Well, I know you've been in conference all week, but do you have any praise left for Jesus? Let's pray together. Father, thank you for this incredible privilege.
This privilege that you've given us to gather, to be renewed, to be refreshed, your word says times of refreshing come from you. I thank you for the refreshing that every pastor, every leader has experienced as a result of this gathering. And I thank you for the privilege that you've given me to contribute to what you are doing in and through them.
So I pray for the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, your anointing, to equip me for this assignment to make the contribution that you've called me to make. And I pray as a result of all that you are doing in and through this incredible assembly. of world changers and culture shapers. May it be said of us as it was said of the early church, these are they that have turned the world upside down.
In Jesus'name, amen. Can you clap your hands one more time, everybody? So, such an honor to be here and really, really grateful for the opportunity. I want to just hear about and witness what God is doing through incredible individuals like you. and as I was praying through what direction I felt like I needed to go today, there is a small part of a very familiar passage for many of us that I kind of want to use as a launching pad to...
leap into our lesson today. If you would, I kind of feel a little, I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and I was telling him a little bit about how I was feeling, and I was like, man, I feel like I'm a little too young to be feeling some of the stuff I'm feeling. And he said, Darius, it's not the age, it's the miles. And so I hadn't been in the game long, but I've been in it long enough to have gone through some different eras.
And there's this phrase that used to be a part of a hymn that they would sing in a church I grew up in, in Kilmichael, Mississippi, to serve this present age, my calling to fulfill. And so with that in mind, there's something I think we need to think around in 1 Samuel chapter 17. I'm going to read a couple of verses starting at verse 39. I'm reading from the New International Version. And it's a brief portion of David's narrative, and this is what it says. I mean, 1 Samuel 17, 39, it says, David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around because he was not used to them. I cannot go in these, he said to Saul, because I'm not used to them.
So he took them off. He took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the streams, put them in the pouch of the shepherd's bag. And with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine.
I want to talk for a few moments. I want to talk for a few moments from this topic and our time together. I can't wear this. I can't wear this.
This passage is a powerful picture of a principle that I think is extremely important, yet often overlooked. It's a principle that I've affectionately entitled the principle of exception. And the principle simply suggests that what happens with them does not dictate and determine what happens with me. What happens with them does not dictate and determine what happens with me.
In other words. Past realities are not an accurate indication of future possibilities. That you can't look at what happened with most people like me and come to conclusions regarding what is possible for me.
This is not a declaration of superiority. It's a declaration of distinction. We're not saying we're better than. We are saying we are different from. You can't look at what happened with most people my age and tell me what's possible for me at my age.
You can't look at what happened with most people my gender and tell me what's possible for me with my gender. You can't look at what happened with most people from my socioeconomic status and tell me what's possible for me. based on my socioeconomic status. Because when I read my Bible, I see that our God is the God of exceptions.
What is an exception? An exception is an anomaly. It's an aberration.
It's a rule breaker. It's a trendsetter. It's when something happens that couldn't happen, shouldn't happen. wouldn't happen unless God made it happen.
It's something that couldn't happen, shouldn't happen, and wouldn't happen unless God made it happen. And the scriptures are inundated with examples of exceptions. Most women in their 90s don't have babies.
But with Sarah, God made an exception. Most people do not. go in a den full of lions and come out of that den in one piece.
But with Daniel, God made an exception. Most people cannot go in a fiery furnace and come out and not even smell like smoke. But with the Hebrew boys, God made an exception.
Most people cannot walk around a wall once a day for six days. Seven times on the seventh day, shout, and then a wall fall down. But with Joshua, God made an exception.
Birds typically don't feed people. People feed birds. But with Elijah, God made an exception.
And dead men do not get crucified on a hill called Calvary. and are buried in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb and stay there three days, but early Sunday morning get out of the grave. But with Jesus, God made an exception. And if he can do it for Sarah, if he can do it for Daniel, if he can do it for the Hebrew boys, if he can do it for Joshua, if he can do it for Elijah, if he can do it for Jesus, he can do it for you.
Let me hear the exceptions make some noise this morning. God of exceptions in you and I. have been called, created, and commissioned to be exceptions.
Salt of the earth, exception. Light of the world, exception. I can say this with confidence because I did a degree of informal research and attempted to objectively examine the words, the adjectives that the scriptures use to describe you and me.
And based on my informal research, This is the conclusion I came to. None of the words in the Bible that are used to describe you and me are synonymous with normal. Out of all of the words that I see in scripture used to describe you and me, normal is not one of them.
The Bible uses words like salt. Light, chosen, special, peculiar, anointed, appointed, selected, elected, protected. These are all words that the scriptures use to communicate God's intention for us to be the exception.
And God uses the pages of scripture to keep reminding us of this because we will... always behave in a way that is consistent with how we see ourselves. Solomon framed it this way, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
So God regularly repeats himself in this area because he's attempting to make sure what we think about us doesn't override what he thinks about us, so that we behave in a way that is consistent with what he thinks about us and not what we think about ourselves. Because how far we go and how much we grow isn't just determined by what God thinks about you. It is also impacted by what you think of yourself.
I won't repeat that. How far we go and how much we grow is not just determined by what God thinks about us. It is also impacted by what we think about ourselves. How far we grow and how much we go, how far we go, how much we grow isn't just determined by what we believe about God. It is also impacted by what we believe about us.
How far we go, how much we grow, isn't just determined by how we see God. It is also impacted by how we see us. numbers 13 is an incredible case study of this reality because Israel is poised and positioned to possess the promised land but once once the spies bring back a report about the opposition that exists in the promised land. Israel refused to fight a fight that was already fixed. They allowed the enemy to use the tool of intimidation to stop them from trying something that if they had tried it, they would be successful.
And the Bible attributes their lack of effort not to them seeing God wrong. That's not the text. It says we are as grasshoppers. In our own eyes and in their eyes also, listen to me, they did not lose to the giants in the land.
They lost to the grasshopper in their head. And I am telling you, as it was for them, so it is for us. There are times when the giant in the land is not the problem. The giant in the city is not the problem. The giant in the region is not the problem.
You were born for that giant. You were built for that giant. You've been selected for that giant. You've been engineered for your area. God didn't make a mistake.
He knew exactly where to put you He knew exactly when to put you there and you've been built with what you need to take off the Goliath in your area But the problem is not the giant in the land It's the grasshopper in our head And I want to tell you something, when the enemy who is obsessed with influencing our thinking can't change what you believe about God, his next step is to change what you believe about you. When he can't change what you believe about God. His next step is to try to change what you believe about you.
I want you to hear this because I came up in a church tradition. I'm a little bit like eclectic. I'm very eclectic. It is so weird. I'm eclectic.
My dad was a Baptist pastor. Then he ran into... some Pentecostals that were part of Church of God in Christ.
It was old school. They would come to your house in those days, put the Holy Ghost circle around you, and they would do something called tarrying service in your house. And so my dad became like this Baptocost. I don't know what we were.
So anyway. But I come up in this tradition where humility was important. So there was this obsession with pride.
and arrogance, which I'm not critiquing. However, I've come to see something, and that is the enemy is not just at work with arrogance. He is also at work with inadequacy.
Because I grew up in a context that was pride obsessed, my understanding of humility was synonymous with inadequacy. So I had this conceptual understanding of humility that was not Christ-centered, right? Because Christ is the ultimate example of every spiritual virtue, including humility.
And with Jesus, you see humility, but you do not see inadequacy. One writer framed it this way, arrogance doesn't come from knowing who you are and what you can do or what you have. Arrogance comes when you forget who gave it to you.
Much of what we know about Jesus, he said about himself, which says to us that he operates with a degree of self- awareness that is absolutely essential for all of us to accomplish our assignments. And if Jesus needed it and had it for his assignment, we need it and have it for, we need to have it for our assignment and the enemy knows it. So when he cannot get you with arrogance, he swings the pendulum to the other extreme.
And the same enemy that orchestrates and influences attitudes of arrogance is the same enemy that orchestrates and influences attitudes of inadequacy. And listen to me, Simeon family, listen to me. Inadequacy has assassinated just as many assignments as arrogance. It's because pride very often is public, but inadequate is inconspicuous. And I've got examples all throughout scripture of this.
As a matter of fact, this is the issue that God had to regularly address with some of the people he used the most. You will see very often when God calls someone, what the first thing he has to do is to talk them out of inadequacy. He calls, inadequacy picks up the phone. He called Moses, what picked up? Inadequacy.
Moses starts telling God all the reasons I can't do what I hear you calling me to do. When God called Jeremiah, inadequacy picked up the phone. First thing Jeremiah starts talking about is his experience. I'm but a youth. I don't have the experience.
God called Gideon, what picked up the phone? Inadequacy. My pedigree, my background, my family. Because the same enemy that is at work with arrogance is the same enemy that is at work with inadequacy.
And this is so essential, family. It's so important for you and I to wrap our head around this reality. Because what these stories show us is that your confidence, which the Bible tells you to not cast away, is contextual. We have no evidence of inadequacy issues in Moses until God calls it. Does that make sense?
We have no evidence of any kind of inadequacy issues with Jeremiah until God calls him. He's like, I'm feeling pretty confident. Well, I want you to do this.
You want me to do what? Wait, am I making sense? Confidence is contextual. Like, you put a mic in my hand, I'm confident. You put a hammer in my hand, I'm not confident.
And the enemy understands this. And so... He secretly and strategically wants to plant seeds of inadequacy in you and me.
Listen to me, because inadequacy will inhibit us from embracing what's called our unique design. And your unique design is essential to your destiny. So if I don't embrace my unique design, then I will not step into my unique gifting. And if I don't step into my unique gifting, I will not accomplish my unique destiny.
And my unique destiny includes solving a problem because creation or purpose is an answer to a problem. So there is a Goliath I've been assigned to knock down, but I am the only one that can knock that one down. But if I don't believe enough in what God's given me, I'm going to go to war with Saul's armor and not my rock. This is, this is, what I've been preaching is the theme of this text. I have not mentioned this text, but I have extrapolated from this text a theme that I think is incredibly important, yet it is often overlooked.
We picked up, we picked up this incredibly important narrative in chapter 17, but contextually, this story begins in 1 Samuel 16. where we get to eavesdrop on a conversation that God is having with a spiritual leader named Samuel. And he says to Samuel, who was a kingmaker, he says to him, he says, Samuel, how long are you going to mourn what I have rejected? In other words, how long are you going to keep nurturing an emotional attachment? to an era I'm done with.
He's referring to Samuel's connection to Saul, who represents an era of leadership, who represents an age, who represents... A time where things were done a certain and a specific way. And Samuel, who is spiritual, also has an emotional connection that he can confuse with a spiritual connection.
His emotional connection to Saul can be confused to a spiritual commitment to the things of God. And God says to Samuel, he says, How long are you going to keep nurturing an emotional connection? attachment to what I'm done with.
When I'm finished with something, Samuel, I'm finished for a reason. And even if I don't tell you the reason that I'm finished, you need to fill in the blank of your, the blank between what I'm doing and what you understand. Fill in that blank with trust and not suspicion. Because if I'm finished, I'm finished for a reason and you need to trust me enough to be finished when I'm finished.
So if I'm done with Saul, you need to be too. You don't love him more than me. You don't know more about him than me. You definitely can't change him more than me, Samuel.
So how long? So he tells him, fill your horn with oil and go to Jesse's house. He says, fill your horn with oil. This is so important. And go to Jesse's house.
Fill your oil. Your oil no longer belongs there. I'm going to show you where to pour it. So he takes this oil and he goes down to Jesse's house and has Jesse assemble his children and the oldest Eliab comes and Samuel looks at him and says, surely this is the Lord's anointing. Samuel is a prophet.
He's a seer and in this context the seer can't see. Because his emotional attachment to the past is impacting his discernment in the present. So God says man looks at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart.
I don't use the criteria you think I use when it comes to selecting people. So Abinadab comes and then Shammah comes and they go through seven of Jesse's. sons and none of them are king. And they say to me, seven can represent a number of completion. So things should be over.
But when God is determined to do something, he will suspend a rule to get you a miracle. So Samuel asked Jesse, are these all the sons? Jesse say, no, but I got, I got one more.
I got one more, but I know he's not the one, you know. This is too layered for me to dig into because I think when you see some of David's peculiar behavior, some of it's probably connected to unaddressed father wounds. Because his father has a king in the house and doesn't know it.
The person David probably wanted to see him the most saw him the least. How do you think that impacted him? How do you think, do you not think that is at least one of the contributing factors to why he stayed under abusive leadership, Saul, as long as he did?
I don't know how you wired, but you got one time to throw a spear at me. Maybe you set up different. I'm not set up like that.
You throw a spear at me one time, it's like I won't be back. But Saul loved David as a musician. The Bible says he loved him greatly and made him his armor bearer. So even though there was abusiveness and narcissism on one end, there was still some affirmation that he was getting on the other end. And so his affirmation inhibited him from being objective when it comes to assessing Saul.
So he kept tolerating abuse because he needed love. This man, this David, comes and the Bible says that God says to the prophet, yeah, this is the one right here. So interesting to me.
Because seven of Jesse's sons got to the oil first. Seven people got to the opportunity first. Seven people got to the open door first.
Seven people looked at the building first. Seven people surveyed the land first. But when God has something that by his grace and providence he has assigned to you, it does not matter who gets there first. He will hold it in place until you get there.
So they can be it first. They can make an offer first. They can apply first. But when God has something for you, he will reserve it specifically for you.
So David gets anointed in the presence of his brothers and the Bible says in the spirit of the Lord came up on David powerfully from that day forward and Samuel leaves and goes to Ramah and through a series of events. You know the story. Through a series of events, David ends up working as a musician and as an armor bearer in the palace, but he didn't abandon his responsibilities in the pasture. So even though God elevated him, outside his father's house.
He never stopped faithfully serving the father's house. I'm going to say that one more time. Even though God elevated him outside the father's house, he never stopped faithfully serving the father's house. And he would go back from time to time and still tend to the sheep in the pasture.
And one day when he was doing so, the Bible says that his father instructs him to take something to his brothers and he takes them to the brothers. And then he begins to hear this Philistine who was insulted. exalting Israel. And this is what I call unique agitation, right?
Unique agitation. Because if purpose is a problem to, if purpose is an answer to a problem, then God will give you a unique agitation for the problems you've been created to solve. Which means two of us can walk in a room, see the same problem, it bother you and not bother me.
Because God will give you an agitation for what you've been assigned to address. Does that make sense, guys? Okay, now, so everybody's hearing Goliath's insults, and they're doing nothing about it. They're doing nothing about it. As soon as David hear the insults, he's like...
Y'all don't hear that? No, he said, who is this? Everybody's looking at his height and his strength and his stature.
David says, who's this uncircumcised Philistine that dares to defy the armies of the living God? See, everybody's looking at what Goliath does have. David's looking at what he doesn't have.
Because circumcision was a symbol of the covenant. He's saying he's got a sword and a spear, but he doesn't have the covenant. He's got height, but he doesn't have a covenant.
He's got to fight by himself. I don't have to fight by myself because I've got a God that made a covenant to fight with me. And he says, I'm done. He says, he says, he says, um. Who's gonna fight this guy?
And he asked this question, and I really don't have time to unpack this, but we need to unpack this more, because it's worth unpacking. What shall be done for the man? That's what he asked, right? He said, hey, what will be done for the man that defeat this giant?
My motives are pure, but I still need to know. I'm doing it for the glory of God, but I just kind of need to... If I'm putting myself out here like this... They said, you get the king's daughter in marriage. He's like, eh...
They said, no taxes. He said, I'm in. I'm in.
No taxes. I'm in. Sign me up. So here's the quandary.
I'm wrapping up here. To me, it is one of David's most courageous acts. I see courage in the palace before I see the courage on the field.
Because once Saul gets word that David's willing to fight, Saul, who attempts to talk him out of it initially, acquiesces and says, if you're going to do this, at least do this with the best equipment. This is battle tested. This is the best available to engage in warfare. So David now. is receiving an offer from a king, first of all, that he knows is not stable.
So he's not sure what kind of reaction he's going to get. So he initially puts on Saul's armor and tries to walk around in them. I love this. Because you do not have to dishonor the armor just because you have a slingshot. And this is something I have to watch like in my tradition.
Because emerging leaders who may be called to slingshots can dishonor armor that was used to win battles to get them where they were. Yeah, my tradition is that old church is like, yeah, that old church is what prayed to give you the rights that you have. That old church is the church that was marginalized and would still step in church on Sunday and lift up their hands in the prayer.
So sometimes when you've been called to slingshot, you can disrespect. Don't disrespect the armor because exception is not better than, it's different from. Whatever your way is, it's not better. It's just different.
So David literally had to courageously articulate. I can't wear this. I know nine out of ten people could wear this.
But I can't. I know this is the way this is typically done. I can't do it that way.
And I know I'm talking to some people in this room who have felt or feel that. Oh, I felt it in pastoral ministry, all of the conferences, all of the methodology. Let me fit within this box.
Let me do it this way because this is the way we do it. But in my heart, I knew this wasn't my unique design. And my slingshot might not be much to you, but it's what God gave me.
And it will work if you worked it. And we've got buildings and we've got property and I've got locations in New Jersey. I simulcast him. So I believe in all of that.
But for me, I said, man, my calling, my heart, when I hear Spurgeon, my heart leaps. When I hear Moody, my heart leaps. When I hear Wesley, my heart leaps. My calling is not just to build buildings that people will sit in, but to release words they will live by. Spurgeon's words are blessing you from the grave.
And I said, that way might not be as popular now, but it's my slingshot. And David used his slingshot and knocked his giant down. And I came to encourage you today.
And to let you know, your slingshot is enough. It is exactly what you need for the Goliath that you've been born to take down. So may God... give you the confidence.
May God give you the courage. May God give you the conviction that you need to believe that you and your slingshot are enough. Father may The confidence you gave David be the confidence that you give us.
I pray against inadequacy. I pray for those who needed this message as confirmation that you have been called to this and you are built for this and the world is waiting. For them to throw their rock.
Give them the courage to do so. In Jesus'name, amen.