You Are A Warrior

00:00:03

- Oh, hey, welcome to Crossroads.

00:00:04

I'm Andy, and today you're joining us

00:00:06

for Real Encounters with God.

00:00:08

Each week, we'll explore real places from the Bible

00:00:10

and uncover new identities that we all have.

00:00:13

Now, we filmed this series earlier this year,

00:00:15

and our prayers are with

00:00:17

all of the people who've been hurt

00:00:18

by the ongoing conflict in the region.

00:00:21

And we're still choosing to show this series

00:00:23

because we believe that

00:00:25

God chose the ancient land of Israel,

00:00:27

that He carved His story into the place itself,

00:00:29

and that He has something to say to us

00:00:31

today through it.

00:00:33

At Crossroads, we take our cues from Scripture.

00:00:35

We believe the Bible is God's truth

00:00:37

and we base our lives on it.

00:00:39

And maybe you don't fully believe that right now.

00:00:42

And hey, that's okay.

00:00:43

We're glad that you're exploring

00:00:45

and interested in learning more,

00:00:47

but we start off our time each week

00:00:49

together by singing songs that

00:00:51

are directly rooted in Scripture.

00:00:53

We do this because singing songs to God

00:00:55

is actually in the Bible, and it's a way

00:00:57

for us to turn our attention towards Him.

00:01:00

So, turn up the volume, go full screen,

00:01:03

and let's get started.

00:09:40

- I just feel like I should say

00:09:41

if you're here for one of the first times

00:09:46

that statement you just saw

00:09:49

a lot of the room say

00:09:52

and that statement that you just saw

00:09:56

make people lift their hands.

00:09:59

And maybe you looked around with you.

00:10:01

Maybe you're watching for the first time,

00:10:03

or maybe you're in the room for the first time

00:10:05

and you're like, "Seriously?

00:10:07

Are y'all just like fan boys? Fan girls?"

00:10:11

Yeah, yeah. That's right, that's right. You could say that.

00:10:16

But far more than fans,

00:10:19

you're surrounded by people

00:10:21

who have said, "You know, in challenge

00:10:24

I found this King to be better

00:10:27

than any other king offered to me."

00:10:34

They're not empty words.

00:10:35

They're words, they're costly,

00:10:40

they're words of challenge to say,

00:10:44

"I'm not my King, but He is.

00:10:48

God is my king.

00:10:49

And so I'll actually put my trust in Him."

00:10:52

When challenge hits, who's your king?

00:10:57

When a battle hits, who's your king?

00:11:03

My first response when a battle hits is not

00:11:06

to go hands up saying God you're Supreme.

00:11:08

Can I just be honest about that?

00:11:11

My first response is to go,

00:11:13

"Let me grab the things that

00:11:15

the world has trained me to grab,

00:11:17

like rage if I'm facing a difficulty,

00:11:20

or anger or something to numb me out.

00:11:25

Today we're going to talk about maybe

00:11:27

one of the most famous stories in the Bible

00:11:29

about a man named David who fought Goliath.

00:11:31

Raise your hand if you've heard about it before.

00:11:34

Raise your hand online.

00:11:35

Yeah. You're with me. Okay.

00:11:36

Most of us, even if you've, like,

00:11:39

you thought the walls of a church

00:11:40

would fall in if you walked in them,

00:11:42

you've probably heard about David and Goliath.

00:11:44

David faces this giant.

00:11:46

And maybe you don't have a physical giant

00:11:48

meeting you on a battlefield.

00:11:50

But maybe, and probably, you have

00:11:54

a challenge that feels like a giant right now.

00:11:57

You have something pressing against you

00:11:59

or something coming against you.

00:12:01

And the question is, who's your king in that?

00:12:07

David shows us a practice when challenge hits

00:12:11

that reminds us that we have

00:12:12

this warrior spirit in us because

00:12:15

of our creator and because who made us.

00:12:19

And so Psalm 18 says these words,

00:12:23

this is our practice when we hit challenge,

00:12:25

He says, "In my distress I called upon

00:12:28

the Lord, to my God, I cried for help.

00:12:33

And from His temple He heard my voice

00:12:36

and my cry to Him reached His ears."

00:12:40

Another way to say that is

00:12:43

when I cried out to Him

00:12:45

I was immediately in His presence,

00:12:49

in the presence of God, the King above all.

00:12:52

This next song allows us to

00:12:54

put in perspective and a lens

00:12:56

and frame up challenge that we're facing

00:12:58

and say, "My response, I want it to be this.

00:13:01

I want it to be You're my King.

00:13:03

I want it to be, God,

00:13:04

would you fight this battle with me?

00:13:06

Because He's made us for it.

00:17:53

- So God, I put both hands out in front of me

00:17:55

because I just take You at Your Word.

00:17:59

I'll just take You at Your Word that

00:18:01

You say You never leave us or forsake us.

00:18:04

I'll take You at Your Word when You say

00:18:06

Your arm is not too short to save.

00:18:09

I'll take You at Your Word in Psalm 121

00:18:11

when You say You don't sleep or slumber.

00:18:14

You watch my coming and my going.

00:18:16

You protect me by day and by night.

00:18:19

And so I put both hands out in front of me

00:18:21

just to say, this is me, my trust,

00:18:25

my hope, my security, I put it all in You

00:18:31

and say meet me in the battle.

00:18:33

Meet me and fight with me, Father. Come to me.

00:18:37

And I take You at Your Word that You respond,

00:18:40

that my cry reaches Your ear. You are with us.

00:18:46

I love You, my warrior King.

00:18:48

I praise You and give You my trust.

00:18:51

I pray all this because of You, Jesus. Amen.

00:18:57

- Man, so often these songs are ways

00:18:59

that I actually hear from God,

00:19:01

that He speaks to me.

00:19:02

And throughout Real Encounters,

00:19:03

we've been talking about how God speaks

00:19:05

through the land of Israel, but also

00:19:07

that God wants to speak to you and me today.

00:19:10

And it might sound a little strange,

00:19:12

but it's really important that you know

00:19:13

God wants to speak to you,

00:19:15

to encourage you, to strengthen you.

00:19:16

And on the first Thursday of every month,

00:19:19

we get together for an extended time

00:19:20

of worship and prayer that actually

00:19:22

I'll be leading and my wife Rachel will be leading.

00:19:24

But it's prayer for you, for you to hear

00:19:27

prophetically from people who want

00:19:28

to pray for you and encourage you,

00:19:30

and to join with community all over the world.

00:19:33

It can be a really special and powerful time.

00:19:35

Head to crossroads.net/Anywhere to sign up

00:19:38

and reserve your spot.

00:19:40

Crossroads exists to help you

00:19:42

on your spiritual journey with God.

00:19:43

And one simple next step to take

00:19:45

is just spending time with God daily.

00:19:48

Now, I bet if you try this for a week,

00:19:50

you're going to feel different,

00:19:52

you're going to feel less stressed,

00:19:53

and you're going to be relying on God

00:19:55

more in really cool ways.

00:19:57

In the Crossroads Anywhere app you can read the Bible,

00:19:59

you can pray for others,

00:20:00

you can ask for prayer for yourself,

00:20:02

you can journal and process with God

00:20:04

and other people, you can even do exercises

00:20:06

to slow down and focus on God.

00:20:09

It's so helpful.

00:20:11

In the app you can also select your location.

00:20:13

And if you're near one of our physical locations,

00:20:15

you'll get local ways to get involved.

00:20:17

And if you're not, you'll get opportunities

00:20:19

just for you wherever you are.

00:20:21

You can download the app for Android

00:20:23

or iPhone and it's totally free.

00:20:26

Crossroads doesn't charge money for this,

00:20:28

or the app, or the music, or any of the content.

00:20:30

That's because Crossroads is filled

00:20:32

with faithful and generous givers

00:20:34

who give their money to share this stuff

00:20:36

with as many people as possible.

00:20:38

We give because we believe God owns everything,

00:20:41

and what we have comes from Him.

00:20:43

In the Bible, it talks about

00:20:44

returning to God our first fruits.

00:20:47

When they did this in the Bible,

00:20:48

and when we do this today,

00:20:50

it's telling God that we put Him first

00:20:52

and we put our trust in him to take care of us.

00:20:55

Learn more at crossroads.net/give.

00:20:58

Now, I am so excited for today's episode of Real Encounters.

00:21:01

Last week Brian herded some goats

00:21:03

and I cannot wait to see what he's getting into today.

00:21:10

♪♪♪ insert Real Encounters promo♪♪♪

00:21:50

- All right. We're back in Israel

00:21:52

for Real Encounters with God

00:21:53

and talking about these real stories

00:21:55

that really happen with real people

00:21:56

having these encounters.

00:21:58

I've got Hannah, Brian, our guide Tsuriel,

00:22:02

and today we're talking about

00:22:03

one of these six elements of identity,

00:22:05

this primal DNA we have, warrior. Tell us about that.

00:22:09

- Everyone knows and loves the story

00:22:11

of David going against Goliath.

00:22:14

Even if you've never read the Bible,

00:22:15

you heard that story,

00:22:17

and it taps something deep inside of us.

00:22:19

Because actually, in our DNA.

00:22:20

I believe it's a character quality

00:22:23

that's buried inside of us,

00:22:24

an identity of being a warrior.

00:22:27

And this is what we see in David.

00:22:29

And I want to help people see today

00:22:31

that this is who you've been created to be,

00:22:33

a warrior that's meant to take rounds

00:22:35

and fight things and go forward.

00:22:37

That's in you. I don't have to work you up.

00:22:39

That's in you. It may be just too covered up.

00:22:41

- And so the logical place to go might be..?

00:22:45

- Of course. - Where David slayed Goliath?

00:22:49

How does that sound? - Sounds perfect.

00:22:52

- Which would be? - The Elah Valley.

00:22:54

And it's a great location. Okay?

00:22:57

20 miles from Bethlehem.

00:22:59

When you open the Bible, when you read

00:23:01

the verses of the location itself,

00:23:03

you see all those Philistines, you know,

00:23:05

military outposts are still there

00:23:07

with the same names even today.

00:23:09

And the Israelites are standing from one side

00:23:11

and the Philistines from the other side.

00:23:12

And the valley, the valley of Elah

00:23:14

between the two armies.

00:23:15

And David, of course, is being sent

00:23:17

by his father to go and see what's happening there.

00:23:19

And he finds himself in a battlefield,

00:23:21

and we're going to see what he is about to do.

00:23:23

And everyone knows the end of that.

00:23:25

But that's the perfect location, which is still there.

00:23:28

We can still see everything the same as

00:23:30

it used to look like 3000 years ago.

00:23:32

- It's really an amazing place.

00:23:34

- It looks exactly like it would have looked.

00:23:37

It's undeveloped.

00:23:38

- And thank God we still have this valley

00:23:40

as a place that we can see.

00:23:42

These days, you know, there is a city behind it

00:23:44

that is growing bigger and bigger and bigger,

00:23:46

and I don't know for how long we will

00:23:48

still be able to see the site

00:23:50

as it was 3000 years ago.

00:23:51

- It is the site. It's not like --

00:23:53

It's not a recreation or anything like,

00:23:56

it is the -- that's just incredible.

00:23:58

- Everything, I mean, David would walk

00:24:00

through the same hills and the same valley

00:24:02

and the brook, everything is the same.

00:24:03

Nothing has changed. - Wow.

00:24:05

- That's impressive. That's incredible.

00:24:07

I mean, that Saul was really the likely person

00:24:09

to win that battle and he didn't.

00:24:11

- Yeah.

00:24:12

I think I'm going to talk about that

00:24:14

when we actually get to the site.

00:24:16

But Saul was Israel's giant.

00:24:18

He was a head taller than everybody else in the nation.

00:24:20

And David takes on Goliath with a slingshot.

00:24:24

Malcolm Gladwell did a book

00:24:25

not too many years ago about how that

00:24:27

actually gave David an advantage.

00:24:29

He was bringing a different underdog kind of weapon.

00:24:32

The crazy thing is, not only was Saul

00:24:35

the giant for Israel, he's from the tribe of Benjamin

00:24:38

that the Book of Judges says

00:24:40

the people in Benjamin could use a slingshot

00:24:43

and hit something the width of a hair.

00:24:45

- Wow.

00:24:46

- So Saul not only was qualified stature wise,

00:24:49

but he had the tools.

00:24:51

He had the ability to do it himself.

00:24:53

But he didn't have that primal DNA uncovered

00:24:56

of being a warrior like David did,

00:24:58

and like all of us do.

00:25:00

- Yeah, I love that story.

00:25:01

And of course, we love David,

00:25:02

but we also love Jesus.

00:25:04

And so we're talking about Him

00:25:05

and what that means to be a warrior.

00:25:07

And so what's the location that makes sense for that?

00:25:10

- Well, we thought, of course,

00:25:11

Jesus was spending three years mostly in Galilee,

00:25:14

up in the north, and there is a fortress,

00:25:17

used to be there, a fortress on top of a city.

00:25:19

And the name was Gamla.

00:25:20

We know that there were zealots that

00:25:22

were gathering there against the Romans

00:25:23

later on during the revolt.

00:25:25

We know that there is one of,

00:25:26

if not the oldest synagogue

00:25:28

that was found in Israel from the Second Temple period.

00:25:31

So there is a great possibility, of course,

00:25:32

that Jesus himself was entering into that city,

00:25:35

not during the revolt, it was 40 years before.

00:25:37

But still going there from one synagogue to the other,

00:25:40

preaching to the people, talking to the people,

00:25:42

bringing their new message.

00:25:44

And also, you know, it's a place

00:25:45

eventually that had war and battle and death.

00:25:49

- So this is like the town of the warriors.

00:25:51

We know that one of the disciples,

00:25:53

Simon the Zealot, had this in his background.

00:25:56

We don't know if he was from Gamla.

00:25:57

We can't say that for certain.

00:25:59

But for sure Jesus attracted warriors

00:26:01

into His ministry.

00:26:02

- Warriors are being attracted to warriors.

00:26:04

You know when you see a leader who is a warrior,

00:26:06

you follow him. You trust him. - Yeah.

00:26:08

- And when you see those zealots,

00:26:09

in a sense people that are willing

00:26:11

to fight for their faith and way,

00:26:13

Jesus was also attractive in that sense.

00:26:15

Again, the spirit of a warrior. - That's good. - Yeah.

00:26:18

- So we're going to go off with you to Gamla.

00:26:35

- So finally, after half a mile walk,

00:26:39

here we are looking at the city known as Gamla.

00:26:44

In Hebrew. Gamal, it's a camel.

00:26:47

And you can see the way this hill looks like,

00:26:49

it's like a camel.

00:26:51

- What do you think?

00:26:52

We're in the region of Galilee.

00:26:54

Jesus, His ministry, a lot of it took place

00:26:57

kind of right around this region.

00:26:59

Gamla is not in the Bible.

00:27:01

But what do you think the odds are

00:27:02

that Jesus might have been here?

00:27:03

- It's a good question. - Okay.

00:27:05

We're very close to the Sea of Galilee.

00:27:07

The Sea of Galilee, we are now, you know,

00:27:09

the city itself is pointing south west.

00:27:12

Just a few miles from the Sea of Galilee,

00:27:14

I would say there is a great possibility

00:27:16

that Jesus would come over here because --

00:27:17

- Put a number on it? Come on.

00:27:20

- 85%. - That's good. Okay.

00:27:22

That's a passing grade.

00:27:24

- Yeah, 85% or more. Why?

00:27:26

Because I think, again, Jesus spent three years

00:27:29

and it is one of those Jewish towns

00:27:32

around the Sea of Galilee.

00:27:33

There is no reason that He wouldn't come here.

00:27:35

It says that he would go from one village

00:27:38

and town to the other, this is what the gospel,

00:27:41

into the synagogues teaching the people.

00:27:44

- Well, that's encouraging that we might

00:27:45

have a 85% chance of walking

00:27:47

in some footsteps of Jesus today.

00:27:49

That's pretty pretty big.

00:27:50

- Yeah. And there's a, from what I understand,

00:27:52

there's a synagogue here from His time period?

00:27:55

- Right. We're standing here.

00:27:56

We're looking at, you know, most of the city

00:27:59

is gone, but what is left is a part of a synagogue

00:28:02

that was actually excavated and is still there.

00:28:05

We can see it from here. - Wow. - Wow.

00:28:06

- So there is a great chance,

00:28:08

really a great chance that Jesus Himself

00:28:09

would also enter that city

00:28:11

long before a wall was built,

00:28:12

just entering to a city,

00:28:14

visiting the synagogue and preach to the people.

00:28:16

- Wow.

00:28:18

- So during the Second Temple period,

00:28:20

there were a group of people that were,

00:28:22

if I can call it, radicals, okay?

00:28:24

They were all different groups,

00:28:26

and those zealots were in a sense jealous,

00:28:29

okay, for the law, jealous for God,

00:28:31

jealous for getting rid of the Romans.

00:28:34

So they were known.

00:28:35

They were not all together the same groups.

00:28:38

But still, this is why we call them, the zealots.

00:28:40

Many of them were in Jerusalem.

00:28:42

Many of them even go to Masada.

00:28:44

But Gamla is one of those places

00:28:45

that would also attract zealots

00:28:47

with many other people into the city.

00:28:50

- Okay, so this is one of the places

00:28:52

where these zealots were.

00:28:54

I know there were many different towns

00:28:55

around where they might have been,

00:28:57

but I know one of Jesus's followers

00:28:59

was Simon the Zealot.

00:29:02

What do you think would attract a guy

00:29:04

like that to Jesus?

00:29:05

- It's interesting to think that such a guy

00:29:07

would actually be attracted to Jesus,

00:29:09

because Jesus wasn't radical in that sense.

00:29:11

He didn't say, "Okay, take a sword

00:29:13

and start to fight those Romans,"

00:29:14

or anything like that.

00:29:15

But He brought, also He was radical

00:29:18

with love your enemies and, you know,

00:29:20

be willing to give your other cheek and so on.

00:29:23

So, maybe that was also something that,

00:29:25

you know, made Simon think, what's that?

00:29:27

You know, this guy knows what He's doing

00:29:29

and where He's heading, and I want to follow Him.

00:29:31

- The reality is we kind of have zealots back in America.

00:29:35

We got people who want to take a stand,

00:29:36

who want to, who want to be on one side

00:29:38

or the other and are willing to really do

00:29:40

whatever it takes to get their point across.

00:29:42

And so I know sometimes it's hard,

00:29:44

but I see myself a lot in this,

00:29:46

and I sense a guy like Simon,

00:29:49

why would he want to follow Jesus?

00:29:50

What does Jesus have to say to him

00:29:52

like you just asked, but what would he say to us?

00:29:55

What would he say to me?

00:29:56

What would he say to the person that's watching this right now

00:29:59

who does have a stand that sometimes

00:30:01

we feel like is right to take,

00:30:02

but we don't know the weapons to use.

00:30:04

We don't know how long we should be in battle.

00:30:06

- I think it's a great question.

00:30:07

I think Jesus has a lot to say about it

00:30:09

and to us today, just because I think

00:30:10

there's a lot of that fight in us

00:30:12

that Brian's saying, like, that's actually a good thing.

00:30:15

I want to go see the synagogue

00:30:16

where Jesus might have actually been. Can we walk over there?

00:30:19

- Of course it's waiting for us. - All right, let's go.

00:30:44

- Simon the Zealot was potentially here.

00:30:46

He was fighting for something.

00:30:48

He was hoping to hear somebody

00:30:51

that would come and tell him how to change,

00:30:54

right, his current situation.

00:30:56

I think it's exactly what Jesus did.

00:30:58

- Yeah.

00:31:04

- I don't know what your connotations of Jesus are.

00:31:06

You might think of him as like the teacher,

00:31:08

or the really nice guy, or the guy

00:31:10

who let the children come to Him,

00:31:11

and He is all those things.

00:31:13

But you might be surprised to learn that

00:31:14

I think the very first words He says

00:31:16

in his official ministry

00:31:17

are the battle cry of a warrior.

00:31:20

There was a scene in Nazareth, his hometown.

00:31:22

Right after His temptations,

00:31:23

He goes away to the desert for 40 days.

00:31:26

He's tempted. He comes back to Nazareth.

00:31:27

He walks into a synagogue exactly like this one.

00:31:30

People are gathered all around and he asks

00:31:32

for the scroll of Isaiah.

00:31:34

And then he reads this, Luke 4:18 Jesus said:

00:31:54

Jesus walks in and He's like,

00:31:56

"If you want to know what I'm fighting for,

00:31:58

it's this: I'm coming to set the captives free."

00:32:01

Now, interestingly He says it at the beginning of His ministry,

00:32:04

but all the way through people are confused

00:32:06

about what He means because they think

00:32:08

He means He's coming to set them free

00:32:11

from the oppression of Rome,

00:32:13

the same people who came and sacked this town.

00:32:16

But that wasn't it.

00:32:17

See, when it comes to this warrior mentality

00:32:19

of fighting, Jesus changes the game on everything.

00:32:23

See, most of us by default,

00:32:25

we fight for a kingdom, our kingdom.

00:32:28

We fight for a country, our country.

00:32:31

We want our will done, our will.

00:32:33

But Jesus in Matthew 6 He says, "When you pray,

00:32:36

say, 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name.

00:32:38

May Your kingdom come, may Your will be done.'"

00:32:42

See, the fight that Jesus flips is to say

00:32:45

don't fight for your own kingdom,

00:32:46

but fight for My Kingdom.

00:32:48

And then He changes the weapon that we use.

00:32:50

This is the place of the Zealot.

00:32:51

We know that one of his disciples was Simon the Zealot,

00:32:54

and that means that kind of jealousy

00:32:56

that Tsuriel was talking about.

00:32:57

That jealousy means I'm willing to do anything,

00:33:00

even shed blood.

00:33:02

And Jesus says, "Yeah, that's right.

00:33:04

But not the blood of your enemies,

00:33:06

your own blood for their sake."

00:33:08

In John 15:13 he said:

00:33:10

No greater love has anyone than this,

00:33:12

that you lay down your life for your friends.

00:33:14

See, the kingdom is different,

00:33:16

what you fight for is different,

00:33:17

and the weapon you use when you follow Jesus

00:33:20

is radically different.

00:33:22

It's not a weapon against somebody,

00:33:24

but it's a weapon for them.

00:33:26

The weapon is your own life

00:33:27

and you lay it down willingly.

00:33:30

If you wanted to fight this fight

00:33:32

on a day to day basis, what do you do with it?

00:33:34

The what you do is really simple.

00:33:36

What could you do today to love

00:33:39

the people around you,

00:33:41

to lay down your life for them?

00:33:42

Could you take out the trash?

00:33:44

Could you wash the dishes?

00:33:46

Could you put the kids to bed?

00:33:48

Could you go get the groceries?

00:33:50

Is there somebody in your life

00:33:51

you could sacrifice for?

00:33:52

See, when you do that, you're using

00:33:54

the weapon that Jesus called us to use, love.

00:33:57

And you're bringing the kingdom

00:33:59

that He called us to fight for, His Kingdom.

00:34:09

130 miles away and a thousand years earlier

00:34:12

at the Valley of Elah,

00:34:14

another unexpected warrior emerged,

00:34:17

a 14 year old shepherd boy,

00:34:19

a direct ancestor of Jesus,

00:34:21

faced a giant in his army.

00:34:26

- Everybody knows the story of David and Goliath,

00:34:30

right? Right. Yeah.

00:34:33

It's arguably the most often told story

00:34:38

in all of human history.

00:34:40

And I'm right here in the very place that

00:34:43

it took place in Israel at the Valley of Elah.

00:34:48

Up here was the nation of Israel's armies.

00:34:51

Down in the valley was the giant Goliath.

00:34:55

Up the other side was the rest of the Philistine army.

00:35:00

Now here's the thing, I know some of you

00:35:03

are going like, "Oh, I've heard this before."

00:35:05

Some of you go, "Oh, I love this story.

00:35:07

I love it, I want to hear it. I want to hear it."

00:35:09

Here's the thing, knowing about this story

00:35:12

is different than working about this story.

00:35:14

This isn't an interesting story to tell children at bedtime.

00:35:17

This is a primal story for you to tap into your DNA

00:35:22

to be about the things that God wants

00:35:25

you to be about in your life.

00:35:26

You and I are made to be warriors,

00:35:30

and we see that in David in this story.

00:35:32

I'm going to help you unlock that in your life today.

00:35:46

I think we identify so much

00:35:48

with the David and Goliath story because

00:35:51

all of us realize life is a fight.

00:35:53

It is a fight.

00:35:56

You're fighting something right now.

00:35:58

You're fighting to find someone to date.

00:36:01

You're fighting to get a passing grade.

00:36:03

You're fighting to keep your marriage together.

00:36:05

You're fighting to have a child.

00:36:07

You're fighting for the health of your child.

00:36:09

You're fighting to keep things together

00:36:11

while an aging parent is dying.

00:36:13

You're fighting to figure out what your purpose is.

00:36:16

You're fighting the bully

00:36:17

or wanting to get the courage

00:36:19

to fight the bully inside of your school.

00:36:21

You're fighting the credit card debt

00:36:22

that's crushing on you.

00:36:23

I could go on and on and on.

00:36:25

There are things that are staring at us

00:36:28

and trying to put us down.

00:36:29

And you got to make a decision

00:36:31

if you're going to be a victim

00:36:32

or you're going to be a warrior.

00:36:34

Do you want to just passively allow things to happen,

00:36:37

or hope that somebody else is going to do something about it,

00:36:40

or hope the government is going to step in,

00:36:42

or hope that that giant is eventually

00:36:44

going to die out on its own?

00:36:46

Or are you going to recognize that you've got

00:36:49

inside of you primal DNA of a warrior?

00:36:54

I don't care what gender you are,

00:36:56

I don't care how much muscle

00:36:57

or lack of muscle you have,

00:36:59

inside of you is the ability and desire to fight.

00:37:04

Whatever that problem is, you have it in you,

00:37:07

and you have to figure out if you want

00:37:09

to take inspiration from David,

00:37:12

this guy who is small, going up against his giant,

00:37:15

if you want to feel like you want

00:37:17

to go up against your giants, because

00:37:18

all of our problems are like giants to us,

00:37:20

or things that we haven't experienced before.

00:37:24

As David comes up to bring lunch to his brothers,

00:37:29

he comes 25 miles to bring lunch to his brothers.

00:37:33

His brothers are taunting and they were

00:37:34

like, "Oh, what are you doing here?

00:37:37

You just don't want to work."

00:37:39

A lot of times when we're dealing with a problem,

00:37:42

a giant in our life, people around us

00:37:45

aren't going to be supportive.

00:37:46

They're going to think

00:37:48

that we're shirking our responsibility

00:37:50

or we're making something up,

00:37:52

we're imagining something.

00:37:54

Sometimes we're not going to get the support we need.

00:37:56

We get this sense out of David.

00:37:58

David is the one guy who's got to stand up and go forward.

00:38:02

You've got to find a way

00:38:03

to put on your warrior mentality

00:38:06

to go after your giants.

00:38:08

He decides to face the fight.

00:38:11

You're going to face your fight or not?

00:38:13

The person who should be fighting this fight is Saul.

00:38:16

He's the current King of Israel,

00:38:18

and he is the largest person in Israel.

00:38:21

Before he's anointed king it says that

00:38:23

he's a head taller than everybody

00:38:26

in the nation of Israel.

00:38:27

This is kind of like MMA,

00:38:29

our biggest guy against your biggest guy,

00:38:32

except Saul is refusing to fight.

00:38:34

He's just hoping the problem goes away.

00:38:36

The problem never just goes away.

00:38:41

It just gets bigger and stronger and more present.

00:38:45

And it starts having babies

00:38:47

and they start replicating problems.

00:38:49

And more and more comes on us.

00:38:50

And eventually we feel so overwhelmed that

00:38:52

maybe then we want to justify our victim attitude

00:38:56

instead of taking on our warrior mindset,

00:38:59

the identity that God has given us

00:39:01

to actually be a fighter. It's in you. It is.

00:39:04

That's why David is so inspiring to us.

00:39:06

It's God's way of stoking inside of us

00:39:09

this warrior mentality of I can win this fight.

00:39:13

I have to win this fight.

00:39:15

These fights are all progressive.

00:39:19

They kind of -- they build upon one another.

00:39:22

It starts here and it goes there,

00:39:24

starts here, and it goes there.

00:39:26

Like the problem you're looking at right now

00:39:29

is always a big problem. It's a giant problem.

00:39:32

But so was the one that you faced last year

00:39:35

and the year before that.

00:39:37

In fact, once you faced a specific kind of problem,

00:39:39

when you face that same problem,

00:39:41

that's not a problem anymore

00:39:42

because you know how to fight,

00:39:44

you've done it before, you have confidence.

00:39:46

But every new giant is a brand new problem,

00:39:49

and it just freaks you and me out

00:39:52

because we've never seen it before.

00:39:54

It is daunting to us, but we build our muscle mass

00:39:59

by taking on the smaller problems.

00:40:03

David was a warrior, it was always in him.

00:40:06

We've got a little, oh, look,

00:40:08

we have a little visitor with us up here today.

00:40:10

Who do we have? Oh, we have the lion.

00:40:13

Is that the Cowardly Lion? Is it?

00:40:16

If we're king of the forest,

00:40:22

not prince, not duke, but king. No, enough of that.

00:40:28

Not that -- No, that's actually not

00:40:30

the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz.

00:40:32

This is a replica.

00:40:34

This is a replica of what David encountered

00:40:38

as he progressively built bigger and bigger fights.

00:40:42

He says this in first Samuel chapter 17:34:

00:41:15

Did you notice what David was saying

00:41:17

about the lion and the bear?

00:41:20

He was saying God was there.

00:41:23

God did this with me. God empowered me in this.

00:41:26

His secret sauce isn't just

00:41:29

tapping into his warrior identity.

00:41:33

It is the knowledge that God

00:41:35

has progressively fueled his warrior identity.

00:41:40

There's something magical about the idealism of youth.

00:41:44

It's like when you're young,

00:41:45

you don't know how stupid you are.

00:41:47

I mean, it's probably pretty stupid

00:41:48

to go after lions and tigers. It p

00:41:50

robably was. It might have been even

00:41:52

a little stupid for a youngster to go after Goliath.

00:41:55

But David doesn't care.

00:41:57

He's got the idealism of youth, "Hey,

00:41:58

God's going to be with me. I only live one life.

00:42:01

Why not? Let's go for it."

00:42:02

Some of us, we maybe gotten a little old in the tooth.

00:42:05

And I'm talking right now about 25 year olds

00:42:08

who have just become overwhelmed by our fear.

00:42:11

We're the most anxiety, fearful, ridden generation,

00:42:15

arguably in American history.

00:42:18

And we've lost a bit of the the pizzazz

00:42:21

of what life could be like if we actually

00:42:25

trusted in God and allowed Him

00:42:27

to fuel our warrior identity.

00:42:32

Saul has lost the plot on this entirely.

00:42:35

Not only is he this guy who is the biggest

00:42:38

and not going against Goliath,

00:42:40

but he also has this interesting scene,

00:42:42

which is talked about a lot where Saul

00:42:44

tries to help David out by giving him

00:42:46

his helmet and his breast piece and his sword.

00:42:50

And the story normally is told that, "Oh,

00:42:51

they're too big for David. He can't handle them."

00:42:53

That's kind of true.

00:42:55

But what we're really missing here is

00:42:57

Saul had all that he needed to go into battle.

00:43:02

He had the size.

00:43:04

He had the wisdom that came with age.

00:43:06

He had been in much, much more hand to hand

00:43:09

battles with humans than David had.

00:43:11

This is his first, as far as we know.

00:43:13

And he had all of the weapons he needed. He had it all.

00:43:16

I mean, people all the time who have

00:43:18

what it takes to go against their their giants,

00:43:21

they just don't think they do.

00:43:22

They just don't want to.

00:43:23

It's a lack of faith,

00:43:25

a lack of confidence in who God's made them to be.

00:43:27

Whatever it is, they just won't pick up the sword.

00:43:31

Or in David's situation, they won't pick up the sling.

00:43:35

David, how did he take off all of this animals?

00:43:39

Well, he's got an actual weapon

00:43:42

and it's known as the sling.

00:43:46

Yeah, the sling.

00:43:47

And he says, look, I've seen these lions

00:43:51

and tigers, bears. I've seen all these things.

00:43:53

And he he gets some stones.

00:43:55

And he recounts how he's killed these animals.

00:44:03

Sometimes with his bare hands, sometimes with a sling.

00:44:07

I got this replica right now.

00:44:10

This is the sling that he would have used

00:44:13

just like it.

00:44:16

And what you would do is you would spin this around

00:44:19

and then at the right time, you let it go right here.

00:44:22

So it goes and and hits the lion.

00:44:24

Should we see if I can do this?

00:44:26

This should be fun. Let's see how we do.

00:44:33

Oh, I hit something, I hit something.

00:44:39

I didn't hit the lion.

00:44:40

I hit someone breathing.

00:44:42

I didn't hit the lion.

00:44:47

Sorry. Okay. Yes, things aren't that scripted here.

00:44:53

He takes what he knows he can do,

00:44:56

all the weapons at his disposal,

00:44:59

and he goes and he runs towards the fight.

00:45:03

I'm trying to get you to run to the fight.

00:45:05

The last time I was up here,

00:45:07

I wanted to reenact the whole thing.

00:45:09

So David runs to runs to Goliath.

00:45:12

And the last time I actually ran down this path.

00:45:15

I said, how cool would it be to be in Israel

00:45:17

with the Valley of Elah and just recreate

00:45:19

the steps of David and run to the battle?

00:45:22

And I started down this, and I got to tell you,

00:45:25

I hadn't run down a hill in a long, long time.

00:45:27

Gravity pulls you forward.

00:45:29

I thought, I'm just going to jog down.

00:45:30

No, gravity pulls you faster.

00:45:32

And I literally could not stop.

00:45:34

So I had to keep running faster

00:45:36

and gravity kept pulling me faster.

00:45:38

And I was in a dead sprint on treacherous terrain.

00:45:40

I thought for sure I was going to

00:45:41

smash my face open on the rocks.

00:45:43

I'm not going to do that again this time.

00:45:45

I already did that once.

00:45:47

So let's pick this up as David is running

00:45:50

to the battle at the bottom of this hill.

00:45:59

1 Samuel 17:8:

00:46:37

David runs quickly,

00:46:41

then he comes down to the brook, this very brook.

00:46:44

This very stream that's dry right now,

00:46:47

and he picks himself up a couple of stones,

00:46:50

a few stones, and he runs at the problem.

00:47:01

For us to be taking down our Goliath,

00:47:04

we've got to be in shape.

00:47:07

Increasing numbers of Americans are just not in shape.

00:47:10

31% of everyone 17 to 24 is actually not eligible

00:47:15

for the military because we weigh too much.

00:47:18

Being in shape is important.

00:47:20

Now, having said that, your Goliath

00:47:22

may not demand more physical capacity.

00:47:26

I find that my biggest giants aren't physical,

00:47:30

they're emotional, they're spiritual,

00:47:33

and the emotional and the spiritual giants

00:47:35

are way more difficult for me than physical giants.

00:47:39

I have to ask myself, am I physically training,

00:47:44

emotionally training, spiritually training

00:47:47

to be strong enough to go after it?

00:47:49

How about you? Are you doing this?

00:47:51

Do you need to be in counseling and therapy?

00:47:53

Are you strengthening yourself emotionally?

00:47:56

Do you have a prayer system?

00:48:00

A way that you pray? A time that you pray?

00:48:02

Do you have people in your life that you meet with regularly

00:48:04

to bounce things off of and encourage?

00:48:07

Do you have an actual have a Bible reading plan?

00:48:10

These are just a few ways that you can get stronger.

00:48:13

You can't take down your Goliath

00:48:16

the way you are right now, or else Goliath

00:48:18

would be down and he wouldn't be freaking you out.

00:48:22

We have to prepare for the fight that God's given us.

00:48:24

He's giving us the identity to be a warrior,

00:48:27

but we still have to train emotionally,

00:48:29

spiritually, physically.

00:48:32

These are the problems that freak me out.

00:48:35

And they may be freaking you out

00:48:36

and God wants you to take them down.

00:48:38

You're the one that's actually appointed

00:48:41

and anointed to take down that Goliath.

00:48:44

David made that his personal thing that

00:48:47

he was going to fight,

00:48:49

and he was going to carry the day with.

00:48:50

You and I need to do the same thing.

00:48:53

Because David has these these stones.

00:48:55

He's got his sling.

00:48:58

He knows that this is his weapon.

00:49:00

This is his tool. This is what he does.

00:49:03

All of us have a weapon.

00:49:05

We have tools at our disposal.

00:49:07

Do you know what yours are?

00:49:09

Some of us it's just a natural, God given ability

00:49:12

to have a charismatic personality.

00:49:15

Maybe that's your thing in sales.

00:49:17

Maybe you need to understand that

00:49:19

that's your thing in sales.

00:49:20

And you need to stay away from Zoom meetings

00:49:22

and phone calls because there's something magical

00:49:25

that happens when you're with the key account

00:49:28

to keep or to land it.

00:49:29

Maybe it's planning and Excel spreadsheets,

00:49:32

which is definitely not me,

00:49:34

but you just have an ability to see that

00:49:37

A needs to go before B, which needs to go before C,

00:49:40

and here's the speed of it. You're a great planner.

00:49:42

That's a that's a thing that God

00:49:43

may have blessed you with to be able

00:49:45

to take down that giant.

00:49:46

One of my stones is I'm not a bad communicator, I can speak.

00:49:49

I've always been able to speak before a group of people.

00:49:52

It's never really freaked me out.

00:49:54

I like speaking, specifically I like speaking about the Bible.

00:49:57

It's a dream to be able to be here in Israel

00:49:59

and talk about this stuff.

00:50:00

But truth be told, it's not the speaking itself that I like.

00:50:05

I speak because it's a stone in my hand

00:50:08

to lead the church God has called me to.

00:50:10

If I could figure out a way to lead Crossroads

00:50:13

speaking once a month, I'd probably do that.

00:50:16

But I can't do that because it's a way

00:50:18

that God has gifted me to take down the giants

00:50:22

that are in the cities that Crossroads is in,

00:50:25

the giants that are in people's mind

00:50:26

by understanding what it means

00:50:28

for God to come behind a church

00:50:29

and fill people with His Spirit inside of a church.

00:50:33

What are your stones? What are your tools?

00:50:36

You are created to know these things because

00:50:40

you're created to go after big things.

00:50:43

You're created to conquer untamed wilderness.

00:50:47

You're created to be a warrior.

00:50:50

God has created you this way.

00:50:51

It is inside of you.

00:50:53

You need to dust it off.

00:50:55

You need to work your inner warrior out,

00:50:58

and you need to go after the giant that is before you,

00:51:01

because God has anointed and appointed you

00:51:03

to go after that addiction.

00:51:05

He's anointed and appointed you

00:51:07

to go after that trauma.

00:51:08

He's anointed and appointed you

00:51:10

to deal with that issue in the community.

00:51:12

No one's coming around.

00:51:13

David said, "If no one's in, I'm in

00:51:16

because God has wired me this way."

00:51:18

This giant that I'm going to run at right now

00:51:21

is kind of odd. It's --

00:51:23

The perspective is this thing doesn't look very big.

00:51:26

It's all a matter of perspective.

00:51:27

This is very big.

00:51:28

It's at least 15ft high, at least.

00:51:32

And David comes before Goliath in 1 Samuel 17

00:51:38

and he basically gives God glory

00:51:41

and he trash talks at the same time.

00:51:44

Here's what he says, 1 Samuel 17:45:

00:52:25

David says, "I got you. Not intimidated by you.

00:52:29

I'm not going to be intimidated by my own fears.

00:52:32

I'm not going to play it safe."

00:52:33

I think David very likely had some fears.

00:52:36

I think David very likely had an element

00:52:38

in his mind was like, "Can I really do this?"

00:52:40

But he knows with God on his side

00:52:43

and him tapping into the identity

00:52:45

that God's given him, he can do this.

00:52:46

He says, "Dude, I'm going to take your head off.

00:52:48

I'm going to take your head off.

00:52:50

I'm going to feed you the birds."

00:52:51

And he actually runs the battle

00:52:54

like you and I need to run to our Goliath.

00:53:15

[record scratch]

00:53:17

- That looked a lot more epic in my mind. Maybe not.

00:53:23

Goliath is down.

00:53:25

David comes up, takes Goliath's sword,

00:53:29

lifts it high. Bam! Takes off his head, lifts it up,

00:53:37

shows all the warriors, all the fellow warriors.

00:53:41

And victory ensues.

00:53:44

Exactly what David said would happen happens.

00:53:48

Goliath becomes bird food.

00:53:51

Yesterday's giants that you conquer

00:53:54

ends up tomorrow's fertilizer

00:53:57

for your future spiritual life.

00:54:06

You know, hanging on here reminds me

00:54:08

it's maybe the right way

00:54:11

to finish our time together today.

00:54:13

Because it could be so, so over the top cinematic

00:54:18

to talk about taking down Goliath

00:54:20

with violent means and all that stuff.

00:54:22

And let's be honest, most of us,

00:54:25

hopefully none of us are ever going to have

00:54:27

to take down Goliath by violent means.

00:54:29

But this thing I'm doing right here,

00:54:31

hanging on, that's probably the way we are.

00:54:35

I'm getting older in life, and so I'm reading

00:54:37

more about keeping myself in shape

00:54:40

and trying to live as long as possible.

00:54:41

And one of the guys I follow is a doctor

00:54:43

by the name of Peter Attia.

00:54:45

He specializes in living long term.

00:54:47

He says the first third of your life,

00:54:50

you basically live by not doing something stupid,

00:54:54

an accident.

00:54:56

Then all the way through your 30s, 40s,

00:54:59

50s, 60s, he says the main game is great cardio.

00:55:02

Get that heart pumping, get that blood going

00:55:04

to ward off stuff that might be coming into your heart.

00:55:07

And then he says, the last decade or two of life,

00:55:09

you know what the most important thing is

00:55:11

to increase your longevity? Grip strength.

00:55:16

Grip strength. It's because you're old

00:55:17

and you're a little more frail.

00:55:19

And your leg muscles aren't as strong,

00:55:21

as you trip and you've got to grab something

00:55:24

and to steady yourself.

00:55:25

Because as you get older, when you go down

00:55:28

and break a hip, the likelihood of you recovering

00:55:31

decreases significantly.

00:55:33

So the best thing to increase your lifespan

00:55:36

is to work on grip strength.

00:55:38

He recommends being able to get to a place

00:55:39

where you can actually hang on a chin up bar

00:55:42

for two minutes straight. That's a goal.

00:55:45

Sometimes we have no idea what weapon

00:55:50

to use against your Goliath.

00:55:53

Sometimes you know there's actually nothing you can do.

00:55:55

You may be in a marriage that's going nowhere

00:55:57

because your spouse is dealing with stuff

00:56:00

or actually not dealing with stuff,

00:56:02

and you've tried your coaching, your cajoling,

00:56:05

maybe your shaming, maybe your counseling.

00:56:08

And nothing's -- It's just not working.

00:56:11

And you just hang on hoping that

00:56:16

the presence of God overtakes.

00:56:19

David would call this waiting on the Lord.

00:56:23

You wait on the Lord.

00:56:24

When Jesus is on a Cross as His warrior self,

00:56:28

on a, ross dying for us. He's waiting on

00:56:31

the will of God to do in His life on that Cross

00:56:36

what any of our power couldn't do

00:56:38

and He's just hanging on on the cross.

00:56:42

You got a bad medical illness.

00:56:43

You're doing everything you can. Your child is.

00:56:45

You just hang on.

00:56:47

You're just not turning the corner financially.

00:56:50

And you're doing all you can to make progress.

00:56:52

But you're just not, you just --

00:56:53

You just keep doing the right things and hanging on.

00:56:56

You've got a problem, a trauma, a memory,

00:57:00

that you're working, it's just not getting gone,

00:57:03

but you just hang on.

00:57:07

That is the life of faith,

00:57:09

hanging on as your warrior self is equipped

00:57:13

to hang on because sometimes that's

00:57:15

the only thing a warrior can do

00:57:17

is hang on and wait on God.

00:57:21

I trust you're going to figure out

00:57:23

when you're to run, when you're to hang on,

00:57:26

when you're to punch, and when you're to sit.

00:57:30

But you cannot figure out anything

00:57:33

if you're not going to own the primal desire

00:57:36

and capacity you have to be a warrior.

00:57:40

It's in your DNA.

00:57:56

- Hey, thanks for watching.

00:57:57

If you haven't downloaded the app yet,

00:57:59

there's one more reason to do it right now.

00:58:01

After every weekend, there are

00:58:03

follow up questions about the episode

00:58:05

in the Crossroads app.

00:58:06

They're really great, and they'll help you

00:58:08

get even more out of the teaching.

00:58:10

You can even do them with other people

00:58:11

and have a discussion in the app together.

00:58:14

Now don't miss next week on Real Encounters with God.

00:58:21

- Next week on Real Encounters with God

00:58:23

we uncover David as Father.

00:58:25

One of his greatest failures will teach us

00:58:28

what not to do, and how Jesus actually reveals

00:58:31

the true heart of a father to us all.

00:58:34

The six essential identities God has woven

00:58:37

into our primal DNA are the key

00:58:40

to having a life that works.

00:58:41

Don't miss out on discovering your spiritual roots

00:58:44

and unlocking the God given identity

00:58:46

of Father or Mother within you.

Recent Series