What is Commanding You to Be Its Servant

My sharing tonight is a is a question that I felt the Lord put on my heart For people who are here this evening and people who are listening online, and here's the question What is commanding you to be its servant? Every morning when you rise up what says to you you will serve me What is commanding you and if there's anything apart from Jesus Christ that is issuing That kind of a challenge or that kind of a statement These voices don't have preeminence over Christ and they don't have the right or the power to dominate your life any longer first champ 1st Samuel chapter 17 Very familiar story for many and I want to read part of it to you tonight In verse 4 it says a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath Whose height was six cubits in the span that's roughly nine foot nine inches Would made a tremendous basketball player if he hadn't been so foolish He had a bronze helmet on his head And he was armed with a coat of mail or that armor and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze which is 125 pounds and He had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders The staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam and his iron spearhead weighed 600 shekels It's roughly 15 pounds. That's just the spearhead and a shield bearer went before him and he stood and Cried out to the armies of Israel and said to them. Why have you come out to line up for battle? In other words, why do you think where did you get the thought that you even have the strength to fight against us or fight? against me Am I not a Philistine and you the servants of Saul Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me if he's able to fight with me and kill me Then we will be your servants, but if I prevail against him and kill him then you shall be our servants and serve us and the Philistine said I defy the armies of Israel this day Give me a man that we may fight together When Saul and all Israel heard the words these words of the Philistine they were dismayed and greatly afraid Now this is the army of Israel.

These are the people of God These are the people through whom God gave a promise to Abraham that they were going to be a blessing in the earth They were going to be blessed by God and they were going to be a blessing in the earth. They were given everything they needed But somewhere along the line and it happens we let the people the people of God We just let the promises of God the the integrity of God the person of Christ. We we somehow get engrossed in other things and we let the truth or they're just the simplicity of this relationship slip through our fingers as they did and Here they are on the mountainside every morning.

This voice is coming out this nine-foot-nine giant with a hundred and twenty-five Pound armor coat on and a 15-pound weavers beam Spear in his hand with a 15-pound head on it And he cries out and he basically the cry is basically this You will serve us You all know that I'm more powerful than you are You look at my stature. You look at my strength I've been a war a man of war from my youth choose a soldier among you the whole army of Israel and come out and fight with me and and The men that should have had the courage of God didn't and they were dismayed because they Dismay comes when we look at the size of our opposition and we look at the the mediocrity of our own ability to fight with It they lost sight of God and they were looking at themselves and looking at their own abilities their strengths their their armors They're their their former battles Whatever it was or defeats and because of it a deep-seated fear came into their heart And I think of the numbers of people who wake up every morning and the question is what voice greets you every morning What voice taunts your ability to overcome it and bring it into submission to Christ? Is it alcoholism? Is it drugs? Is it despair? Is it depression? Is it lost? Whatever it is. It rises up every morning and it says you will serve me and You know, you're not strong enough to fight against me.

You know, you can't overcome me You've tried before but it can't be done. I Have experience I have sighs I have strength I have power and you know, you can't overcome me I'm speaking to somebody online tonight. You know, this is the voice that greets you every morning your addiction you you Try as hard as you can to put that substance whatever it is away but it's there in that drawer or it's there in that cabinet in the bathroom and and you're you're you you desire you went to bed at night saying God or Whether or not you prayed you to say I don't want to do this anymore But you get up and there's that voice and it says you will serve me You are not powerful enough.

You will serve me. You'll serve the depression in your mind You you'll serve your inability to turn from your sin You will yield to my voice and what I tell you to do you will do now 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 Verses 4 to 6 tells us the weapons though. We walk in the flesh.

We don't war According to the flesh. In other words, our warfare is not based on our own natural strength The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds Reaching up in a sense by faith and taking into captivity It says casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God Everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God we have the power to reach up and pull it down and cast down its imaginations and Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ phenomenal when you see it the amazing power that God has given to us to every one of us and being ready to punish all disobedience when your Obedience is fulfilled and this is where it gets interesting. And so it talks about Paul talks about this incredible power To pray and to pull down strongholds and to bring disobedience into captivity when your obedience is fulfilled So what is this particular obedience that the scripture is speaking about now? I think you might be surprised to see What that could be at least in part in David's case in first Samuel chapter 17 and verse 26 David was offended That anyone or anything should challenge the power and the integrity of God Then David spoke to the men who stood by him saying what shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel.

Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God David was Offended I think that's the beginning of obedience sometimes don't you That we just one day get offended and we say who are you? Depression, who are you addiction? Who are you broken relations or the inability to bond or whatever? It is that you fight with whatever that voice is we stand up and say to that voice. Who are you? To defy the power and the presence and the promises of God Who are you to defy the power of the cross of Jesus Christ and the word of God that says When he rose from the dead he took captivity captive and gave gifts unto men Who are you that dares to challenge the integrity of God? There's a point where you and I have to get some gravel in our gut may I put it that way There's a point where we've got to rise up and say I would rather die in the valley Then let this voice mock the living God and Let this voice mock the people of God and the promises of God and the pathway of God and the purpose of God that he's got For my life my life is intended for more than this I'm not intended to sit on a mountainside and tremble every morning at the voice of darkness Coming to me and saying you will serve me There's a point where you and I have to stand up and we say no I will not serve you You have defied not me you defied the living God in me I'm part of the army of the living God and you have defied the living God Many of you know my story because for for nine years I suffered from panic attacks and these panic attacks were horrible It is really the closest thing to hell on earth that that I've ever known I mean, maybe somebody's known worse, but that's the worst I've ever known It was so bad. I found it hard to leave home when I was 15 as a teenager Fearing that one of these panic attacks would come upon me and and when they would happen the panic attack your heart starts to pound uncontrollably Inside you there's a foreboding sense of death come over you you feel like somebody's pouring a bucket of sand on top of your head it's the only way I can I can explain it and The only way I could control it is that I would exercise like a fiend and I would take Valium I had I went to college, but I had to take Valium to go to college I went into most classrooms under so drugged.

I was under a bubble afraid to be pointed out in the classroom by the professor because if it happened I would Run the risk of a panic attack and I would either I would either collapse on the floor or have to run out of the Room it was embarrassing It was it was a horrid bondage to be in and then later on as I got older I started combining Valium with whiskey, which is not a good idea To subdue These feelings that came into my life, and I hated it and I thought oh god Am I destined to to live like this the rest of my life? Every morning. I know what this feels like getting up every morning and hearing a voice saying you will serve me You will serve me. I have you by the throat I'm not going to go into the reasons why this happened in my life but there are some valid reasons and and You're going to serve me all of your days, but then I came to Christ and And like David I was young in the Lord and I was reading the scriptures and and I read this reading the scriptures one day in the Apostle Paul said these words if God before us who can be against us It's amazing.

I just believed it. I read it and I believe that I said God if you're for me And then I went into Romans at the end of Romans where it says who can separate me from the love of Christ It can powers and principalities and all these troubles and valleys and fire and flood and all the rest of this He said I'm convinced that nothing can separate me from the love of God Which is mine in Christ Jesus my Lord Now I was a brand new believer in Jesus Christ And I remember going home one night and I was lying in bed And it was a late late at night and I felt one of these panic attacks coming on me and you can't help it You can't control it when it comes and again that voice. I've got you.

I'm never gonna let you go. You're gonna serve me I went down into the living room that night and I made a choice. I made a decision I said no more alcohol in my life I'm not drinking anymore and no more drugs in my life Because I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, and I'm not turning to these things I'm the honor of God is at stake you understand here the honor of God is at stake I went into my living room, and I prayed this prayer now.

I wasn't I wasn't praying to God in the beginning I'd spoke right to the devil And I said Satan you can only kill me if God allows you to and if he allows you to kill me tonight Then I go to heaven so either way. I win. I win tonight.

I Said so you throw at me everything you've got but tonight I throw back at you what I have and I remember the words in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God I stand I resist you That's all I said I resist you in the name of Jesus Christ and as I live And I'm not embellishing this a heat hit my feet. It wasn't a fuzzy warm feeling It was like you turned on two hairdryers on full blast and put them on top of my feet I heat hit my feet went through my legs through my thighs through the center core of my body through my chest Into my head out the top of my head and I was free that night for the rest of my life from the power of fear There's a point in every life where we must get offended at these voice Offended at this power that says you will serve us you will serve me There's a point where we have to stand up and we say no By the Christ within me. I will not serve you anymore.

I will not bend my knee to you I will not bend my mind to you you do not determine my future God has a plan for my life God's going to take my life, and he's going to use it for his glory God's going to give me giftings that I've met of abilities that I don't naturally possess He's going to take me where I can't go and he's going to give me what I need when I get there And that's exactly what happened with David in verse 29 of 1st Samuel 17 He said these words what they tried to turn him back. They tried to get him to quit go home They accused him of pride even and he said what have I done? Is there not a cause you guys not see? That this this giant is and and the armies behind him are challenging the honor of God. Do you not understand this? The challenging the power of God the the integrity of God the promise of God.

We're supposed to be the people of God We're supposed to bring his name to praise in the earth and here. We are standing shaking on a hillside Do you not see this is there not a cause? Eventually the word came to King Saul and he because he was going around he's speaking this to everybody who could hear him and Suddenly the word comes to King Saul and he brings to bring this kid into me and he comes in and he's only a teenager And he's a stripling which means he's not been to the weight room for a while. He's not very busy He's not very big.

He's he doesn't look like a warrior and David said don't Don't be afraid. I'll go and fight him. I Know what it's like to walk with the power of God in my life.

Yes, it was a smaller battles It was just a lot and just a lion and a bear. I mean I just realized what I was saying. Just it was just a lion and a bear I mean compared to the battle he's in now it was small But he'd already killed a lion and a bear in protecting the few sheep that were given under his hand So David David said to King Saul that the Lord who delivered me from the pod the lion and the bear He'll deliver me from the hand of this Philistine and Saul said to David go and the Lord be with you and I still to This day.

Oh, you know, I guess Saul's not gonna be there when I get there. So I'll ask David What was Saul thinking? When he said this when when you're sending a kid into battle and the challenge is if I defeat you you will serve us So Saul clothed David with his armor verse 38 and he put on a bronze helmet on his head and he clothed them with a coat of iron And David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to one tried to walk You know, I could I think everything was just too heavy. I said he tried to walk And he'd not tested them and David said to Saul I can't walk with these for I've not tested them So David took them off and you see David knew that the strength and the strategies of man could not win this battle So he took them off and he did what God taught him to do.

That's what we're doing tonight We're doing what God has taught us to do We're coming into the prayer meeting believing that we can speak to mountains and they have to move and be cast into the midst of the Sea, we're in the prayer meeting believing that we have authority over powers and principalities of darkness And nothing shall by any means hurt us. We're in the prayer meeting believing as Jesus told us that whatever we ask for Believing we shall receive and our joy shall be full. We're in here doing what God has taught us to do We're not fighting it by buying a book with seven steps to this or 14 steps of that We're in the prayer meeting saying God your honor is at stake now This is about you.

This is about your promise. This is about your cross. This is about your victory This is about what you said you would do and who said you said you would be inside the lives of your people And are we not supposed to be a people in the earth who bring honor to your name? Are we not supposed to have a testimony of victory? Are we not supposed to be free? Did you not tell us you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free And so God, I'm I don't know about others, but I'm not willing David says to live beneath my inheritance I'm not willing to go to spiritual warfare school and stand on a mountain and tremble I've known the power of God.

I've seen the power of God. I know what God can do See he had hidden victories and and everybody who's sitting here tonight and many people online you have had hidden victories You know what God can do, you know his power So David did what he had been taught to do verse 40 tells us that he went he took his staff in his hand and he chose five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in the shepherds bag and it's a type of Reaching down in a sense into the water of God's Word and pulling out Promises they don't look like much when you're fighting a giant, but it's all it takes I love the fact that David didn't need a gravel truck. He just needed one little pebble.

That's all he needed one smooth stone You know some say that that stone was as deep as anything ever gone into the forehead of Goliath in his entire life When he threw that stone that went right into the center of his mind That's the power of prayer and David Hasted to go down Because the honor of God was at stake. You got to tie it all together when your obedience is fulfilled. You have power He hasted to go down.

I want to challenge people online tonight You got to get up tonight and you got a haste to go and face your enemy Not in your strength not in your might not with your plans but in the strength of God and what he's told you to do and you reach into the water reach deep into the brook and Pull out the promises that you need now put them close to your heart because it's these promises that will give you the victory Then David came to the Philistine in verse 45 And he said you come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin You come to me with every weapon that those outside the kingdom of God can formulate Whether it's physical people or powers and principalities of darkness. You just have what you have. It's only what you can form But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied I Come to you in his name He said this day the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you and take your head from you This day I'll give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth That all the earth may know there's a God in Israel Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear For the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands The Spirit of God came upon him and he said yes, you come to me.

You're the first one out You're the biggest mouth of the whole gang and you've got a whole host of evil standing behind you Saying through you and to us you will serve us but this day Because the honor of God is at stake David basically said I'm gonna take you. I'm gonna take your height. I'm gonna take your strength.

I'm gonna take your armor I'm gonna take your boasting. I'm gonna take your bragging and I'm gonna turn you all into bird food It's basically what he said You want to give you to the birds of the field? The birds of the air and the beasts of the field and all the assembly will know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear For the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands so the question That I started with I'm going to come back to Who is challenging you today? Who is commanding you to be its servant? Stand up. That's your obedience Reach into the water of God's Word and lay hold of the promises of your freedom These are the smooth stones in this generation for you and I there is a cause Because the honor of God is at stake And he will not fail you and he will not forsake you as a matter of fact, I know in my heart that God wants to fight for you if you will let him if you will trust him if you will believe him You'll be offended enough To stand to your feet tonight, wherever you are online and just say I've had enough of this I'm not living this way anymore I'm not letting these powers of hell govern my life and Challenge the honor of God in me every day.

I'm done with this. I'm going with God and not only am I going with God? I'm going to take many with me because the scripture tells us when David won that battle against Goliath and took his head off him The people who are hiding in caves and holes and dens took courage and they joined the battle too as well And I'm believing that in this generation people are going to start coming out of their hiding places And we're going to get back into the battle again and realize That God desires to give us the victory because the honor of his name is at stake And so I challenge you with everything in my heart just admit that you can't save yourself and Stop trying to save yourself because you can't you can't put on the armor of men and expect to win this victory It's not going to happen. It never has happened in the past and it's not going to happen in this generation Believe that Jesus Christ came to this world The Son of God and he went to a cross and gave his life To pay the price for everything that separated you from God from the power of God the purpose of God The pleasure of God in you that when he went to the cross The anger of God against your sin was satisfied and was placed on his own son an innocent man died so that you and I can be free and Confess with your mouth like David did oh You come to me with a sword and a shield and all your your braggadocio and all the rest of it that you've got But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts.

He is now my Lord. He is my God He is my Savior. He's my strength.

He's my life. He's my wisdom. He's my future He's the he's the one who heals my past.

He holds me in the present He's promised me victory I come to you in his name and in this name you're going to lose every stranglehold you've ever had over my life and Devil, by the way that includes my family and My friends and people I will meet and even some of my enemies You're going to lose this stranglehold you have over all of them. I'm going to give you to the birds of the field today. Oh Hallelujah to the Lamb of God Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord, so I'm going to invite you We've joined this pyramid II tonight to pray this prayer with me And you're going to come out of weakness and into strength come out of confusion into clear thinking come out of Aimlessness into the divine purpose that God has for your life. I these are not empty words my friend I'm not just blathering to fill time here in a meeting This is in the Word of God when you start reading the Bible start in the New Testament in the Gospel of John and just read forward from there But you'll be amazed what God's going to do in your life Pray this prayer with me, please those that are online tonight Lord Jesus Christ Thank you For coming to get me and paying the price in your blood So that I could be free I believe Lord But because of your sacrifice I'm forgiven tonight.

I have a new life a new hope a New future I'm born again by the presence of God in my life Jesus Christ I confess you Is my Savior my Lord? The warrior That will give me victory and for your namesake. I'm not serving darkness anymore. I'm going to walk with you And bring honor to your name in Jesus name