Oh, so where should he be?

(17:36):
He's anointed to be king.
Obviously, he should be in thepalace.
No, David, you go back out inthe field and take care of the
sheep.
God has a plan for your life,but I want to let you know
everybody else does too.
Everybody else has a plan foryour life.
They've got stuff they want youto do, places they want you to
be, people they want you to see.

(17:57):
And listen, whenever God's planstarts to contradict everybody
else's plan for your life, man,there's gonna be some delay.
Because stuff got stuff, Ialmost said stuff got to be
worked out.
I don't know where that camefrom.
Dear God, today.
My God.
The king's English is long fargone.

(18:20):
The thing is, what are you gonnado in your delay?
David's out in the field.
It doesn't say he's he'spracticing to be king, but he's
practicing where he is.
What are you gonna do with thegiant of delay?
You're gonna have to take thatgiant down because we live in a
world that's like microwave, airfryer, go ahead, I need to have

(18:41):
it done today.
Like I was warming up my coffeethis morning at the house, and I
pushed 30 seconds on themicrowave.
And I know it's bad to microwavecoffee, don't judge me.
I just can't, I just got I getcarried away in the morning.
And so I put it in there, I put30 seconds, and I'm I'm anxious
for that 30 seconds to end.

(19:02):
Can it end now?
I'm ready for it now, and that'sthe way we are.
God gives us a God-sized dream,and we're like, yes, yes, I'm
ready.
And God says, there's gonna bethe a giant of delay is gonna
stand in your way.
And you're either gonna startpreparing yourself for what
God's put in your heart, oryou're gonna be on the side of

(19:23):
destiny delayed as the devil'sdelight, and you're gonna waste
it.
The second giant you're gonnahave to face is the giant of it
is the giant of discouragement.
Every single day, the Bibletells us that the Philistine
would come out and make adeclaration, calling the

(19:48):
Israelite army dogs and nothing,no one.
And look at David is sent to hisbrothers to bring a care
package, and this is whathappens in 1 Samuel 17, 23.
It says, as he was talking withthem, David's talking with the
soldiers and his brothers,Goliath, the Philistine,
champion from Gath, comes out ofthe Philistine ranks, just like

(20:08):
we read in those first sevenverses.
And David hears them shout hisusual taunt to the army of
Israel.
And as soon as the Israelitearmy saw him, meaning Goliath,
they began to run away infright.
Discouragement, fear.
And I'm going to tell you thiswhen if you have a God-sized

(20:29):
dream in your life, get readybecause there are going to be a
lot of loud voices to discourageyou from pursuing that dream.
But you need to know this.
The loudest voices are notalways right.
In fact, typically behind theloudest voices is an insecure
person who just thinks volumemeans uh viability.

(20:55):
Like, oh, they they're loud,they must be right.
No, they're loud because theyknow they're wrong.
But if they act loud, maybesomebody will get behind them.
And look, all of the Israelitearmy, every single one of them,
run in fear.
That voice of that giant hadconvinced an entire army that no

(21:18):
one was capable of standing upto him.
And listen, if you're gonna hangout with fearful people, you're
gonna become a fearful person.
You'll just start to accept thefact.
Well, I guess I guess this isthe way it's gonna be.

(21:40):
I guess I'll just cower overhere in fear.
I guess there's nothing I can doabout it.
Everybody else is afraid.
I might as well be afraid.
We have a dog.
We have two dogs.
One is a German short-hairedpointer, and she is the most
hyper dog on the planet of alldogs.
The other one is a lab, and heis the scaredest dog on the
planet of all dogs.

(22:02):
And I like to get up in themorning and we feed the dogs,
and then I take them for a walk.
It's part of my morning routine.
And there are mornings wherethere might be too much noise,
and Bishop is his name.
Bishop will decide he's not herefor the loud noises.
Now he's a dog, he's got a meanbark, he can, he can like prop

(22:26):
himself up and look pretty likehe's pretty intimidating.
Even though he's alive, he's gota little bit of city in him.
He's got a little street in him.
And and he he can seemintimidating, but if there's a
loud noise, let it let there bethunder.

(22:48):
I'm out.
Let there be a garbage truck.
Out.
Any kind of repair vehicle, out.
And today I'm getting ready towalk him.
It's beautiful.
The sun is just starting toeclipse through the clouds, and
and we're getting ready to walk.
And he decides for some reasonit's too cloudy for him to walk.
And he just starts shaking.

(23:11):
And I'm now you got to get thispicture.
I have one dog dragging mebecause she can't wait to get to
where the birds are.
And I've got the other dogdragging me because he doesn't
want to go anywhere, and I'mcaught in this, and I can't pull
this dog enough, and I can'tstop this dog enough.
All I'm telling you is you'regonna become a reflection of the

(23:31):
people you hang around, and ifyou're with fearful people,
you're gonna walk in fear.
So you got to learn to overcomethe giant of discouragement.
The third giant you're gonnaface is disapproval.
And it's oftentimes the peoplethat are closest to you that are

(23:54):
gonna listen to the dream youhave in your heart and think, no
way.
Who does he think he is?
Isn't that what they said aboutJesus?
Like, they're like, where's thisguy from?
And he from Nazareth?
Does anything good come fromNazareth?
Jesus?

(24:14):
And it it says in his ownhometown, he couldn't do many
miracles because of theirunbelief.
Because they were like they hadthey had a problem getting past
the question of who does thisguy think he is?
So even Jesus had to overcomethe giant of disapproval.
And and it's usually the closestpeople to us.

(24:38):
Look at what it says in 1 Samuel17, it says this, but when
David's older brother, so let mejust set the scene before I read
you the scripture.
David hears the giant shout allthese accusations and and all
these taunts and the you, likethe scripture said, the usual
taunts.
Every single day he's saying,Who's who's gonna come out and
fight me?
Obviously, no one, because lookat me, I'm nine foot tall.

(24:59):
What are you gonna do?
And David hears that and says,I'll do it.
What's the reward?
I'll do it.
David's just a kid.
He's a kid.
He's like, I who gets to talkabout God's army like this?
I'll do it.
And and as soon as Eliab hearsDavid say this, look at what
Eliab says.

(25:19):
He heard David talking to themen and he was angry.
And he says, What are you doingaround here anyway?
What about the few sheep you'resupposed to be taking care of?
Demeaning, degrading,disapproving.
I know you're just here to outof pride and deceit, and you
just want to see the battle.
Disapprove, disapprove,disapprove, denied, denied,

(25:42):
denied, denied, rejected,rejected, rejected, rejected.
That's the giant you're gonnahave to face.
People are gonna tell you, whodo you think you are?
A few weeks ago I cast thevision as we move the church
forward that we're gonna be achurch declaring God's promises,
fulfilling his purpose, and thenwe put this line in, until the

(26:05):
whole world knows.
And I said that, and I couldalmost hear people say, Who do
they think they are?
Who do they think they are untilone church, until the whole
world knows?
Because listen, when peopledisapprove of you because of
your weaknesses, they don'tunderstand God's strength.

(26:28):
Peter tells us it's in ourweakness that his strength is
perfected in us.
Paul says this when I am weak,then I am strong.
Listen, people are gonnadisapprove of you, but you're
gonna have to just muster upenough confidence in what God is
doing in you and through you andfor his glory to say, listen,
I'm not listening to you.

(26:50):
Because the question isn't, doyou know who do they think they
are?
That's not the question.
The question is, do you know whoGod is?
Do you know my God?
The last giant is the giant ofdoubt.

(27:12):
And I'm gonna tell you, even theexperts can be wrong.
The expert of war at the timewas Saul.
The Bible says before he wasanointed king, Samuel also
anointed Saul for king.
And because the people clamoredfor a king, they wanted a king.
And the Bible says Saul was whatdistinguished Saul from

(27:32):
everybody else, is he was headand shoulders taller than all of
the Israelites.
And he became the warrior of anation.
He became, he was, he was thewar, he was the man.
And so the expert on war findsout that David wants to go

(27:53):
defeat this giant.
Look what happens.
David says, Don't worry aboutthis Philistine, I'll go fight
him.
I got it.
And and Saul says, Don't beridiculous.
There's no way you can fightthis Philistine and possibly
win.
First of all, why would youfight him?
Because you'll never win.

(28:13):
And he says, This you're just aboy.
And he's a man of war since hisyouth.
There are there are versionsthat say he was a warrior since
birth.
Like, no, not he wasn't.
He was trained to be a warrior,but like they just because
sometimes people who are arelooking down upon you, they're

(28:36):
casting that doubt.
They actually magnify the enemy.
They make the enemy bigger thanhe is.
In fact, the way this story isalways told, David versus
Goliath, is the story of anunderdog.
It's a teenager defeating thismassive warrior.
It's a kid with a slang, withthis warrior with massive armor.

(28:58):
It's it's the the lowly peopleof God versus the massive army
of God's enemies.
It's always been a story of theunderdog.
But let me just point this out.
The Bible says David came withonly a sling.
And you would say, well, he onlyhad a sling, PC.

(29:20):
I mean, really, he's fightingthis massive giant with only a
sling.
Well, let me tell you, inwarfare, there were three areas
of battle.
There were the infantry, whichis Goliath's crew, those were
the man, man-to-man combat,hand-to-hand combat.
And then there was the area ofthe the chariots.
They they would, the chariotswere the store, they mean the
speed, the uh just in thechariot.

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They could, they were agile,they had their spears, and and
and then there was the nextarea, it was the aerial assault
of the time, and it was thebows, bow and arrows, and then
they called them the slingers.
And let me just tell you aslingshot and a sling are not
the same.
Things.
I mean, my parents bought me aslingshot when I was a kid, and

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all of my family's still living.
Because they're really, they'rereally not.
I mean, I know there could besome, but like the ones they buy
for kids, like, it's really nota weapon of mass destruction.
I tried.
Not that I didn't try to takeout area, like, we had a little

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area of our yard we called thewoods, and I would like look at
chipmunks and try to never witha slingshot never.
Don't judge me.
I felt that.
Where'd that come from?
Not one animal was hurt in thatstory.
What I'm telling you is aslingshot is not is so different

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than a sling.
A sling is this long strip ofleather string with this little
leather pouch.
And there are enough people thathave studied this that they say
the rotation of that sling forsomeone who was trained in using
it as somebody who sat and spentmost of their teenage life in

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the field, that they could allowthat sling to rotate five or six
times per second.
And that the skilled ones couldactually take a bird out of the
sky in flight with a sling.
And that when they release thatsling, that rock would travel
upwards to 100 miles per hour totake out the target.

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So here's Saul, here's here'sGoliath, nine foot tall, has to
be let out by an armor bearer.
I joked about him carrying theshield, but he had literally had
to take Goliath out because hecouldn't see enough, couldn't
see well enough to see what washappening unless it's close
proximity.

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And here's David, who's agileand trained with a sling.
So he's got better fightingtactics, he's got better arm,
um, better armor, better weaponsof war, and the third thing is

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he's got God within him.
And let me just ask you,whenever did God within us make
us an underdog?
If God be for you, who could beagainst you?
Greater is he that is in me thanhe that is in the world.
Like I don't know, I don'tunderstand how we have pitched
this story as an underdog storyall this time when it was

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actually, no.
If God be for me, then who couldbe against me?
And don't you dare talk about myGod, and don't you dare talk
about God's people that way.
I'll take you out.
It is a God confidence.
It wasn't cockiness, it wasjust, I know who I am and who
God's called me to be.
And you know what?
I'm not gonna doubt thissituation because I got God with
me, and with God all things arepossible.

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So you're gonna have to defeatthose giants.
And the last four things I'llgive you quickly.
To defeat those giants, fourthings.
Number one, remember how God hashelped you in the past.
It's called a testimony.
David told Saul, he said,Listen, I was in the field and I
killed a lion.
And I was in a field and Ikilled a bear.

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And the same God that helped mekill the lion and the bear will
help me take out this giant whostands against God's army.
Use the tools God has given younow.
Some of you are waiting forbetter, better tools.
No, no, no, no, no.
The king tries to put the king'sarmor on David and it doesn't
fit.
It's too heavy.

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And David said, just thanks,king, but I got my own gear.
I got my own tools.
I got what God's given me.
And you say, Well, I don't knowwhat that is, Pastor Chuck.
I'm going to tell you what itis.
We sang about it all morninglong, the name of Jesus.
Look, David says this.
He says, Listen, you come at mewith a spear, you come at me
with the weapons of your army.
I'm coming at you in the name ofthe Lord of God.

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That's who I'm walking in.
That is the weapon you have forany war you're battling, any
giant you're facing, the name ofJesus above every name.
The next one, encourage yourselfin the Lord.
There was no encouragement fromanybody around David.
Nobody giving at a boy, you cando it, you're gonna make it.
And listen, if you don't havepeople in your corner, it's so

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they'll get there eventually.
But don't allow them to framethe steps you're taking.
Just learn how to encourageyourself in the Lord.
Turn on some worship.
Have Sunday song on repeat.
Encourage yourself in the Lord.
And then the last one, expectGod to help you for his glory.

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God's not going to ruin hisperfect record on you.
The promises of God are yes andamen through Jesus Christ.
Like the very same spirit thatraised Jesus from the dead is
living in you.

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And that means, listen, God isnot raising up underdogs, God is
raising up overcomers.
More than conquerors.
Listen, don't give up, don'tgive in.
Put all this into practice.

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Hold a testimony close to yourheart.
Use the name of Jesus in everysituation.
Encourage yourself and worshipand in the Lord and expect God
to work on your behalf becauseHe's never failed yet.
Can you receive that word today?