(upbeat music) - Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.

God bless you.

(upbeat music) - It was this year, it's gotta be next year, right?

That's the way you gotta look at it.

Amen, God is doing awesome things at PNEUMA Church.

I mean, this week was beautiful.

We had an awesome night of worship, as always, this past Wednesday.

If you miss it, man, we do it once a quarter.

We would love for everybody just to come and just worship together, man.

That's what it's about.

And yesterday we were able to pour into our leaders and our volunteers.

We had a leader seminar and I believe that they received something from it.

And you know what?

I just wanna make this announcement.

Like if you are looking to serve, don't wait for somebody to ask you.

If you're ready to serve, ask somebody.

Say pastor, I mean, you can ask me, you can ask any of the leaders, any of the pastors, I'm ready to serve, put me in coach.

I don't know what it is yet, but we don't want just a church that attends church, we want a church that serves, right?

Because that's what we are called to be.

The church are the hands and the feet of Jesus, right?

And so we're here not just to receive, we're here to give and we're here to pour into others the way that Christ has poured into us.

So this coming year, if you are involved in anything, I wanna challenge you to get involved in something, amen?

You don't have to preach, you don't have to teach or anything like that, but let's be a serving church, amen?

Praise the Lord.

I wanna take you to the book of 1 Samuel this morning, we're gonna get right into the word.

You don't have to stand just yet, but 1 Samuel 17, it's a very well known passage of scripture, this is the story of David and Goliath, David and Goliath.

But you know, I think it's not so much about David and Goliath, I think it's more a story about David and God, right?

Goliath was just in the way.

He was a character in David's story.

Let me move this, this feels off to me here.

No, I mean, Juan did a great job, where are you bro?

I mean, no offense, you did a great job this morning.

(laughing) It's an inside joke, if you know, you know, if you don't, I won't say it.

But anyways, this, yeah, this is a story, not about David and Goliath, this is a story about what God is doing in the young shepherd boy's life, David, who God is calling to greatness.

And this is a moment in David's story, where things begin to shift.

And you know, as I was thinking about this, a lot of times, the giants that we face in our own lives, we give them way too much credit, man, way too much credit.

It's like we make them a part of our story, whether it be an affliction that you're facing or a problem that you've had since birth, right?

You're giving it a heading, like, you know, that the heading right there in your Bible says David and Goliath, it probably says that, that wasn't added, that wasn't by the author, that was added later on by some of the scribes who were adding the verses and the chapters to the Bible.

But so many times we look at our giants and we give them headings, like me and my divorce, me and my money problems, me and my sickness, right?

Me in this horrible year, me in this horrible 2023.

And I think we just need to begin to shift the narrative from a different perspective.

Like this isn't about me and my debt, it's not about me and my divorce or me and my brokenness, this is about me and God and everything else is just a minor character in what God is trying to do in my life.

I think when you begin to realize that life isn't about the problems that you're facing, it's about how God is taking you through it, it's gonna give you a whole new sense of peace and understanding and confidence that you've never known before because you'll start to wake up not even looking at your problems, you're gonna know that they're there, but you're gonna look at God and say, man, God, you are here with me through all of this.

That's what it's about.

And that's what God is wanting to teach us.

This is about you and me, this is a love story.

I sent my only son to die for you in the midst of sin, in the midst of darkness, in the midst of evil.

It wasn't about that, it was about you and me and look how I prevailed.

And if Jesus did that on the cross, he can do it for your brokenness, for your broken marriage, for anything, amen.

In the story of David and Goliath, everybody was worried about Goliath except for David.

Everybody, like, you know, this was this massive human warrior, he challenged the people of God, the army of Israel, and he taught them and he says, bring me a man who is worthy to fight me.

Bring me a man who is worthy to fight me and instead of a man, God sends a boy.

And he defeats the giant.

And with that, I wanna ask that you stand as we read verse 32.

If you have it, 1 Samuel 17, verse 32, it says, I'm reading from the NLT.

It says, don't worry about this Philistine, David told Saul.

I'll fight him.

Don't be ridiculous, Saul replied.

There's no way that you can fight this Philistine and possibly win, you're only a boy and he's been a man of war since his youth.

But David persisted, I have been taking care of my father's sheep and my goats.

And he said, when a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth.

If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death.

I have done this both to the lions and the bears and I will do this to this pagan Philistine too, for he has defied the armies of the living God.

The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine.

And Saul finally consented.

All right, go ahead, he said.

And may the Lord be with you.

Then Saul gave David his own armor, a bronze helmet and a coat of mail.

And David put it on and strapped the sword over it and he took a step or two to see what it was like, before he had never worn such things before.

I can't go in these, he protested to Saul.

I'm not used to them.

So David took them off and he picked up five smooth stones from a stream and put them into his shepherd's bag.

And then armed only with his shepherd's staff and a sling, he started across the valley to fight the Philistine.

Amen.

Let's pray real quick.

Heavenly Father, I thank you my God for your word.

My God, I thank you my God, because we know that it is, it is transformative, Father God.

We know, Lord, that it has the power to cut, Father.

And I just pray that it would do that this morning, Father God, that you would speak to us, Holy Spirit.

You would convict us, my God.

I pray that you would encourage us and build us up with your word, Father.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen, you can take your seat.

I entitled the sermon this morning, Unfit.

Unfit.

'Cause I think that perfectly sums up the life of David beginning with his call.

I mean, he was always unfit.

He was unfit to be presented to the prophet Samuel when Samuel was looking to anoint the next king.

He was unfit to fight Goliath.

And he was even unfit to wear the armor and hold the sword to fight Goliath.

There's a lot that God does in us, church, that doesn't seem suitable for the type of people we are.

You know what I'm saying?

Like God will call you to things that are just not you, because if they were you, then you might be tempted to take the credit for it, right?

So instead, God calls people to things that are uncomfortable so that he may receive the glory.

I don't know if you've experienced that or not, but God will call you to things that are uncomfortable and you're like, this is just, it's not me.

I'm convinced that the Holy Spirit, just for kicks, likes to prompt introverts to give somebody the good news of the gospel.

'Cause it happens too many times to me.

And I remember sometime, it was last year, I was down the street, I was at this coffee shop, and there was a few people in the restaurant, in the coffee shop, and out of nowhere, out of nowhere, it's like this, I've never heard God's audible voice, but when you hear God, you know it's him.

And because it's like God is speaking to your spirit.

So out of nowhere, I was there minding my own business, I wanted to give me some coffee, as I do every day at around three o'clock.

And I was there, and out of nowhere, I hear the words, somebody in here needs to hear Jesus loves them.

And I was like, well God, you better give somebody else.

'Cause that's not me, that's not me, right?

I think that's intimidating even for extroverts, like just getting up there to a random stranger and say, hey, Jesus loves you.

And what if they're not even the wrong person to you?

It's like, I wasn't that guy, I was the other guy.

Then you're embarrassed.

And so like, I remember telling God, God, that's not me, brother Larry, Larry could do that.

My uncle David, man, he would go all day, he'll talk someone's ear off, right?

But that's not me.

And I remember, I didn't even get my coffee, I left, man, I was too uncomfortable.

I had to go to a different coffee shop.

And I was wrong, I was disobedient.

Because I know, I know that God doesn't care about what makes you uncomfortable, right?

Because he wants to be your comfortable.

That's what he wants.

He wants you to be so confident in who he is in you that you are okay with not being you.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, and people tell me all the time, in fact, somebody just told me this past Friday, they say, Pastor, you're a different person when you're preaching.

You're off the stage, you're a little bit more reserved, you're a little bit more serious, a little bit more quiet, a little bit more awkward.

But on stage, you're totally different person.

And it's because when I'm on stage, man, this isn't me, man.

This is the Word of God through me, and I am confident preaching it because I know it and I've lived it.

This is the Holy Spirit telling me, I got you, don't worry about a thing.

A few months ago, this lady, I was attending this like business social gathering.

And right away, social gathering and me don't really mix well.

But she had heard that I was a pastor.

By the end of the meeting, she came up to me, she said, so you're a pastor, so that means you preach.

And I'm like, yeah, that's what we do, we preach.

I preach every week.

And she said, the one thing that I hate when people say, she said, I can't even imagine you preaching 'cause you're so quiet.

I hate that.

I hate when people tell me I'm quiet.

Like I wanna tell them, you talk too much, man.

Can't even think with you around, right?

(congregation laughing) But she was like, it's so amazing, really.

I gotta, that must be a sight to see, right?

It's almost as if she was telling me, I'm unfit to be a preacher.

That's what she was telling me.

You're unfit to be a preacher.

You don't look the part.

It doesn't seem like you would make a good preacher because I don't really hear you talk that much.

And I was thinking about David in the eyes of people, David, he was unfit to be a warrior and he was unfit to be king.

And yet the Bible calls him to both those things.

Against all the odds and all the naysayers and all the haters, David knew who he was in God and who God was in him.

And nobody could convince him otherwise.

And I just, I wanna preach to you this morning real quick.

If you're a child of God, anybody a child of God?

Everybody here, you are a child of God.

And I want you to know that that means something.

That has certain implications as a child of God.

That means that God is mindful of you.

It means that he will never leave you.

He will never forsake you.

It means that he will walk with you in the valley.

It means that he is working in you and through you and on you.

It means that he hears that prayer and he knows your need.

As a child of God, you have to walk in that confidence.

Because I don't know if it's just me, but sometimes I think that people walk around, Christians walk around not really sure if God sees them or hears them.

Because what we do is we listen to all of the noise around us.

We listen to the people who have no idea what God has shown us.

Or we focus on the things that we've been praying against, but they're still there.

We need that David confidence that says, if something is in the way of where God has told me he was gonna take me, if there is something blocking my God-given vision, it means that I just gotta keep moving forward and trusting that God is going to make a way.

Because this is not a story about me and my giant.

This is not a story about me and the Red Sea.

It's not a story about me and the fiery furnace.

It's not about me and the lion's den.

This is about me and my God walking with me everywhere that I go.

(congregation applauding) That's what it's about.

Tell the person next to you, God writes my story.

Only God writes my story.

That's easy to say, but how many of us believe it?

Only God writes my story.

Because I've seen too many people, man, let other people or let circumstances write the story for them.

And so for example, there's people who struggle with money their entire adult lives, that they eventually get to a point where they just accept it not even as their reality, but as their being.

This is just who I am.

I'm broke and I'm always gonna be broke.

My daddy was broke, my mama was broke, my grandpa was broke.

I'm broke, my kids are gonna be broke.

I'm not fit for home ownership.

I'm not fit for excellent credit.

This is who I am.

And so in turn, that's what you walk in.

That's what you walk in.

And because you walk in and you're always angry, because you just see everything is so hopeless.

David had a lot of people in his life telling him what he was and what he was not.

When David went down to meet his brothers at the campgrounds where the Israelites were fighting because David was a shepherd boy and Jesse, his father, he says, "Go, take this little," I don't know what you wanna call it, "make up a food, torta or tamales or whatever.

"Take this down to your brothers "who are fighting in the army.

" And so David goes and he takes a little mochila and he's walking down to meet his brothers.

And so David, to me, David probably, he was probably like an extrovert.

I just kind of imagine like that.

He's probably getting everybody's business.

Like, "Who's this guy?

"Who's this giant over there?

"What is he saying?

" And his oldest brother, Eliab, this is verse 28, he gets upset with David.

He says this, "Now Eliab, his eldest brother heard "when he spoke to the men "and his anger was kindled against David.

"And he said, 'Why have you come down?

"'And with whom have you left so few sheep "'in the wilderness?

"'I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, "'for you have come down to see the battle.

'" So David had brothers telling him that he wasn't good enough.

He had a father who didn't think that he was king material.

Saul didn't think that he could fight the Philistines.

So David could have listened to all the people in his life and he could have just stayed stuck in that same spot, that same mindset, thinking, "Well, I'm only ever gonna be fit to tend the sheep "because I'm not tall enough and I'm not strong enough "and I'm not built enough for anything else.

" But David had a revelation about himself that nobody else had.

And I'm not even talking about the revelation that he was gonna be king because even his brothers had that revelation.

I'm talking about the revelation that David had that he could fight the giant and actually win.

The only one who knew that if I fight this Philistine, he's going down.

And so David says, or when David says, "Well, I'll fight the giant, I'll do it.

" Everyone's like, "David, you're tripping, man.

"You don't know what you're saying.

"You're a little too confident, you're a little too cocky.

"'Cause you're just a boy.

"You're just a boy.

" I remember people telling me, "I'm just a boy.

" When I first started pastoring, "You're just a boy.

" I still get a little upset when I think about that hermano.

(congregation laughing) If you know the story, it was like my second week pastoring and I'm in the Spanish service, so you know, all of these men, I go to shake the hand of about four men and these men, I mean, I never pastored them, man.

They were pastored by my dad and by my grandfather.

They're older men, but I get to them, I shake their hand and every single one of them calls me pastor and that just meant something for me.

Like it just, it affirmed me in their eyes and I was very grateful for it, but I get to this last guy.

This last guy who was only, he was the only one who voted against me.

I get to him, everybody's like, "Pastor, pastor, pastor.

" And he calls me muchacho.

Muchacho, like little boy, like a little punk is basically what he told me.

And it hurt me, but that's probably what David was feeling, man.

Everybody's saying, "You're just a boy.

" And Goliath, this is a real deal.

This is a champion of war.

Not even our best soldiers are wanting to fight him.

Goliath, he was trained for this.

That's what they tell him.

He was trained for this.

Since he was eight years old, he's been a man of warfare.

And David says, "Well, I was trained too.

"I didn't go to school to learn it.

"I wasn't in the military to learn it.

"I didn't learn it from a private coach.

"I learned it in the service of God.

" That's a different type of training.

That's a different, and let me tell you church, man, God will teach you some things in his service that you cannot learn from anybody else.

Like I tell people all the time, there's two ways to know God.

The first one is intellectually.

So that's knowing God through his word, through theology.

This is very important because it provides the foundation on how we approach God, right?

Without the intellectual peace, you get really bad theology, and bad theology leads to misunderstanding of who God is and who Jesus is.

And instead of saying, "Father God," you're saying, "Our mother God," right?

It's like crazy stuff like that.

This is very important to know God intellectually.

And so we study the scriptures and we read the word.

But the other one is equally important, and I think a lot of people miss it.

And that's knowing God relationally.

And so I can tell you to have faith when you're going through the fire because that's what the Bible tells us to do.

It tells us to have faith.

And I can preach to you, and you can take all the notes, and you're learning all these things intellectually on what you should do, but you're never really going to learn how to have faith until you are walking with God in a situation that requires it.

You know what I'm saying?

Like it's great if you can quote Matthew 17, 20, if you have the faith, the size of mustard seed, you can tell this mountain to move from here to there, and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you.

Good for you if you can quote scripture, but until you're actually standing at the bottom of that mountain with God on your side, you haven't learned anything yet.

God will teach you things in his service when you are in relationship with him that no one else can teach you.

No conference, no seminar, no pastor, no teacher.

The things God really wants you to learn, he will take you out of the classroom and into real life so that you learn what you could not learn in the classroom.

This is why they say God doesn't call the qualified.

Doesn't call the qualified.

Sometimes we think that we can qualify ourselves into the calling of God.

And so I always thought it was a little odd when I would hear people majoring in pastoral studies.

My obvious question was, oh, you must be called to ministry.

Oh, I'm not really sure what I wanna do yet.

And I'm thinking, I'm trying not to judge, but I'm like, I am judging, right?

Because I think a lot of times we think that we can qualify ourselves into the calling and God does it the other way around.

He qualifies those that he calls.

And so I think this is a perfect example of this, David, because David wasn't trained for war, but yet unbeknownst to David, he was being trained and prepared for this moment to fight Goliath in the humility of his servanthood.

And so David goes into storyteller mode, right?

Testimony time.

He says, well, I remember, I remember when I was doing the Lord's work as a shepherd, I was tending the flock.

It was just any old day.

And I remember there was a lion prowling at the corner who came to attack my sheep.

And he actually took one with him in his mouth and I had to go and run after him.

In fact, there was another time when a bear came and he did the same thing.

And it wasn't always a matter of me just waving my staff around to scare off the animal.

Sometimes the animal would come against me and I would have to fight it.

I would have to step in and fight it with my hands and my fists.

And so maybe I'm not trained in military combat, but I have had my share of the victories in my service to the Lord.

And sometimes we don't even realize, church, that when we are in the act of serving the Lord and we are faithful and we're humbled and we're consistent and we show up and we serve, we wonder why God allows the lions and the bears to attack us.

And we say, Lord, why is it always something?

Why am I always being attacked by my enemies?

Why is there always a test?

And I've been faithful to you and I've been serving you, but there's always something.

We don't realize that God might be preparing us for a future battle that he intends for us to win.

That faith that is being stretched today is gonna come in handy later, man.

You're gonna look back and you're gonna say, man, if I survive that, if I survive 2023, I can survive this.

David said, if I could beat the lion, if I could kill the bear, I will destroy this Philistine.

Because David had a revelation that nobody else had.

And this is really what I wanna press in on this morning because I know that God has said things to you.

I know that he has said things to you, that he has not said to anybody else.

He has shown you things, he's given you dreams, like Joseph type of dreams, dreams that if you were to share with other people, they might look at you funny.

Dreams, can I tell you that I've got dreams that even make me uncomfortable.

Because I'm like, God, there's no way.

And when I dream about it, I think maybe that's just me dreaming, maybe that's my own selfish ambition.

And so you got dreams that God has given you that make you uncomfortable.

And there's always that voice in the back of your head saying, you're unfit, you're unfit, you're unfit.

You're not educated enough, you're not smart enough, you're not influential enough.

You don't have all that money for everything that you wanna do.

Abram had to be saying, I'm unfit to be a father of nations, I don't even have one child.

Moses said, I'm unfit to speak to Pharaoh and to the Israelites because I have a stuttering problem.

Jeremiah said, I am unfit to be a prophet to the nations because I'm just a boy.

Again, I know people were saying about me that I was just a boy when I started to lead pastor.

People might be telling you, you're not fit to lead women, you're not fit to lead men, you're not fit to disciple others.

Your situation might have you convinced that you are not fit to serve in church.

But listen, if God has spoken to you something in your quiet place, and he has shown you something in your solitude, and the Holy Spirit has put something inside of you that burns your heart, don't let anyone or anything offer a commentary on your life.

Because they weren't there when God spoke to you.

They weren't there when God showed you how it was gonna happen, they weren't there when God prepared you.

When you are walking in relationship with God, nobody, nobody has a perspective that you have.

Your relationship with God is your relationship with God, it's nobody else's.

Nobody else's.

For those who were here back in 2019 when the church voted me as the lead pastor, you might remember the first thing I said.

After I said thank you, I said, I'm not Pastor Juan Cantu, I'm not Pastor Joe Salazar, this is just, I'm just me, right?

And I said that because I knew that eventually things were gonna begin to shift and to change, not because the old ways were bad, but because new seasons sometimes call for new methods.

And so I could only bring to the table what I had to bring to the table, I wasn't going to be anybody else, because I knew what God showed me regarding this ministry and regarding the leadership, I know what God showed me regarding the name PNEUMA and what we were gonna be a people about, and I was excited, but I was also anxious.

Because I knew that some people were going to expect me to do things their way.

When they finally said, all right, you can, all right, let's give 'em a shot, but you're gonna do things our way.

And that's how it happens so many times.

When you begin to walk into what God has shown you.

You know, for those, I'll speak for the newer Christians because I know that we have 'em.

For the newer Christians, man, you still have a lot of friends that are calling you every weekend, saying, where you at, man?

Where you been?

Let's go.

Let's go party.

Let's go.

And they keep calling you.

And when you finally start to show them who God is calling you to be, 'cause you have to tell 'em, man.

You gotta let 'em know, you gotta break the new season sometime.

Hey, I'm in a relationship with Jesus.

I gotta, can't be the same anymore.

You gotta let 'em know.

And when they finally say, okay, whatever, they're still going to try to mold you into what they want you to be.

So I saw this repeatedly with my friends and family members in particular who were trying to serve the Lord.

They were always in and out.

And they would avoid, they would try to avoid certain relationships that they knew were not good for them, but at the same time, they miss those people because when God calls you out of the world, you still have people that you love.

And you gotta be careful about those relationships.

You don't wanna completely sever them, but you do have to be careful.

And because I would see this a lot where they would go back to those relationships because they just wanted one night just to hang out and to catch up with their friends.

And their old friends would say, hey, just a few drinks.

You can still go to church tomorrow.

Just go to 11 o'clock service.

You can, Jesus ain't gonna be mad.

Just let yourself loose for the night.

But you have to understand, you have to understand that people may finally accept this new you, but they're still trying to fit you into their mold.

But if it's God who called you, listen, if it's God who called you, it's God who has to mold you.

It's gotta be God who gives you the resources and his armor to fight.

So when David was finally given the shot, right, he made his case.

He's like, hey, God prepared me for this.

Saul says, all right, go ahead.

(speaking in foreign language) He says, Lord be with you.

And what does he do?

The text says, this is verse 38, he says, then Saul gave David his own armor and David put it on and he strapped a sword over it and he took a step or two to see what it was like, for he had never worn such things before.

And he says, I can't go in these.

I'm not used to them.

So if God calls unfit people, that means that the normal methods won't fit either.

Within the first month of me being a pastor, a lady said to me, you're a pastor now, you need to be wearing suits.

I love me a good suit, but I don't wanna be expected to wear a suit every single Sunday.

We live in Houston.

I'd be wearing shorts on Sunday if I could.

And if I give in to this, well then I'm gonna have to be expected to preach a certain way and lead a certain way and minister a certain way.

And I'm not saying that we should be rebellious and it's not good to listen to wise counsel and it's not good to be held accountable, but we need to know when we're in danger of putting on the wrong armor that God never intended for us to wear.

If David was gonna be David in battle, he needed to be David the shepherd.

He wasn't gonna be David the soldier because David wasn't a soldier.

He needed to do the things that God prepared him to do in the way that God prepared him to do it.

I tell people all the time when they say that they're called to preach, and if you think that you're called to preach, listen to this, sometimes you don't know where to start, you don't know how to gather your thoughts, you don't know how to start a sermon.

I tell them, I don't really know where do you start, but I can tell you this, when you start preaching, you're gonna be tempted to sound like all the other preachers.

You're gonna be tempted to adopt certain preaching styles of your favorite preachers, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with taking good pointers from people, but you gotta preach the way that God has called you to preach.

God already has a TD Jakes.

He don't need me to be TD Jakes.

He needs me to be me.

He needs me to say what I need to say.

God wants you to preach what he is telling you, right?

And so that's the type of preacher you gotta be, man, and sometimes people aren't gonna like it, and they're gonna walk up and they're gonna leave, but if God really called you to preach the gospel, it's because he knows that there's gonna be people in your life who will listen to you, and those people need the gospel.

I'm not everybody's preacher.

I'm not everybody's cup of tea.

If man's armor doesn't fit, don't wear it.

Don't try to fit yourself into it.

Don't try to faha your way into it, you know?

(congregation laughing) Because look, God has put his own protection over you.

You don't need anybody else's armor.

The text says that David picked up, says that David picked up five rocks, rocks, and he put 'em in his shepherd's bag.

Man, I wish I could have been there just to witness how it went down, you know?

Like David's about to fight Goliath, this man of war, and Saul puts his armor on and the sword, and David's like, "Nah, I can't really go in this.

" And so he goes outside to the corner, and he kneels down like a little boy, and he's looking at rocks.

No, that was not good.

Oh, this was nice, and he puts in a little fanny pack, and he's like, "All right, let's do this.

" And it's so, right?

It's unfit.

If you were looking at David, you're already saying your goodbyes.

Pobrecito, that boy is about to get crushed.

He's bringing guns to a sword fight, I'm sorry, rocks to a sword fight.

And even Goliath, he looks at him funny, he says, "Man, am I a dog that you come at me "with rocks and a stick?

" See, it would have been normal for David to use the sword.

That was the weapon of choice, right?

That was the weapon that everybody else was using, and so it makes sense to use it.

And I just, man, I just hope that the Holy Spirit is speaking directly into your situation this morning, because I know that this can apply to a lot of things, but what is that weapon of choice that you've been using that looks like what everybody else expects you to be using, but God never told you to touch it?

What is it?

What are you relying on?

What is that weapon of choice?

People, listen, Pastor Danny even spoke on this this morning was, again, I'm not surprised, but people have influence.

We have influence.

The people that you hang around with, they have influence.

And so, you know, I know for a fact, man, I'm convinced that if you were to spend a week with nothing but pastors, like at a pastors conference, and you were just around pastors, and you were seeing how, man, these pastors, they're good people, they're real people.

They're not weird, they're real people.

And they're always talking about pastoral ministry and all the good stuff that God is doing in their church.

If you're hanging around that, you might be tempted to project their calling onto yourself, because you're just around it.

You're just around it.

If you begin to surround yourself with business owners, people who will have a lot of resources, and assets, you might be inspired to become a business owner.

Whatever room you're in, too many times we conform to.

We conform to.

And so, sometimes you have to be conscious of that.

There was a time where I was in a room full of, man, there's people with just these prophetic gifts, and these gifts of divine healing, and here I am, I'm just a pastor.

I mean, what if I started going out the next day pretending to have this calling just because I was inspired to have it?

You conform to the rooms that you're in.

And so, this is why when some people go back to their old friendships, they stumble right away back into their own ways, because people have influence.

And so, when everybody else was using a sword, David was expected to use a sword.

Now, I wanna go back to the point that I made earlier, that you need to be confident in who you are, and in who God is in you.

I'm gonna say that again.

You have to be confident in who you are in God, and who God is in you, okay?

Because if you don't have that confidence, you're not gonna get very far.

You're just gonna try to fit into something that does not fit.

If David didn't have the confidence, he might have chosen the wrong weapon for him.

And everybody would have applauded him.

Yes, good job, David, yes, that's a good sword.

But I love David's response to Goliath, because he doesn't say, "You come at me with the sword, "and I come at you with rocks.

" What does it say?

Verse 45, it tells the giant, "You come to me with a sword, "and with a spear, and with a javelin, "but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, "the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

" He says, "I'm not coming to you with the sword or with rocks, "I'm coming to you in the name of God who called me.

"I am coming to you in the name of God "who anointed me to be king.

"I am coming to you in the name of God Almighty.

"You are just in the way, Goliath.

" That's the confidence that we need if God called me.

Doesn't matter what type of weapon I'm bringing, I am coming in the name of God.

I'm gonna have the worship team come up, I'm almost finished.

But the things, and I want you to get this, this last point, the things that look like giants in your life, maybe you're trying to get rid of the wrong way.

You're trying to get rid of them the wrong way.

And you've tried every way known to man to fix it, but you haven't done it God's way.

I'm reminded of the demon-possessed boy that confronted the apostles, you know that story?

So this father brings his son to the disciples, he's actually looking for Jesus, Jesus isn't around, and the disciples say, "Well okay, well, "we've seen Jesus do this before.

"We've seen him cast out demons many times.

"I think we can handle it.

" And so they're there and they're working with this boy and they use every method they know to try, but they cannot cast out the demon.

And Jesus comes down from the mountain and he's like, he does it with nothing, and what does he tell his disciples?

This kind of spirit is cast out through prayer and fasting.

And I want you to understand this, because Jesus didn't confront the boy and immediately go into a 40-day fast in prayer.

He didn't tell the father, "Just give him 40 days, I'll be right back.

" He was already prayed up.

He was already in communion with the father.

So going back to what I said earlier, the disciples were coming at it from an intellectual source of power.

Jesus came at it with a relational source of power.

(congregation murmuring) It's not about the formula, it's not about what you say, it's not about how you say it, it's about the one whom the power comes.

And maybe the giant, I want you to get this, maybe the giant that you're facing isn't a mountain of debt, maybe it's the lack of faith that it brings you when you look at the bills and you open it up and you don't know how you're gonna pay it.

Maybe that's the giant.

And so you're trying to put out a faith problem with more jobs and pay raises and lottery tickets because you think that's gonna solve it and Jesus is saying, "This kind is done with a whole other method.

" (congregation cheering) Man, I wish I could see things from a divine perspective all the time.

I wish we could see things in the spiritual.

I think, man, if we could just go a little bit deeper, beyond the surface, beyond what's in front of us, beyond that artificial giant, we will see what God really wants us to see.

God isn't concerned with the things that you're calling giants.

God is concerned with fulfilling His plan in your life.

The psalmist said, "The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me.

" That is what He is concerned with.

And God's purpose will include faith and trust and joy and peace and hope and restoration and love and compassion and being built into the maturity of the faith, being sanctified daily.

That is what God is worried about for you.

Stop calling the problems giants.

Stop making the weaknesses a part of your identity.

They're not giants.

They're just in the way of your purpose.

We need people of God who say, "I come to you in the name of the God who formed me "and called me and prepared me and anointed me "and knew me before my mother knew me.

"I will not be beaten down by the circumstances "or by the people who think I don't belong here.

" God writes my story.

God writes my story.

Not you, Goliath.

You're just in the way.

You're big, but you're about to go down.

You're big, but my God is bigger.

God writes my story.

And if God thinks that you're fit, church, no one else could say otherwise.

If God has called you, if God has called you, don't doubt it.

Sometimes God speaks to us in ways that it makes us wonder if God is really speaking.

I know it does.

I wanna challenge you to begin hearing the voice, the rema, word of God in your life.

Yes, understand who he is intellectually, but go deeper into a relationship and you will begin to know him in a whole new way.

I was thinking the other day, and I don't really even know how this ties into the sermon, but we'll see if it works.

My dad, he often tells this testimony of how he got saved.

He was attending a revival, a campaña, a service.

I think he was, what, 20, maybe 23 years old.

He was young.

And he comes and doesn't know anything about Jesus, doesn't know anything about the Lord.

Grew up in sin and worldliness.

And the way that he tells the story is so beautiful, man.

I love it.

I just have this picture in my head of how it went down.

But he said that he was at the altar one day and he said, "Lord, if you're real, touch me.

Lord, if you're real, touch me.

" And he said that he felt this hand on his shoulder and he looked back and nobody was there.

And I know 100% he believes that God touched him.

But I've been wanting to talk to him about this 'cause I kinda wanna offer my own commentary, my own perspective on it.

Because God uses people for his glory.

100% God was the one who touched him.

But I just wonder if there was someone at the altar who's hearing the word of God, saying, "I want you to go touch that man's shoulder.

" I know that I've been prompted to do some weird stuff at the altar.

Stuff that I'm like, "God, why?

It doesn't make sense.

You just want me to go and touch this man's shoulder and just walk away?

Like, you don't want me to pray for him?

I just want you to touch his shoulder and walk away.

" Why?

Because the prayer was, "God, if you're real, touch me.

" What if there was a man who in obedience said, "Okay, I'll do it.

" And he goes by and he touches the shoulder of my dad and he walks away.

And God knew that when he turned back, he wasn't gonna see anybody there.

And he was gonna be convinced that God touched him.

And I want you to understand this because this doesn't take the power away from the story.

God touched him.

God touched him by prompting somebody else, a human agent.

And I just wonder, man, like how equally beautiful is it that this man, my dad, who got saved after asking God to touch him, this other man doesn't even know the power of his obedience in that moment, just hearing the voice of God and responding, even maybe after questioning himself, even after questioning God and saying, "God, that doesn't make sense.

I don't think I'm the right God to do it.

Maybe get the pastor to do it.

No, I want you to do it.

" (gentle music) God will call us to things that don't make sense, that doesn't look like it's gonna fit.

But then when we stepped into it, God has his way and it's something glorious and it's something beautiful.

Stop telling yourself, God, it doesn't fit because if God is telling you, it does.

Step out in faith.

God has called you.

He has called you.

He is speaking to you.

He has given you that dream.

He's given you that voice.

He's given you that prayer that you pray repeatedly.

You don't even know why you're praying it.

You don't even know why you're praying it, but it's something in your spirit and you pray it every single night.

You pray it every single day over your children.

You're like, "I don't even know why I'm praying this.

Where is this coming from?

" It's coming from the Holy Spirit.

And in your obedience, you're submitting to him because God is doing something.

And I want you to stand.

And I want us to have a moment in the presence of God beyond the intellect, beyond the stuff that makes sense.

And I want us to confront.

I want us to confront some obstacles this way that are just in the way.

They're just in the way.

God is calling you for more.

God is calling you to bear fruit.

He is calling you to raise children in the Lord.

And there's something in the way right now that is threatening your own relationship with God.

And God is saying, "If you just push through this moment, if you just push through this moment, there's gonna be somebody down the line.

There's gonna be someone in your lineage who is gonna be a great man or a woman of God.

But it starts with you defeating what this thing is in front of you.

It begins with you defeating this thing that you're calling the giant.

" - Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mynumachurch.

org.

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe or share it with your friends on social media and tag us @mynumachurch.

Thanks again and God bless.

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