Alright, everybody.  Welcome to Valley Creek.  We are so glad that you are here with us today.  Come on, whatever campus you’re at, Denton, Flower Mound, Lewisville, the venue, watching or listening online somewhere in the world, let’s just welcome each other together for this morning.

Come on, we are so glad that you are here with us today.  We’re going to just jump right in together because we’ve been in the series called Face Your Giant and we’ve been talking about dealing with the things that hold us back.  And if you’re honest and if I’m honest, we got things in our lives that hold us back, things that overwhelm us, things that oppress us, things that intimidate us, things that keep us from the fullness of the life that God has for us.  Giants, if you will.  Giants that are mean, and ruthless, and nasty.  They drool, they roar, they growl, they’re ugly, they are ruthless and relentless, but we’ve said, “It’s time, in Jesus’ name, to face our giants and move forward into the life that God has for us.”

And we said a giant is simply anything that stands in between you and the promises of God that feels impossible to overcome.  It’s a giant.  A giant is anything.  There are all kinds of different giants represented in this room. And your giant is real.  Don’t let anybody tell you it’s not.  It’s anything that’s holding you back, anything that stands in between you and the promises of God.  You say, “What are those?”  The promises of God are everything that now belongs to you through the finished work of Jesus.  It’s everything Jesus died so that you could have things like peace, and joy, and love, and freedom, and breakthrough, and provision and yet those giants feel impossible to overcome.  It’s like the more we look at them, the bigger they become and the more we think we’re never going to find victory or freedom from them.

And so, what we’re doing is we’re talking about things like this.  Like anxiety, depression, worry, stress, fear, shame, rejection, insecurity.  Giants can be things like control, responsibility, performance, bitterness, religion.  You name it.  It’s anything that stands in between you and the promises of God that feels impossible to overcome.  And as we’ve been going through this series, I would bet some things in your life are being exposed. God’s word exposes truth and truth is designed to set us free.  And so, what we’re doing in this series, let me just say it to you like this, we’re talking about the real stuff, man. We’re talking about the real stuff of life.  The stuff that the world is desperate for answers for.

The stuff that you go on Facebook and see articles about, the stuff that you hear about in the news, the stuff that we’re dying to find freedom and victory over and yet for some reason, we don’t want to talk about that stuff in church. It’s amazing how we all know we got these giants in our life, but for some reason, like this is not where we want to talk about them.  We would rather find out on Facebook how to deal with our giants than talk about it as the people of God. Got real quiet on that one.

Yeah.  Why?  I think there’s two reasons.  One is this thing shame.  I think we have so much shame over the giants in our lives and we feel like church is not a safe place to acknowledge the brokenness or the things that are going on in our lives, so we don’t want to bring them out.  And the other is, I think, a lot of us believe Jesus is irrelevant.  We don’t really think he can help us with our giants.  And so, we’re trying to find worldly solutions for spiritual problems.  But come on, if we can’t talk about giants in church, where can we talk about them? Hear me.  There’s no shame because you have a giant in your life.  There’s no condemnation for those who are in Jesus. It’s okay to struggle, man. It’s not okay to lie about it.

It’s okay to not be okay.  It’s not okay to stay that way, so we got to bring things out of the darkness into the light.  Confession is the beginning of healing.  When we start getting honest and humble ourselves, we start finding the breakthrough that we’re craving.  Your struggle is not your identity. This is the safest place to putting things out of the darkness into the light.  And on this side, Jesus is the most relevant thing in your life. Worldly solutions cannot solve spiritual problems. So hear me.  If Jesus is not at the center of your plan to deal with your giant, you will never find victory.  We want a quick, convenient, easy worldly solution for a deep spiritual problem.  If he’s not at the center no matter how much you can numb it or figure out how to cope with it, you will not solve it because it requires the most relevant thing in the universe and his name is Jesus. See, the very fact that there’s a giant in your life is a good thing.  You’re like, “A good thing.  Why?”  It’s a good thing.  Why?  Because it’s an opportunity for victory.

It’s an opportunity to become desperate and dependent upon Jesus.  It’s an opportunity for him to show you his power that is at work within you.  In fact, I love this verse.  1 Peter says, “Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through as if something strange were happening to you.”  He says, “Hey, don’t be surprised that there’s a giant in your life.  There’s nothing wrong with you.”  What’s happening?  You’re pioneering. You’re moving forward, you’re advancing and you’re increasing and giants are going to show up along the way.  He says, “Hey, the very fact that there’s a giant means you’re moving in the right direction.”

Come on, let me build your faith here a little bit this morning or today or whatever service that you’re at. What I want you to think is this.  Your life is littered with fallen giants. Your life today is littered with fallen giants.  If you looked into your past, you would be shocked by how many giants have already fallen. There were giants you were dealing with six months ago, a year ago, 5 years ago, 20 years ago that you don’t even think about today.  Why?  Because in Jesus’ name, you’ve already found victory over them. So if those giants can fall, why can’t the giants you’re facing today fall?

Sometimes we got to look back to have the faith to move forward.  Like even David and Goliath after David kills Goliath.  You know what he does?  He takes Goliath’s sword and puts it in his tent.  He takes Goliath’s sword.  David is a little shepherd boy.  Goliath is a giant.  Do you understand Goliath’s sword would have been like Thanos’ sword.

Unwieldable for a shepherd boy.  David is going to be like, “Argh.”  Like what is he going to do with that thing?  He’s not going to use it for battle.  He puts it in his tent and I believe that along the way, David would go in that tent and look at that sword and say, “If I could find victory over Goliath, I can find victory today against this enemy.” That giant fell yesterday and this giant is going to fall today in Jesus’ name.  Come on, that’s why Romans 8 -- says, “In all these things, against any and every giant in your life, we are more than conquerors.”  There is victory available through Jesus.  And so, what we’re doing in this series is we’re building a manifesto, a guide book, if you will, of lessons of how to face the giants in our lives by looking at Old Testament stories where they fought physical giants to teach us how to fight the spiritual giants of our lives.  And I told you that these lessons we just built and were kind of moving through them and what I have tried to encourage you and help you get is that your future is on the other side of the giant you don’t want to face.

But don’t let a giant hide your future. Come on, just because he hasn’t fallen doesn’t mean he won’t. And so, I’ve told you that you’re going to have to go back online to YouTube or to our website, whatever it is to catch up.  And today, I’m holding to my word.  I’m not giving you a recap.  So if you miss last week or the weeks before -- we’ve already done three lessons on how to face your giants.  And if you’re serious about facing your giants, you’re going to go back and you’re going to listen to that.  Why?  Because you’re going to steward God’s word -- which brings us to the lesson for today.  You see, today’s lesson on how to face the giant in your life, whatever it might be, is one of the most important things that if you don’t grasp this, I’m just telling you straight up front, you will not find victory over the giants in your life.  And as I worked on this message -- I had lesson 4, 5, and 6 that we were going to do today, but lesson 4 is so important that I bumped 5 and 6 to next week.

So are you ready for 4? Lesson 4.  If you’re going to face the giant in your life, whatever it may be, it’s simply this.  Discover and hold on to the promises of God. Discover and hold on to the promises of God.  In other words, arm yourself with the word of God. And if you don’t get this lesson, you won’t find victory from the giants in your life. If you’ll engage the scriptures, what you’ll discover is that every giant killer in the Bible loved the word of God.

They were consumed by it.  They needed it, they wanted it, they mediated on it, they memorized it, they studied it, they spoke it, it was in their spirit, it was in their mind, it was in their heart, it was on their tongue, it was in their conversations.  Every single giant killer loved the promises of God.  Moses, Joshua, David, Jesus, the disciples, the people in our church who find victory over their giants in their life. They discover and hold on to the promises of God.

In fact, if you think of David.  David, the little shepherd boy who fought Goliath.  Look at this verse, look at -- this is what David says.  He says, “Lord strengthen my inner being by the promises of your work.”  In other words, David says, “I found strength to face Goliath by the promises of God.  It was His word that strengthened my spirit to go fight that giant and find victory. Or how about Joshua?  Joshua, the guy who is going to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, into the place where it was full of giants.  And God says, “Hey Joshua, you’re going to lead my people, you’re going to go face nations of giants.”  And here’s what God says to Joshua before they get started, he says, “Joshua, do not let the Book of the Law depart from your mouth,” the word of God, the promises of God.

He says, “Meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it, then you will be prosperous and successful.”  God says to Joshua who’s about to go face the nations of giants, he says, “Joshua, discover and hold on to my promises.”  He says, “Arm yourself with my word then you will prosper and succeed over every giant you will face.”

And the same is true for us.  If you want to prosper and succeed over the giants in your life, you’ve got to arm yourself with the word of God.  And this is why so many of us never find victory over the giants in our lives.  We treat this is casual, as optional, it doesn’t fit in our busy life.  We don’t understand it, we don’t got time for it.  We want the quick easy Twitter verse, you know, it’s like we don’t really value this and then we don’t understand why we aren’t finding victory.

Hear me, you can’t hold on to what you haven’t discovered yet.  And it’s really hard to experience the promises of God if you don’t know what they are.

This is why in John 8, Jesus tells us, he says, “Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”  In other words, when we don’t know what God has said, we won’t experience the freedom that he has already given to us in Jesus’ name.  Are you with me on that? See, here’s the problem, there’s a lot of things we think God has promised us that he hasn’t, and a lot of things that God has promised us that we are ignorant of.  There’s a lot of promises that we think that God has made to us like God helps those that help themselves.  Just so you know, that’s not in the Bible nor a promise of God.

And there are lots of amazing promises that we’re ignorant of, so we live short of the life that God has for us. Like come on, Psalm 16, look at this, “Lord, you have assigned me my portion in my cup.  You have made my lot secure, the boundary lines, my Promised Land has fallen for me in pleasant places.”  In other words, you’ve got a Promised Land.  You’ve got boundaries and borders and God has designed a Promised Land for you, an abundant life, a life of freedom, and fullness, and purpose and redemption, an amazing life of faith, hope and love, peace and joy.  The boundary lines, the Promised Land is falling in great places for you. The promise -- the problem for us is, is we don’t know what it is.  So a lot of us -- here are what I’m discovering in the series, a lot of us have giants in our lives that we don’t even realize our giants.  We just say things like, “Oh, that’s just always been there.  That’s just life.”  Or maybe it’s a giant that’s come in and is squatting on your land, but you don’t realize what’s promised to you so you can’t deal with it.

Or a lot of us lived these really small lives because we don’t realize the scope and the totality of what God has offered us so we’re ignorant of the fullness of what belongs to us.  Does that make sense to you? See, here’s what you have to understand, giants are empowered through human agreement.  Giants are empowered through human agreement, when you believe a lie you empowered the liar.  And if you think about it, we talked about this last week, we said, “All giants have already been defeated in Jesus’ name.”  Then why does it feel like they have authority?  Because we agree with them, because we believe what they tell us about our lives. Remember, Jesus called Satan the Father of Lies, which means the only language giant speaks is a lie.  It’s deception, accusation, condemnation, that’s the only language they speak.

And I want you to just think about your own life, think about the times in your life when you believed a liar.  When you believed the liar, you let that liar define your current reality.  That’s what happens for us with giants.  And what you got to understand is giants roar lies, God whispers truth.  And the quietest whisper from God has more power than the loudest giant’s roar.  One whisper from God can silence a thousand giants roaring. So the question is, are you agreeing with the whisper of God or the roar of the giants?  Come on, let’s be honest though.  We all got to sit here today and say, “The giants, they got a lot to say, don’t they?”

Like anxiety has got a lot to say.  Depression, lot to say.  Rejection, oh man, he has got a lot to say.  Insecurity, he roars all day long. The giants have got a lot to say but you know who else does?  God.  And so my question for you is, are you discovering and holding on to the roar of the giants or the whisper of God?

See, here’s how we deal with this, I’m trying to help you actually figure out practically how to deal with your giant.  Look at this next verse, this is the famous like spiritual warfare passage.  Here’s what it says, “Take the sword of the spirit which is the word of God.”  It says the word of God is your sword.  It’s how you arm yourself.  It’s how you fight the lies of the giants.  And I love about the sword is it does two things, it defends and it advances.  A sword defends you from the lies of the giant that come at you, but it advances you into the fullness of the truth that God has for you. Or how about Hebrews 4:12 that says, “For the word of God is living and active sharper than any double edged sword.”

So God’s word is alive, it’s active and has the power to take down the giants in your life and it says it’s double edged.  Double edged, which means it has the ability to defend and advance.  Double edge, to knock down the lies and advances into the truth that God has for us.  Are you with me on that so far? Okay, so here’s what I want you to understand.  I think we come to battle unarmed.  We show up to a gun fight with a knife.  We show up to a real battle with like a plastic sword and then we wonder, why we can’t find victory.

Like just think about this for a second, imagine if you we’re going to go fight a real physical giant, what you just think about?  You’re going to go -- you, not someone else stepping up.  You, you’re going to fight a real physical giant.  He’s 10 feet tall, he’s got full body armor, he’s got weapons on every part of his body hanging out, knives, and his clubs, and spears and all kinds of stuff.

He’s drooling, he’s nasty, he’s roaring, he’s growling and you’re standing there and he comes running at you and you don’t have a weapon.  And as he’s running at you, you’re looking for something and you’re like, “Aah.”  Do you understand your spiritual giant looks exactly like that physical giant you just pictured in your mind?  Anxiety, depression, shame, whatever you want, he’s armored up, it’s drooling, it’s nasty, it’s roaring and it’s coming at you.  And when it starts coming at you, most of us, we got like a few token verses.  You know, like the famous ones that are like monogrammed on something or like a picture in your house or little thing over the toilet, in your bathroom, you know, “The Lord is good.”  You know, like that kind of.  So the giants come at us and we reach for a weapon that isn’t there.

Because you can’t hold on to what you have yet to discover.  And then we wonder why anxiety, and shame, and guilt and fear -- we wonder why these things take us out.  Come on, are you with me on that? And what happens eventually, you lose to that giant so much that you concede the entire areas of your life.  It’s just like, “I can’t beat you so, I’m done.  I’m walking away.” And what I want you to understand is that, I can show you the sword, I can teach you about the sword, I can tell you about the sword, but at some point in time, you are going to have to pick up the sword if you want to face your giants.

I mean, look at this, 2 Timothy 3, “Every scripture, the word of God has been written by the Holy Spirit and it’s the breath of God.  It’s the whisper of God.”  And what does it do?  It empowers you.  Empowers you to do what?  To fight and face the giants in your life.  By what?  Instructing you and correcting you, helping you discover what’s truth and what’s a lie. And it gives you the strength, it empowers and strengthens you to do what?  To take the right direction, it leads you deeper to move forward, into the path of godliness, to pioneer, to increase in advance, then you’ll be God’s servant.

What do God’s servants do?  They destroy the works of darkness, you’d become fully mature and perfectly prepared to fulfill any and every assignment God gives you.  In other words, to face any giant in your life because you are now armed for battle. So some of you are like, “I don’t like this one.”  I know.  I know.  Here’s what I’m trying to tell you, at some point, if you are serious about facing your giant, you’re going to have to discover and hold on to the promises of God for you.

Listen, it’s so interesting to me, one of the most often comments I get when I meet people that have moved here from another state or have been to another church and they come here. One of the comments that people always say to me is they’re like, “Man, you guys just use so many verses on the weekend.” That’s kind of the point isn’t it? I’m always really confused by that.  I’m always really confused by that comment because it’s like, “It’s like a lot of content, man.”  Okay, but hear me, the word of God is living and active, not the communicator’s words.  Who cares?  The communicator is just a vessel, there’s no power and authority in that.  The power and authority is in the word of God.  And so what we’re trying to do is arm you for the battles in your life. And I get it sometimes we’re like, “Man, this is -- these are lots -- has a lot of verses.”  You got no idea.

Do you know at any given weekend I’ve got about 20 more of these that I want to put in here? And there’s usually at least 10 more that are actually in the slide that the poor production guys, they never know where to go with the mouse button, because as we’re going, I’m skipping or adding or whatever it is.  I mean, we’re serious about this stuff, man. And here’s the problem in our lives -- I don’t want to say this to you without you like going “Oh my god.”  We’ve lost the ability to focus.  We’ve lost the ability to think.  We’ve lost the ability to absorb and receive the content, the truth of God and take it in.  We’re so used to a 140 characters and a minute or less video that we’re like, “There are too many words on that slide for me to understand.” Oh, that’s funny.

Come on. Here’s what I want for you, I want you to crave this. I want you to appreciate this.  I want you to realize that if you’re not in the church that’s using the word of God to talk about Jesus, you need to go somewhere else.  Because it’s this, that changes our lives.  Because if Jesus is the word of God, then everyone of these is not about you, it’s about Jesus and it’s arming you to deal with the giants in your life.

Come on, have you been here with us this year?  Every month we’ve given you a reading plan, a chapter a day.  It’s a pioneer.  And I knew at the beginning of this year if the word of God was not a part of what you are doing and what I was doing, we weren’t really going to take ground. Do you realize if you’ve just track with us along the way you would’ve read 278 chapters by today.  And that’s just one a day, that’s like 5 minutes.  278 swords. Come on. And then the giant comes.  And we’re ready.  Come on man, if Jesus needed the word of God to face his giant, how much more do you?

See when Satan showed up with lies and deception and condemnation and accusation, you know what Jesus says?  Or how we responded with the word of God?  It is written.  Every time the giant came against him, his response was really simple, “It is written” and then he would speak out a promise of God.  If Jesus needed that, how much more do we?

Here’s the problem, you can’t say it is written if you don’t know what it says.  Facing your giant without the word of God is like saying, you want to lose weight without working out.  It’s like saying you want to be an all-star without going to practice.  It’s like saying you want a scholarship but you don’t want to do homework.  It’s like saying “I want the best marriage ever, but I don’t really want to spend time with my spouse.”  Or “I want financial freedom, I just don’t want to save any money.” It’s the same thing.  You hear me on that?  You’re like, “Who’s stepping on my toes?”  I know. “I’m stepping on your toes so you don’t get a sword from a giant.” Come on, in this, our promise is for every giant you face.  Every giant you face there is a promise for it in here.  And when those giants show up and start roaring lies, you’ve got to be able to knock down the lie and hold on to truth.

When anxiety starts roaring all these lies at you, you need to be able to knock it down and say, “You know what?  John 14:27 says, ‘I have been given the peace of Jesus.  I’ll knock it down and I’ll hold on to truth.’” When depression shows up and starts roaring all these lies about how bad life is, you need to be able to knock it down and say, “You know what?  Romans 15:13 says, ‘He fills my heart with hope even though I don’t feel it today, so I’m holding onto it with everything I got.’” When rejection shows up and starts telling you that nobody wants you, knock it down in Jesus’ name and hold on to truth by saying, Hebrews 13:5 says, “He will never leave me nor forsake me.”

When fear shows up, knock it down, it’s a lie from the pit of hell and say Isaiah 41 says, “I don’t have to be afraid because He is with me.” When shame shows up and reminds you all the things you did and all the places you’ve been and all the things you’ve done, you knock it down and say Romans 8:1 says, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  I will hold this truth.” Come on.  Lies can’t stand in the face of truth.  They must fall.  So let’s stop empowering the giants honestly through our own ignorance sometimes, because we just don’t know. This is why John 8:32, again Jesus says, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”  I’m convinced that lots of us aren’t free, because we don’t know the truth.

Giants keep winning in our life not because Jesus isn’t doing something, but because we’re not picking up the sword that He has already given to us.  Refusing to discover the promises of God is choosing to stay in bondage, just so you understand.  If you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free, refusing to discover the promises of God is choosing to stay in bondage.  And if you don’t want to fight your giant with the promises of God, then can I just ask you, what do you fight him with?  Things of the world?  Facebook’s wisdom?  I mean, seriously. Hosea 4:6, it says, “My people are destroyed from a lack of knowledge.”  I’m just telling you -- I’m just trying to tell you these things.  I just get tired of watching people get hurt, destroyed by giants just because we don’t know.

It’s really hard to experience the promises of God when you don’t know what they are. Come on, think about it like this.  Whatever area of influence you have in life, whatever your thing is, maybe it’s business, sports, you’re a coach, you’re a teacher, social media person, influencer, can you imagine if you could have like a day with the most influential person in your lane?  Like if you are business person, can you imagine spending the whole day with Steve Jobs learning about business?  If you are an athlete, can you imagine hanging out with the best athlete in your sport?  Or a coach hanging out with the best coach in your sport?  Or influencer, hanging out with the most influential social media person in the world and just learning from them?  Can you imagine what you would give for that?

If you want to kill giants, you can hang out with every giant killer that there ever was.  We can absorb this into our spirit.  Come on. Here’s my fear.  I think we like the world of God, I don’t think we love the word of God.  I think we appreciate this.  It’s nice, it’s cool, it looks really good on Knick Knacks.  I don’t know if we love it.  I think if we’re honest of a day like today, we would rather be entertained than empowered.  We would rather be comforted than challenged.  And we would rather hear things we already agree with than hear things that cause us to arise to a new life.  We got to discover and hold on.

We just -- just think about -- just think about David for a second.  David, maybe the most famous giant killer in the whole bible, let me just read you these verses.  Just this is David.  This is how he killed giants, men.  Just received this into your spirit for a second.  This is David.  My passion and delight is in your word for I love what you say to me. Oh, how I love and treasure the revelation of your word.  Throughout the day I feel my heart with its light.  I refuse to turn away from the difficult truths, for you, yourself, have taught me to love your words.  Truth-shining light guides me in my choices and decisions, the revelation of your word makes my pathway clear.  There is such a great peace and well-being that comes to the lovers of your word and they will never be offended.

I want to love His word.  I want you to love His word.  I want us to love His word.  His word is living and active. It’s a light unto our path and a lamp into our feet.  It’s bread of life.  It’s grace and truth.  It’s the whisper of God, the word of God, the wisdom of God.  It’s the sword of defense and it’s the sword of advance. Come on, think about this.  David killed Goliath in like five minutes.  Five minutes, the giant of all giants went down.  But he spent years studying the word of God before that.  So maybe, if we would spend more time discovering the promises of God, we’d spend less time fighting giants.  Maybe if we spent more time preparing, we’d spend less time on the battle field.  Are you with me on that?

Okay, now for some of you, let me make this super, super practical.  Here’s one of the best things that you can do.  Every night when you go to sleep, take one promise of God that’s against the giant in your life and let that be the last thing you think about as you fall asleep. Take one problem, whatever your thing is, anxiety, shame, rejection, control, performance, whatever, find one promise, hold on to it and as you’re lying in bed at night, let that be the thing you meditate on, turnover in your mind as you fall asleep because here’s what I want you to think about.  As you go through your normal day, pretty much all you hear are lies of the giants.  Just think about a normal day.  The news, media, social media, your friends, the places you go, things that happened at work, pretty much all your hearing all day long is the roar of the giants, lies there a very little whispers of God’s truth throughout the day.  The Holy Spirit is doing it, but you are usually so pre-occupied that we don’t catch it.  So all day, we’re hearing lies, we’re hearing lies, we’re hearing lies, and then we come home and we try to unwind before we go to bed.  And I want you to just think about this, if you are dealing with the giants of anxiety, think about this, and then at the end of the night, you turn on the news and you watch the news in how bad the world is.  And then you go to bed.  You go to bed agreeing with even more of the lie you are already struggling with.

Or how about you’re dealing with the giant of fear?  You are afraid, that’s the thing that’s going on in your life, it’s real.  And guess what, you watch a scary movie on Netflix before you go to bed.  So I’m empowering the giant of fear to give me even more dreams and empower the lie even more on my life. Or you are struggling with relationships, and you listen to the music of the world that glorifies dysfunctional relationships as the last thing you hear before you fall asleep.  Come on, stop feeding your giant and start defeating your giants. So it’s literally like the easiest thing you can do.  You’re like, “But I don’t know how.”  We’re going to give you a few verses at the end of service, but you got to pick up the sword, man. Come on, why do you want to go bed listening to what’s wrong with the world?  You’d be amazed.  Like just take Romans 8 for a second, the verse that we’ve been using.

You’re sitting, and you just put -- you’re falling asleep, wherever you are, whatever place you are in, and you just start with this, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, in all these things, in all these things.  In all these things, my family, my school, my marriage, my work, my friends, my finance, in all, okay, in all of these, not some things, you just take every word – and – okay, we are more than conquerors, we, means, I’m not by myself, I’m a part of a people, I’m a part of a community and we as a community, we’re more than conquerors, I’m not just a conqueror, I’m more than that, that might take me a couple of nights to figure out what more than, actually means. But I’m victorious overall those things, through him, not by me, through him, through Jesus, and what he has done, who loved us.  Oh my goodness, he doesn’t just love us, because I’m included and that means he loves me.  Zzz.

You be amazed.  You’d be amazed.  And all of a sudden, you’re going to be sleeping better, you’re not going to be having those dark dreams, and you’re going to wake up in the morning, not feeling like your giant is already winning.  Why?  Because you’re now, armed for battle. And this isn’t about arrogance and swagger, this isn’t about pride and saying, bring it on, giant, this is about humble confidence, this is about quiet strength, this is about saying, I’m prepared to deal with the giants in my life through the finished work of Jesus, and I will be ready to knock down the lies, and advance in truth.

Come on.  I think we want our giants to fall, just not so sure we want to discover his promises.  I think we want our giants to fall, we’re just not so sure we want to follow Jesus.  We want our giants to fall, we’re just not so sure we want to prepare for battle.  What I’m trying to tell you today, is if you’re serious about facing your giant, at some point, you are going to have to pick up the sword for yourself. Romans 10:17, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  So the more I hear about the word of God, Jesus, and his finished work, the more faith I have to find victory and freedom from the giants who want to move in and squat on my life.

Come on, it’s time to face your giant. Your giant might be, picking up the word of God, they might literally be, he shamed you, and intimidated you, and made you so busy and distracted, that this has no place in your life, and he’ll just keep roaring and smiling, because he knows until you pick this thing up, anxiety, depression, shame, fear, control, rejection, insecurities, bitterness, they won’t fall, even though they’ve been defeated.  Why?  Because we’re agreeing with them, so we’re giving them power to define a reality. Enough, in Jesus’ name.  So close your eyes with me.  Come on, what is God saying to you today?  In your life, in your world, whatever is going on, what is he saying to you?  Here’s what he is not saying, he is not shaming you for not having picked up the word of God, he’s inviting you to say it’s time, it’s time for you to discover and hold on to the promises that I have given to you, no giant has a chance, against the word of God, we’ve got to start focusing more on the promises that are for us, than the giants that are in front of us, because when we come armed for battle, we find victory in Jesus’ name.

Lord, I pray today, that you would stir up in our spirit, a hunger and a desire for your word, a faith and an interest and that things of God, the weapons that you have given to us, the promises, that you have made over us, may we have the faith to discover and hold on, to the fullness of the life that you have for us. Lord, today, we commission everyone in this room that’s willing, as a swordsman, as a warrior, as someone who is going to take down the giants of their life, because of what you have already done, and the promises you have entrusted us with. May today be a day we arise to a new place to Jesus’ name, may this always be a church and a people, that love the word of God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.