Alright.  Hey, everybody, welcome to Valley Creek.  Come on, we’re so glad that you’re here with us whether you’re in Denton, Flower Mound, Lewisville, the venue, watching online somewhere in the world, let’s just welcome each other together for a moment.

Come on, we are one church amidst multiple campuses that carries the hope of Jesus to thousands of locations.  We are better together and we’re so glad that you’re here with us today.  And we are right in the middle of a series called Face Your Giants.  And we’re taking a couple weeks of talking about dealing with the things that hold us back.  And if you’ve ever wondered why do we preach in series, why do we do a bunch of messages around the same topic a bunch of weeks in a row is because we want to give everyone the opportunity to have a full understanding of the freedom that Jesus offers us in that area.  And so what we’re doing is we’re just talking about dealing with the things that hold us back.

Because if you’re honest and I’m honest, there’s things that overwhelm us, things that intimidate us, things that oppress us, giants, if you will, that are mean and nasty and roar and are ruthless and relentless in our lives, but it’s time to deal with them in Jesus name.  And so we’ve said a giant is simply anything that stands in between you and the promises of God that feels impossible to overcome.  A giant is anything, your giant is real, and it’s in between you and the promises of God.  You say, what’s that?  It’s all the things that Jesus came to give you, things like peace and joy and love and life and breakthrough and freedom, and those giants feel impossible to overcome.  Like the more we look at them, the bigger they become.  Giants are things like anxiety, shame, guilt, jealousy, anger, bitterness, control, responsibility, religion.  There is no end to the list of what giants are.

And as we’ve been going through this series, we’ve been hearing lots of stories of lots of people facing their giants, stories of giants getting identified, stories of people facing the giants for the first time in their life, stories of giants falling, things like shame and addiction and anger and anxiety that have been plaguing people for years.  They’re looking at in the face and they’re saying enough is enough in Jesus name.  I’m going to deal with this and move forward. And while I love hearing stories about all these different people facing their giants, my real question is, are you?  Right now, I’m not all that worried about everyone else’s story.  I’m really interested in your story.  Like are you facing your giant?  Are you right now dealing with the things that are holding you back?  Like here’s my question, are you doing anything with what we’re talking about?  That’s what I’m saying.

Like check this out, Hebrews, it says this, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”  In other words, God is speaking to you so don’t harden your heart, soften it.  Don’t lean out, lean in because when God is moving, you want to go with him.  And right now, God is moving and he’s saying let’s deal with some of those things that have been holding you back.  In fact, there’s a great story of the Israelites, as they’re on their way to the Promised Land and about to go into it, they run into a nation of giants.  And God sees those giants and he talks to Moses and the Israelites and here’s what he says.  He says, “See, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, King of Heshbon.”  Here is a giant king ruling a nation of giant people and I’m going to give them to you and their country, their land.  “Begin to take possession of it and engage him in battle.”  God says to Moses and the Israelites, he says, “See those giants, they’re in your way.”

“I’ve given them into your hand and it’s time to go face them.  It’s time to deal with that which could hold you back.”  Now look what Moses does, the very next thing -- go to the next verse for me.  So Moses send messengers to Sihon, the King of Heshbon, the giant king, offering peace and saying, “Hey, why don’t you let us pass through your country.  Sell us food to eat and water to drink.  Only let us pass through on foot.”  What?  God says, “Go face your giants, go defeat them.  It’s not their country anymore.  It’s now your country.  I’ve given it to you.”  And Moses reaches out to the giants and he says, “Hey, you want to make a peace treaty?”  He tries to compromise with the giants.  He tolerates the giants.  He tries to do business with the giants and says, “You know what, I’d rather just work out a deal with you and go around you than actually face you.”

But look what God does.  Go to the next verse for me.  But Sihon, King of Heshbon, the king, the giant king, refused to negotiate with us.  He refused to let us pass through, ready, for the Lord your God made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to give him into your hands, as he is now done.  In other words, God says to Moses, “Hey, Moses, I didn’t ask you to make peace with your giants.  I asked you to face your giants.  I didn’t ask you to do business with them, tolerate them, compromise with them or coexist with them.  I asked you to go face them so you could be free.  And if you’re not willing to do that, then I will move in the heart of the giant and bring the giant to you.”  In other words, here’s what I’m trying to help you get is, is if you don’t face your giant, God will cause your giant to come and face you.  If you’re not willing to go to battle, God will bring the battle to you, man.  And you’re like why?

Because he wants you to live in freedom.  He wanted the Israelites to be free and face their giants, not avoid them, not run from them, not compromise with them, not tolerate them, not do business with them.  Who does business with a giant?  We do, because we are often willing to run from our giant, more than we’re willing to face our giant.  But God loves you so much that he wants you to be free, that he will actually bring the giant up to the surface so you will deal with it in Jesus name.  And I bet, that’s happening to some of you in this series.  That’s God’s grace in your life.  So come on, let’s deal with it.  This is why Romans again our verse, “In all these things against any and every giant in your life, you are more than a conqueror through Jesus who loves you.”  See what we’re doing in this series is we’re looking at Old Testament stories of the people of God fighting real physical giants and learning how to face our spiritual giants.

And what we’re doing is we’re creating a manifesto, a guidebook, if you will, of different lessons of what it looks like to face our giants.  And I’ve told you that I’m not giving you a recap every week.  So if you’ve missed and you’re serious about dealing with the giants in your life, go on the website, go on YouTube, watch those.  We’re up to number five.  I got two for you today.  And what I want you to remember is your future is on the other side of the giant you don’t want to face.  So don’t let your giant hide your future.  And just because he hasn’t fallen yet, doesn’t mean he won’t in Jesus name.  Okay?  So you’re ready for two more tonight?

I’m going to give you two more lessons on Facing Your Giants and we’re going to apply it right at the end of the service today.  So here we go, lesson number five is simply this.  If you’re like what’s one through four?  Go online and look it up.  Lesson five is be aware that God is with you.

If you’re going face your giants, be aware that God is with you, man.  Listen to me.  Giant killers are more aware of the God who is with them than the giants that are in front of them.  Giant killers are more aware of the God who is for them than the giants who are against them.  Giant killers are deeply connected to the presence of God.  In fact if you read the scriptures one of the most often repeated phrases all throughout the Bible, God constantly says do not be afraid for I am with you.  He says it over and over again.  You said why?  Because I think it’s like God saying, “Hey, when you finally figure out that I’m with you, you won’t be afraid of your giants anymore.”  In fact, think of Joshua for a second.  Joshua is the guy, the leader of the Israelites, he has to lead the people under the Promised Land, a land full of nations of giants and giant kings.  And look at what God says to Joshua right before they go into sea.

He said, “Joshua, be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”  In other words, God says to Joshua, “Hey, Joshua, go take that Promised Land and you don’t have to be afraid of the giants because I’m with you.”  He says, “I’m with you.  My presence is the antidote for your discouragement and your fear and it will make you courageous and strong.”  God’s presence in your life is the antidote for discouragement and fear and it will make you strong and courageous.  When you start to figure out that God is with you like in reality, not just in theory, like he’s right here right now, you’ll be full of strength and courage and you won’t be afraid or discouraged and you’ll go face your giants in Jesus name.  Or, how about David in Psalm 23:4, David, the shepherd boy who faces Goliath.

Look at what he says, he says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”  David says even though I am surrounded by giants, I’m not afraid.  Why?  Because I know God is with me.  He says when you figure out that God is with you, you’ll have the courage to face your giants.  This is why Romans 8 says this, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  That’s a great question.  If God is with you, it means he’s for you.  And if God is for you, what giant can possibly be against you?  Come on, man, if God is with you, then all of the love and the grace and the mercy and the power and the authority of heaven is also with you.  So why are you afraid of that giant?  Come on, think of little kids for a second.

Imagine in your mind a little kid that’s playing outside all day having a great day and they leave their favorite toy outside.  And they forget about it, they go inside and they do their stuff.  And then it’s nighttime, it’s dark outside, and they realize they’ve left their favorite toy outside, but they’re afraid of the dark, like most kids are.  But they know their toy is outside and they’re desperate to get it, so what does a kid do?  They go look for the most powerful person in their house, an older brother, an older sister, a grandma, an aunt, a mom, a dad, it don’t matter, just the most powerful person in their house and they say, “Hey, I left my toy outside.  Will you come with me and get it?”  And all of a sudden because that powerful person is with them, they walk outside full of faith and confidence and they go in to get that toy and they bring it back inside.  Okay.  When you start figuring out that the most powerful person in the universe is with you, you start looking at all the promises of God that he has given you and you start walking right in the face of that darkness and you say, that’s mine, and I’m going to get it in Jesus name. Because he’s with me.

You see the real question is not is God with you, it’s are you aware that he already is?  Look, if you’ll read about the giant killers in the Bible, they were deeply connected to the presence of God.  It wasn’t just this theory.  It wasn’t just like a nice verse that they had memorized in their.  No, it was like -- it was an experience and it’s multifaceted.  See, God is so big and his presence is so multidimensional that it’s not just in this one area and it’s not just information to know, it’s a relationship to experience.  And so what I want to do is I just want to share with you real quickly within this lesson, there’s five like main facets of the presence of God that you and I get to experience in our lives.  So if you’re taking notes, I would encourage you to jot these down.  These are going to be fast.

First thing is just this his presence holds us together.  In him, all things hold together, like right now, the presence of God is holding the universe together.  God’s presence is literally holding the atoms and the molecules and the cells of everything in the universe together.  In fact, God’s presence is holding your body together right now.  The DNA, the atoms, the very strands, the molecules that your body is made up, the presence of God in him all things hold together.  That includes you and your life.  His presence is literally holding you together.  And if this presence was removed, you would just disintegrate and go into a million pieces.  This presence is holding the chair that you’re sitting in right now together.  His presence is holding this building together.  His presence is holding your marriage together, your family together, your finances together, your life together.  In him, all things hold together.

That’s the first dimension of the presence of God.  The second is his presence surrounds us.  His presence just doesn’t just hold us together.  It actually surrounds us.  David says, “Where can I go from your spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?”  In other words, right now, God’s presence is all around you.  360 degrees.  It’s above you, it’s below you, it’s in front of you, it’s behind you, it’s to your left, it’s to your right, it’s in the air that you breathe, right?  Take a breath.  Just breathe it in the presence of God.  His presence surrounds you right now in this moment, 360 degrees.  Wherever you go, there he is.  Not there you are, there he is.  Second dimension of the presence of God.  Third dimension is his presence is within us.  The moment we put our faith in Jesus, the Spirit of the Living God comes inside of us.  God doesn’t just hold you together.  He’s not just around you.  He’s actually in you as a follower of Jesus.

God doesn’t dwell somewhere way off in heaven.  He doesn’t live in a temple made by man’s hands.  He lives inside of us.  The very presence of God has decided that his home would be in your heart.  He’s within you.  Fourth dimension is his presences in our godly relationships.  In other words, Jesus says, where two or three of us come together in his name, there he is with us.  When we get together with other followers of Jesus, Jesus himself says it’s like he shows up and he hangs things out with us.  Whatever we’re doing, wherever we’re going, whatever is happening, he himself shows up.  He is the anchor of that small group that served him, that coffee, whenever two or three of us are together, there is a dimension, a unique dimension of the presence of God that we get to experience.  That’s why sometimes when you’re hanging out with other followers of Jesus talking about Jesus, you have this encounter, this moment, this experience that’s rich, that’s this.

And then the fifth dimension is this, his presence is tangible in our worship.  Psalm says, “You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.”  Another translation says, “God’s inhabits the praises of his people.”  In other words, when we get together like this as the people of God and we start worshiping just like we did, what our worship is doing is it’s enthroning God.  What that means is, as we were worshiping, what we were doing is we were building a throne in the spiritual realm.  Right here in the middle of this room at whatever campus you’re at, we just built a throne room in the spiritual realm.  We built a throne with our worship with our praise and Jesus himself comes and sits on that throne and starts to rule and reign over the brokenness, the darkness, the fear, the sickness, the pain, the brokenness and brings his peace, his joy and his life into this moment.

It is a tangible experience that we get to have when we worship together.  That’s why worship matters because this fifth facet or dimension of the presence of God only happens when we say, “God, we want you.  Come, King, come, Lord Jesus, rule and reign and bring your life into this space where we do this together.”  Okay.  So stop.  Can you be aware that he’s with you right now?  Can you just be aware he’s holding your body together?  Right now, can you just be aware he’s surrounding you?  Like you can feel it on your skin, he’s here.  Can you be aware that as a follower of Jesus, he’s right here inside stirring, moving, bringing life and hope, peace?  Can you be aware that because two or three of us are here Jesus himself has showed up in this space?  And can you just be aware that we just built a throne room in this atmosphere for the king of kings and the lord of lords to come and rule and reign?  That’s how you walk in victory over your giants.  Because if he is with you, then so is all the power and the authority and the healing and the grace of heaven.  You’ll never have to face your giants alone.  I tell you in my life sometimes if I’m just -- the best word I can give, sometimes I’m just embarrassed by how overwhelmed I get by my giants.  I so forget that God is with me.  I get so consumed with the giant in front of me and then you kind of like figure out you’re like, oh wait, but God is with me and then you like look to him and then you’re like, oh wait, who are you again? Oh yeah, you’re the grasshopper.

If you are here week one or week two, that would make sense to you or if you watched it online, that would make sense to you, right?  All the sudden, they changes.  See, giant killers are deeply aware of the presence of God.  And even when they forget about it, they very quickly come back.  Does that make sense to you?  Come on, think about the Israelites for a second.  When they first go in and explore the land, it’s theirs, God tells them it’s theirs, it’s full of giants but the people panic.  They don’t think they can do it.  The spies come back, Joshua and Caleb are the only two that have the faith to go in and take the land.  And look at what they say to the people, okay?  And if you were here last week, this is a lot of words but you have the spirit to receive it.  Here’s what they say to the people who are afraid to get the promises of God.  They say if the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey and will give it to us.

Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not be afraid of the people, the giants of the land, because we will swallow them up.  Their protection is gone but the Lord is with us.  Do not be afraid of them.  Okay.  I started to think about this and I was like, here’s what they’re saying, they’re saying don’t be afraid.  Why?  Because God’s with us.  And because God’s with us, the giants have no protection.  We’re going to swallow them up.  We don’t have to be afraid of them because God will give it to us and he will lead us if he is pleased with us.  Hmm.  I think most of us don’t believe God is with us because we don’t think he’s pleased with us.  We know where we’ve been and what we’ve done.  We know the sin in our life, the brokenness, the dysfunction, the thoughts, all of the junk.  And we think I got to clean myself up before God will be pleased with me.  And if I can clean myself up, maybe he’ll be pleased with me and then maybe he’ll be with me and then maybe I can have a victory over my giant.

But what we forget is that his grace is greater than your failure.  What we forget is that in Jesus, this has already been established.  In Jesus, God is pleased with you right now.  Right now.  He has forgiven your wickedness and remembers your sin no more.  You are a new creation in Christ, the old is gone, the new has come as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed your sin and your transgressions from you.  You are the righteousness of God in Christ not because of what you do but because of what he has done.  Not because you are good but because he is good.  That’s faith.  That’s faith.  I don’t feel it.  I may not be living it but he said it, so I got to believe it, so all the sudden when I start realizing, wait, in Jesus, he is pleased with me.  And if he’s pleased with me, he promises he will lead me.  And if he’s leading me into the Promised Land, he’s going to give it to me.  And if he’s going to give it to me, I don’t have to be afraid of them because guess what? I’m going to swallow up those giants because their protection is gone, because he is with me, so I refuse to be afraid of them because he is pleased with me.

Changes everything.  So here’s the quick question, are you more aware of the God who is with you or the giants that are against you?  Are you more aware?  Do you talk more about the anxiety and the depression and the mental health and the shame and the rejection and the insecurity and the anger and the pride?  Do you talk more about -- are you more aware of the giant than you are of the God who is with you?  And every time this week you start giving attention to that giant, stop yourself and turn and say, stop, but he’s with me.  Come on, right now, he’s with me.  He’s holding me together.  He’s around me.  He’s in me, so I don’t have to be afraid.  Believe me on that.

And here’s how you know you’re starting to become aware that God is with you, you start changing how you live.  You know you’re aware God is with you when you start changing how you live because all of a sudden when you’re aware God is with you, you want to create an atmosphere in an environment in your life that honors him, not because you have to but because you want to, because you realize, oh my goodness, God is here.  I don’t this sin.  I don’t want this worldly living.  I don’t want this dysfunction and this brokenness.  I want by grace to create an environment and an atmosphere that is worthy of the presence that is in my life.  That’s how you know.  That’s how you know.  That’s lesson five.  And lesson five very quickly translates into lesson six, which is simply this, worship is a warrior’s greatest weapon.  When you become aware that God is with you, you get your greatest weapon and it’s worship.

I hate to break this to some of you, you are a warrior and your greatest weapon is worship.  You’re like, no.  Worship is a warrior’s greatest weapon.  You will not find one giant killer in the Bible that didn’t have a heart for God and didn’t have a heart for worship.  Everyone of them.  Moses, Joshua, David, the disciples, the people in our church that find victory over their giants.  They’re all worshipers.  Jesus, do you know what Jesus did right before he went to the cross to face the giant of sin, death and the grave?  Do you know what they did?  They had the Last Supper.  And you know what it says, there’s one little verse right at the end of the story on the Last Supper, you know what it says?  It says they worshiped together.  Oh my goodness, Jesus worshipped before he faced the giant of death.

If he needed to worship to face his giant, how much more do we?  He said, well, what’s worship?  Worship is just lifting up the name of Jesus.  It’s giving him our honor and our affection and our attention and our energy.  It’s telling him who he is and what he has done.  Worship is taking your heart and it’s just turning it towards God and that’s the greatest weapon you have.  You see this whole series whether you’ve realized this or not, this is a series on spiritual warfare.  So what this is?  Its whole series is about spiritual warfare and that’s a big word and we’re not always sure what to do with it.  But look at this, Ephesians Chapter 6, that famous spiritual warfare practices for our struggle, our battle, what we’re facing is not against flesh and blood, like you’re not fighting physical giants.  You’re like, well, maybe my wife some – no, no, we’ll talk about that in a couple weeks.  But people are not your giants.

Somebody just needs to hear that today, people are not your giants.  But against the rulers and the authorities and the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, it’s spiritual warfare.  The giants you’re fighting are spiritual in nature.  They’re coming from the kingdom of darkness and spiritual battles require spiritual weapons.  Spiritual problems require spiritual solutions.  So let’s talk about this for a second, spiritual warfare.  I don’t know what you’ve heard, what you grew up with, what you think about it.  Hear me, spiritual warfare is not about the devil.  It’s about Jesus.  Spiritual warfare is not chasing demons focusing on darkness, running around, naming things, calling it out, that just gives him attention.  Spiritual warfare is about lifting up the name of Jesus.  It’s not about chasing demons.  It’s about glorifying God.  It’s not about rebuking the darkness.

It’s about walking in the light.  It’s not getting lost in the distractions of the giants.  It’s about glorifying God in Jesus name.  Spiritual warfare is not about fighting for victory.  It’s about fighting from victory.  Like I have already been victorious in Jesus, so I’m just going to start enforcing what’s true.  Come on, 1 John says this, “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”  Greater is the God that is in you than the giant that’s in front of you.  And spiritual warfare is just becoming aware of that truth.  It’s lifting up the name of Jesus over the dysfunction of the giant that is in front of you.  And hear me, the whole point of spiritual warfare, the battle is for your worship.  Spiritual warfare, the battle is not for victory.  It’s for your worship.  If you go all the way back to the beginning, remember, Satan is not God’s equal.

Satan was a created being, an angel made by God.  God is superior in every way.  And Satan wanted to be worshipped.  And because he wanted to be worshiped, he got kicked out of heaven.  He got thrown to this earth.  And because he wants worship, he wants your worship and my worship.  And what is worship?  It’s turning your heart to something.  It’s giving affection and attention and focus.  So here’s the question.  If worship is turning the attention and the affection and the focus of your heart, do you worship your giant more than you worship God?  If it’s attention and focus and awareness, do you worship your giant more than your God?  That’s what the battle is for.  Worship is all about winning the battle in here regardless of what the giant is doing out there and saying, I’m not lifting you up over my life.  I’m lifting God up over my life, over my own spirit, over my own heart, that’s where the victory is and that comes through worship.

Come on, you remember Peter?  Remember when he walks on water?  The big storm, disciples are in the boat, Jesus comes walking by and Peter says, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come walk.”  Jesus says, “Okay, Peter, come on.”  And he gets out of the boat and he starts walking not just on water, on the storm.  He’s walking on the wind and the waves.  He’s looking at Jesus and he’s walking on the storm.  And then look what it says, it says but when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was afraid and began to sink.  The moment he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the giant in front of him, he began to sink.  This is worship and spiritual warfare.  When you’re looking at Jesus, you start walking on the giants in your life.  You start walking and, yeah, there’s still wind and there’s still waves and still crash and still growling.

But the more you see him, the bigger he becomes and the smaller they become.  But the moment you start turning your attention to them, you start sinking in life.  Anybody feel like that today?  Or how about 2 Corinthians that says, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen the giants in front of us, but on what is unseen, our God, who is for us, for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  In other words, we want to look not at the temporary giant in front of us, but the eternal God who is with us.  Come on, refuse to be impressed by the size of your giant.  Refuse to be impressed by that anxiety and that worry and that stress.  And refuse to be impressed by how big it is and be impressed by how big he is.  Come on, you still with me on this?  It’s a lot of verses today but last week.

Look at this, next verse, next verse.  “May God arise and may his enemies be scattered, may his foes flee before him.”  In other words, when you lift up the name of Jesus in worship, the giants start running.  Or how about the next one, that says, “May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword be in their hands.”  I love that.  Worship is like a double-edged sword in your hand.  Worship is your greatest weapon.  Not your intellect, not your effort, not your plan, worship is your greatest weapon against the giants in your life.  So are you using it?  Are you using it?  Because if not, kind of just ask you, what’s your plan?  Like how are you going to face that giant in your life if you’re not using your greatest weapon?

You say, how is it my greatest weapon because you worship, you stop looking at this thing and you start lifting up the God of the universe.  Come on, like when you come in here, are you using that weapon?  During the week, do you have at least one worship song on any playlist of any device at any point in time, from Sunday to Sunday?  Or are you filling your mind with the songs or the talk of the world instead of the anthems of heaven?  Come on, you know it.  See, this is the paradox.  It’s like trying to convince, you know, it’s true because those moments you come in or you’re having a bad day and a worship sign and all of a sudden, it’s something inside of you grows and it like lifts you up.  Why?  Because all of a sudden, your attention is not on the giant, it’s on Jesus.  And everything starts breaking and changing.  Come on, there’s a great story when the Israelites go into to the Promised Land, you know, first battle they fight was against the city of Jericho.

City of Jericho, giant city with giant walls and giant people inside.  And God tells them, here’s what you’re going to do.  For seven days, you’re going to walk around the walls and you’re going to worship.  I don’t like that battle plan.  Seven days, day one, what are we doing?  Day two, this is dumb.  Day three, nothing’s happening.  Day four, how much longer do we got to do this?  Day five, are you all for real?  Day six, I think I want to go back to Egypt.  Day seven, the walls fall and the giants die.  You say why?  Why would God have them do that?  Because for seven days, God wanted them to walk around the city and look at those giants and start figuring out that greater is he that is in me than he that is in this world.

Because for seven days, God was trying to say, stop looking at them and start looking at me.  When you face your giants with worship, I promise you eventually, they will fall.  So don’t give up on day two.  Don’t give up on day four.  Don’t give up on day six.  Come on, keep surrounding your anxiety and that depression, and that worry, and that rejection, and that insecurity, keep going around and around and around it with worship and get your attention off of them and get your attention on him and you’d be amazed and how those things start to crumble.  This is why David after his battle with Goliath or in his battle with Goliath, he says, “It’s not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”  Just come on, the battle is the Lord’s.  When we worship, what we’re doing is we’re allowing God to go fight on our behalf while at the same time allowing him to fill us up with faith, hope and love.  Listen, I’m just going be honest with you.

I don’t know how you do life without worship.  Like in my life, I want I want to increase in advance, I want to follow God to the limits of the life they ask for me.  There are so many giants in my life.  I don’t know how to --I don’t know how you do it without it.  He’s literally my greatest weapon.  Every week I’m on the front row in one of our services and I’m worshiping because I need it for me.  Like just so you know, like in those -- I’m not worshiping for you.  I do a lot of other things for you, that’s for me because I need it.  I need to lift God up over my life so I stop looking at the giants around me.  Come on, you can worry about your giant or you can worship your God, but you can’t do both because it’s the same thing.   Worry is worship.  It’s this -- it’s just turning it over and over in your mind.  Worry is worship of the unknown.  I don’t want to lift the giant up over my life.  I don’t want to think about him and be aware of him and give anxiety, and fear, and rejection, and pride.  I don’t want to lift that junk over my life because you know what, it rains down garbage upon you.

I want to worship my God and lift him up and let peace, joy, love, fait, redemption ring down upon my life.  Come on, so somebody needs to just hear me today, don’t let pride keep you from your victory.  Because here’s what we say, we’ll say some of you, this is what you’ll say, you’ll say but the worship music gets loud and it’s a -- I didn’t grow up but that’s not my tradition.  Alright.  Since when do you make decisions in your life based on the tradition of like 40 years ago?  Do you still wear those same clothes?  Drive that same car?  Use the technology that was available 40 years ago?  Come on, come on, don’t let preference keep you say, I don’t like that song, I like this song.  I don’t like this, I like that.  Come on, come on, don’t let comfort, that’s not comfortable.  People might look at nobody looking at you, man, that’s the giant of pride.  You think it’s about you in this service.  We ain’t even thinking about you. We’re thinking about Jesus.  No one’s looking.  Come on.

Or religion or whatever it is, like just look at these few verses.  Go to the next one for me.  Come on.  Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.  Are you a part of the earth? Yeah. Then you are commanded to shout to the Lord.  How about the next one?  It says daily, I will worship you with passion, passionately, and with all my heart, my arms will wave to you like banners of praise.  That’s in the Bible.

Come on.  One more, sing to the Lord a new song, why?  Because he’s doing a new thing today.  That is your greatest weapon.  And Satan wants to do everything he can to keep you from it.  He wants to convince you that showing up late to church is no big deal.  Why?  Because he wants you to miss the worship.  He wants you to miss using your greatest weapon.  He wants to convince you that you’re better than this.  That it’s below you.

That’s for those people over there.  He’s a master deceiver.  So don’t let pride keep you from that.  Come on, worship is our battle song and our victory cry.  And when we worship, we’re drowning out the sound of the giants roar.  Come on, this is victory and surrender.  This is desperation and dependence.  This is honor and humility.  This is you, Jesus, are worthy of my song regardless of how I feel.  You see one last verse for our unit says this, “You have trained me with the weapons of warfare, worship.”  Worship is the greatest weapon you have to face the giants in your life.

“And because I have now been trained with it, I will descend into battle with power to chase and conquer my giants,” in Jesus name.  Facing your giant is worship because it’s saying you have more faith in the goodness of your God than the giant who is in front of you.  Use the greatest weapon you have so you can be free in Jesus name.  So here’s all we’re going to do, close your eyes with me.  Whatever campus you have, our worship teams are going to come back out at all our campuses and here’s what I’m going to invite you to do.  I’m going to invite you just for three minutes, I’m going to ask if you if you could, if nobody would just leave, just for three minutes, we’re going -- for three minutes we’re just going to sing this is how we fight our battles.

We fight our battles with worship with hands raised, with hearts lifted, with a song to the Lord.  And for just three minutes and then that’s it, three minutes, can you become aware that right now God is with you?  And can you use the greatest weapon that you have?  Whatever your giant is that you walked in here with today, let’s go ahead and just see him at your feet.  In fact, here’s what I want you to do.  Will you just stand up with me at whatever campus you’re at right where you are?  Standing up is just a sign to say in Jesus name I’m facing this giant.  Standing up is a sign of honor and authority because when a king walks into a room, you stand before his presence.  And so for the next three minutes, let’s use our worship warfare.  Let’s become aware that Jesus is here.

And if he is here, then all of the power and the authority and the love and the healing and the redemption of heaven is also in this room in Jesus name.  It’s time to face our giants with the weapons he’s given us so we can be victorious.  So, Jesus, right now for the next three minutes, we turn our awareness and our attention to you.  Would you come and fill this place with your presence and your peace.  In your name, we pray, amen.