This is a Test

Hi, this is Pastor Daniel Bracken. You're listening to Kings Alaska Podcast. I hope the Word encourages you and you get a touch from God that brings transformation and equips you to experience life with people, power and purpose. Thank you for joining us. Enjoy the word.

Turn in your Bibles to First Samuel, chapter 21. We'll read it here shortly. Why would we study David? I mean, why. Why would we do that?

Why would you. Why would you study David? There's a number of reasons. One, it is. Thank you.

It is more scripture verses about David in the Old Testament than any other character in the Old Testament. David is a Christ like figure and he is the only one that's called the sweet Psalmist of Israel. He's the only one that had a heart after God. And we've been talking about him and how he was publicly anointed. How many times?

Three times. And I'd encourage you to read the story of David, read about his life, because there's incredible truth that'll set you on fire and change your life. There is an incredible amount of leadership lessons to be learned. And we've been learning and we've been moving along and I've had people pull me aside and say, pastor, that, that study and David thing, man, that's really getting me. And he said, I know somebody else has been coming to church a long time and they're getting touched by God, you know, messages.

Can I just say this to you? And what I endeavor to do, hope to do, pray that I'm able to do, I want to break it down to the person who doesn't know why. There's a number in front of the sentence in their Bible on their device. I want to break it down for them, but I also want to. I wanted to go deep.

For those who've been in Church for 30, 40 and 50 years, and you're like, man, I just got fed. I want to go to the deep end of the pool, the shallow end of the pool. We want to reach everybody at all times for the purposes of the kingdom of God. Lift your hands to heaven, Father, I pray that you'd anoint these lips of clay. Yet again we push aside the things of the day that were disappointing and distracting and difficult perhaps.

Come on, go ahead and do that. And we position ourselves tonight.

Hungry and thirsty for your word. Hungry and thirsty for a move of the spirit of God. Holy Spirit, come and have your way. We won't stop you. Let every man and woman and be child be brought low and you be glorified God tonight, thank you for your encouragement.

Thank you for your strength. Thank you for revelation that causes a revolution. Come on, say that. Thank you for a revelation that causes a revolution in our, our hearts. In Jesus name, Amen.

So looking at his life, he's the only one publicly anointed three separate times each separate anointing. Anointing, let me break that down, is when oil is poured over someone, they're set as set apart for a special service. Old Testament, the anointing was on prophet kings and priests. The anointing is God's empowerment, God's enablement, God's God's fire, God's power to get the work of God done. God puts his power on his servants to do what he called them to do.

Old Testament as well as in the new. Thing about the New Testament is that anybody can be anointed of God can have God's power. Come on, if you're anybody, just raise a hand to heaven. Anybody, anybody can have God's power on them. Now, there's a price to pay, certainly.

But the ultimate price is paid by God's one and only son, his Savior, who died on a cross, who rose again from the grave. If you believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you shall be saved, forgiven of all your sin. There's no other way to make it to heaven. You can go to church until you look like a pew. You can have baptismal water stripping off your face.

That doesn't save you that. That's not what gets you forgiven because you got baptized, sprinkled, dipped, I don't know what you got. But none of that gets you saved. That's an outward sign of an inward reality. Baptism is a picture of going underneath the water and, and then coming up out of the water.

In resurrection, it's an outward sign of an inward reality with you have been born again, that you have been crucified with Christ. Galatians 2. In chapter 20, I've been crucified. Chapter 2, verse 20, I've been crucified with Christ. No longer I that live, but Christ lives in me.

The victory that you will have in Christ comes when you understand your new identity in him and you understand that you've been anointed by God, you've been chosen by God. And we've been talking about David and how God chose David. Who chose him? God did. God chose a new king.

Saul was rejected. Why? Because he yields a sin. He yielded to the pressure of the people and he didn't wait for Saul. For Samuel.

And he sacrificed because he was a man pleaser. He started out good, but when he got prideful in his heart, he slid. That's the case with any of us. You stay humble, God will use you. You stay humble, broken and transparent.

God will always use you. If you cross over into pride, you're up a creek, no paddle. And I think they call that Ship Creek. You'll be up the Ship Creek with no paddle. That's S H I P. It's over there in Anchorage.

You don't want to be up that thing without a paddle. Come on, somebody say amen. There's God wants to bring you to a new place. You know, sometimes I say things just to rattle the cage a little bit because you're like on a doom scrolling thing and you can't even hear anything I'm saying. God wants to pierce through your heart and touch you tonight and set you on fire and get you to see that he wants to use you like he used David.

Except for the issues with Bathsheba and some of these other things that we're going to see here in 1st Samuel 21. So we're talking about David. After every successive public anointing, there is a change. The first anointing was anointing of power. That's when he's in Bethlehem.

Samuel comes a quick, quick, quick review, trying to be quick. Samuel comes and the elders ask, is it well because weather patterns change? When this prophet showed up, he said, it's well, I've come to sacrifice. I'm like, okay. And they go to Jesse's house and he brings all his sons out, seven sons, a picture of the perfection of the flesh.

He doesn't choose Eliab, although he looked like he he when he wants to. Because when he sees him, he's just this strapping lady and he's like that. Surely that's God's anointed. And God says, yeah. Man looks at the outward appearance.

God looks at the, at the heart. I've not chosen. He's been rejected. And we see some of his behavior later on when David's delivering pizza. David's out on the field and he's chosen by God.

He comes in, the young ruddy one, and he has oil poured over his head. And he's anointed the next king of Israel. The very next verse. There you see this disturbing spirit comes upon us. All the anointing has left him.

We talked about how even in God you can be born again. Walking in God, walking in his purpose. And I will tell you There's a difference between New Testament believer us tonight. It's a difference between walking in the power of God and just being born again. You can walk in power.

There's a difference. I've seen carnal Christians and I've seen anointed on fire Christians. A carnal Christian. And it is a difficult thing to be. It is like one foot in the world, one foot in the kingdom.

Wondering where the blessings are when you haven't really submitted fully to him, sold out to him and crucified your. Your. Your fallen human nature. Put your flesh down and walk in newness of life. If you don't learn to walk in newness of life and you're going to wonder where all the blessings are and then you blame God.

How come. How come Pastor Tim has more favor than me? Well, maybe because you're smoking weed.

Let's go over here. Maybe because you're not really living for God. Maybe because you're arguing about the tithe. Maybe because you refuse to pray. You refuse to yield, you refuse to submit.

You stay shacked up with Sister Buttercup and you wonder why everything's not working out for you.

Waiting. Water Wait in water. Children wait. Yeah.

All you weed smokers, lift your hand. No, I'm teasing. Lift your hands to Jesus all across the place and just let the Lord touch you.

I love no notes I have left behind handing out notes to you and I'm really excited about it. But I encourage you to take notes. It's not that I won't go back there. I'm just not going back there tonight. I have 25 pages, I think, and I didn't get off page one.

There is a touch of God that's going to come to you tonight. There truly is David chosen by God. Product very possibly of an illicit relationship. I was conceived in sin. He said in the Psalms, he's got a dysfunctional family, that you don't even invite him when the most important powerful man in the whole nation shows up.

Samuel. They don't even bring him in. He's out there with those few sheep. They bring in the youngest. He's the youngest.

He's the run his. It's a derogatory term, but he's the one that God chose. And you see God's power come on him that on that first anointing and he's chosen thereafter. Everybody thinks he just goes right and kills Goliath. No, he goes to Gibbia, which is like today's White House.

It's the center of governmental authority and leadership. Is in Gibeah. That's where Saul is. And he, Saul, as a distressing, disturbing, demonic spirit comes on him. And they say, you know something, we need a psalmist.

We need somebody to come and play music. We need a worship leader. And you go and look at Psalm 78. David played with skill and, and, and led them with integrity of heart because of his skillful playing, because of the anointing. He's invited one of the court of Saul says, I know this guy David, he's got it going on.

You know that kid, he's always praying and, and, and, and singing him. Bring him, well, he's the next king. And Saul unknowingly invites the next king into the court and that's where he starts his ministry. It's crazy. God anoints him.

You know, the anointing breaks everything. The anointing brings breakthrough. The power of God changes everything.

And so he's there. And he would go back and forth to Bethlehem. War breaks out again with the Philistines and this ugly fat headed, uncircumcised Philistines name is Goliath from the city of Gath. He goes to deliver pizza. He basically takes out Goliath.

All of these messages are available online and we're moving along now. He develops this relationship, a covenant relationship with Jonathan. And Jonathan is his covenant bro. And they, they, they just connect. Jonathan was the next heir apparent.

But Jonathan sees God's power on David and gives him his armor and says, you're the one. It's not me. I mean, that's a, that's, that's a humble thing to do. And Jonathan and David are close and we talked about that and how you need to have people that hold your shut up card. You need to have a Jonathan.

You need to have someone in your life that'll speak truth to you and help you and get your back. And, and he does that and he, and he skipping kind of a whole section here, going to chapter 21. But you see, Jonathan warns him and you see this relationship with him. And so David, David is now on the run. And Saul wants to kill him because he's jealous.

He's on the run, the anointed king acting like a fugitive. Crazy, but that's the truth. And he arrives at a place called Knob. What's it called? Knob.

All right, stand up on your feet. Take your Bibles with me if you're there. 1st Samuel 21. Just read a few verses here. New King James.

Now, David came to Knob to, ahem, like the priest and Himlech was afraid when he met David. And he said to him, why are you alone and no one's with you? So David said to a hemolik, the priest, the king has ordered me on some. He's lying. The man after God's own heart straight lying right here.

The king has ordered me on some business. He said, don't let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you and what I've commanded you. So he. He quotes the king and I have directed my young men in such. To such and such a place.

All right, let's pray. Father, move in power. In Jesus name, Amen. You may be seated. We're going to look at a whole bunch of verses.

So he goes to Knob, and this is where the priests were. The high priest is there. And David comes. And he comes for three reasons, and you can see it in the text. One, he comes for food.

Two, he comes for the. For weapons. And three, he comes. Anybody know what's number three? Food, weapons.

And he comes to inquire of the Lord, which is the one very wise thing he does. He says he's alone. He's alone. Why are you alone? I mean, that's amazing.

Why are you alone? He arrives at Knob, city of priests. Why are you alone? He asked him. Because princes and.

And he really is a prince now because he's married to the. To the. To the king's daughter. Goliath is dead. He became a national hero at basically 17 years old.

He's running for his life now because Saul has lost his ever love and mind, wants to kill him. And David runs. Jonathan pleaded his case, but it couldn't work because Saul has a demon and he runs to Knob where the priests are, and he really wants answers. So it's this anointed, chosen next king of Israel is basically moving and yielding to fear. He's afraid and he comes to Knob and the priest's like, bro, what's going on?

Because very unusual that he would show up with nobody. And what does David do? The man after God's own heart. This is why it encourages me. He lies.

Boo liah, all of you Hawaiians. He lies. He straight lies. And it's not just that he lies. This, this is the national religious center.

It's about three miles from Gibeah. And you know, it's possible if you, if you look into this a little bit, it's possible that Ahimelech, the high priest, heard about Rama and what had taken place there with the prophet. It's. It's possible that he heard, likely even that the king is angry. So he's a little apprehensive, like, David, what do you.

Bro, what are you doing here? Who. He's not against him, but he's like, what are you doing? I mean, it's this unusual moment. He lies.

He ordered me on the king's business. Look at verse 3 and 4, 1st Samuel 21, 3. Now, therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, and whatever can be found. And the priest answered David and said, there's no common bread in my hand, but there's only holy bread.

And Jesus quotes us later, if the young men have at least. If the young men have at least kept themselves from women, there's this purity aspect. And this is again is quoted by Jesus in Matthew 12, when he's healing on the Sabbath. Jesus uses an example of the spirit of the law not keeping the letter of the law. It's an interesting moment.

So he's looking for food, he's comes to get the sword, he's looking for weaponry. And there's a sword there that is at Knob in memorial. It is like a well. It's the sword of Goliath. And there's no other sword like was unique for its time.

And there it is in the. In the. In the temple. It's there in the. Not the temple like you would think, with bricks.

It's the tabernacle there, and it. Knob. And he basically asked for it. Look at verse 1st Samuel 21.

Gives us a little bit of a different thing of what's happening here. Verse 7. Now, certain man of the servants of Saul there that day detained before the Lord and his name, Doag the Edomite, the chief herdsman, who belonged to Saul. And David said to him, like, is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? So there's someone there, and his name is Doag the Edomite, and he's the chief herdsman.

He's a very important guy in Saul's cabinet, if you will. He. He's the chief herdsman, and so he's witnessing all of this. Verse nine, the priest said, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Ella, is there wrapped in cloth behind the Ephod, if you will. Take it, Take it.

There's no. There isn't. There's. There is no other except that one. And David said, there is none like it.

Give it to me. And you have to know, you have to realize. Verse 22, chapter 22, verse 22. He. He feels panic.

Has anybody ever done anything wrong? Everyone has fallen short of the glory of God. But you ever try to do something and sneak something? There's been occasions when there's a certain box of chocolate in my house.

And, and there's a certain sound that some of those things make. And I, I have on occasion just really wanted the chocolate. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? I. I don't know. I just, you know, and so I start crinkling back there.

And then Pastor Karen's like, what are you doing? I'm like, nothing. It's a sort of sense of panic that comes over. Do you know what I'm talking about? I mean, I, I can't come up with a better illustration that at least in my new life, my old life, I could come up with lots of illustrations.

The point is, is that Doag sees him and he is freaked out that one of the main people in the cabinet of Saul sees him because he knows he's going to rat him out. He's going to tell, and he's stricken with panic. And that's exactly what happens.

He saw the son of Jesse. Look at 1st Samuel 22.

He feels panic. And David lies. Right? He lied and was responsible for a massacre.

You have to connect this because we think of King David as like this spotless, awesome holy king who's in the lineage of Jesus. Yeah, he is a man after God's own heart. But you see the training that he's in. He's in what is called the seminary of Saul. And when you go through pressure, it's a hard thing to be anointed and then have everybody hate you.

It's a hard thing to be called the next king and have to run for your life because your pastor wants to kill you.

That's hard. Have you had that? Not from my senior pastor, but from others. I've felt jealousy and different things. Welcome to being raised up to do anything for God.

Marketplace or in the church house, you'll have people that won't like you. You get successful, you have people that cheer you on. I, I've said it this way. I've said it hundreds of times. Go where you're celebrated, not where you're tolerated.

If people don't like you, who really cares? I mean, please the Lord. Live to please the Lord. Come on, say that. Live to please the Lord.

But David gets over into panic and he's learning to trust God, man. It's quite a thing, learning to trust God because you go through incredible Elevation and breakthrough and victory. And Jesus, he drops the uncircumcised fat head. He's now the man. And all the women are singing his praises.

Saul killed a thousand, but David can tell fouls 10,000. You know, I mean, they're like rejoicing, choicing the demonized king. And David learns to walk in all of that. And you're going to have to learn to walk in it too. You have to learn to trust God in the hard places.

Learn to trust God in the fat, happy and sassy places. You're going to go through all of it. And it's part of your training for ruling and reigning. This is not it. This is a test.

Say it with me. This is a test. And one day you're going to be dead. And when you're dead, if you're born again, you'll go to heaven. And you don't fly around with a diaper and a golden harp singing sweet songs to Jesus.

There's a millennial reign of Christ. You're actually going to judge angels. You're going to be used by God. I mean, looking at what God has called us to do. Listen, there's a judgment seat of the believer.

Understanding this view let makes every second of your life worth something. Like right now is. It matters right now how you're responding. And the pressure and the anvil with every blow of every hammer that comes down of opposition as well as the hammer of rejoicing and celebration. I said it before, I will say it again.

The way that you respond to criticism and how you respond to praise indicates something on the inside of you. If you're over the top about and elated about when you're just built up and people pat you on the back and we all need encouragement. But if you live for that in a way that's un, unhealthy, it indicates that your identity is messed up in the same way that you have. People who criticize you, make fun of you and say that you're no good shouldn't really affect you either because you know really who you are. I've been washed in the blood.

I've been cleansed by the Lamb. My name's written the Lamb's Book of Life. Greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world. We quite quote all of those scriptures, understanding who we are. And in doing that, it does not matter what Brother Knucklehead says about me.

I don't care. On one hand, I care deeply about what my wife thinks. The people that are closest to you can hurt you the most.

I certainly don't want to offend anybody, but the offense happens. And it's. I used to say it, that. Used to say it all the time. If you've not a bit offended here at Kings, you soon will be.

It's a process of you being trained now that's the challenging thing, is when people try to offend you on purpose and they're mean spirited. You want to stay away from people like that. You want to distance yourself a little bit. David is learning to live in tremendous conflict. Saul is wants to hunt him down and kill him.

But he has a promise. What promise? He's the one that'll be the next king over Israel. He's got a word. Come on, lift your hand and say, I got the word.

He's got a word. When you get a word from God, you'll be tested. Psalm 109. The word of the Lord tested Joseph till it came to pass. The word of the Lord will test you and prove you God's after something more than you could ever imagine.

It's great when you succeed and have victory on the field, off the field, in business, in church, or whatever you're doing in school or education. But that's not where your identity comes from. And David is learning. And right here he's panicked and terrified. He lies and is responsible for a whole massacre of 80 priests.

The man after God's own heart, 80 of them. They all got killed. First Samuel 22 and verse six. Read with me. When Saul heard that David and his men who were with him had been discovered.

Now, Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tamaris tree in Rama with his spear in his hand and all his servants about him. Verse 27. And Saul said to his servants who stood with him here, now you, Benjamin, will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards and make all your captains of thousands and captains of hundreds. All of you have conspired against me. I mean, he's just gone crazy.

But what he ends up doing is he goes to kill him and he kills all the priests because he says the priests helped him. But the reason the priests helped him is because David lied.

Wow.

And doeg the edomite. In verse nine of chapter 22, First Samuel said, I saw the son of Jesse at Knob.

And they go, they turn he. And he charges him to go kill all the priests. Verse 18. And the king said to Doag, go kill the priests. Wow.

So he struck all the priests and killed. Oh, I'm sorry. 85 men who were the linen ephod. But there's this one dude, this one Abathar. He escaped.

So David's now led by fear. And he runs. He's learning to trust in difficult times. And he's learning to trust in good times. In panic, he runs to gaff.

Does anybody know what gaff is? That is where. Come on, think about this now. What is he carrying on his waist?

The sword of Goliath. Where does he go? To Goliath's hometown. Where was the sword made? In gaff.

So David comes into Gath with the sword. He's totally in. In panic. Don't make decisions in fear. Don't yield to fear.

Don't yield to panic. Don't rehearse all the failures and then make actions based on. On. On what you think might happen. You run.

He's running in fear. He's terrified. I hate fear. I don't do fear. I do the fear of the Lord.

I don't yield to fear too often. Ever. Can I say that if you see me running, you should also run.

I just. I don't like it. And so if I. If something's trying to intimidate me or make me afraid, I move towards it. It's just kind of.

I don't know. My mom taught me that. I think David. And there's times. There's times when maybe you're out of money or out of options or you're cornered and you know what, don't know what to do.

I was in a helicopter flying in Hawaii. First helicopter ride I ever had. And they had just put on new rotors. And I'm. I'm with the mechanic who was a part of the church.

And he said, hey, Bracken, why don't you come and ride in the helicopter with me? I'm testing out. I just put on some new rotors. It's gonna be awesome. We're gonna fly around.

The sugarcane field's gonna be great. I said, okay, who's the pilot? Oh, this Vietnam guy. He's like, guys, the greatest. Like, oh, awesome.

So I go there. I show up. When he told me to show up, I show up. We walk out. He's.

He's doing something on the rotors, and he's hooking up a machine that's gonna test. I don't know, it was a laser or something to make sure everything's good. So we get in the. We get in the helicopter and we take off. We're taking off, and as God is my witness, we're flying for maybe 10 minutes.

And all of a sudden the thing starts to shake to pieces. And I don't mean like, you know, small vibration. I mean Everybody's shaking. And Mr. Mr. Nerves of steel, Vietnam is cursing. Like, I. I don't think I've ever heard anybody.

I've heard some people curse. Some people have a unique gift to curse. This guy was cursed very creatively and sheer fear.

And we're just spinning. And I. I had panic. Come on me. And then all of a sudden I realized, I'm going to Jesus. I don't know what it was.

Something came over me and I. It just shift. You got to shift the gear. The God's in control. I had been born again rotten, filled with the spirit.

And I thought, oh, I'm going to heaven. And we spun out of control and landed hard. And I. I didn't die. Come on, what's the worst that can happen to you? You die.

If you're born again, you go to heaven. Come on, God's on the throne. Don't worry. Don't run in panic. Don't run in fear.

You make terrible decisions when you're in fear. You. You make terrible decisions when you step away from trusting God. Trust God. And if you're not used to that, you gotta grow in that.

That's part of your discipleship. And your. The current situation that you're in is designed to make you more like God. Your current problem that you're facing is really an opportunity for promotion in God. Look at it differently.

Look at your problems, look at your difficulty. Look at your trial. Look at your seminary of Saul experience as an opportunity to springboard you through into your next anointing, your next power touch from God into becoming king. Can I just say it that way? Don't yield to fear.

It's not of God. Fear of God is different. That's all mixed with reverence, fear, irrational fear. What if it doesn't work? What?

Stop. Trust God.

So he runs to Gath. His panic. In his panic, he runs to Gath.

Hallelujah. Go with me to verse 11. You see, in 1st Samuel, chapter 21, verse 11. Then David arose and fled that day from Saul, and he went to a Cash, the king of Gath. So there he is, the servants of Ashcast.

A Cash said to him, is this not David? I mean, like, how do they know? I mean, the dudes carrying the sword of Goliath. When you're afraid, you don't think, right? I mean, you're going to go try to hide in the place where the sword is made, and you killed the champion from there.

And hey, everybody, he's got his sword. How's it going?

I mean, I'm sure he's not wielding it around, but it was made there. It was a unique sword. It was the sword of a giant. When you. When you're afraid and you're turning and you're running away from God and not trusting God, you do stupid things.

Anybody ever done some stupid things?

Some of you might be doing it right now.

He runs to Gath, leaves the land of Israel. Is this not David? So they recognize him. Why didn't a cash kill David? It's a good question.

It's a number of different reasons. Maybe one. One of the things that happens here, if you look in the text, David's very much afraid, so he acts insane.

He acts insane.

Wow.

What does that mean?

That means he's act.

He's acting crazy. He's spitting on his beard. He's acting. He's feigning insanity. He's faking it, and he's faking it so he doesn't get killed.

He's not trusting God. He's in trouble.

First Samuel 21:12 to 15. And David took the words to heart. It was very much afraid of a cash, the king of Gath. So he changed the behavior before them and pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, let his saliva fall down his beard. And a cash said to his servants, look, you see this man's insane.

Why have you brought him to me?

Have I in need of a madman? So he gets Academy Award, And he. And he. The king rips on his servants. I mean, this guy's in the palace.

Get him out of here. Turn to Psalm 34.

This whole wilderness period of David is so insightful. To teach us and to help us. You can have oil on you from God, and you've got to contend for it. I found in my own life, there's an ebb and flow, ebb and flow. I had somebody say to me, how do you stay on fire?

By staying on fire. Like, what does that mean? I mean, you do whatever you got to do to stay close to God, and he requires obedience, and he requires steps of faith. He requires, as you continue to do that, and there's. There's opposition that comes from the enemy that would love to have fear.

Come on. You, as anybody, know what I'm talking about. Especially when you get out into the deep, especially when you move forward into unknown territory, it can be somewhat terrifying unless you really are Trusting in God and you have a word, you, you internalize that and you, you encourage yourself to stay fully persuaded. You speak life and you take steps of faith and you surround yourself with people that tell you you can make it, you can do it, you can overcome. Get rid of your two pack a day and smoking, and smoking.

And who smokes two packs a day? Don't, don't, don't yoke yourself with somebody who, who's never done it. Connect with people that win. Connect with people that overcome. You know, I'm thinking about Bishop Bill Hammond.

Bishop Bill Hammond, when he was a kid, worked in the cotton fields in the south. And he worked next to a man by the name of Big. I think his name was Big Jim. It's in one of his books. Big Jim brought in twice as much cotton as anybody on the whole.

On the whole, on the whole farm did. And you got paid according to how many, how much cotton you brought in. So if you got a good technique of bringing in cotton, you're going to make a ton of money. So Bishop Bill Hammond as a boy, boy, I think he was 16 years old, asked, asked Big Jim, can I work with you? He said, no, but you can stay a little bit behind and you can watch.

And what he did is he watched, he watched the, the way that Big Jim picked, the way that he was able to pick cotton and how he did it and his whole technique. Has anybody ever seen. I've seen people. There's like, it's like a Japanese motion, no wasted motion and sandwich making. Does anybody know what I'm talking about?

Like, you can get really good at doing things. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Techniques.

So he followed Big Jim for a week. And in the first week he increased his harvest of cotton by a third and the next week by 2/3. And soon he was never as good as Big Jim, but he learned. You've got to get with Big Jim. Do you understand what I'm telling you?

You got to get somebody in your, your life who will love you enough to help disciple you and train you. Come on. You got to get, get near people who pray and have answers to prayer. Not people who mumble, cry and complain and never see anything. Connect yourself with a house.

Connect yourself with leaders. Connect yourself with business leaders that are going somewhere with, with fathers and mothers, people who have healthy families. When we got married, before we had children, we knew we were gonna have kids and we thought didn't work out so well in our families as there was many wonderful things. But we Wanted to raise women and men of God. And we thought, you know what?

Let's survey the church. So we surveyed, and in surveying, we found very few families that we would want to emulate. What does that mean? Well, they were raising little brats, a little rebellious. Rebellious.

I mean, foolishness is bound up on the heart of the child. How many of you know that? But there's training. And I thought, I want a healthy marriage. I want to have healthy kids to serve God.

I would watch Dr. Morocco, wonderful example, him and Pastor Colleen and raising their children and all of that. And we learned by watching and by getting near them, by serving with them, and. And we had to repent a lot. I think that's a big key. But the Lord helped us, you know, Past two days.

My daughter called me yesterday to review her message that she preached at young adults last night. And we dialogued about deep things in God. And I hung up the phone and I thought, oh, I'm, like, so blessed only to have my son call me today to go through the same thing, different message. You know, I'm preaching tonight, dad. Here's what I got.

Here's my illustrations. What do you feel like? The. Is the Lord giving you anything? I said, yeah, do this, this, add this.

He's like, ooh. I'm like, oh. He's like, Do you. I hung up, and I sat there in my own message saying, oh, oh, God, you're so good. He's so good.

Now, that's. In the life of a pastor. Maybe you're a business person. I'm telling you, you can connect with your family, connect with other people, and learn to walk in victory. You're a victor, not a victim.

Say it. I'm a victor, not a victim. But when you yield to fear, you get on over that. You're going to. You're going to be spitting on your beard, too.

Psalm 34, David, I see myself in him. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Psalm 34, either.

Look what it says up top.

A psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech Ahimelech. There's a couple different pronunciations. Who drove him away and departed. Wow. What are you.

What are you saying here, Pastor Daniel? What I'm telling you is David wrote this psalm, most likely after the event, but. But he wrote it. And he says, I will bless the Lord all times. His praise will continually be in my mouth.

What do you mean? You had craziness in your mouth like, yesterday. It shows. It shows the heart of David. It shows, man.

I. I'VE got to let his praise continue. In my mouth my soul shall make its boast. In the Lord the humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together.

I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all of my. From all of my. Don't allow fear to drive you. Be moved by faith. Faith and generosity is the coin of the realm.

It's that which moves us forward in the kingdom. Fear and greed will shut you down and make you insane.

Oh, let's keep going.

Verse 5. They look to him were radiant. And I. I've seen this. You see anybody that's looking to God when you really are looking and worshiping him with all your heart. Something happens about your countenance because it's.

You're shining from your spirit. One of the. You ever heard about the. The glow that pregnant women have? You know why they're glowing?

Because their God is knitting together in their womb. A man or a boy or a girl made in his image the supernatural handiwork of God. Listen. Pagan or believer, anything in between. The supernatural hand of God is knitting together a human being.

You know they've never found where there's no fossil record for evolution. You did not evolve from an. From a single cell organism. You did not rise out of the primordial slime. It takes more faith to believe that than to believe you were made in God's image.

There's nothing like you in all of creation. You are very special. You're very significant.

Psalm34.

Those who looked him are radiant. Their faces are not ashamed. This poor man cried out and the Lord heard him and he saved him out of all of his troubles. The angel Lord encamp around those who fear him and delivers them. Come on, read verse seven.

The angel of the Lord encamps around all around those who fear him. That's God. And. And he delivers him. Oh, taste and see.

Verse 8. The Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. You see in the psalm that he's. He's.

He's looking realize man. I blew it. But Lord, I had fear. But I'm to trust in you. You delivered me again.

Even though I wasn't the man of prayer and power. He lost his ever loving mind. He spoke faking insanity and God just rescued him. Anybody ever been rescued? Not because you did anything great, but because he's great.

Because he loves you and he had mercy on you and he compassion on you. And he's long suffering and Patient and kind. And you weren't all that. You weren't the prayer warrior, fasting, decreeing. I'm all into fasting and decreeing.

But I've had times where God saved me and I was just. Knucklehead eating chocolate cake. I'd given up. And he just came and came through.

Keys, please.

Oh, fear the Lord. Oh, blessed is the man who trusts in him. That's 8B, verse 9. Oh, fear the Lord, you saints. You his saints.

There is no want. In other words, no lack of. There's no lack, no want to those who fear him. That's a key to walking in divine provision. Trust him.

That trust is put on display through giving, through tithing. Absolutely. Through prayer, through living holy, through living right. If you trust him, you'll have no wants. The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not. If he's not your shepherd, then you're going to want a lot of stuff. The Lord is my shepherd. If he doesn't become your shepherd, you are his.

That's not a goat, it's a sheep.

Yes.

If he's your shepherd, then you'll move into a place of blessing. You just have to. I think the number one thing I want to say here tonight is you must trust his leadership. Trust him? He ran to Knob.

He shouldn't have lied. He should have told the truth. But he lied. He's freaked out. Later on he gets a word from the prophet Gad who says, don't.

God says, don't leave Israel. What's he do? He leaves Israel. He just doesn't obey all along. Come on.

This is the man after God's own heart. Does this encourage anybody besides me? Because if God did it for David, who is a liar, who's responsible for the death of 85 priests? Man, I just. I thought of him like he was just perfect.

No, he wasn't. He's just like you. But the thing about David is he always resets. He always resets. He's like, oh, Lord, I'm sorry.

He always resets. He always comes to the Lord. He always turns things around and said, da, I'm going to bless the Lord at all times. He wrote this after this event because we know that from there, that's the Psalm of David. When he feigned, man pretended madness.

Oh, fear the Lord. You who saints. For there's no want those who fear him. Verse 10. Young lions lack and suffer hunger.

But those who seek the Lord, Lord, shall not lack any good thing. Come, you children, and listen to me now. Teach you to fear the Lord. Who is the man that desires life, verse 12, and loves many days that he may see good. Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

Dude, that's just what you did. He's like, yeah, I know, but that's not the right way. This is the right way.

Your lips from speaking deceit depart from evil and do good speak. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry. Verse 16. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the remembrance from them from the earth.

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their trouble. Say that. Verse 17. With me, the righteous. Come on.

You ready? Set, go. The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and save such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

He guards all his bones. This is about the Messiah right here. He's prophesying. Verse 20. He guards all his bones.

Not one of them is broken. That's speaking about Jesus. Not one of his bones were broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous shall be condemned. You ought to read that again.

And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned. I don't care if somebody hates on us on Facebook. I'm just going to leave them to the Lord. A fool answers a fool in his folly. Some people you just should ghost him.

Do I need to define ghost? That means don't answer.

Those who hate their righteous shall be condemned. Verse 22. The Lord redeems the soul of his servants, and none of those who trust in him shall be condemned. Such a powerful, powerful path. So simple.

David's on the run. He's being trained how to live in the good blessings of God and to live when the pressure's on and trouble is deep. I don't like trouble. I don't like difficulty. I don't like being backed into a corner.

But I sure love what it does for me. Because what it does for me is. Is I know he's never left me. And I've seen his word that he's for me. And I. I endeavor to do his word, endeavor to do his plan.

So if I get backed in a corner, that is a great time to see God come and bust open a can of whoop. Amen.

A can of whooping on the enemy. But. But if you try to run and turn a heel. You're going to make an eye. An Isaac.

No, a Ishmael. You don't want an Ishmael. You don't want to try to help God out. You want. You have to wait sometimes and you can be like in a pressure cooker.

Recently, I was a part of a decision for a ministry, and there was no. There was no finances. And so I just said, lord, if this. If you created this, I said it to a few others. If this is you, then you'll provide.

If it's not, we're going to kill it. So whatever you want to do, if you come through and you provide, then we'll know it's you. If you don't come through, then we'll just change the plans. I guess maybe we missed you somewhere along the line. Next day, ching, God comes through.

Could it be that if we didn't. If I didn't set the resolve in my heart. If you don't. If you don't set the resolve and say, lord, you. This is you.

You've got to come now. And many times it's like, Lord, it's 11:59. He's like, yeah, you just think it is.

And it's like high time. And it goes past. And then the Lord shows up. He's never late. He's also never early.

I have discovered that David is learning to walk as a champion slinger of the stone and the dropper of Goliath. And now he's running, spitting on himself. He's learning to walk and trust every situation you're in. Everyone will train you. God is looking over you.

He's guarding over you. He lives on the inside of you. He's concerned about you. He. He wants to see his plan come about in your life more than you ever could.

Good. You are called to preach. So glad to see. I've been praying for you for days. For days.

You were called to preach. And the Lord is bringing you through the situation that you're in, and he's going to crown you with fatness. There's a special touch of heaven that's upon you even to reach those who have been placed upon your heart. Heart, I've given you a burden, and I'm making a way.

Trust me and obey, and I will turn even the hardest heart that's in disagreement with what I've spoken to you. I will turn even that heart around. Be careful. Do an agreement always in your family, your immediate family. Wife.

Agreement. For when there's agreement, one can put a thousand flight to 10,000. I bind and break off every attack that would bring discouragement on you. And I call forth the plan. Preacher.

Anointed man, thank you for this family. Bless him. Hope that encourages you. Been praying for you for three days straight. It's looking for you in the sauna.

Like, where is my brother? Lift your hands to Jesus.

Do you really think that God. Come on, listen to this. You really think that the Lord taught you to swim so you could drown? Do you really think that God poured oil over David.

So that. So that he wouldn't become king, but David had to trust him? What's happening during all of that? Faith is being built.

Come on, talk to Jesus. Talk to him. Lift your voice and call out to him. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Taste and see that the Lord is good.

It's a beautiful day when you learn to just lean on and trust him and not strive and not try to drive something. Something. Don't try to manipulate or force his hand. When you trust him, there's a time to push, but there's a grace on you to do it. Then there's another time where you just got to let him.

Let him take care of it for you. Sometimes you're forcing things to happen. I've done that a lot. It's my nature, kind of.

I get a word from God and I'm like, okay, I'm a mow down. Break through the wall. I'm doing everything. And the Lord's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hold on a second.

They just wait. Okay, go now. Stop. Go, go, go. Stop.

Go, go, go. Stop. Turn around. Walk backwards. Okay, go now.

It's not just move forward and it happens. There is. You've got to be led by him. And then things turn and change. And vision is progressive in your life.

If you can't be faithful for what he already gave you, why would he develop more? Why would he give you more? Why would I want to be faithful? I'm not gonna. I don't want to do what David did, even though I have already in my life.

Lift your hands to Jesus. I will trust you. Come on, say that to him. I will trust you. What does that look like?

It means like, you have peace. You contend for it. You keep it. You trust him. You continue to obey and do the right thing.

You continue to move forward and take steps of faith when you're feeling opposed. You. You trust him and you pray and you fast and you pray and you connect yourself with other people. You find the big gym. You find people so that you can learn to produce more and walk in greater victory.

If you hang out with dumb all your life, dumb will get on you. Bad company corrupts good character. But what's the opposite of that? Good character can also improve those who do not have as good a character. In other words, there's an importation.

And if you hang out with people that are. I'm not saying you're against them, but learn to run with champions. Run, run with people that have victory and then pull people up. Don't be pulled down. So you have to change that.

That means sometimes you got to change your, change your plans. Maybe you got to change your friends, maybe you got to adjust your schedule.

Just go ahead and talk to God all across this place. Just talk to him. Father, thank you. We love you.

Well, I hope you were encouraged by God's word. Word. Thank you again for listening to Kings Alaska podcast. God bless you. For more great content, go to kcalaska.com and may God's face shine upon you and give you peace.