Welcome to Rock Harbor Church's channel on Sermon Audio. We hope this message is a blessing to you and helps you in your daily walk with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So please settle in and grab your Bibles. Here's Pastor Brandon with this message. So all the dads in here, would you please stand up so we can give you a round of applause? Where are the dads at, man? Awesome. We thank you guys. for your leadership and your family. God bless you. And here's the thing, you're the backbone for the family and society, and we are now under attack because of our wokeness here in America and around the world. It's just, I can't believe what they're doing, but we're gonna stand against it until we're finally called home, because this is ridiculous. The attack on men is unrelenting, and the toxic masculinity thing that they're trying to push on our young guys, our young single guys, it's working, they're buying into it. So you're noticing the younger generations are not as masculine anymore. They don't have the courage that the previous generations have. They're feminine in nature because our school systems taught them to be that way. And because of that, there is a deficit in leadership in the world. And so what I wanted to talk about today, I'm gonna take a break in Daniel and segue into a Father's Day message and I think I got too deep into it, so I'm probably gonna have to break it up in two parts, because it's the story of David and Goliath, and I wanted to do this for Father's Day, but as I got into it again, it's gonna have to go part two, too, on this one. So anyway, we're gonna study the story of David and Goliath. Now, it's a quintessential example of, what a leader should do. And the principles I'm gonna give you, ladies, it'll apply to you as well, but there's principles in there for men to see that shows men what to do in situations where we're facing enemies specifically. And here's the thing, are we in a battle? Oh yeah, you better believe we're in a battle. It's a huge battle. And so what I've entitled this is how a spiritual warrior fights against an enemy. And as you know, I don't have to go too far, we're in a war. They just are gonna arrest, I think they did arrest her, Simone Gold, and she's gonna go away for I think 60 days now. Why? Because she was talking in the Capitol. And again, they've turned this January 6th in some major insurrection, and it's not, they won't do anything about Black Lives Matter or Antifa, but these people who walked through the Capitol peacefully, some of them did, some of them, there was plants, by the way, FBI had plants in there. You can see pictures of the guys, they all dressed the same, they looked the same. It was a total setup, guys, a complete setup. But anyway, she was in the Capitol, she's gonna be arrested for so-called insurrection and domestic terrorism. But again, what's happening with January 6th, the left is targeting political enemies, and she is a big political enemy to them from the medical side, right, for what she's trying to do. So we realize we're in a war, right? How about this? Biden signs Trojan horse executive order taking aim at Christians' time-honored American values. So basically, what he signed in the end of the executive order is a ban against conversion therapy. And conversion therapy is counseling someone out of the homosexual and lesbian lifestyle through Christ. So a guy like locally, like Phillip Lee, couldn't do conversion therapy. Or neither could any licensed therapist. They already have that in California, but it's gonna go, they wanted to do it federal. He also, they're targeting laws that protect children from groomers, particularly DeSantis. And DeSantis, you know, protecting children that you can't teach sexual education to kindergartners in first and through third. And so it goes to target that. because they want to reverse that. They do want to sexualize our kids. They are grooming our kids. That's the intent. And then Biden's gonna make it illegal or tries to make it illegal for sports to ban transgender boys from competing in girls sports. I mean, it's insane. And then with foster care and adoption agencies, you're not gonna be able to adopt if you're gonna adopt according to your Christian values and hold those things in your policies and whatnot. So that being the case, I mean, there'll probably be lawsuits and stuff, but again, it just shows you their mindset. Their mindset is to attack, attack, attack. How about this? We're going to see Krishnal night if we're not careful with what is going to happen with the Supreme Court ruling. And there are already 41 documented cases of churches and pro-life organizations being physically attacked, their property crimes and other criminal mischief. I got an email from Aaron down at the Bakersfield Pregnancy Center. and they're asking people to pray for them at the Bakersfield Pregnancy Center because they believe they're gonna get targeted at this point. Once the Supreme Court, it probably will overrule it. Then they promise, they promise destruction. They promise kind of a crystal knock. night where they go on just rage. So we could have a summer of riots because of all of this. You've already seen them targeting people. They already arrested one guy that was planning to kill, I think Kavanaugh, right? It's insane. Activists uses Florida parental rights bills the census bill to demand schools ban and burn the Bible I mean this is this is the culture guys. This is the fight You know who would ever thought in America that people want to burn the Bible and ban it. That's communist. That's atheism That's that's evil right progressive propaganda campaign to marginalize and discredit believers in Christ so now People like me are called Christian nationalists, okay? We're called extremists, white supremacists, hateful, divisive, violent. Violent, why? Oh, because we hold to the Second Amendment. That makes you violent, right? Our words of truth make you violent. And so you have to see where the culture is going. The target is you and I. You have to understand that. DC elementary school asked four-year-olds to identify racist family members. Yeah, they're using your kids. If you send your kids to these crazy public schools, they're gonna turn your kids against you. They're wanting the kids to identify their racist mom and dad, or whatever, you know, their homophobic mom and dad. It just doesn't end. Miss Universe pageant trounced for claiming that men can menstruate. I mean, it's ridiculous, right? Are we even having that conversation? But the war on women is very real, right? Disney's big gay light year is the latest woke box office flop, and thank God for that. You know, that no one's really going to see it because it's so wrapped up in Disney's wokeness that no one wants to subject their kids to that filth. It's sodomy, I'm sorry. That's Sodom and Gomorrah stuff. So I hope they go bankrupt, actually. I pray Disney goes bankrupt. I hope Disney would just go away. They're just a bunch of leftists. Now, here's the thing I'm gonna show you. This has got another, a puke factor, okay? But I wanna show you this because I want you to understand that when we say we're in a real war, we're in a real war. This is, our country is divided. and our churches are divided now, and it's not that I wanna unite with these people, no, but when division is happening, schisms or whatever in the culture, it's because of evil, evil divides. Now, this is Pride Month in our country, and it's everywhere, right? We're celebrating sodomy. That's really what we're celebrating, not you and me, but the culture is celebrating sodomy. So it's not just the outside, guys, it's on the inside. And like I have told you, it's not just one random thing, one little church in North Dakota doing this. It's everywhere. This is the new trend. I've never seen something change so fast to where now this is acceptable, okay? Watch the video and make sure you don't puke in your mouth. okay that's perfect this is their church services all right why we fly the rainbow which leg is that it's the pride flag do you need the book are you gonna read the i can do it from there too i think well you can read the book they're not even organized where is pride pride is in a place it's a feeling of being proud the pride flag represents being proud of who you are We fly to show pride and support of our LGBTQ friends and the whole LGBTQ community. That's a lot of letters. What does LGBTQ mean? LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bi, trans, and queer. I don't know what any of those words. Let's start with gay. Someone who's gay is attracted to people who are the same gender as them, like a man who's attracted to a man, or a lady who's attracted to a lady. Okay, I can't take anymore. That's going on in the church. That's a church service. I mean, they look like a junior high play, you know, a circus, but have we really reached that point? Yeah, because you're in a fight. You're in a battle. And so being in this battle, it requires things of you and I. So that's why I wanna pull this out from David and Goliath and show you the principles there and what you and I need to do. I'm gonna be specifically talking to men today, straight up. So ladies, the principles will apply to you, but for Father's Day, I wanna talk to the guys, okay? This is a famous story, but I'm gonna come at it with an angle about, I wanna show you the leadership in it, and then the lack of leadership in it, and then I'm gonna bring out the typologies in it, okay? So let's start in verse one. This is 1 Samuel chapter 17. Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were gathered at Socah, which belongs to Judah. Notice the underline. What belongs to Judah? Where the Philistines are. So the Philistines are foreigners. They lived in the Gaza area of today in Israel. And they are squatters in the land. And they don't belong there. But look what they're starting to take. They're gathered at Soka, they've taken the Gaza area, and they're taking territory, which belongs to Judah. There's the first principle I wanna point out. Guys, anything you give up and surrender will be taken by the enemy. If you choose to be passive in your leadership, the enemy will take it. Areas of not knowing the Bible the enemy will take it you surrendering your kids to this culture. He'll take them You offer your kids on the sacrifice a sacrificial altar of this society. He'll take them Anything you give up Satan will take And so unfortunately, we enter in a situation of David and Goliath where Israel, under Saul, a bad leader, a passive leader, has given up ground and allowed the Philistines to come in and start staking their ground. Think of what we, not you, but a collective of the church in the last 50 years has given up to the culture. To where we now have transgender gay pride churches, which are nothing but a celebration of sodomy. It's all that is. Because why? The church gave up that ground. We have full-blown Marxism in the church. Why? Because the pastors gave up the ground. For goodness sakes, 62% of the pastors can't figure out their theology. Why are they here? Why are they behind the pulpit? They need to be going at the local car wash, washing cars. That's where they belong, not behind a pulpit. then encamped between Soca and Ezekah in Ephes Damim, the field of blood. The Philistines are camping in the field of blood. What does that mean? It means our enemy is playing for keeps. Our enemy is a death cult. The Philistines are nothing more than a pagan death cult. And that's what our culture is. These rabid murderers that want to murder children in the womb are a death cult. Wolkism is a death cult. That's how bad it is. We are facing Philistines now that are nothing more than wanting to kill people. I'll show you eventually a video from Harari, that advisor to Klaus Schwab, that says AI is gonna basically take all everyone's job, and so the question is, what are we gonna do with all these useless humans? What do you think they're gonna do? It's a field of blood. Our enemy is from the field of blood. Satan is a murderer, and so are his followers. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they camped in the valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. The Philistines stood on the mountains on one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. Now, you can picture this in your head. Maybe I'll show you this on the map. You can picture this. Saul's camp is there. You can see Saqqa in Judah that they have. You have a creek. That's where David will get his stones. And the Philistines' camp is right there. And the middle of that is the Valley of Elah. And if you go to Israel today, and hopefully they can take you to this area, you'll go to the same creek that David got his stones from. And you can see what's happening is Israel is on one side of the mountain, Philistines on another, and in the middle of them is a valley, Elah, the Elah Valley. Now, what is this a picture of? Well, to go back here, what I want you to see is, first of all, the valley is where the fight will be. It's not in the hills, you have to come down to the valley. And the problem is, as you can see, no one's going into the valley. No one is willing to go into that valley. The Israelites and Saul are staying up on the mountainside and they're waiting. Why are they waiting? Well, you'll see in the text why. The clue is they're afraid. Because going into the valley means you have to fight. And that's the key leadership understanding. If you want to be a leader, you have to be willing to engage in the fight. It is not enough to stand on the sidelines in your battle array and watch other people fight. You understand they're in battle array and they won't do anything. They are commanded by God to drive any of these Canaanites and Philistines out of the land. So already they're out of compliance with the command of God. It is not enough for you just to show up. You have to start engaging or you're going to lose ground. You will lose ground in your church. You will lose ground in your family. You will lose ground in your spiritual walk if you don't engage the enemy. That's the problem. That's what's happening to churches now. We've got pastors that won't fight anymore. I don't know why they even come into ministry. I don't even know why they're in. It was comfortable, I guess. And it still is if you don't fight. But when you start fighting, oh, it gets a little rough. Yeah, it does. That's why the Israelites won't go in the valley. They're scared. They don't want to engage. Here's another picture of the valley. You can see all of this and how the battle would have been between the two mountains and the Valley of Elah. And here's what the valley looks like obviously today. Now, let me make a theological point about Israel. That valley belongs to them. Gaza belongs to them. Where the Philistines were camped belongs to them because God gave that to Israel, not only through the Abrahamic covenant, but through the land covenant. And it's still valid today. Make no mistake. The Abrahamic covenant and land covenant still applies today. So the Palestinians are nothing but squatters. Anybody on the West Bank that's not a Jew is a squatter. That's it. And I don't care if people call you a racist or xenophobic, I'm sorry. God gave the land to the Jews. Now, the Jews allow people to live in their land, which is fine, but no one gets to have that land. And unfortunately, Israel today is undermining themselves when they do peace deals and give up their own land. That upsets me because it belongs to them. You don't give away that which belongs to you. Here's another thing. Israel, unfortunately, it's leaders because a lot of their leaders are leftists. Now, when you support Israel, it doesn't mean you support the political aspect of Israel. It means you support their right to the land and you support their existence as a people group, okay? But their government, because they're full of leftists, have the mentality that they can give things away and appease evil by giving more to evil. Let me ask you this. It doesn't take a rocket science to know that. So if you're doing foreign affairs with Israel, what would you tell their cabinet? Hey man, if you give any more land to the Palestinians or the Arabs or the Jordanians, you think that's really going to have peace after that? No, because they just want more. It doesn't appease them. You'll become Neville Chamberlain. You don't appease evil, you show power. Anyway, principle, we must fight the spiritual battle so that we don't lose ground. And that will mean we have to enter the Valley of Elah or the Valley of Fear. You will have to enter that valley. You can't sit on the sidelines anymore. And the thing is, that valley of fear, it is real fear, but you are told 144 times in the Old Testament and New Testament, fear not. Go into the valley. Go into the valley of the shadow of death. Go into the field of blood. Do not fear. 144 times it says that. And a champion, Now, the Hebrew word for champion is where we get the idea of a mediator, okay? A mediator, a mediator between the Philistines and Israel, okay? Now, what you have to understand, as I'm gonna unpack Goliath, is Goliath is a typology. He is a Nephilim, there's no doubt about that, but he is a typology. He points to the Antichrist. Okay? And this champion that's supposedly trying to be a mediator is a typology of the Antichrist trying to be a counterfeit mediator. And he went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath. Goliath's name means to lead into captivity. Interesting. That's in Revelation 13.10. Isn't that weird how Goliath and the phrases point to the book of Revelation. Revelation 1310 is about the Antichrist. Into captivity, those who lead into captivity, into captivity they will go, Revelation 1310. The point is this about his name. If you lose, if you surrender to the Philistines or to this Goliath type of figure, which points to the Antichrist, you will be his slave. If you refuse to fight, you will become his slave. And if he wins, you will be a slave to him. Christ rescued us from the slavery of sin and death, the slavery to Satan. Our master was Satan before we got saved. We didn't even know it, but we were. We're enslaved to him and sin and death. And Christ freed us. But unfortunately, people put themselves back into slavery because they won't fight. And so Goliath's name says, I will lead you into captivity. I will enslave you. What are they trying to do to us now? What do the globalists want? They want to enslave us. It's not for our betterment. They want to control us. And he's from Gath. You know what Gath means? The wine press. Another allusion to the book of Revelation. Revelation 14, 17. That Messiah will tread the wine press and crushed his enemies. So all this is pointing to the end times. By the way, In the city of Gath in Israel, there were three remaining places. This is one of the three remaining places that Nephilim were still in the land. Joshua had not expelled and killed all the Nephilim. So there were several giant clans even left into David's day. And one is Gath, that's where Goliath came from. And Nephilim, obviously, we've talked about this before, are hybrids. They have fallen angel fathers, but they have human mothers. And so they have superhuman power. They have supernatural power. Their nature is satanic or, sorry, fallen angel. So they're very, very evil. But they're hybrids. That's why he's nearly 10 feet tall. He's a hybrid. Not all were giants, but a lot of them were. They were super smart, had supernatural abilities. Some of them were like, they had different parts of animals and a combination of humans. It just got crazy, man, before Genesis flood. That's the reason for the flood. But if you read Genesis six, it'll say it happened after the flood as well. There was an outbreak of Nephilim in the land of Israel. I wonder why. It's to keep Israel out. And so Joshua had to exterminate many of them, but these guys are left over. Now, the interesting thing, if you ever read a Buffalo Bill Cody's autobiography, He had a lot of interactions with the Sioux Indians here in America. And a lot of the Native Americans have stories of giants and these hybrids. Now, remember, the American Indian, the Native Americans that came not only in America, but down into Central America and South America, came over after the Tower of Babel. As God confused the language, they came to the Bering Strait and settled into the Americas. But they still had the stories left over from the flood narrative. And every ancient culture has the story of the giants, and the Greeks called them the titans, or the chitons in Phoenician. Chitons, and Phoenician is chiton, but in Hebrew it's Satan. So there was this battle that happened. Now here's an interesting thing what the Sioux Indians said about the Nephilim. They said that there was these giants that were on the land. They were super strong, super fast. They were so fast, they could run with a buffalo, catch it under one arm and tear its leg off with the other arm and eat it while it was running. Again, you don't know how much embellishment is there, but I want you to see the core issue here, a giant, okay? And that these giants roamed the land and they got so prideful The Sioux Indians said that they got so prideful, they didn't believe in the great spirit anymore and didn't say he was the creator. And so for that, the creator punished them by sending a flood. And in this flood, the giants ran and they went to high ground, but their flood just kept coming and coming. And finally, every giant was destroyed by the flood. That's the legend in the Sioux Indian. Now, I can give you more, but I give you that as an example that every ancient culture has these giant stories and notice that the Sioux Indian incorporated the flood into it. It's a corruption, right? But there's an element of truth in there. Interesting, isn't it? So many Indian tribes here, remember how you see them in the movies, but they would greet people with their hand up. Right? You ever seen that? The Indian greeting? They'll put their hand up. Why do they put their hand up? Do you know why? Because one of the interesting things about Nephilim is they usually had six fingers. And so when the Indian tribes were wanting to see if someone was human or hybrid, they had their hand hold up. And let me see five fingers. If I see six, you're not human. And if you notice, some of the Nephilim in the Bible had six fingers on each hand. So that was kind of a giveaway. So anyway, I wanna tell you that because that's who David is dealing with. He is dealing with a hybrid. Let me make a connection. It is extremely possible, based on biblical evidence, and I don't have the time to go into this, through deduction, that the Antichrist possibly could be a Nephilim as well. Nimrod the first typology was a Nephilim Goliath is a Nephilim and it's very possible that The Antichrist will not be fully human again. That's for another session. That's for another lesson And I don't have time to go into all that. I just throw that out there for your study He had a bronze helmet. I want you to notice how many times bronze is referenced and I want you to count how many how many pieces of armor and weapons he has. Bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail. The Hebrew is kakesheth, which means scales. His armor is in the shape of snake scales. You catching this? Snake scales. And the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze. And he had a bronze, notice how many bronze things, armor on his legs. The word in Hebrew is derived from another word in Hebrew, which means stubborn. The greaves on the front of the shins, the Hebrew derivative is stubborn. He's stubborn. and a bronze javelin, or it could be translated dart, between his shoulders. What does it say in spiritual warfare that the enemy will fire what kind of thing at you? Fiery darts on Goliath's back is a dart. Now, a dart would be a short spear. and you would use it in close combat. He also has a big spear, but it has what they used to call a dart, and it's on his back. Again, a reference to the fiery darts the enemy fires at you. Now the staff on his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his iron spear had weighed 600 shekels, and a shield-bearer went before him. It's about 15, 17 pounds on this massive spear. Now, let's do the math. Notice four references to bronze, okay? Bronze was a metal back in that day that illuminated into the sun. You know what bronze looks like, but it was a very illuminating metal that they would use, especially on armor, and it had this glow, this light appearance on them, okay? There's a reason for this. especially on him. Now, if you count up all the pieces of armor and his weapons, you get six pieces, okay? 600 shekels. And if you go back, his height was six cubits and a span. How many sixes did you see in the text? Did you count them? You should have counted three sixes. I don't know, does that connect with something? Dude, it can't be that obvious. Yeah, it's not obvious. Six, six, six. Let's talk about the bronze. Well, let me first do a thing. What Goliath's armor represents is a counterfeit to the armor of God. So when you, actually you can do your own study. If you study the armor of God and then study the armor of Goliath, it'll be a fascinating study between the armor that Satan gives versus the armor that God gives. It's a very fascinating study. I would recommend it if you do have some time. And notice the differences because the way the world fights is far different than the way we fight with our armor. Anyway, let's talk about the bronze. Notice that the bronze is all over the text. The bronze, in Hebrew, is nekosheth. It's related to the word nakash. Nakash, that is the name of the animal that Satan used in the Garden of Eden to tempt Eve. The Nakash was some type of serpentine animal, either quadruped or biped. and it had the ability to speak. But one of the things about the Nakash, and the reason it was called the Nakash, it had an illuminated type of skin that looked like bronze, and it glowed. It had a glowing aspect to it. So this is, and I think it answers in Genesis, I think, museum, or CRI's museum, I can't remember, but this is their interpretation of the Nakash. It could have been biped, so we don't know. but it had an illuminating feature on its skin that was related to the word bronze. It glowed. So Satan chooses the most beautiful and intelligent animal that had the ability to speak, and he possesses that animal to tempt Adam and Eve, right? But the nakash is related to bronze. So when you see bronze all over Goliath, it's the nekosheth related to nakash. and also to their father, Satan. Satan's name is Helel Ben-Shakar. Helel Ben-Shakar. Helel means bright one, the brightness, illuminating. shining one, like the nakash, like bronze. And Ben-Shakar, Ben means sun, and Shakar means son of the dawn. He's the illuminating one, the brightness, son of the dawn. That's Satan's real name is Halel Ben-Shakar. And it's all related to the bronze. in this text. So you can obviously see who's all behind Goliath, right? He's not just a regular Philistine. He is the epitome of the seed of Satan and points forward to the Antichrist. Okay. Did you notice that Goliath doesn't carry his own shield? He has a shield bearer that goes before him and carries that shield if he needs it. This is one of the things he will not use, and that's why he gets killed, because he doesn't use his shield. But notice he has to have another person that goes before him, that represents him. Huh. That sounds eerily familiar. If we're dealing with a typology of the Antichrist, then I want to know where his little buddy is. And who's the little buddy? The false prophet. So in this text, the false prophet is represented by the shield bearer that goes before Goliath. It's all there. It's all there. Now here's the thing, back to leadership principles. We have a decision to make right now. And the decision is, are we gonna go into captivity and be a slave into Satan's kingdom? Are we gonna be set free to be God's servant? Because you can't serve two masters, right? Messiah said that. And right now, unfortunately, the church, most of it is, putting themselves in shackles to Satan and serving him rather than God who has liberated them. And the decision, guys, here's where the decision will be, of whether or not you go in that valley and engage. It will be based on either self-preservation, self-preservation and being enslaved versus a willingness to lose one's life in order to gain the abundant life to be free. Self-preservation is what's keeping the Israelites from going into the Valley of Elah. They don't want to die. And that is going to be the crux of many things coming towards us. People don't want to lose their job. People don't want to lose their reputation. People don't want to lose their house. They don't want to lose their car, their boat, their vacation, whatever. Whatever it is, their money, whatever. And so, because of self-preservation, they won't fight. That's why these churches don't fight. They're trying to preserve their little, pathetic lives, and at the same time selling out Christ because they won't fight. Unbelievable. But here's the thing. I hope you've already made this decision. That you're willing to lose this life in order to gain it. And that you're not worried about your self-preservation. Because when you don't have anything to lose, you become the most dangerous person to the kingdom of darkness. When you don't have anything to lose. Because you've already lost your life. It's those who want to keep their life that are cowards. That's the problem. Verse eight. Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel and said to them, Why have you come out to line up for battle? It's a good question. You guys are all dressed up. It's like that scene in Braveheart. And they come to battle. And, you know, what's his name? The blue face. Yeah, I know. What's the character's name? Wallace, there he is, I went blank on that, Wallace. So Wallace comes and they're all lining up and he talks to them and they're like, what are we gonna do? Well, we're gonna negotiate and we're gonna go home and live and not fight the English. Remember that scene? He goes, I think, let me see if I can remember what he said. He says, oh yeah, you'll go home and live, but then dying on your bed one day, will you trade that for just one day to be in the battle, to fight what you know was right. And I'm paraphrasing, but it made sense. They wanted to be cowards, wanted to go home, wanted to live. And that's what they're doing. So Goliath's actually making the right statement. Why do you guys line up if you're not gonna fight? If you wanna fight, let's go, let's do it. Am I not a Philistine? And you, the servants of Saul, aren't you supposed to be defending your land? Aren't you supposed to be engaging? I mean, that is complete mockery from Satan telling Christians, aren't you supposed to be fighting me? What did you put on that armor for if you're not gonna fight me? You see the mocking tone? That's what he's saying to Christians now. You gonna fight? Are you gonna sit back and let me take it all? Choose a man for yourself and let him come down to me. If you can't do it, then fine. Choose somebody who's gonna fight me. Is there anybody that will fight me? Anybody that will engage if you're not? If he is able to fight and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. And that is exactly what's happening now. We are slowly becoming slaves to our government as they take and take and take more, and there's no pushback by anybody. They're coming for your guns. They're coming already for your kids. They're trying to groom your kids to be sodomites. You understand that? They're out for blood. They will indoctrinate your kids in the field of blood. Wow. And the Philistines said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. I defy Christians. I dare you Christians to do anything about this. Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistines, what did they say? They got their battle gear and they pulled out their swords and they ran to him. Now what does it say? They were dismayed and greatly afraid. Thank you very much. But Goliath is completely right. These individuals following their coward leader, Saul, are nothing but that, cowards. They're greatly afraid. People say there's three, or basically they say there's two big emotions that people have, love and hate. What I saw over the last two and a half years, there's another one you gotta bring in. I think it's even more powerful than love and hate. It's fear. It's fear. It is the strongest emotion. I could not believe what I'm seeing because of fear. Men turning into cowards, leaders turning into cowards, politicians turning into cowards. I can't believe what I'm seeing. I think fear is one of the greatest emotions Satan is using on people. We just watched it. This should echo something. Israel cannot find a mediator to fight the battle. No one is willing to go, but what does it point to? It points to Revelation chapter five. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll into lucid seals. And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll. to look at it, so I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it." What is this thing about? This is the title deed back to earth, to gain back that which was lost by Adam and Eve. And no human being can open this and purge the earth of evil and can fight the ultimate Goliath, the Antichrist. What does it say in the book of Revelation? Who can make war with him? It says that. Who can make war with him? One guy can. But one of the elders said to me, do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, remember we're talking about David in this text, has prevailed to open the scroll and loose its seven seals. It is the Messiah of Israel that is willing to go in the valley of fear and the shadow of death, and fight the enemy. So if Christ has already done that at the cross, then we have no other option than to follow our leader. Christ has already met and defeated Satan. He will defeat the Antichrist. So we already have someone that went before us, but that's what Israel needs. They need someone to go before them that will lead them. Let's talk about fear. Look at the things that fear creates in people. It creates defeat before the battle is fought. Israel is already defeated and they haven't even fought, right? If you have it in your mind that I'm gonna lose, I'm gonna lose, you've already been defeated. It creates slaves before enslavement happens. This is why you're seeing Americans give up their rights. They're already slaves now. When you give up those rights, people turning in their guns now. They're slaves, and quite frankly, being a slave is comfortable for people, because then they don't have to do anything. They don't have any responsibility. Fear creates death before death comes. You will die a thousand deaths when you're a coward before you physically die. There will be nothing left of you. when you're a coward. It will eat you out. It will eat you inside and you will be nothing but a shell by the time fear has its way with you. It creates an inability to act when it's time to act. Notice that the Israelites just sit back and don't do anything. They're sitting there, nothing, no action. It creates indecisiveness when it's time to decide. They don't know what to do. Look, do they already have the commands of God to know what to do? Of course they do. They are to drive out the inhabitants of the land. They already have their marching orders. So if they're sitting there, I don't know what to do. I don't know what God would have me to do. Well, you fool, it's in the scriptures. It's already told you what to do. They're playing dumb. This is what cowardness does. It creates a blindness towards God's resources and shifts the focus to our resources. Well, what do you mean? The Israelites, because they won't look at scripture, apparently in this situation, have been promised provision when they fight enemies, a supernatural provision. Five Israelis can fight 100, and 100 can fight 10,000. according to Leviticus, I think it's 26. So the Israeli army has that provision, a supernatural provision when they fight. But apparently they either ignore that or don't know it. And because they don't know God's resources, they look to their own resources to handle the situation. That's what causes people to stress out. That's what causes people to have anxiety. They don't look at God's resources, they only look at their own. And when they look at their own and the situation that's in front of them and a Goliath standing right in front of them, they say, I can't do it. And you're right, you can't do it by yourself. You can only do it through God's resources. And that's what you have to look at. Whatever Goliath you're facing, you're not gonna do it on your resources. You're gonna have to do it through God's. It creates catastrophizing about the situation based on appearance instead of the reality of the situation. The appearance of Goliath is pretty scary, isn't it? He's nearly 10 foot, and he's a giant, he's a Nephilim, he has satanic nature, the dude's evil. but the fear is based on his appearance, okay? It's driven by appearance. And when you're driven by appearance of how things look, you will start catastrophizing. Sky is falling, this is it, we can't survive, we're gonna die, this is insurmountable, we can't overcome this, you know, give me my addiction. So when you look at the landscape of this world right now, it's overwhelming, isn't it? It's not just one Goliath. There's like thousands and thousands of Goliaths coming at us right now, one giant after another, one giant after another. And if you're not careful, you'll focus in on the giant rather than God. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. And you can't forget that. I don't care what it looks like out there. I don't care. If it's just you and God, you can overcome. God's always done that. It doesn't matter. And lastly, fear creates compromise and appeasement with evil. That's what happens. They appease, they give in. Okay, Mr. Fauci, whatever you say, Okay, Newsome, whatever you say. Right? That's what happens. Oh, Biden, you want our guns now? Okay. Right? Slavery. Goliath means slavery. Now, David. David means beloved. His name means beloved. was the son of the Ephratite of Judah. Why is that important? Because now you're moving into the typology of the Messiah, and David is a quintessential example of Messiah. David comes from where? Ephratah. Bethlehem. Why is that significant? Because there was two Bethlehems. So we had to make sure you used from Ephrata. And guess where Messiah was born? Oh, Bethlehem, Ephrata. It signified he's from the same, Jesus is from the same town, from David, because he's his ancestor. And what tribe is he from? Judah. What was predicted in Numbers 24? A scepter, a star shall rise out of Judah. Right? The Messiah, the one that will fight the battle. So here we are with a typology. Now we have an individual that will fight the battle. And notice, whose name was Jesse. Jesse, obviously, the father. But out of Jesse's stump will come a root out of Jesse. Messiah and the man was old the danced in years in the days of Saul. So that means that Jesse can't fight this battle He's too old to be fighting. So he's gonna send his boys But notice what it says the three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to battle Notice the underline three sons follow who? Saul Saul is a bad leader The names of his three sons who went to battle were Eliab, the firstborn, and he's a knucklehead, by the way, and I'll show you in just a bit. Next to him is Abinadab, and the third, Shammah. David was the youngest. And the three oldest followed Saul. Why did he repeat that? Why did Samuel repeat that? I got it first, Samuel, but why does he repeat it a second time that the three boys are following Saul? You catching it? When something's repeated, God's saying, pay attention, pay attention. They're following the wrong leader. Saul is a spiritual, dysfunctional individual. He looks great, remember? He's head and shoulders above everyone. He's charismatic. He looks like a warrior king. But internally, he's a shell. He's empty. There's nothing inside. He just looks good on the outside. So it tells you something about the boys. Now let me bring some history into this. When David was even younger, what did Samuel do to Jesse? He came to Jesse, and God directed him to Jesse's house, saying, the next king of Israel will come from Jesse. So Samuel, go over there, and once you see the boy, you will anoint him as king of Israel. Remember that scene? So he goes there, and Jesse starts lining up his boys, starting with the first one. Eliab, then Abinadab, then Shammah, and there was eight, eight all of them, including David. So he goes through all seven, and Samuel says, no, no, no, no, in front of all the boys, in front of Jesse. And then he gets to the seventh, he says, is there any more? And Jesse says, well, there's a little David out there watching the field, but I didn't think about bringing him in, bring him in. And what happens is David comes in, Samuel recognizes, that's him, boom, anoints him as a little kid. Now I want you to think about this. The family dynamics, this is showing you the family dynamics. What do you think the other boys who saw David, the youngest one, be anointed and being told he's gonna be the next king of Israel, what do you think happened in the family dynamics? They didn't like him. They didn't like him just like Joseph's brothers didn't like him. Remember that? They hated Joseph, and the boys turned like a sheep-killing dog on David. They couldn't stand him after that. It's called spiritual jealousy. Now, what God is showing in this text is very important for us to understand. He is showing evidence of why he rejected the other boys of Jesse. Because if he's going to make them king, he needs them to follow him and not some other goofball leader. But what does it say about at least the three oldest? They're following Saul, not God. And that is more evidence of why God said, not that one. So you understand, God is not capricious. Nor is He arbitrary. He already knows what the boys will do. He knows their character. And He knows in the future if they'll turn on Him. And so He says, nope, nope, nope. the right reasons. They don't have the character to be king because they lack the heart to follow me like David follows me. They are not men after my own heart. They follow substitutes. That's a leadership principle. That's a leadership principle. Would you pick up on that? As dads, as grandfathers, as leaders, guys, We have to follow the right leadership. We have to obviously follow Christ, right? But unfortunately, so many people put other people as they follow them, whether it's from politics or religious leader or whatever, or even their wives. They'll follow the leadership of their wives. That's upside down. You're the leader. You're the head of the family. or they follow the leadership of their children, the cult of the children, whatever the children want. Oh, little baby, you don't want to go to church? Okay, I guess we won't go. Who does that? Well, dad, mom, I don't want to go to Rock Harbor's youth because they make me study, but I like going to Cotton Candy First Baptist because they have a rock climbing wall. Let me go there. You fool, you're being led astray by your kid. We have all these voices, guys, in our heads, telling us what to do. There's only one you have to obey. That's it. And if you can get that one straight, you won't have any problem of who to follow. You won't follow goofballs that will lead you astray. And that's the thing here. So it says, but David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. Notice what it's projecting David as. He is a shepherd. Aha. What is Jesus called? The good shepherd. Here's an interesting thing. Remember, look at how many, why does it focus on three boys? Because there's seven. Why three? Why does he keep saying three? Three, three, three? Because it's prophesied. This is in Zechariah. It is prophesied what the Messiah will do once he comes on the scene in Israel. I dismiss the three shepherds in one month. My soul loathed, which means my patience ran out, loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. They were greatly disgusted with me and nauseated with me. Now, what is this a reference to? It's a reference to the first coming of the Messiah, according to the prophet Zechariah, and it's a reference to him dismissing three groups of religious leaders. And who did he dismiss in one month? The particular month is the month of Nisan. In fact, he did it in one week. Who did he dismiss? The Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes. And like these three brothers of David, they hate him, and these three religious groups hated the Messiah. In fact, those three religious groups were so spiritually jealous, a parable was said to them in reference to them saying, we will not have this man to rule over us. And thus he dismissed them in one month, the month of Nisan, in the week of Passover. And he dealt with the religious leaders and dismissed them theologically. That's what happened the last week. So when you see this typology about three, three, three, it's pointing to what the Messiah will do. Pretty cool. When you see that and you connect those dots, I'm like, this could not been written by a man. This is supernatural when you see all these connection points, right? I'll end on this, because we're going to do part two next time. Beware of following people who tell you what you want to hear instead of what we need to hear. And also that show you what you want to see instead of what you need to see. That is a leadership principle that all of us need to know. Look, guys, the warnings are out there in scripture. They will tickle your ears. They will tell you what you wanna hear. They will, in fact, exclude things to make you feel comfortable, but that's a lie. You're following Saul. Don't follow him. You follow Jesus and him alone. Let's pray. Father, thank you, Lord, for what we can learn from David's life, and we got more to look at, Father. So we thank you for this intriguing situation of seeing the bad leadership, but now seeing David come to light in good leadership. Help us as dads be the kind of leader we need to be for our families. for our kids, for our wives, for our community, for our church, Father, we thank you so much for the men gathered here today. They're doing such a great job in managing through this crazy world. Give them strength, give them courage, take away any fear and anxiety so they can meet the challenge of going in to the Valley of Elah. And I also pray if there's anyone here that hasn't come to faith, They would do so today by believing Jesus died on a cross for their sins, was buried and rose on the third day, and gives everlasting life to anyone who would believe. We pray now in Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for joining us for another lesson. We hope that this message is a blessing for you and helps you grow towards a more mature understanding of God's word. For more information about our ministry, we invite you to check out our website at rockharborchurch.net. Until next time, remember, keep looking up for our redemption draws near.