← Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Faith That Conquers | Stephen & Morgan Dufresne | Tuesday Night's Online Service | 3.31.2020
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A
Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. Good evening, World Harvest Church, family and ministry, friends and partners, and those of you joining us this evening for our regular midweek service, we want to go ahead and get right into the Word. Turn with me, if you would, to Psalms 34. We're going to go ahead and receive this evening's tithes and offerings. We want to see what God has said to us regarding our finances. And we know that there is God's side and there's man's side when it comes to every promise. And God has already fulfilled his side. He has made sure that he has provided for his children. He has made sure that he has given us all power to be able to receive from and that we can draw on through His Word. And so you're not lacking. Your bank account or your situation may look like it's lacking, but we want to see tonight that there is no lack for the body of Christ. There's no lack for the believer. There's no lack for those that are children of God. And here in Psalms 34 it says in verse 8, O taste and see that the Lord our God is good. Blessed is the man who trusts and takes refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, revere and worship him, for there is no want to those who truly revere and worship him with godly fear. The young lions lack food and severe hunger. But they who seek, inquire of and require the Lord by right of their need and on the authority of His Word. None of them shall lack any beneficial thing. So how do we receive and cancel out those needs that are in our life? It is through the authority in the Word of God. And when you learn who you are in Christ, when you take God's Word as His truth and make it your truth, you are able to look past the facts and the circumstances that you're facing and you can know that the Word of God is the ruling truth in my life. I decide that the Word of God, through my faith and my trust in God, that God is good. And when I worship him and when I speak His Word, then the power is going to flow into my finances, into my situation. And one of the most important things I see here, it says, for there is no want to those who truly revere and worship him with godly fear. One of the ways we worship God is not just with our words, it's with our actions. And worshiping with our actions means bringing Tithes and offerings. It talks about in Malachi, how they had dishonored God because they had stuck. Stop not only bringing the tithe, but bringing the offering. And offering time is a time of worship. My congregation, you've heard me say over and over that this is a time we worship God. We lift our offering to Him. We magnify Him. We're acknowledging all the wonderful things that he's done for us. We're glorifying Him. And you may wonder, well, how does receiving an offering and giving money worship God? Well, we're recognizing that God is our source and that God is the one that we serve. Not our job, not our income, not our money. We don't serve money. We serve God, the Most High. We serve the One who has created the heavens and the earth. We serve a mighty God. We serve one. It says here he is good. We serve a God who is alive. And so we know this, that money is a poor God. It makes us to be slaves to the job, slaves to work, slaves to how are we going to make ends meet. But when we trust, trust God, when we worship him with our offering, when we worship him with our tithe, then God can take care of every need that we have. It invites him in to take care of our needs. And you got to invite him in. He's not just going to come in and perform his word without your agreement. He's not going to come in and take care of that need that you have without your agreement, without you saying so. He's given us on the authority of His Word. Jesus said he. He's given us back that authority. So we've got to take our authority through the word of God, take that back and exercise our faith or stand on God's word or not be moved in the face of circumstances. And so one of the ways we demonstrate our firmness on the Word and our position of faith is through giving through tithes and offerings. So we want to go ahead and receive. You can go to our website. If you're on Facebook, you can look on the front page. There's a place to give. You can do text to give. There's also instructions with text to give that you can see there. And you can go ahead and give tithes and offerings via those two. Also our people. You can bring by congregation. You can bring by and put in the mailbox your tithes and offerings. And you can mail it in if you've got some of our envelopes. So let's go ahead and we'll pray over the tithes and offerings. Father, we thank you for every giver that's watching. Father, we know this. You receive every gift and we give with a cheerful and joyful heart. We give worshiping you, honoring you, praising you, magnifying you. We thank you for everything that you've brought into our lives, everything that you have given into our hands. And Father, we're acknowledging you're our source. We're worshiping you for being a faithful God. We're worshiping you, Father, because your word says that when we do, you take care of every need you supply for us. Father, worship and is the door that opens up all the flow of the supply that we need into our lives. And so, Father, we worship you not just in word, but in action with the substance that we have. We give you praise and we give you all of the glory. And we say together that my God, he shall supply all my needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. And we can all say amen together. So tonight I'm so thrilled to be able to get into the Word on the subject of faith. And I've got the handsome reverend here tonight. Good to have you, Reverend. You're our guest. A guest appearance. So we're just going to talk about the subject of faith and some simple steps that we can take with faith. Want us to turn, if you would, let's go to Samuel. Can we go to first Samuel? And we want to look at. I know this week I actually, if you saw David, we're going to talk about David and Goliath Bear and I did a story in a video for the kids, but I feel like there's some more nuggets we can get out of this that's going to stir our faith and that's going to help us for the things that we're facing now for our future. And I want us to look here at a couple of things that David did, some actions that he took, because we know this, that in Mark 11 and we'll. We'll go back to this. It talks about we can speak to the mountain, that our words are to be used in conjunction with our faith. That if you have faith in your heart, there's got to be an outlet for that. It can't just stay in your heart. It's got to flow out of your heart. And we do that through word and action. And Jesus demonstrated that day the greatest action of faith that we had seen from him as far as him showing the disciples and his followers that it's through their words that they command things to be Cursed that they command things to come into their lives, that what they say is going to change the world around them. And so I'm so grateful for that revelation. I'm so grateful for dad Hagin who laid hold of that revelation on the bed of sickness, and for the ministers who've gone before us that have really established this truth that we have based our lives on our family, our home. We are firmly rooted and grounded in God's word when it comes to faith and spiritual speaking, that that word out and that it changes everything. It can change everything that we see. It can change what you know in the natural. And so we don't have to live by what the natural brings to us. We can live according to God's word and us speaking God's word. But long before Mark 11 in the fig tree, David demonstrated the power of words when he came up as a young man and faced Goliath. And we see here that in 1st Samuel, chapter 17 and verse 23, it says, as they talked, behold, Goliath the champion, the Philistine of Gath, came forth from the Philistine ranks and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him. So here David hears Goliath for the very first time, giving his threats to the army and what he was going to do. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, terrified. So they not only heard his words, but they saw some things. And we know this, that the devil is going to make sure that you see and hear some things in this lifetime. He's trying to defeat us through what we see and what we hear. You are our victory on the inside of you. When you're a child of God and you are born again, victory is in you. Even though it looks like defeat will be around you. Victory is on the inside of you. And David had already walked out some victories. And so he understood that who is this giant that's coming up against the children, the armies of God, the children of God, the children of Israel, who's coming up against these people? And this is, again, this is a man who's not born again, doesn't have the life of Christ on the inside of him, is. Doesn't have the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, living on the inside of him alive. He didn't even have the Word the way we do, but he recognized that defeat is trying to come up against an already victorious people. We're a victorious people. And when defeat tries to show up in your life, it really matters that first approach that you take it matters. The first thing that you say, the first thing that you think, think what you turn to, who you turn to. And so we want to look here as he, David, had come to bring his brother's food, but he stays in the camp. He's kind of intrigued by what's going on here, what Goliath has brought and is presenting to the people and the opposition that's there. And David, verse 26, said to the men standing by him, what shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? So now he's really interested in what, what happens to the guy that's willing to take on this giant. And so what I want to focus on tonight is faith doesn't shy away from. Faith doesn't take a step back. And faith doesn't try to find a way around opposition. Faith runs towards opposition. Faith takes on fear. Faith. Faith says, no, I'm the victorious. You have to leave. I'm not leaving. Faith outlasts every opponent. Faith runs at its opponents with the word of God. And David demonstrates this. So Goliath here, he represented fear. We don't face physical giants nowadays. You don't have a physical giant showing up to your house, challenging your family and your beliefs. But what we do have is giants by the way, of needs, physical symptoms, things that try to disrupt the family unit, the job, your business. Goliaths show up in different ways in our lives. Sometimes mental bombardment, pressure. All of these are Goliaths. It's a way that the devil's trying to get through fear and lack and us to back down from the word of God. He's trying to get these things operating in our lives. He doesn't want the word of God operating in our lives. So faith people, they hear what everyone else hears. David heard what everyone else had heard. In fact, these men that have been there, they had heard it a lot longer. But David hears this, and after one hearing, he decides what his position is going to be. And that's about position of faith. And David saw what everyone else saw. But we can even be in the same situations as other people. Right now there are people all over this nation that are having to take a step back from work. Maybe their business has been reduced. We're all going through some of the same things. All of, really all of the world, we're facing sickness and disease. But those people of faith hear it, they see it, they. They face it. But it's what we do with what we he, what we see, what we Hear and what we face that determines our outcome to be different than others. It's not about what others can do for us. It's about what we know we can do with the word of God for ourselves, for our families, for our, our needs. And it says here, if we look, I want us to take a look here in verse 32, when David said to Saul, and this is so important, they had taken him to Saul because David begins to take his position of faith and he likes the reward that he hears about. And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail. Because of this Philistine, your servant will go out and fight with him. And that phrase always stands out to me. Let no man's heart fail. The devil is hoping that your heart is going to fail. What is that? Your faith. He's hoping that you'll really, you'll back down from what you believe. Because we know faith doesn't fail. God's word doesn't fail. But how do we fail is we stop living out of our heart and we start living out of our minds. We start living out of our emotions. Those that run in fear, they're feeling something, they're feeling pressure, they're feeling symptoms, they're seeing needs, they're seeing a lack of income. And we can decide that we're either going to face that head on and say, no, not in this household. No, not in my life, according to the authority that I have in the word of God, I'm going after. Because there's also a reward. God is a rewarder for those who diligently seek him. So there's a reward when you take your stand of faith. And that's what David understood. Not only does this do we get this army push back and away from and off of the back of the children of Israel, but now he personally, I'm personally going to get this reward of getting to marry the king's daughter. There were other things. So.
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And he was duty free. He didn't have.
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A
He was duty free. He didn't have to pay taxes.
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B
So, you know, and maybe he was ugly and, you know, and that guaranteed him a wife.
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A
We don't know. Yeah, you know, being the youngest son, maybe he, he, he saw this was his opportunity.
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His opportunity.
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So we never know what opportunities will show up when we take our stand of faith. But I want us to know that when David said, don't let any man's heart fail, really, he could be saying, hey, everybody, just stay in agreement with me. Just let's get together that y' all don't have to lift anything. Y' all don't have to do anything, but don't let your heart fail. Because I'm gonna take this giant on with not my strength, with not what I have, but with the word of God. And that's exactly what he did. He said, told the king, who should have been, you know, had mighty warriors lined up, but nobody had taken on the fear. And we see that today. If you watch the news, if you maybe are still going to work and you're with people, people are living in fear. They're struggling. Not so much with the coronavirus, or maybe they aren't struggling financially, but they're struggling with the fear that is out there of what it could bring. Goliath had not killed anyone yet. Goliath had not taken anyone out. There was no fighting going on. All there was was threats. All there was was accusation. All there was was, this is what I'm gonna do. How familiar does that sound? You know, there's been times, my goodness. In our own lives where the money was not in the bank account and the payment was due, the house payment was due, the. The bills were due and the money was not there. And the threat you wake up with, you go to bed with that threat of this month, it's not going to get paid this month. What was it? It wasn't even time for it to be paid. But the threat was always there. The money's not going to be there. The money that's the Goliath talking and giving a response based off of something. You see that fear tries to talk to you, to get you for your heart to fail and to get you to agree with. Yeah, you know what? This month, it's not going to get paid this month, it's just not going to happen. I can't tell you folks how many times we have faced this in our lives. And you know what? Every time the payment was made on time it was made. There was no past due. And we were able to stand firm on the word of God, but it was a fight. David still had to make an effort. We still had to. There were times you feel like you were ekin up and just, you know, almost limping up to. With everything you had in you, every ounce of faith you had in you, you were using to withstand the thoughts of the enemy. And now it's become where you yield the word of God with more confidence. We can see in our own lives that when we speak, when we confess, we've seen God time and time again come through when it looks like there wasn't enough, when there, the symptoms look like they weren't subsiding in the kids bodies, or when we were facing something within our own home that looked like it wasn't gonna back down. But we didn't back down and David didn't back down. But at this point, no man had stood up to him. No man had stood up to the fear. And I want us to recognize with Goliath it's not just about the giant, it's about the fear. Fear that presents itself as a giant. And we heard Pastor Nancy on Sunday talking about that dream she had with that snake coming. What was that? Trying to take a hold of her mind. That's what Goliath had done. He had crippled through fear. He had crippled the minds of those that were facing him, that were hearing him day in, day out. But there was one mind he hadn't gotten a hold of yet. David responded before that fear could take hold. He said, oh, there's my wife, there's my tax free. And I've seen the lion defeated, I've seen the bear defeated. And who is this uncircumcised Philistine to defy God's people? You've got to tell fear, who do you think you are coming into this household, coming and talking to this child of God? Who do you think you are presenting yourself greater than God's word? Fear will present itself as greater than God's word. But remember, just because it says the bills aren't going to get paid, just because it says the symptoms are going to come on you, just because it says this is going to happen in your family and this is going to happen in your business, the threat of that, the fear of that seems so much greater than what, what the word of God says because he's trying to talk louder so that your heart, heart will fail. But know this, the word of God and the power that's in the word of God is greater. You have anything to add?
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B
No. Well, one thing I was thinking about is, you know, he, he went there and he was asking what, like you said, what was going on. And I noticed that the king saw something in him, he saw faith. Because really you have a young boy that comes in and he's ambitious and he wants to take this giant down. I mean, the king gives him his armor. Yeah, I mean that's a big place.
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He had a lot of confidence in that young man.
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Right? He did. And we see that the king even saw faith on him because really this young man could have, if it wasn't for real, could have started a war and it not be successful. So he saw there was something different. And same thing with David is when he put that. That armor on him, he realized, this isn't for me.
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A
This isn't for me. That's good.
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And so he removed it. And still after removing that, you can't imagine the thoughts that would come. You got to have that armor. You got to have all that stuff. And he knew that's not what.
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Because that's what everybody else will put on.
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Right.
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Faith will lead you sometimes down a path that you've not known anybody else to take.
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Right. And we see that the king did have faith in David, in David to accomplish what he had in his heart. And I think that's very valuable, you know, for a young man of that stature to be a shepherd or what he called himself, a servant. I'm just a servant, you know.
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A
Yeah. We can't diminish our place in the body of Christ and think that we have. If you're faced with the situation, the devil's telling you you don't have enough faith, you have to answer back sometimes with that, no, wait a second. I'm a child of God.
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B
It's not about position.
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A
It's not about position. It's not about how long you've known the word. It is about, I'm a child of God. And the measure of faith, part of God's faith is on the inside of me. And you, you have to draw from that place. You can't draw from the mental. You can't draw like he tried on the. The armor. You can't. He couldn't draw from somebody else. He couldn't take and. And walk it out the way Saul thought it should be walked out.
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B
And we've seen times in people's lives that one of the spouses wants to pursue further in faith, and then we have the other one that doesn't want to. Maybe. Maybe they don't have the confidence. But we can see here, this is a good illustration of David, that sometimes if someone has the faith, you need to just say, you know what? I agree with you, and I'll go with you.
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A
Maybe there's been times we. In our relationship, I felt like my heart was failing and you were there and to encourage and you kind of pull yourself back together. And then there's been times, vice versa, and young people. That's why it's so important who you marry, because someone will either try to run away from life's issues with you or they'll stand beside you.
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B
The king had an option to dismiss this young man altogether.
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Sure.
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Just say, you know what? I'm not starting a war with this kid. Gonna go, you know, poke the hornet's nest, you know, but. But he saw something in him, and he saw, okay, I'm gonna let him do this. I think as a family, people have to learn, you know what if they have that in the heart, then I need to say, okay, then we'll let you do it.
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A
Yeah. And you can see faith, acknowledge it. Doesn't put you down if your faith isn't there. There's times we've said to each other, you know what? You know, he has said to me, you have faith for that I don't understand, and I'm not there. And I've said vice versa. But I can see faith on him. We could see. See faith on each other. And you, you let one another take the lead in that, and then you don't let your heart fail. You stay in agreement. Just because your faith can't reach for something that maybe your spouse can, you can still be in agreement with them.
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B
And that's okay because the king didn't see himself taking down a giant.
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Right.
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He didn't see him.
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Right.
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But David did.
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Right.
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B
You know, yeah, that's true. And. And David accomplishing what he was going to do meant freedom for the whole increase, for everybody. It was a big deal. This was a big change in their country for the people.
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A
And really, we're not seeing too many options besides David come along and, you know, I was listening to dad Hagin the other day, and he was talking about just a simple situation in his life. And he was so funny. He said, well, like everyone else, I'm human. And my last resort, I prayed and asked God to help me. You know, sometimes we take. We do all we can do in the natural with what we can figure out, and we make the word of God our last resort. Our faith is our last place. When that's human nature, it doesn't mean you failed. It doesn't mean if you. You're recognizing now, you know what? I've let go of some things in faith. I've been trying to handle it naturally. Trying to, you know, maybe make ends meet with my own effort or figure some things out, how I can handle things. Go back to the word of God. It's important to go back to. And really nobody at this point had taken what God, that they were the. They were the children of Israel. These were God's people. And nobody on that authority was taking their stand. So faith does not act like what's coming against it is not real. You don't act like what you're facing isn't real. And that's sometimes a mistake that people make. They. You know, there was a time in a season where I was seeing numbers that I had never seen before, huge numbers. And it was always nice to act like they weren't there, just to pretend like we weren't going through what we were going through. Faith doesn't pretend like it's not there. David is representing faith. Goliath representing fear. David ran at that fear. He ran at that need. He ran at that opposition. Faith does not drop its expectation in God's word and just ignore like it's not there. It's not afraid. And sometimes we think we're in faith, when really we're in fear. We're just pretending like something's not there and expecting God to take care of it as time goes on, because you know God's word is true. We believe God's word is true instead of going, no, I've got my part to play. David still, even though he knew this enemy army and this giant was no match for God, he still had to do something about that. You still have to do something about what you're facing. And there's four things that I want to look at here that I saw that David did. Number one, the first thing he did was he rehearsed God's faithfulness. One of the first things he talked about was, I was keeping the sheep, and I faced the lion, I faced the bear, and God delivered both times. And you could say, human nature says, oh, well, what's one. What's one sheep? What's one. What's one more lamb? What's one more? That. That.
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B
Which is loss.
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A
It's loss. I'm. I'm under the inclination. And your dad used to say this. You can't disprove. I can't prove, but you can't disprove. Notice the lion came, the bear came, but that was it. Had David let the. The lion take one. Oh, what's one? The bear take one. Oh, what's 1 taken? The. If David would have taken the easy, natural way out, why make the effort? Why put up the fight and not let have my father's sheep be stoned? Those weren't even his. Those were his father's. If he's not gonna. If he's not willing to put up a fight, what other predators would have come?
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B
Or they Come back, they come back. The lion, he come back for one, come back for two.
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A
Yeah. So when we lay down to fear and we lay down to opposition, know this, it's coming back, the trial of your faith. So your faith is always going to be. There's going to be some form of trial that comes. And I want to pass these tests of faith. We want to get past some things. And I can see in our own lives there's different levels that we have passed. And it only came through facing these things head on and not saying, well, we'll just let that one go this time. But I noticed he rehearsed what God did. This is something that my husband and I, we try to do and make a habit of is when you're faced with a need or you're faced with difficulty talking about God's grace, goodness, talking about the blessing that we can see, the. The manifestation. We need to see more blessing. We want to see more blessing manifest in our life. But if you talk about what's already manifest, it makes it easier to trust in God for what hasn't been manifest. Rehearsing God's faithfulness does two things. It keeps you humble because it reminds you, without God, where would you be? How would life have turned out? What would things have looked like? And two, it keeps your focus right when you say that. It keeps your. When you, when you sit and you talk about the right things, the things that God has done for you in the past, big, little, small, great. It keeps your focus in that right direction.
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B
It's, you know, if you're not talking about the goodness, then you're talking about the bad and you become ungrateful. And I've done that before, you know, where you just always have problems in front of you. But you know what? There's good stuff too.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And whatever you. Going on in your life, God is good.
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A
Yeah.
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B
You know, and I made up my mind because sometimes, you know, you get down as, you know, bad day and you can get all uptight and things. And I just remember God is good, you know, God is good. Whatever happens, God is good.
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A
Yeah.
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B
You know, and we really have to remind ourselves because if we don't, we become ungrateful.
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A
And this is the same man, what, what Stephen is saying. This is the same man who wrote all of psalms and really rehearsed God's goodness over. He just kept talking about, this is kind of the story of David's life. When he faced him, he just talked about God's goodness. If you don't know what else to say. Sometimes just go back to, what has God done for me? You may not know an exact scripture. You may not even know what direction to start believing. But we can start with number one, God's goodness. We read that during tithes and offerings, he said, God is good. If there's one thing David knew from a young age, God is good. And number two, when I was reading this and I saw the armor, how he took that armor off, we've got to, to me, that represented the unimportant. Sometimes when you're facing, and I know we've both done this, it's a part of consecration. You need to lay aside what's unimportant because is gaining victory and seeing the Word of God prevail in your life, that's got to be more important than, you know, time in front of the tv, than working extra hours. Sometimes you need to be taking extra hours in getting into the flow of the Word of God, praying in the spirit, worshiping God. And what David did when he took that armor off, he really was laying aside the unimportant. And right now in this season, some of you and some of us have more time on our hands to do what David did. And let's lay aside some of the things that are unimportant. We don't want to look back at this season and go, we picked up more unimportant things. We filled our time with more. That natural armor was unimportant to David's faith. David didn't need that for his faith. He didn't have that when the bear showed up. He didn't have that when the lion showed up. At this point he says, why do I need need it now? He appreciated the gesture, I'm sure, and he began to suit up. And like my husband said, he realized, this isn't for me. This is not how I win the battles that God has told me are mine in victory. And so we've got to lay aside some things that are actually going to weigh us down when we're trying to run and gain ground in the Word of God, gain ground in the kingdom of God. Number three, we want to answer threats I want us to see here. When he runs at the giant. In chapter 17, it says verse 45. Then David said to Philistine, you come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin. You got to tell the devil you're coming at me with needs, with what looks like lack, with symptoms. Call it out specific, call out, acknowledge it. Don't ignore it. If you're facing a specific need, Devil. You're coming at me with lack of finances for my home. You're coming at me with lack of finances for a certain bill. You're coming at me with a lack of customers. Answer it directly. Don't act like it's not there. Don't. Don't just try to worship, ignore. You can answer and call out the specific things and acknowledge it's not doubt to acknowledge what's trying to come against you. Don't pretend like it's not real. But he acknowledged. You're coming at me with a sword, a spear and a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the ranks of Israel, whom you have defied. We know this. We've been given a name above every night, above every name. At this point, there was no name above every name. He just knew God was good and had delivered him before. And now, on the authority of the word of God, we have the name that's above every other name. You can run at every need and say, I see this need trying to show up and take from my home, take from my family. But under the authority of the name of Jesus, the name that's above every name. The name that crushed sickness, crush disease, put everything under our feet, every demon, every. Everything that the devil would try to cause to rise up to defeat us. The name of Jesus, it has defeated everything. It's defeated every opposition. And so it matters. Once we rehearse God's faithfulness, we lay aside what's unimportant, that we are going after and we are running towards, towards these thoughts that are coming after us. And we're answering them specifically with God's word and with the name of Jesus, even if it's just pleading the blood of Jesus, I plead the blood of Jesus. There's been times that I've woken up. There wasn't too long ago that I woke up completely paralyzed by fear out of nowhere. I mean, just in the middle of the night, my body was shaking. There was nothing to even be fearful about. Some may call that a panic attack, but I knew exactly what it is. Is the spirit of fear. That's all panic attacks are, is the spirit of fear. And we don't take those lightly. We don't diminish people who struggle, but we have an answer for them. And I woke up in the middle of the night and that fear, my whole body was just really could not move because of fear. And I just began to plead the blood of Jesus. Because Every demon in hell saw the blood of Jesus on that day that it was shed and knew that it was on the authority of the blood of Jesus that man has his victory. And so I just began to plead the blood of Jesus. And it didn't take moments that you could sense that spirit of fear leading. And then I just plead the blood of Jesus over my husband, over my household. And I told that fear, you're not going to another room, you're not going to another member of this family. The blood of Jesus, Jesus covers us. So it matters that we are driving that fear back with our faith and with the name of Jesus. And then, number four, we run after it with our confession. And so oftentimes we just want to confess, confess, confess, confess, confess. But I saw here with David there were some things he did before he confessed what was going to happen to this child giant. He rehearsed God's goodness and faithfulness. He laid aside what was important. You know, you can't be feeding yourself on TV and social media and all kinds of other, you call it riff raff and all kinds of other stuff and think that you're just going to get up every day and confess the word of God and there's going to be a flow of faith to it. We have got to do some things before we get to that confession. Because you want your confession to count. Count. We're not just throwing out casual words. God. God's word is power, it is life. And it's got to be revelation every time we speak it. It can't be a. We're not parroting what we heard somebody else say. We're speaking according to my faith, according to his faith, according to your faith. And so we see here that after, in verse 46, it says, this day the Lord, now he makes his confession. He sees clearly, he calls out what Goliath is trying to do, and then he makes his confession. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will smite you and cut off your head. And I will give the corpse of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saves not with a sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. When the Philistine came forward to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And we know that with the rest of that story that he takes that stone out and he slung it. But I always say this. I don't believe it was the stone that killed the giant. It was David's confession. And the way the spirit of God worded it to me is needs have to be spoken to from the place in the spirit. And this, My husband said that when we were recently. Remember when we were in Chicago. And I love that analogy you gave. You talked about the Constitution, that it's not just the piece of paper, remember, but it's the words.
- [40:08]
B
It's the words that hold the value that keep you and me from free.
- [40:12]
A
Yes. And you said the scripture, it's not just the book and the pages, it's the words that hold the power that deliver us. And so we know with David, he rehearsed God's faithfulness, laid aside the unimportant, answered the threats with the name of Jesus, and then ran after with his confession. No, this is what I say is going to happen when you run after and you face fear with the word of God and you decide, I'm going to become proficient. I'm going to get into the spirit. I'm not just going to haphazardly throw out scripture and hope something sticks. I'm not just going to parrot and repeat what I heard somebody else say. But I'm making a decisive dedication the way David did. He made a commitment. And like you said, Saul saw that and he backed up his commitment. David was committing to. To complete this thing with the help of God. But this book is not just pages. It's the words that hold the power. So many just look at it as pages in a book. We look at it as words of power. God's words have power. And that power proved out in that stone. When it hit him in his head, it wasn't just the stone. There was power because of the words that backed up what David slung at him. And so what happens is when we make actions of faith, maybe you sow a seed, God deals with you, says sow a seed for this specific need that you have. Well, when you're standing on God's word and you respond to that word, it's not just the word, it's the power that's backing up that word. We're after a flow of power in our lives. We're not just after flow of confession.
- [41:58]
B
Yeah, you have to have revelation about your confession because sometimes we can regurgitate what we've heard. But I've realized as I've gotten older, that revelation you build up yourself you build up your spirit and you're able to speak out of a place that's not just because really you don't believe it. You're just saying it. And I think that's very important, that we learn to get our own. It's just like the law. Like I was saying with the law, if you don't know the law, they're going to eat you up and spit you out. You have to know the law, what it pertains to you. And then when you become fluent in the law, you can use it to your advantage and they won't be able to touch you.
- [42:41]
A
Have you ever, you know, probably when you were a kid? I know we used to go down to the river and we'd have. Have river weed fights. Californians, it may be hard for them to comprehend, but we get in those, you know, looks like muddy rivers, but they're not. And it has the. The dye in it. And we'd get this slimy river weed, and we would have river weed fights. And, you know, you'd get behind a tree or behind, you know, the bank that maybe had come out, and you would throw. This is how you can determine if you're really in faith. Are you? I remember I was one of the younger cousins, and my older cousins, they weren't afraid of us. They ran after us. We were the ones hiding. We were the ones trying to chuck that riverweed from behind, you know, behind the bank or behind a tree or behind a rock. And they're the ones charging at us. Why? They were bigger, they were stronger, they had a better arm. They knew that just strictly by saying size, we were going to lose. The younger cousins were going to lose. And so this is how you can tell. Are you regurgitating? Are you taking confession and throwing it out there and going and hiding and hoping something has changed? Are you throwing confession out there? And then, okay, well, I don't want to say anything bad. And, you know, you go back to this kind of hidden, worried position, or are you charging because, you know, greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world. World. Bring it on. Bring on that need. Bring on the opposition. Bring on a circumstance because the word is greater, the power is greater, and I'm in the position of victory. Greater is he that's on. On the inside of me than any need that shows up. Greater is he that's in me than any symptom that shows up. And you have to realize we're in the victory position. We're stronger the Devil's not stronger than you lack is not stronger than you. The person you are on the inside. And so when you. If you go, well, am I regurgitating? Am I. Is it revelation to me when you confess? How do you carry out the rest of your day? Is it cautiously? Is it hoping something changes? Is it kind of looking, you know, with hopeful wishes and expectations? Or is it. Are you confessing the word of God? And you go, I'm. I demand. I am expecting. David was demanding that that giant be killed in the name of the Lord. And with that stone. And he. There was no. As you used to talk about, there's no plan B. There was no plan B. He believed that the word of the Lord was going to back him up, the power was going to back him up. And when you believe the power is going to back you up. You're not hiding you. You're not hoping something goes away. You're not afraid of. Didn't matter if you wake up with that need tomorrow or not. Do you know that when you're in faith, you're unmoved by the need? It could be there or not be there. You're not moved. Whether David. Whether Goliath was killed or was talking or was not talking, it didn't matter to David. His plan was still in place. He was not moved by the giant. And so that's what I had in my heart for today, tonight. Do you have anything else?
- [45:57]
B
No, you're done. Phenomenal.
- [46:00]
A
The word of God is phenomenal. And the Holy Ghost is our helper. So I just want you to remember that the word is not just. This is not just pages. This is power to back you up. This is your authority that we read in Psalms, your authority to stand on the word of God. But let's evaluate ourselves. I've been there when you just throw some confession out and you're hoping it's gonna stick and land and that by tomorrow things will be different. When, really when you speak and you know you're in faith and you know you're. You're facing fear head on from your position in faith that you're not moved, whether it's still there or not. And we can lay aside what's unimportant. We can start by rehearsing God's goodness and his faithfulness. And we've always got the name of Jesus and the blood of Jesus to speak and deplete over our households, over our finances, over our bodies. It's by the name that our confession is even valid. It's by the name of Jesus that comes and that stamps our authority with our confession. Amen. So we love you. We can't wait to see you. Church family, we miss you. Friends, we love you. We are so glad that you've been able to join us this evening, and we hope to see you soon. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us at defrainministries. Org to learn of our upcoming meetings. Share your testimony, become a partner or visit our online store. This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of defrain Ministries.