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- [00:01]
Pastor Joby Martin
Welcome to Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin. The Church of 1122 is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And we're praying this message helps you deepen your relationship with him. Now let's dive in.
- [00:17]
Host/Interviewer
Let's go now. Pastor Sheby, you did kind of make fun of flannel graphs. And we had one in my house. We didn't have, we didn't have iPads.
- [00:28]
Pastor Britt
You know, you still have one.
- [00:32]
Host/Interviewer
I kind of wish I still had it, to be honest with you. We don't. But I. The, the David and Goliath one is the one I remember the most.
- [00:39]
Pastor Joby
Okay.
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Host/Interviewer
So I don't know, I thought of that this week.
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Pastor Britt
David was wearing a brown robe. Robe type thing.
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Host/Interviewer
Something about that.
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Pastor Britt
It's like a German monk, white rope around it.
- [00:52]
Host/Interviewer
So think about the 80s and 90s. All the Bible illustrations looked the same.
- [00:56]
Pastor Britt
Yeah. You can only do so much with flannel graph cutouts.
- [00:59]
Host/Interviewer
That's true. Yeah. The greatest underdog story of all time.
- [01:05]
Pastor Joby
Sort of.
- [01:06]
Host/Interviewer
Pastor Britt, what's your favorite underdog story? That's not David and Goliath.
- [01:10]
Pastor Britt
I mean, the one that immediately comes to mind is Rocky 4. You know, Rocky versus Avendrago.
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Pastor Joby
Let's go. He.
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Pastor Britt
He bleeds.
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Pastor Joby
Yeah, yeah.
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Pastor Britt
You know, because he wasn't just fighting Ivan Drago. I mean, he's fighting the empire of communism.
- [01:31]
Pastor Joby
That's right. He single handedly took it down.
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Pastor Britt
He did. I mean, he ended the cold war with his, with his right hook.
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Pastor Joby
It's one of the greatest documentaries of all time.
- [01:40]
Pastor Britt
He had to jump up to punch him in the face. So that's a pretty good one for sure.
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Host/Interviewer
Pastor Joby, have you ever drank raw eggs?
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Pastor Joby
Oh, for sure.
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Host/Interviewer
Like that?
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Pastor Joby
For sure. Many, many, many, many times. Yeah.
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Pastor Britt
Little salmonella among friends.
- [01:59]
Pastor Joby
Never kill anybody. Totally.
- [02:04]
Host/Interviewer
You started by talking about how familiarity sometimes can be a problem. But this is one of the most famous Bible stories. So would you, Pastor, walk us through a little bit of just the timeline of Israel. You did it tonight. But just to catch us up, what happened in Israel to get us to this point?
- [02:21]
Pastor Joby
Well, yeah, in the, you know, near to. This is the age of the judges are over. Samuel, the prophet rises. God says, we're going to be different. We're going to be holy. We're going to be set apart. And the people are like, we want to be like everybody else. We want a king. God's like, nah, man, it's not going to go good. So they, they, you know, Saul gets Appointed king because of his appearance, because of his stature, because he's the biggest, baddest guy. Doesn't go good. He begins to stick his nose in places that he doesn't have authority to. God removes his mantle. It all goes really, really bad. And then David is anointed king. The chapter before, he kind of proves why here. But what can often happen, you know, I've said this a million times. I don't like to use the word story because it's not a story. Like, we think of a story. Like the lion, the Witch of the Wardrobe is a story. It's an event, a historical event. Like, we don't talk about the story of storming Normandy because, you know, we know it as an event. However, to use the word story, when it gets. When it's really familiar, we can often lose the story. And the story is that we were created by God for God. Sin fractured that, and God was going to send a champion to defeat defeat, sin and death, that we could be reunited with God. And so it all the time, when we're looking in the Old Testament, you need to be looking for how these events fit into the greater grand narrative of God's redemptive purpose for his people.
- [04:01]
Host/Interviewer
Isn't it kind of weird for your theological brain when you think about the fact that God was like, no, no, I'm supposed to be your king. And they're like, no, no, give us a king anyway. And he's like, okay, you know, because from a. When you read that, you think it sounds a bit like a. A change from what he originally had planned.
- [04:20]
Pastor Joby
Well, except that seems to be the prerogative of God. I mean, Romans 1 calls that God's wrath, that when God turns you over to your own desires. So take out king and pick any other thing that you're going to put your trust in. And God will be like, okay, if that's what you want to work, you want to worship success, go for it. Let's see where that leads. And whether it's King Saul or success, or you worship your. Your physical being, or you worship what people think about you, they all lead to the same place. You're like, well, that's not what I wanted. And God's like, yeah, no, right. What you actually want is me. And so if you do it my way, it'll go way better.
- [04:57]
Host/Interviewer
And like we. We have that. You mentioned, Saul loses his mantle. I mean, very famously, Samuel says to him, you've acted foolishly. Yeah, and such a dramatic scene when he's turning away Samuel's turning away, and he grabs a hold of his robe and it tears. He says, just like that tour. God's torn the kingdom from you.
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Pastor Joby
Yeah.
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Host/Interviewer
Is. Is there some kind of parallel to somebody losing, like, losing their mantle of leadership but still being in a position? I mean, that still happens today.
- [05:30]
Pastor Joby
Oh, it happens all the time, man. You take a dad that's like, he's given this incredible mantle of leadership to love and protect and provide and be the prophet, priest, and king at home. Then he cheats on mom and bro. Things are different now. Things can be restored. But you lose the moral authority with your kids. You lose the trust of your wife. And though you may still have the title as. As. As husband, there's some broken stuff there. And these are just a result of not obeying God, not doing it God's way.
- [06:04]
Pastor Britt
Yeah. I mean, Saul's role as the king. Right. He was. There's quite a few things that he was supposed to do. One is that he's supposed to lead the armies of Israel in battle.
- [06:12]
Pastor Joby
Y.
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Pastor Britt
That's number one. Well, you see, even in this, he's just not doing it. Like, he's just not leading. And this is actually post him losing the. The anointing.
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Pastor Joby
Right.
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Pastor Britt
God's already. David's been anointed, and then here we are. So he's supposed to lead him in battle. He's supposed to protect them from the enemies. So at some point, sometimes he's supposed to lead on offense. He's always supposed to be on defense. And then he's also like, the primary requirement was that you be righteous and obedient to the law. You be righteous before the law and obedient to it. Well, Paul. I mean, not Paul. Saul really struggled on this front. And so I think the. He began to abdicate the primary responsibilities that he was tasked with as the king, and that. That's always the first step is when. As soon as you begin to abdicate the primary responsibilities and you kind of start doing whatever you want to do or even starting to. To lean in that direction, man. It's just power that you need from God in order to walk in the fullness of the. The purpose that God's given you. I mean, it requires obedience, bottom line.
- [07:27]
Pastor Joby
And then he begins to lose control.
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Pastor Britt
Not to mention, Jonathan was a bad mama jama, too. Like, I feel like Jonathan don't get enough press.
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Pastor Joby
He doesn't. I love my. My favorites. Like, hey, let's go. Maybe. Maybe the Lord will be with us, and maybe we'll whip them all. You know for sure fight that he's like, here's how we'll know if we win. God was with us. I love that there's a.
- [07:46]
Pastor Britt
There's a whole book on Jonathan there because you think about, if you read back a few chapters, the battles that were Jonathan's. The one that's out, like, cleaning up shop. You know what I mean?
- [07:54]
Pastor Joby
Anyway, yeah, but Saul began. I mean, he steps out of his lane, doesn't wait on the prop, on the priest, and he's like, I'm just going to make the sacrifice because I want the blessing of God, but without obeying the blesser. You know what I mean? And then he begins to, like, lose what he feel. Felt like was control. He was never in control to begin with. Well, oftentimes when that happens, then what you try to do is start trying to gain and grab on to control. So instead he's grabbing spears and throwing them at David and stuff like that. Like, he. He starts to. And then he lose. He actually loses control. And he, like, goes crazy, man. And it all can be traced back to. He gets out of step with the Lord. You know, he's disobedient, abdicates responsibility. He makes excuses instead of repenting. You know, Samuel confronts him. He's like, hey, man, that's not you. You don't get to make those sacrifices on the altar. God has written very clearly about who does that. And he. He makes excuses, he doesn't repent. And it all goes bad. Everything goes bad. And then he is not far from getting his army to chase God's anointed king, like the one that will be King David. And then King David continuously submits to God's authority even when it's crazy. You know, even when Saul's going crazy. And. And I mean, David is like the personification of one of your lines, like, if God has it for me, you can't keep it from me. But if he ain't got it for me, then you can't give it to me. That's David's life for the next bunch of years.
- [09:16]
Host/Interviewer
Yeah, I was thinking about Saul, and maybe there's a leadership lesson. But like you, you might be tempted to think that in chapter 15, his sin was impatience, but actually it's fear of man. Right? Because the people. He was afraid that the people were not going to keep following him if he didn't keep going. And that is at the heart of his anger against David is that the people were more committed to David's reputation that he. That he was a mightier warrior. And so what does that say about the fear of man and insecure? I mean, he's, he's the king. But his insecurity and fear of man was driving him crazy, bro.
- [09:56]
Pastor Joby
I don't love to bash on churches, but you see it happening lately in church leadership like crazy. Like, hey, I know this doctrinal reality that the church has believed in for the last 2000 years has always said right now, the hot one is things about gender and sexuality and all that stuff. And then folks will say, but if we do that, if we keep teaching what the Bible says, what will the people think? And then you're not very far from thinking that the Bible is actually a hindrance of your church achieving its goal. Oh, we could name the churches. And you're like, what? Hold on, man, you're. What are you doing? The whole. I mean, listen, one day I will stand before the Lord and give an account. And attendance isn't going to be part of the judgment. Faithfulness to the word of God is.
- [10:54]
Host/Interviewer
That's right. Yeah.
- [10:55]
Pastor Joby
I mean, I say the battle belongs to the Lord and so does your discipleship process. And, you know, all of those things. And I'm all for learning from the best and the brightest people to learn things, to help people, not be hindered in hearing the word of God. But boy, you better be teaching the word of God. But it's that. It's that same thing. It is. If you keep doing, if you keep teaching this Bible, there's going to be a generation that they're not going to listen to you anymore. Well, yeah, tell that to all the, the amount of millennials and 18 to 25 year olds here. I mean, and so what if they don't? What do you want me to do? I don't save them. I can't, like, I can't massage a message. That makes it easy. I mean, you know, we're just going to teach the Bible, teach the gospel and it just says what it says.
- [11:45]
Pastor Britt
Great book to read. We've all read it and probably multiple times in regards to David's relationship to Saul, Saul's relationship to himself, David and Absalom later. This Tale of Three Kings, bro, it's unbelievable. It's actually written by Jacksonville guy and.
- [12:01]
Pastor Joby
And you should read it.
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Pastor Britt
Like, I think he's passed now.
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Pastor Joby
Multiple seasons of your life, you know. Yeah. So when I was at beach and 1122 is blowing up and we're having all these discussions about what we're going to do as a church, are we gonna. It's like the whole thing gonna go 11:22, or like, what are we gonna do? We were, you know, at that point, beach was a part of the United Methodists, an apostate denomination. They don't believe the Bible. So anyway, you know, it's a real stickler. Right. And then Pastor Jerry says, no, we're going to. You should plant a church. That book helped me so much.
- [12:40]
Host/Interviewer
Yeah.
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Pastor Joby
Because everybody wants to be David until somebody chunks a spear at him. Now, Pastor Jerry never threw a spear, but that denomination threw spears at me. There. There were people that called me Judas. You are Judas because you have come in this place, you've taken the money and taken the people, and you're leaving, and then what do you do? My instinct is to. To defend, because I know more Bible, because they don't even believe it. And I can preach, you know, and that book helped me do what David did. So he ducked, and he never picked up the spear and threw it back then. So it's a good opportunity to read it in different seasons of leadership in your life.
- [13:19]
Host/Interviewer
You know, I loved how much you talked about fear, because even. Let's just say it's not theological fears, even just financial fears. I was telling somebody today that I was a part of a church that I believed had an opportunity to capitalize on something, to. To reach a generation. And because of fear, I was going to call, like, they had built a building, and there's a lot that was wrong with it. And they just were afraid of ruffling the feathers of the givers to do. Do the hard work. And the fear just kept them from. And it's just like, all right.
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Pastor Joby
Yeah. Usually that's a myth, by the way.
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Host/Interviewer
Yeah.
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Pastor Joby
I've been at churches that had multiple. They had, like, generational services, you know, and they're like, well, we can't do the thing you want to do, because the people that give all the money will. Will. They won't like it. And I go, can we audit who gives what? And it was actually a myth. They just assumed that those people, the gripers, gave all the money, and it wasn't true whatsoever. You know, all the people that were freshly reached that were the most generous. So sometimes people have fear and they don't even know what they're afraid of because they've. They've assumed some things that aren't even true. I mean, that's how. That's why fear is. It's a spirit, you know, because the enemy, like fear and confusion and misinformation, that's all One big ball of that'll make you frozen.
- [14:40]
Host/Interviewer
Yeah.
- [14:41]
Pastor Britt
And at least disunity. And that's, that's a huge part of what you see. Saul is one of his responsibilities as the king was to keep the tribes unified. And because he continued to act in fear, you just are always seeing dissension in the ranks and you're always seeing the like seeds of disunity starting to grow, you know, and it all goes back to the fear. I think something that's real, this real. And most people don't deal in this every day. They don't. We do. Spiritual authority. Spiritual authority is a real thing as assigned in the kingdom, 100%.
- [15:15]
Host/Interviewer
And.
- [15:17]
Pastor Britt
I think if you go all the way back to the fall, the issue is the submission to authority. And that, that is really one of the. If the mirror. If when chaos broke, when everything cracked at the fall and all hell broke loose on earth.
- [15:36]
Pastor Joby
Literally, Literally.
- [15:37]
Pastor Britt
I think the, I don't know, like the first piece to fall was like an instinctive resistance and rebellion against authority. And I think ever since then, one of the things that's happened is that we've perverted or that the spirit of fear through confusion has perverted the idea of authority because we've all seen and experienced it so poorly and so bad. And we've all had different souls in our life, you know, bosses, different leaders, everybody coaches, whatever. We just had people misappropriate their positional authority. But so we think about it wrong when it. Spiritual authority in the Bible's terms is ultimately the same thing as saying responsibility is that that person has been tasked with a great responsibility and everybody is responsible for and responsible too. And both of those things are the two halves of authority. Right. So I've been given an authority in my life, a spiritual authority in my life. That means there are things I am responsible for. But I also have been given, given spiritual authority in my life, which is people that I'm responsible to. Well, where Saul got jacked up is he was responsible ultimately to God, but he was responsible to Samuel. And he just wasn't listening. He was not listening. He was quick to forget he was not heeding the word of the prophet. And that's where you see it go all kinds of wrong and run that out in a. In context of 2025. You know, it's ultimately like, who are the people that God has put in my life and God has put as people who are responsible for my spiritual well being. And then I'm also responsible to those people. If I choose to align myself under them. And, you know, and then there's also the. The things that I've been made responsible for, which obviously starts with your nuclear family, but it goes on beyond that as well. And so the people who are willing to walk in that responsibility are the people who can cultivate true spiritual authority and walk in. In a long period of time. But the thing that's funny about spiritual authority and anointing is that you don't get to decide on the front end how much you get. Right? So the only way you realize that you even have spiritual authority or anointing is because you're not trying to have it. You're just trying to be responsible, and you're just trying to be faithful. And then you look over your shoulder and you realize, wait, God's given me this great garden to, like, cultivate and to grow. But you don't get to stand on the front end of the garden and be like, all right, God, this is how much fruit I want and you should provide. Once you provide me all the anointing or the authority, then I'm going to operate in it. That's just not how it works at all. And Saul was kind of doing that. Saul was kind of like pre. Trying to pre Decide what his outcomes were going to be versus just being faithful one step at a time. So that's a lot of words, but spiritual authority and anointing are. It's real, man.
- [18:38]
Pastor Joby
But you see David operating in it even after he's anointed by the prophet. And I mean, basically, God tells him the future via Samuel, this. You're going to be the king. The next chapter, his dad is. Is like, I need you to go see the sheep. Yes, sir. I need you to take some bread and cheese to your brother. Yes, sir. I need you to bring a token back. Well, it turns out the token was the head of the giant, but he. He. His lead foot is. I. I'm not going to skip over the authority God has placed in my life to get to a place that I think God wants me to be one day. He's blessed in it.
- [19:21]
Host/Interviewer
Yeah. Saul was the one responsible. And. And I love that. I had noticed that. I think maybe you said that earlier this week, but head and shoulders above the rest.
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Pastor Joby
Y.
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Host/Interviewer
So obviously, he's the guy to go fight the. The tallest.
- [19:35]
Pastor Joby
Here's the thing, like, in my.
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Pastor Britt
He's the biggest one.
- [19:38]
Pastor Joby
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, Samuel says, literally, he's had, you know, head and shoulders above everybody. Okay, I get that Saul's afraid, and he's ready to ck responsibility. It seems like even if he's half a man, when David's like, I'll fight him. And you think at that point he might not volunteer, but at some point he's like, okay, okay, you. I appreciate it, but this is my job. You know what I mean? Sometimes people will do that. Like you're supposed to step up and then somebody else is going to take responsibility, which is your responsibility. And then you're like, okay, okay, okay, I'll do this. You know what I mean? And. But he doesn't. He's like, sweet, you go die. Which basically. So Saul thinks. Saul thinks David's got no chance, you know? So ultimately what he's doing is. I mean, what, he's just resigning that I guess all of Israel's dead because we're about to be slaves to the Philistines because we're going to lose.
- [20:34]
Host/Interviewer
Yeah.
- [20:35]
Pastor Joby
So I mean, this is bad, bro. This is like self preservation to the nth degree. Because he probably thinks, well, I am the king, so they're not going to kill me. They'll probably set me up. You know, I'll get kind of a sweetheart dealing.
- [20:48]
Host/Interviewer
Well, I mean, even if you think scientifically, you're talking about fear and what it does, you can't think straight. I mean, have you ever had been. You ever been like real stressed or real scared and then like a tree stump looks like a. A bear or something, you know? Like you like.
- [21:02]
Pastor Joby
I'm telling you, when I went skydiving, that is the scariest I've ever been and that I can remember, you know, I mean, I've been startled or whatever, but I mean, it wasn't. It at no point was it awesome. And the whole time I was thinking about these kinds of sermons, like fear paralyzes. And I was like, I can't be paralyzed. I can't just like sit up in this plane. I've got to just regardless of what I feel like, even though I don't want to do this. And I was total peer pressure. Only reason I did is because Russ was there and I. I knew he would make fun of me the rest of my life. And so I just did it. But you just kind of gotta just one step at a time, put your foot in front of the other and do the next thing and. But dude, I was. It was, it wasn't good.
- [21:45]
Host/Interviewer
Go back to a little. Go back a little bit to something you said in Pastor Joby. You also talked about it. You talked to the young people. You talked about David's attitude. I think the younger that you are, the more likely you are to want, give me the map of the future. How big is my garden going to be? So that I know you know what I mean? And you. You talked about how every step you've taken in ministry, you thought, this is the greatest thing ever. You. You didn't have a plan.
- [22:17]
Pastor Joby
So that's a gift of God that he put in my life, though. It's like he had blinders on me.
- [22:21]
Host/Interviewer
Yeah.
- [22:21]
Pastor Joby
And I'm telling you, dude, I got an email from a girl from the youth group that I led at Mount Olivet Baptist Church in Beaver Dam, Virginia. Her name's Brandy. Now she's married with kids. I mean, she's grown. Grown because I was in seminary. I got an email, she's gonna be here Sunday, man. And I cannot wait to see her and her family and the fact that she's even kept up with where I am. But, yeah, man, I remember I was an intern at my. At the church that I was in college at, and then I became like the youth pastor out of church of about 100 people. We had. I think we had three kids when we started and grew that thing to 12 in about two weeks. And I thought, this is. What else would you do with your life? Right? Like, this is it. I have a ride. I'm trying to figure out how to live in Beaver Dam, Virginia, for the rest of my life, you know?
- [23:09]
Host/Interviewer
Yeah. Where does that come from? Like, that. Give me the assurance first, and then I'll go. As opposed to just putting your head down and letting it happen.
- [23:19]
Pastor Joby
Well, this generation does have access to all of the information in the world at any point in time. I mean, that is different.
- [23:28]
Pastor Britt
In fact, the comparison trap is. Is bigger and stronger, I think, now than it was back in our day or even.
- [23:36]
Pastor Joby
There's this thing said on my counter this week, and I think JP did it with AI. I think he. He's. He's kind of feeling this tug to be a. Be a fireman. Like, he. He was talking to Gretchen. He's like, I. I want to help people for a living. That's what I want to do. That whole car wreck thing, that's, like, at the core of who he is, you know? And so we've been talking through, like, well, all right, here's some routes that you can do that. And then. And then providentially finders through Mike Dragic. And so he had this thing. He had this piece of paper. I guess he got it from AI and it was like, Goals, the next steps to take in how many years, how much money would he make? What kind of qualifications and degrees does he need to get, how many. And it was, it was like a life plan on a piece of. Dude, we didn't have that. How did you.
- [24:24]
Host/Interviewer
We had flannel graphs.
- [24:26]
Pastor Joby
We had high school counselors.
- [24:28]
Pastor Britt
Yeah, kind of.
- [24:29]
Pastor Joby
And I remember thinking, bro, if you knew about life plan, would you really be the counselor here? And Dylan, like is that. I don't feel like I should be. That's like an overweight, you know, personal trainer. Like I don't know if you're my guy.
- [24:45]
Pastor Britt
Right.
- [24:46]
Pastor Joby
Anyway, so I do think that's there's something to that. Like in the not. It's not altogether negative. There's lights and shadows. So here's the 19 year old kid, he's like, this may be what God is calling me to. I've got access to be like, all right, what are the steps to get from here to there? Now again, they're lights and shadows. God gives God tells people what to do all the time in the Bible. He rarely gives them a turn by turn direction. It's a lot of walk by faith. I mean it's like a, it's like a headlamp in the woods. You can only see a few steps in front of you. You know, you just kind of got to stay on the path and keep going. Because if I had it, I would have ruined it. That have totally ruined it. If I knew this was out there somewhere, there's. I would have had a real hard time being faithful. But dude, I am telling you, this is not, this isn't preacher stories. When I was at Block 84, that's what we called our like student building at beach with Ryan Sweat and Courtney Stallman and Ms. Denise. Dude, I mean it. And I was living the life, bro. I was like, this is it. Now all those kids are on our staff here. We're still do. Actually I'm still doing the same thing. I'm still just doing the same thing. I got a great team around me. I teach the Bible a lot. We point people to Jesus and try to help people take steps.
- [26:06]
Pastor Britt
So yeah, it's one step at a time. I think the appetite for control is so strong that again we want to control outcomes and we want to know for sure what's going to happen and that just doesn't belong to us. And I think, you know, when it comes to what we do for a living, you know, the, the life that we live, I mean, good Lord, man, I Mean, I started young, 15 years old, my first gig ever. I was barely a Christian and. But I'd been in it my whole life, you know, I mean, it was a little bit of an anomaly. But yeah, at the end of the day, man, you're setting up chairs and you're breaking down chairs and we would drive hours and hours and hours to preach 20 minute Bible studies and sing some songs for two pieces of a Papa John's pizza and a gas card.
- [26:56]
Pastor Joby
You know what I mean?
- [26:57]
Pastor Britt
Like, couldn't even believe that we got to be a part of it.
- [27:00]
Pastor Joby
Oh my gosh.
- [27:01]
Pastor Britt
And dude, I'd spend entire weekends leading youth retreats for 50 bucks. And you know, in a high five.
- [27:07]
Pastor Joby
Stay in some stranger's basement. That dude, I had black lung because they had black mold down there, you know what I mean? And loved it.
- [27:15]
Pastor Britt
I rolled up at this one place I'm preaching to this youth group in the middle of nowhere. And this was in South Carolina and there's like 30 kids at it. I'm pretty. I start on Thursday night, do like the rally, do Friday night, Saturday, twice. Sunday morning I'm preaching to the whole church. I'm like, you know, 19, let's go. And who knows what I'm saying, But I was very convinced.
- [27:38]
Pastor Joby
And somebody else's sermon for sure.
- [27:40]
Pastor Britt
Yeah, no doubt. And I roll up at the. I'm stand at a host home because you didn't like have the money to stay at hotels or anything. You just abstained at a host home, which was like a nice family that maybe went to the church. And I roll up at the house and they're like, hey, you know, nice to see you. That's where you're going to be staying. Let us know if you need anything. And they point to like a trailer that hitches onto a truck, like a.
- [28:06]
Pastor Joby
Fifth wheel, like a popup fifth wheel.
- [28:09]
Pastor Britt
And I was like, all right, you got a bathroom in there? I mean, you know, but that's me, man. I'm just staying in the fifth wheel in the front yard. Straight up, dude. I wake up Saturday morning. So Thursday night, sleep there Friday night, Friday, do the thing. Wake up Saturday morning, there is a goat tied to the axle of the. He was not there when I went to sleep, he was there when I woke up. And I'm like, I don't even know. Well, where am I?
- [28:34]
Host/Interviewer
I had this weird dream about a.
- [28:35]
Pastor Britt
Goat, you know, and that that night I actually slept in my car. True story, I did. I was like, I don't know, I don't know?
- [28:42]
Pastor Joby
Yeah. At least you can turn the AC on the middle of the night.
- [28:46]
Pastor Britt
Honestly, you're just like, this is like the greatest life ever, man. Why? Because you're getting to preach the gospel, no doubt. You're getting disciple kids. You're getting to be a part of the local church. You're getting to see all the different flavors of it. And so I think that's whether it's dad dadding or gospel preaching or whatever it is, the question's not where does this end? The question is, what's the right next thing for me to do? You know, what's the next step of obedience? And then you just do that over and over and over again. And then there's certain things you just can't do. I mean, you just can't not do them. You know what I mean? And that's where I get. It's like what I hear with JP Pastor Joby saying is like, there's. There's something in me. I just can't not help people.
- [29:28]
Pastor Joby
Right.
- [29:28]
Pastor Britt
I'm going to point that in the direction of firefighting. That seems to be a really good. And praise God for it, dude.
- [29:33]
Pastor Joby
What a noble.
- [29:34]
Pastor Britt
You know, I can't not do church.
- [29:38]
Pastor Joby
Right.
- [29:39]
Pastor Britt
That's all I can do. There's nothing else for me.
- [29:42]
Pastor Joby
And thank God we didn't have. I didn't have Instagram influencers in ministry when I was starting. I didn't even know what. The closest thing I had were the counselors at camp that were on staff previous to me, and I just wanted to be like them, you know what I mean? Not in a copy and paste kind of way. I just wanted to emulate their walk with Jesus because I just looked up to him so much. It's a really. There's a bunch of people in ministry, I know, sitting like a staff podcast, but there's a bunch of people in ministry, and they're in Saul's armor, man. They see us and try to do what we're doing, and they need to be who God's called them to be and be really faithful. I mean, before David could lead a nation, he learned how to shepherd a flock. And that's the same thing.
- [30:29]
Host/Interviewer
Yeah.
- [30:30]
Pastor Joby
You know, the way he led.
- [30:33]
Pastor Britt
For sure. For sure. I think the interesting thing about David's anointing, and I have a hard time. I don't know that I can even theologically articulate how this works, but end of 16, before we get into David and Goliath, Samuel anoints David. And one of the things that's Always stood out to me is that Samuel took the 1613, Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. So that's one thing. And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David. From that day forward, David being submitted under spiritual authority and to salt. I'm not exactly convinced that David knew what was happening to him. I know he didn't know the extent or the fullness of it, of course. No question about it. And so he was very passive in a sense, in regards to what the Lord was doing on his behalf. But in order to sustain that and cultivate it, he had to be active in doing the next thing with obedience. The next thing for him was to show up and be a soul service. You know what I'm saying? And so that's always been fascinating.
- [31:43]
Pastor Joby
Well, that's the difference.
- [31:44]
Pastor Britt
It's like before he ever really did anything kingly, he had been faithful. But the. The active ingredient was the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. You know?
- [31:52]
Pastor Joby
Well, that's the difference between godly ambition and selfish ambition. Selfish ambition is I'm going to make a name for myself. Godly ambition is. Did you just cuss my God? I'm. I serve the. The Lord of hosts. You're going to talk about him like that. The Lord will give you into my hands. Because it's not by sword or, or, or spear that the Lord saves. And that's. That's the difference. You got to have ambition to get things done. It can be godly or it can be selfish. And God will oppose that selfish ambition. Saul was about himself. David was about the Lord.
- [32:30]
Pastor Britt
You see it a lot, man. You see it a lot. People who are very talented or super smart or super gifted or whatever, but that, that ambition thing just gets off. And before. Ultimately, where it ends is isolation. You just end isolated and you are right in your own mind, but you're all alone.
- [32:51]
Pastor Joby
Well, you end up terrifying place. You end up being the older brother. And then you talk down to people that you're jealous of, and you question their intentions and you never cheer them on. You know, God's really moving. It has been for a long time with organizations like Life Work Leadership in Jacksonville. There are so many businessmen and women that are bringing their. What they have in their hand. They're bringing their shepherd bag with five stones and a sling and a staff. And they're like, all right, Lord, this is what I have. I run this business and I want to do it for you. So they've got great ambition or they wouldn't be the boss of the thing. Y. And they're trying to be like, but, Lord, I want it to be godly and not what the world sells. Met with a guy who today who's all about that. I mean. I mean, think about our buddy Matthew Chang. He's actually writing a book right now. That risk is biblical. And the whole point of it is he. He wants to encourage other business leaders on how you can lead a godly business unto the glory of God and make kingdom impact and, like, tithe from your business unto gospel advancement. And so he does it with the businesses he leads. And now he's saying, I. I just want to. If it's helpful to other people, you know, it's because what he could do is hold on to all of that and be like, I ain't telling anybody these secrets. Somebody else might try to rip me off. That's not what he's doing. That's what David's older brother did. He's trying to fan the flame of gospel work in other people. That's the freeing thing about godly ambition. Then you're not comparing. You can celebrate when God blesses somebody else, like, let's go. Because you're not comparing.
- [34:34]
Pastor Britt
Well, it's funny tonight you were talking about this text and some of the things that Chandler has said about it historically in regards to. Anytime you come to one of these Old Testament texts, specifically, even New Testament's true as well. But you try to, like, find yourself in the story, you get into a little bit of dangerous ground.
- [34:56]
Pastor Joby
Yeah. And be careful.
- [34:58]
Pastor Britt
I mean, I think it's also true in trying to compare other people, too. But anytime you're like, where I've seen it done wrong so many times is that people are acting like Saul but thinking they're David. You know what I mean? Or people who are, you know, or. I've seen that a dozen times. And it's. That's heartbreaking for sure. The. But when regards to tell of three Kings, and I would say David's relationship to Saul, Saul's relationship to himself, and then Samuel in there as well, that's probably the most formative. Those are probably the most formative, like, behaviorally formative relationships for me in regards to learning both what not to do and who you do want to be before the Lord.
- [35:48]
Pastor Joby
Well, I'd say that Intelligence Three Kings. The season I was reading it in, too. I had to just make sure I'm not absalom, no doubt, because I was the kind of hotshot youth pastor with the big service And I had a godly leader and pastor, and a lot of people are whispering, all kind of tickled, like, you're such a great preacher, you know what I mean? And so you got a choice of, what are you going to do with that? Are you going to serve the. The man whose authority you're under, or are you going to believe the hype and try to make it about yourself? Now, the ease. The cool thing is Pastor Jerry's literally the best Christian I've ever met. And I know y', all, like, all I work. I work with Christians. He. He's. He's just godly. So it wasn't hard. It's easy to show honor to such an honorable man, you know, but it's a constant reminder that you better not be listening to the. Even the cheers of the crowd, because you might believe them and actually think you're something, you know, and so that. That could be, you know what, in your business, in your family, whatever it is, man, I. I think we've talked about this before. I don't know how it works in the heavenlies. I think a huge part of the anointing of God on this movement is because my pastor placed his hand of blessing at great expense to himself. He had to go to war against the United Methodists to make this thing happen. And the. The district superintendent at the time was also a godly man. And they made. They saw God at. At work and blessed it. And there's just something about it. And then we did not launch out of a place of rebellion, but we. We launched out of a. Out of a place of blessing and under authority. So then that begins to roll into our original elders. I picked out of Pastor Jerry's flock with his blessing. So now. Now you start to get into, like, well, now there's more blessing and anointing there, you know, so there's something about that. I mean, I talked to a bunch of church planters, and if I sense a rebellious spirit, I'm like, I don't want to do any. I don't want to have anything to do with what you're talking about. The rebellious spirit is satanic at the core. Amen. Like, by definition, you know, Lucifer was like, I'm rebelling against your authority. God. God's like, then you're out. That's what happens to Saul. That's what happens to Absalom.
- [38:30]
Pastor Britt
Where do you even get your taste for it? Oh, I mean, I could be completely. I could be completely blind.
- [38:37]
Pastor Joby
You are, but I just. You actually are.
- [38:40]
Pastor Britt
I mean, you're who's even got a stomach for that? Like, who wants to, like, destroy all of your relationships? I just can't even get my head around it.
- [38:51]
Pastor Joby
Makes most people. You are a unique bird when it comes to that. I'm telling you, I worked with you for a long time.
- [38:56]
Pastor Britt
So exhausting to me. Who wants to live like that?
- [38:59]
Pastor Joby
There you have some. You see the Matrix where a lot of people don't. You do.
- [39:06]
Pastor Britt
I do. Like that movie.
- [39:08]
Pastor Joby
I do too. But you see the Matrix where everybody else sees the illusion. In a lot of areas, spiritual authority is one, submission is one. You have been a godsend to me in this place, and a lot of people don't even know it. The people that are close to the inside know because they see the significant role. The people here, you preach, know, but it's even more than that, man. You. You are about the mission, you about the glory of God. You're about whatever is best for 1122. It is like. It is such a blessing to me. It's all gas to me, bro. It's all just like fuel on the fire of where we're going and what we're doing. That is, it's truly the spirit in which you lead. And you are one of the smartest, most informed church people I've ever met in my entire life. You have great instincts. You know everything about church and whatever I need help with. You're the first one to be like, how can I help? What can I stop doing? What can I start doing? If there's something that I think we should do and you'll be like, just explain it to me one time. I don't have to constantly convince you, you know, there's none of that stuff going on. You're very unique that way. Almost everybody. So that the army of Israel saw the giant and they saw themselves. Did you see the distinction in what they described? They said that man of war is here to kill us. And David doesn't see it that way. He sees the Matrix. He sees it for what it is. That gentile is cursing the armies of Israel, God's armies. He sees it completely. I think you see things way more like David does. I think you really do.
- [40:56]
Pastor Britt
Well, you're very kind and you make it very easy.
- [40:58]
Pastor Joby
Well, it's.
- [41:00]
Pastor Britt
And I think part of that is, I mean, just to get in a little spiritual affirmation, you know, cream fest here.
- [41:06]
Pastor Joby
One of my favorite things, our steel and hot stuff.
- [41:10]
Pastor Britt
You do make it easy. Very submittable to very honorable. All the things I think that you Walk. You walk in your skin so comfortably. The things that you are preaching tonight, you. You do that. You're just trying to be the best version of who God created you to be. And I've been very. Have had a front row seat to it for 12, almost 11 or 12 years now. And that's all you've ever done. And that's just leading from that place of authenticity. And so it's just so easy to follow. But I think even if it was difficult, I don't know, I just don't have it in me. Like, I just don't have the like whatever that thing is to like stick it to the man or whatever. Like maybe I did my younger years.
- [41:55]
Pastor Joby
But a lot of it. Yeah, I think, I do think there were places that you were kind of misaligned a little bit. You know what I mean? Like, you had more, in my opinion, doctrinal accuracy than some of the places you were. You learned great things from those places and lots of godly places, people there. But, you know, here I don't feel like there's anything you got to just like smile and swallow the pill.
- [42:19]
Pastor Britt
Not at all.
- [42:19]
Pastor Joby
Right, right, right.
- [42:20]
Pastor Britt
Yeah, not at all.
- [42:20]
Pastor Joby
But also you got here so early, is the cement was really wet and I told you your fingerprints will be all over it. Just come on.
- [42:27]
Pastor Britt
So I guess the question I would ask is, do you think some people, sometimes people are operating in the spirit of rebellion, but they think they're help?
- [42:34]
Pastor Joby
Yeah. Oh, there's 10,000%. Yes. Yeah, that's a good way to say it that they have, they, they have a perfectionism in them. And it's a little bit of the curse of Eve. Like Eve's a helper and you know, the curse is, hey man, your desire is going to be for your husband, but he's going to rule over you. And she thinks she's helping and he feels like it's a hostile takeover. I think that kind of spirit is in a lot of places people, because they think they're, they're helping and being true to themselves and all that kind of stuff. And actually they're being rebellious. But I listen, I was telling Vinci earlier today, dude, I'm in one of the most blessed seasons of my entire 51 years. A wife that loves me, who's awesome. I've got healthy kids tonight. They're both here, they're on the front row, my in laws are here. They're awesome. God's blessing, everything. And I don't really feel like I'm leading as much as I'm stewarding. I feel way more like a surfer on a wave than like driving a boat. Like, it very much feels like a move of God, and I'm just trying to stay in the pocket with where he's leading. And honestly, I get. I have so little distraction because we have such a great team. It allows me to kind of stay in that pocket. Been lots of time of prayer right now and reading. Big, huge. I mean, I just dissected all of Matthew for the past, like, two months, you know what I mean? A lot of like, lord, where are you leading us next? What's the direction we're going? And he gives me language to that. And then as I do look over my shoulder a little bit, like, David is like, fight a Goliath. You know, fight a giant dude. Let me look over my shoulder. I got bear paws and lion paws laying in my tent right now that I've taken out. So a little bit of it. As I look at the 1010 life and I look at the one initiative and I look at before all things, and I begin to think, oh, my goodness. I mean, I went in the woods one day with my Bible and the God of the universe said, hey, let's go to John 10:10. Let's talk about that for two years. And then two and a half years later, they're like special needs ministries and 2,000 babies saved. And you begin to think, holy moly. I think the God of the universe spoke to me. You know what I mean? And then that get you. You get some, like, spiritual momentum and you're like, all right, Lord, so. So what's the next season of our church? And you just try to listen and just steward it. You're not trying to. I'm not trying to make anything happen. Just trying to do church, you know, like the. At the beginning of the church at Ephesus, what do they do? They stole the name of Jesus. They got together. They studied the Word, they got serious about killing sin. They didn't allow the stuff of the world to tell them their value. That's just what they did. And bottom line, they loved Jesus. And so that's a healthy place to get to serve from, as opposed to trying to, like, manufacture stuff.
- [45:37]
Pastor Britt
So this is not like a gotcha kind of thing. This is just what I'm thinking about as you're talking. And because if you read this story of King David and even to now in this short run of Israel having a king, up until now, the nation of Israel had. Was having a pretty good bit of Momentum, they're out there winning battles. They're out there lining them up, knocking them down. David's story is certainly that it's a great wave of momentum, but success can be your greatest enemy.
- [46:05]
Pastor Joby
There's no doubt.
- [46:06]
Pastor Britt
You know, but here they're fighting the Philistines, which is an age old enemy of the nation of Israel, because one.
- [46:14]
Pastor Joby
Reason, because Joshua didn't do what he's supposed to do.
- [46:16]
Pastor Britt
Exactly.
- [46:17]
Pastor Joby
And those problems don't go away, they get bigger.
- [46:19]
Pastor Britt
So the church has some age old enemies, right?
- [46:22]
Pastor Joby
Yeah.
- [46:23]
Pastor Britt
And so for our church, in a season of great blessing. Great blessing. And the series is in the arena, based on where we are and where we're headed, what are the, like, what are the fights that we need to be aware of, you know, really paying attention to for the sake of the church? Yeah, you know what I mean? Everybody's in a fight on the front line, on an individual level, but like corporately as a body, it's a great question. Yeah.
- [46:52]
Pastor Joby
Complacency based on success is the number one enemy right now. So honestly, as long as everybody keeps their pants on, don't steal stuff. The number one enemy is complacency because of success. We have like, oh my gosh, how many campuses we have going right now? We add two more. We had two more this week. Okay, Praise God. Praise God. And what we could do, what could, we could easily do is be like, man, this is going, this is going to get real good in a couple of years. And so you guys know that earlier this year I had a couple weeks off from preaching in a row. I, I have a hard time thinking about the whole thing while I'm preparing for sermons week after week after week, you know, but I had a, like two weeks in a row while I was doing other stuff. And I met with some, some of the best church leaders ever. Real godly people. They had the opposite interaction that the older brother did with David. Just really godly guys saying, hey man, ask a few questions about our church. And then said, if I were sitting in your seat, here's some things I would consider. So the reason, like we announced it tonight, we've, we've announced it before, but the reason that we're adding services at essentially every campus is to make sure we on the inside are not just getting complacent with, well, when's enough enough? Well, Jesus is like, all right, come on, if you got a hundred sheep, but you kept 99, isn't that enough? And he's like, that's not enough. And we will be driven to go reach that one more as long as I've got breath in my lungs. And so we cannot be complacent.
- [48:27]
Pastor Britt
We can't.
- [48:28]
Pastor Joby
That means adding places. That means stretching in our generosity. That means serving where God has called you. That means adding services, and it will not be enough. We've talked about this before. I think your brother brought this up to you. He said that. You told me. He's like, dude, I think I could go before my church and go before our staff and use a bunch of biblical language and quotes from Eugene Peterson books and essentially just go, hey, we're gonna. We're gonna quit reaching people. That's not the language you would use because everybody. It would, you know, it would cause alarms to go off. But you could talk about care and fellowship and. And begin to kind of bag on it doesn't matter how many people come and all that kind of stuff, and basically just take your foot off the gas. And a bunch of humans, because of our flesh would be like, oh, thank God, so I don't have to serve as much and I can keep more of my money and I don't have to be uncomfortable with parts of the Bible that you're going to teach, and we're going to kind of tone that down, and then we can just kind of take care of each other. And so many people would be like, way to go. In fact, many Christian magazines would do an Expo on 1122 as the pinnacle of what church ought to be. The problem is the Great Commission in Acts 18 and everything that Jesus taught. And so the moment you get comfortable, man, and just kind of settling in, you become. You become the one talent guy. Do that. The one talent is a million dollars. And God has blessed us like crazy. But. But you dig a hole. What's crazy is Jesus calls that dude wicked and slothful. He puts those two things together, and ultimately he's like, because you don't know me. Because if you knew me, you'd be about my business. And my business is about the glory of God by making disciples of all the nations. So that is what we're about.
- [50:29]
Host/Interviewer
You, when you talk about the talent guy, you say he. He worked harder than the rest of them in terms of activity, no doubt.
- [50:35]
Pastor Joby
And a lot of people get busy.
- [50:37]
Host/Interviewer
And it makes me think you're saying tonight when this is, they were fighting the Philistines. It's like, because they were doing stuff, didn't do anything. I heard this interview one time with Tom Brady, and he said, people think because they're sweating. That means they're working. And he said, working. Working hard at the wrong thing is getting better, at getting worse. And so David saw the right things and worked at the right things, you know, as opposed to just.
- [51:00]
Pastor Joby
I got some fighting because of my friendship with Josh Wells. I've got some insider stories because Josh played tackle for the Bucks when Tom Brady led him to the super bowl, bro. He says, this is great. So Brady was not Saul. He says when Brady walked into the locker room, the Standard went to the roof. But because he was there, Josh had said, we believe we could get there. And then he would say, so. So when I walk into the room, what do people think? Like, when I walk into my home, do people think, man, this. You know, it's different. But, like. But we can do this because dad's here. He also said this was cool because you get two weeks to prepare. Every other week. You get one week to prepare, and you get two weeks to prepare for the Super Bowl. You know, there's that gap. And he said, two weeks out from the Super Bowl, Brady is killing them at practice. They have a players only meeting. He's telling people, you did not come here. I did not come here to be your friend. You understand this? I came here to win a Super bowl and get better or get out. This is what he says. And he's like, he gets there first, he stays there last. He. And. And he's harder on himself than everybody else. And Josh was like, practice that week was, like, tense, man. And then the week before the game, it's like four days before the game, and Brady's out there kind of goofing around. And Wells was like, hey, what's going on? He's like, we won, bro. He's like, what? He goes, I've watched the tape. We have done the work. We are ready. They won't be able to come back at halftime. We've won. And if you go back and watch, the game was over at halftime because he was like, we've put the work in now let's go. Just do what's ours. I mean, bro, it's like a clinic on actual. Like, what he doesn't realize is these are like biblical realities that he's walking in. He's the know it. Saul does the opposite.
- [52:53]
Host/Interviewer
Yeah, and you talked about this, too, that the. The fear switched at the end. You know, all the Israelites are afraid and Philistines are like, what? Say something. And then they go running.
- [53:10]
Pastor Joby
That's leadership, bro. Somebody's got to go first. Whoever brings clarity first. You're the leader.
- [53:14]
Host/Interviewer
Yeah. Encourage is contagious.
- [53:17]
Pastor Joby
Yeah. So is fear.
- [53:18]
Host/Interviewer
That's right. Yeah. Yeah. I was telling you earlier that there was a study. I heard this on a podcast. There's a study that if you. You can smell fear. You know, literally, you can smell fear. They did this study where it's kind of gross. They captured sweat from people who were exercising versus people who were scared. And when people didn't know what it was, people smelled the fear sweat there. They had an mri. They. Their amygdala started to fire, which is like, stress.
- [53:47]
Pastor Joby
Fear response.
- [53:48]
Host/Interviewer
Fear. You can smell fear. You can look it up. 2009.
- [53:51]
Pastor Joby
Somehow, I don't know how this works, but I just don't do fear when it comes to, like, church leadership stuff. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know. I. There's a couple things that bring clarity in my life and in the seat that I currently get to sit in, I just think about, like, when we're making decisions like, do we do this campus or do we not? Or do we. You know, whatever? And I just think about. I picture me standing before the Lord, giving an account, and what do I want to say? And then I just want to go with the decision today that I can stand before the Lord. And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But I want to err on the side of faith, not fear. You know, I don't want to be like, well, Lord, I didn't talk about that part of the Bible because, you know, I was scared. I'm not doing that. I'm gonna stand before him. And he was like, hey, a little tough on the people, weren't you? I'd be like, okay, well, I thought I was just delivering the mail. That's on me, you know, so. And then, personally, in my own life, it seems like the right thing to do. Like, when we're praying about a commitment here, I mean, if you even get the nudge for it, you gotta go up. Because if I'm standing before the Lord and he's like, why didn't you go up? I'll be like, dang. But what if he was like, boy, you gave a lot, you know? Okay, my bad. I thought you were telling me, too. He's like, no, that wasn't me. You were just. You were just thinking thoughts. No problem. I. I just want to take that one. It'll bring a lot of clarity, a lot of clarity.
- [55:23]
Pastor Britt
Amen.
- [55:25]
Host/Interviewer
Well, there's a lot that I had in my notes that we didn't get to. But.
- [55:30]
Pastor Britt
I love my bad dog.
- [55:32]
Host/Interviewer
No, that's all right. I just mean there's just so much in this. In this account. I love that you brought this up, Pastor Joby. This is a example of representative combat.
- [55:44]
Pastor Joby
Yeah. Which was an actual thing in ancient warfare because people were the spoil. So the leaders would be like, we.
- [55:52]
Host/Interviewer
Ain'T trying to kill everybody.
- [55:54]
Pastor Joby
Since one of us is going to have a whole bunch of slaves, let's don't kill them all.
- [55:57]
Host/Interviewer
Right.
- [55:58]
Pastor Joby
That's what they would do.
- [55:58]
Host/Interviewer
Right. And you gotta. You gotta see the gospel implication of representative combat.
- [56:06]
Pastor Joby
Yeah. The word champion literally means, like, man in between. And so Jesus is the man in between us and God's judgment. And he takes. I mean, 2nd Corinthians 5, 21, that God made him who was without sin to be sin. And so he takes the blow on the cross that was headed towards us and then walks out of the grave. And he is our champion. And again, I know it was peppy at the end, but we don't. A cheerleader ain't gonna do it. We gotta have a champion. Which, by the way, put in the show notes, the. The screen thing. Yeah, yeah, explain that.
- [56:50]
Host/Interviewer
So you can go to. I think you text fight, fight to 441122 takes you to a page where you can put a couple custom prompts that will then produce a. An image for your phone as a wallpaper that has that passage we read at the very end of the service from this chapter. But let's just say it says, you come. You come at me with. You could customize it with fear or doubt or, you know, my. My addiction or whatever. And then you can customize the location or the. You know, everyone who will know that God is the Lord, you know, that kind of thing. So it's pretty cool.
- [57:24]
Pastor Joby
You know, it's crazy.
- [57:25]
Pastor Britt
Show notes.
- [57:28]
Pastor Joby
When JP was little, he was kind of a timid kid, which is crazy. So little parents out there. Listen, man, you. When your kid's 8, you have no idea what kind of adult they're going to be. He is the. One of the toughest, bravest, baddest. I mean, he's an MMA fighter now. And so part of the reason I know that passage so well, and especially when he was a little boy, you know, he's like six years old. Before he'd go to bed, I'd pray Psalm 1, and then we would just do this, and he'd repeat after me, you come against me with sword and spear and javelin. I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty. And then even like in Little League sometimes, especially if a guy was just throwing heat. If he was, if he was. If it was like regular baseball, he. He would kind of was probably too cocky. But we get into that all star baseball and there's like 17 year olds with mustaches throwing 90s what it looked like. And you'd see him in the basher box going, you come against me with sword and spear. And that's what he was doing, man. He was just leaning on God's word for. For courage, you know, so I'm into it.
- [58:21]
Host/Interviewer
Yeah. And the feature of that declaration is really the representative combat thing. Right. Because you talked about that the whole time. David was never focused on himself.
- [58:30]
Pastor Joby
Right.
- [58:30]
Host/Interviewer
He was only ever focused on you insulting the Lord. Lord is going to do this. The Lord is going to show off.
- [58:35]
Pastor Joby
And he even says, why it's missional. So that the whole world will know there's a God in Israel and all those gathered here will know. Yeah. It's not by sword or spear, the Lord says, but the battle is Lord's. He will give all of you into our hands. He's saying, I'm doing this for God. This is it. I'm not defending him. He don't need to be defended. I'm doing this for the glory of his name, for the sake of mission. That's what I'm doing.
- [58:58]
Host/Interviewer
You talk about a bold glory of God prayer. Moses did it too. Like, remember when, when God was like, I'm gonna just freaking smoke these people. And he's like, no, no. All the nations around will hear about it.
- [59:09]
Pastor Joby
Yeah.
- [59:09]
Host/Interviewer
And then, then it'll be bad for your glory. So just, you know, do something different. And he's like, all right, okay.
- [59:16]
Pastor Britt
That's kind of how it went.
- [59:17]
Host/Interviewer
Yeah.
- [59:17]
Pastor Joby
Yeah, dude. I remember we were in the Valley of Law and I, like, grabbed a couple of the rocks, you know, and I was like, oh, man, what if these were actual? And then Mark was like, yeah, a dump truck from Tel Aviv comes and dumps rocks out here, but it's too much because I throw them back in there. Isn't that great?
- [59:36]
Pastor Britt
Because everybody comes out there every.
- [59:37]
Pastor Joby
There'd be no more rocks left because.
- [59:39]
Host/Interviewer
I took the five smooth stones from the brook bed. Yeah, well, whatever you have first, Pastor Joby. And then to close that.
- [59:46]
Pastor Joby
So some of you are facing some. I mean, some cancer, dude, for real. And divorce and kid pain. It's not small. It's not small, but God is bigger than whatever you're facing. And he's already won the greatest victory of all time.
- [60:02]
Host/Interviewer
Time.
- [60:03]
Pastor Joby
This is, this is one of the manifestations of if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And so that, that's why we we're going to pray these verses. Yeah. So let's pray. Our good and gracious heavenly Father, we thank you that you are our champion. And so God, may everything we do be for your glory so that the whole world will know that there is a God. There is a God who lives and loves in Jesus name. Amen.
- [60:30]
Pastor Britt
Thank you for listening to the podcast the End.
- [60:41]
Pastor Joby Martin
The reality is everything already belongs to God and when we give financially, we're acknowledging that we trust him. If you just watch this and feel led. To make a donation, text the word donate to 441122 or visit coe22.com. Donate your generosity is not only an act of worship, but an investment so all people can discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ.