 Hey man, so keep a bookmark in Matthew chapter 25. So tonight we're starting kind of a new series and this is gonna be something that we do periodically on Sunday nights. I'm super excited about it. We're gonna do a book series and we're starting the first one this evening. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a book and we're gonna go through the book and usually it's gonna be a book that demonstrates biblical principles. So we talk a lot about biblical worldview here but part of biblical worldview is also knowing what's going on in the world, things that have happened in the world. So you can look at the world itself through the lens of the Bible. So we're gonna look at things like that. And I mean, honestly, you think about preaching 150 plus sermons every single year and I can get up here and I can tell you stories about myself and I can make up stories because really I'm not that interesting but it's much better if I can actually, I don't have to just come up here and talk about personal stories all the time because other people have stories. And that's what we're gonna do with this book series is we're gonna use the experiences, the life and the writing of other people and look at these lessons that point out and many times, especially this book, they demonstrate the biblical philosophies that we talk about every single week. So basically, I mean, we're looking at, we're gonna choose a book, we're gonna go through a handful of biblical principles. I've got eight or nine sermons ready for this particular book that we've chosen tonight and looking at the only accomplishment of the series is to just get you to read the book. I feel like I've succeeded. So this first book is called Up from Slavery. It is, most of you have started reading it. It is the autobiography of Booker T. Washington. Contrary to the first glance of the book, the book isn't really about slavery. It's not really about slavery. It's not even about race relations. It's basically the life of a man who grew up. He was born into slavery. He was born in 1858-ish. He doesn't even really know exactly when he was born, but that was basically right before the breakout of the Civil War that ended slavery in the United States. So of course, following the victory, the Union victory at Gettysburg later that year was the Emancipation Proclamation, if you remember that from school in 1863. And that effectively, even before the Civil War was over, that effectively ended slavery in the South. So that is where this young man was, he was right, he was six, seven years old when that happened in 1863. Now the beauty of the book is this. It's an environment that he was born into, that he was, he found himself in when he was just a very young man that was, it was nowhere near success-friendly in this environment that Booker T. Washington was born into. That's why, I mean, everyone in America should read this book. This should be required reading for high school kids, junior high kids, whoever. Look, it's an American story if there ever was one. And it's a story of success through adversity is what it is. It's a man's, it was a man's sheer will, his positive attitude, his refusal to quit and where that can lead you. And not only where that can lead you, but where it will lead others around you which is a big focus of the book as well. So let's get into it this evening. The first thing about Booker T. Washington that makes his story unique was his beginning. So basically, this sermon's title this evening is called Gaining Traction. Gaining Traction. If you've ever felt in your life, you know, like I'm not getting anywhere. You know, I'm not getting anywhere in my life. It seems like if you look back, you know, in your life two, three, four years and you're like, you know what, I'm just, I'm just not moving forward in my family life, my Christian life, my work life, my whatever life. You know, if you feel like you're spinning your wheels at any point in your life in any area in your life, that's what we're gonna talk about this evening. We're gonna talk about this idea of gaining traction. Now look, I can say this, I don't know exactly how you all grew up and where you grew up, but I can tell you this. I have been stuck. I'm talking about literally stuck in a vehicle. I guarantee I've been stuck more than anybody in this room. There was times when I was growing up when I would get stuck every single day. I was late for school, I would get stuck in the snow. I had a 1977 cut with Supreme. It was rear wheel drive. You try driving that thing through the snow. It doesn't work. Okay, so to get out of the snow, you have to not only dig yourself out, but a lot of times we would go and we would grab hay from the hay bales and we would throw it under the tires of the car to what? To get traction. You had to get traction somehow, otherwise your wheels would just spin and they would just polish the ice and you were never going anywhere. So I've been stuck so many times literally in my life. We're gonna talk about how to get unstuck and how to get moving in your life in many different areas. It's all about gaining traction to get started. I'm gonna give you three biblical points that are demonstrated from this book tonight on how to get unstuck in your life and how to gain traction in your life. So here's the beauty of Booker T. Washington's life. He started from literal zero. He started from zero. I'm gonna read you a quote from the first page of the book. I almost said the Bible says. The book says this. It says, my life had its beginning in the midst of the miserable, my life had its beginning in the midst of the miserable, desolate and discouraging in the midst of the most miserable, desolate and discouraging surroundings. So he basically said that, I started out in these miserable conditions. He started out like literally in a shack as his mother was a slave, he was a slave. He had zero education. He didn't know how to do anything. He had no skills. He ended up working coal mines to survive once they were the Emancipation Proclamation. The Civil War was over. His stepdad had him working as a young man in these dangerous, dark coal mines. He had no advantages. He literally taught himself how to read by snagging a couple books here and there. But then he learned of a school and he was determined at all costs to get to this school. Okay, so the first point on gaining traction in your life, and this is a simple point. We're not gonna spend a ton of time on this point because I've brought this point up many times in this church before. But look, it's still a point that stops people. So I am gonna bring it up again tonight. The first point is this, turn to James chapter one. The first point on how to gain traction in your life. Listen, look, these are three very simple points, but if you do these things, they will work. Guaranteed, they will work for you. And the Bible says that they will work. Look at James chapter one and verse number eight. James chapter one and verse number eight. The Bible says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. The first point on how to gain traction in your life is to set goals in your life. Goals will make you single-minded. The Bible says here, it says a double-minded man is just unstable in all his ways. He just, one minute he's doing one thing, the next minute he does, if this is somebody that changes their mind all the time and they're just going in all different kinds of directions all the time, they're unstable. But goals will keep you single-minded. They will keep you focused in the right direction. If you feel like you're getting nowhere, you look back years in your life and you say I'm not moving forward, you still have the same problems, your issue begins here, is you do not have goals. You must set goals. Let me read from you page number 18 from the book Up From Slavery. The book says this, Booker T. Washington, quote, there was never a time, you wanna hear it, you wanna talk about goals, here's a goal. There was never a time in my youth, no matter how dark and discouraging the days might be, when one resolve did not continually remain with me. And that was a determination to secure an education at any cost. That is a goal, right there. He's like, I am going to secure an education, no matter what, no matter what, I'm gonna, look, he's single-minded on that goal. It's simple, it's simple. Do you have goals? Do you have goals in your life? Do you have goals with your family? Men, you're the leader of your family. Do you have goals with your family? There's so many young kids in this church, it would be shocking slash terrifying if the leader of their home did not have goals for that family. Do you have goals for your kids, specifically? Goals for your sons, goals for your daughters. Do you have goals for their school? Do you have goals for their education? Have you thought about these things, have you written these things down, or are you just floating around? Are you just floating? You just get up every day and be like, oh, what should we do today? Maybe we'll do some of this, maybe we'll do some of that. Three years are gonna go by and you're gonna be exactly where you are today if you don't have goals. Now notice, notice in that quote on page 18 that he says this, that he says this inside that quote. I have this quote, this part of this quote highlighted. It says, no matter how dark and discouraging the days might be, that part is highlighted in my book, which brings me to point number two. So the point number one in gaining traction is you must have goals that will keep you single-minded. That's the simplest point I'm gonna make tonight. The second is this, is obstacles. Turn to Proverbs chapter 26, Proverbs chapter 26. No matter how dark and discouraging the days might be. Look, he's talking about obstacles there. He's talking about there's gonna be problems. He's like, it doesn't matter though. Whatever happens, he's like, my goal is this. I'm determined no matter what. His goal stays the same. Look at Proverbs 26 in verse number 13. The Bible says, the sloth will man saith, there's a lion in the way. A lion is in the streets. That is a brilliant proverb right there. Now I'm gonna just cut that up for you this evening. That is a brilliant proverb right there and it, look, it just shows you the brilliance of the Bible. It's like one sentence and there's so much there. There's so much there. If you just read it again and again and again, you will just start to see, look, first of all, there's two points to this sentence right here. The two points to this sentence, the first one is, let me ask you this, is there a lion? Is there a lion? Like in this, the sloth will man saith, there's a lion in the way. A lion is in the streets. The proverb implies that maybe there's a lion, maybe there's not. We don't really know. But this guy is saying there's a lion so I can't go. And if you read the next verse, it says he's saying there's a lion so he can stay in bed. So maybe there is no lion, maybe there is a lion, but either way, it keeps him in bed. So the real lion or the imaginary lion, it literally stops him. It literally stops him from what he's doing. Going back to Washington's quote, there was never a time in my youth, no matter how dark and discouraging the days might be, when one resolve did not continually remain with me. And that was a determination to secure an education at any cost. Here's the problem. And this is why everybody needs to read this book. Everybody needs to read the Bible, but people need to read books like this. Because look, all emphasis today is put on, emphasis today is just put on removing obstacles from everywhere. It's just we must raise our children and remove obstacles from everywhere from them. I mean, look, this is incorrect. It's literally the wrong way to go. Because it produces people that will just constantly claim a lion in the streets. Because guess what? There's gonna be a lion's. The emphasis, I mean this is the whole problem I mean it's not the whole problem and it's a big problem with America today. Is we just have to even the playing field because if somebody has an obstacle in front of them, that's not fair or that won't work. And look, the emphasis should be focused on teaching people to overcome obstacles. And that is what this man's life was all about. And not removing them from everywhere. Because notice how it says the slothful man. It says the slothful man. Look, a lazy man cannot overcome obstacles. That's the brilliance of that verse. Is a lazy man uses the obstacle as a reason that he can't go. They think, look, they think erently. The slothful man thinks erently that I can't go because of the obstacle. The diligent man says I don't care if there's an obstacle I'm going. That's the difference. That's the beauty of Proverbs 26-13. Look, the lack of obstacles actually produces laziness. This is what Proverbs 26-13 is telling us. Washington did not suffer from this. No matter how dark and discouraging the days might be. Dark and discouraging. Those days are obstacles right there. He was able and determined to overcome anything. Turn to Romans chapter 12. The Bible speaks a lot about overcoming. We could go to verse after verse after verse talking about overcoming. But the Bible, that's why the Bible talks so much about overcoming. Because look, there's gonna be obstacles. There's gonna be obstacles. Romans chapter 12, look at verse 21. Romans chapter 12, look at verse 21. The Bible says be not overcome of evil. But overcome evil with good. Look, temptation is an obstacle. Temptation to fall into sin. Temptation to not go in the right direction in your life. That's an obstacle. And it's one that some people can't get past. It's real. Turn to John chapter 16. There will be obstacles. Guess what Jesus did, by the way. Turn to John 16, look at verse 33. John 16, verse number 33. The Bible says, these things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation. That means trouble. That means people coming after you. That means people giving you a hard time. Jesus says, in the world you should have this. In the world you'll have this and heaven you won't have this. So in the world you're gonna have trouble. People are gonna come and they're gonna put obstacles in your way. They're gonna do things to you. But be of good cheer, why? Because I have overcome the world, Jesus says. Well, Jesus overcame the world. That means he's implying that you can overcome any tribulation is what Jesus is implying. Look, parents you should be teaching your kids to overcome obstacles. Not avoid them. This is why you will see two types of people out there. You will see in your, all you adults out here you see two types of people. You find the first type of person who finds solutions no matter what. And then you find the second type of person they just find reasons to not get things done. That's Proverbs 26, 13. Look, the diligent man, he gets it done anyway. The lion is irrelevant. In Proverbs chapter 26 and verse number 13, the lion that the slothful man brings up should be irrelevant. That's the proof that he's a lazy man is that the lion is not irrelevant. Look, here's the thing. I've said this before, I'll say it again. Guys, gals, everybody. Nobody cares why you can't get it done. Nobody cares. I mean, if you've learned anything about me, please. Know this, I can see through every excuse. Don't make an excuse. It'd be better to just come up to me and be like, you know what, I did that and that was a really dumb thing to do. And I mean, other than come up and make some excuse, I mean, it's worse. It's way worse. All these people that are claiming lions are doing is just proving that their person number two is all that they're doing. Let's go back to obstacles. Without goals, like first of all, without goals, he would have constantly in those dark and discouraging days, he would have constantly been switching directions and just taking the path of least resistance. The goals, the starting point, without it single-mindedness cannot exist, you'll constantly float around looking for the easiest way. So he goes and he gets out of the coal mine and he finally has a few cents, literally, to travel to this school that he heard about and he gets 80 miles from the school and he runs out of money. So he claims unemployment and he hangs out for two years. No, there's no unemployment. There's no welfare. There's no food stamps. He's literally starving as the Bible says you should. The Bible says you should starve. So what does he do? He's sleeping under a boardwalk in this city. He literally is crawling underneath this wooden sidewalk, sleeping there and he's walking around hungry. So what does he do? He's hungry, so he goes and he sees some people unloading a ship and he just starts working. He just starts working and pretty soon the captain of the ship's like, well, this is helpful. And he's working and the captain is kicking him just enough money so where he can eat and he can save a little bit of money to continue his 80-mile journey. So look, he finally gets to the school. He finally gets, he overcame whatever obstacle was in front of him is the point I'm trying to make. He gets to the school, he's got zero. He's got zero dollars, zero pennies, zero. But the point is this, Lions did not matter to this man. He overcame them. I wanna give you another quote from the book. The book says this, Washington says this. He says, I've learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. All successful people know this, by the way. If this is news to you, all successful people know this. Lesson number three. You have to set goals, lesson number one. You have to be prepared to overcome obstacles. If you are training your children to have nothing but ease in their life, you are setting them up to be lazy and to ultimately fail. They need to learn to overcome things. They need to learn to be able to push through problems. Look, you gotta learn to slay some dragons in your life. That's really what it boils down to. And here's the thing. Once you've slayed a few dragons, you're like, you know what? Slaying dragons is doable and I like it. And then you just get, they don't bother you anymore. The problems, the things, the obstacles that come in front of you that become easy to get through because you've gotten through them before. But if you've never faced a line at all, you're scared of everything. So set goals, learn to overcome obstacles, teach your kids to do the same. Everyone thinks that they just have to raise their kids to just have this easy life and give them everything that I never had. You're gonna ruin them. You're gonna destroy them. Lesson number three on gaining traction. Lesson number three on gaining traction. The small things, the small things. You say, I have a goal. I have a goal, you've convinced me. I'm gonna make some goals. I'm determined that nothing will stop me through these goals. I'm ready, but where do I start? You start with the small things. I'm gonna read you a story from the book on page 24. He gets to Hampton Institute. He gets to, this is a paid institution. You pay to go to school here. He has no money. He has no money. He finally gets there. He reaches the Hampton Institute and I'm gonna read you how that went for him out of the book on page 24. As soon as possible, after the reaching the grounds on the Hampton Institute, I presented myself before the head teacher for assignment to a class. Having been so long without proper food, a bath, a change of clothing, I did not, of course, make a very favorable impression upon her. And I could see at once that there were doubts in her mind about the wisdom of admitting me as a student. I felt that I could hardly blame her if she got the idea that I was a worthless loafer or a tramp. Well, first of all, he's like, it's because of the way I look and he wasn't like, how dare they judge me on the way I look? I mean, imagine this, the guy's been sleeping under a sidewalk for days and days and days working. He has no money. I mean, he must have been a mess. And he knew he was a mess. He continues, for some time, she did not refuse to admit me, neither did she decide in my favor. And I continued to linger about her and to impress her in all the ways that I could with my worthiness. In the meantime, I saw her admitting other students and that added greatly to my discomfort for I felt deep down in my heart that I could do as well as they if I could only get a chance to show what was in me. After some hours had passed, the head teacher said to me, the adjoining recitation room needs sweeping. Take the broom and sweep it. Notice what she asked him to do. She asked him to sweep the room. He says, take this broom and sweep the room. He continues, I swept the recitation room three times. Then I got a dusting cloth and I dusted it four times. Was he asked to dust the room? He was not. All the woodwork around the walls, every bench, table and desk, I went over four times with my dusting cloth. Besides, every piece of furniture had been moved and every closet and corner in the room had been thoroughly cleaned. That means he did that. I had the feeling that in large measure my future depended on the impression I made upon the teacher in the cleaning of that room. When I was through, I reported to the head teacher, she was a Yankee woman who knew just where to look for dirt. She went into the room and inspected the floor and closets and she took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the woodwork about the walls. She checked that he dusted even though he was not asked to dust. You see that? And over the table and benches, all he was asked to do was sweep. Yet he dusted everything and they checked if he dusted everything. When she was unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor or a particle of dust on any of the furniture, she quietly remarked, I guess you will do to enter this institution. The small things. The small things turned to Luke chapter 16. No, actually turned to Matthew chapter 25. I'm sorry. Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. I'm gonna read for you the parable of the talents that we just went through and then I'm gonna explain to you just two points on the parable of the talents and how it relates to what I'm talking about with the small things. Where do I begin? I've got goals. I'm determined. I'm determined to get past these obstacles. Where do I begin? Look at Matthew 25 and verse number 14. Jesus is giving a parable. He says, For the kingdom of heaven is a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents to another two and to another one. To every man according to his several ability and straightway took his journey. Then he that received five talents went and traded with the same and made him another five talents. Likewise, he that received two, he also gained other two. But he that received one went and digged it in the earth and hid his Lord's money. After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoned with them. And so he that received five talents came and brought other five talents saying, Lord, thou deliverst unto me five talents. Behold, I have gained besides them five talents more. He gives 10 talents. Verse 21, The Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. He also had received two talents. He that received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliverst unto me two talents. Behold, I've gained another two talents. Beside them he gives four. His Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. Then when he had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou has not sown and gathering where thou has not strawed. You know what that is right there? That's an excuse. That's an excuse. He saw what everybody else had done and he knew where this thing was going. So what does he do? He starts making excuses. And I was afraid and went and hid my talent in the earth and, Lord, thou hast, that is thine. His Lord answered and said to him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, Thou newest that I reap where I sowed not and gather it where I have not strawed. Thou oughtst therefore to have put my money to the exchangers and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him and give it to him which hath ten talents. Look, there's a lot here, okay? There's a lot here. I really just want to make two points. The first point I want to make is in verse number 23, where the Bible says this. It says, His Lord said unto him, this is the person that had two talents and then gained another two. So this guy's kind of mediocre. He was only given two. He was given a small thing to take care of and he gained two more. So what does the Bible say? What does the master say to him? It says, you've been faithful over a few things. He's like, over a few things you were faithful. He said, I will make the ruler over many things. He's going up. He was faithful in the small things and now he's gonna be given a responsibility for a larger things. And the second thing is this. The second point is this. The second point is this. He took the talent from him that buried it and he gave it to the one that did the best job. The guy that produced the least was left with nothing. God is not a communist. He rewards the producers. He rewards the producers. So look, take what you have. Take the responsibilities that you've been given and be as faithful as you can be with those responsibilities. And look, you know what? And then the Bible says, you will be given more. And the story from up from slavery that I just read you, it demonstrates that. Homeschooling. Look, homeschooling is a perfect example of this. It starts small. It starts small. It starts with like pre-K. It starts with things like small learning. Like ABCs and shapes and animals and all these things that you teach your children. It's small things. And then reading. These are all small things. But you can use this time to be faithful in those small things. And then you can use this time to get organized in those small things. Think about this, ladies. You are turning your home into a school. Think about that. I mean, that's kind of a big deal. You don't see, I mean, that's gonna take some organization. But look, you don't have to do that. You don't have to be faithful in those things. You're like, oh, you know, it's just shapes and animals and we can just hang out and, you know, but here's the thing. You don't see too many public school kids running around in their pajamas. Or maybe you do, I don't know. You don't see too many public school kids going to school at different times every day. Look, use this time when you have the small things to get a solid routine. Build these things when the responsibilities seem small and then guess what? The talents will increase. The talents will increase. Make your home a school with the small things. Be faithful in the small things when the kids are young and then guess what? When the kids are older, you'll be able to achieve great things with their education because you've been faithful in those small things. Go back to Luke chapter 16. Guys, guys with work, go to Luke chapter 16 and look at verse number 10. Luke chapter 16, look at verse number 10. Luke chapter 16, verse number 10. The Bible says, he that is faithful in that, which is least, is faithful also in much. Again, in Matthew chapter 25, when the Lord came back, he said, well done, good and faithful servant. The first step folks is showing yourself faithful in the small things. Because people know, everybody knows, God knows, God in here is telling you that He knows if you're faithful in the small things, you'll also be faithful in the big things. And that's how you'll get to move up to bigger things. You say, I work, you know, I'm low man. I'm low man on the totem pole. He's like, I'm not giving any responsibilities. I hear that. Look, take the responsibilities that you do have seriously. Clean that classroom four times. That's what you should do. It's from the small things that you're given that larger things will be given after you're proven what? After you're proven faithful. But no, you know, everybody wants the big responsibilities right away. That's the problem. Everybody wants the big responsibilities right away. You're not gonna get those until you've proven yourself faithful in the small ones. I remember my first construction job, like my first official construction job, I could tell like when the foreman, he didn't know like, I didn't know how to do anything. I didn't know how to do anything. So what he would tell me to do when I would come up to him and say I did that, now what, he'd tell me like, we didn't have anything for me to do. He'd tell me to go pick up nails. Go pick up nails around the building. So I'd walk around and I'd just pick up nails. But I kind of knew that this wasn't really a super valuable thing that I should be doing, but I mean, make sure I didn't miss any nails. And while I was picking up nails, I'd be watching like what everybody else was doing. And I told the kids this, I told Garrett this, and see he was this tall. It's like, you need to start figuring out what needs to be done so you don't have to be told every single time what needs to be done. So I mean, I started seeing that they'd drive the forklift over to this pallet of sheet metal sheets. And the guy would have to get out of the forklift and cut the bands on the sheet metal sheets. I mean, this is a small thing. So as I was picking up nails, I just went and I put a tin snips in my pocket. And the next time he drove over there, I ran over there and I cut the bands for him. He didn't have to get out. I mean, you know, that's the small thing. These are the things that you need to do. You need to be faithful and pick it up nails. Then you'll be given other things to do. So look, in conclusion, what are the three lessons? This is how you do it, folks. This is how Booker T. Washington did it. You must have goals. You must learn to overcome obstacles. And you must prove yourself faithful at the small things. This will get you started. If you do these three things, you'll get traction and start moving forward. In your life in general, in your Christian life, in your family life, things will start moving for you. But if you're stuck, if you're spinning, one of these three things is your problem. One of these three things is your problem. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 17. Let's end here. 1 Samuel chapter 17. Look, these are valuable lessons that are demonstrated by Booker T. Washington's life here. Just getting started, getting traction. He had a goal he would never stop. He was determined to push through any obstacle to achieve his goal. And then when he was given a chance at that goal, he was told he was showing something small to do. And he took it very seriously and that kept him moving forward. That got him to bigger things. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 17. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 17. This is the story of Goliath. You probably heard the story maybe a hundred times or more. Look at Goliath, what he said to the children of Israel. Think about this. I want you to think about this story of Goliath in a little different way this evening. Look at verse number nine. Look what Goliath said. Do you remember how terrified the children of Israel were of Goliath? Look what he said to them in verse number nine. Goliath came out and he's basically saying, send me a man. Send me a man to fight with me. And in verse number nine, if he be able to fight with me and to kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants and serve us. Do you know what this guy is doing? You have two armies here. And this guy is proposing that we settle this with a single fight. That's what he's proposing. He's saying, send me a guy and we'll have two guys fight. Hundreds, thousands. There was a battle in the Old Testament where 500,000 people died. In hand to hand combat. Can you imagine that? I mean, look at the Civil War. How many people died? 600, some thousand people died. But look, he's saying, let's settle this. Let's settle this with one fight. Me against your best. Everything is on the line. But here's the thing. Here comes this, David. Do you think that it just took somebody who was brave enough to go out there and fight Goliath? You think they were gonna risk the whole nation on just somebody who was just brave enough? No, they're not gonna just give this responsibility. Like, yeah, let's send the worst warrior. He's really brave. He's just really stupid and doesn't understand risk management. Let's just send him out there and risk all of us for this one fight. No, they wouldn't do that. But look at verse number 32. David goes up. Look, David had to make a case. David had to sell himself to Saul. Saul's the king. David had to go up and say, hey, I can handle this fight. He had to not only say I'm brave enough to fight him, but he had to convince King Saul that he could win. Think about that. This man is nine feet tall. He's a warrior since he was a child, the Bible says. Look at verse 32. And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. He says, I'll go fight him. Look what Saul says. Saul said to David, thou art not able to go fight against this Philistine to fight with him? It's like, thou art a brother of youth. He's like, you're just a kid. And he, a man of war from his youth. Right away, Saul says no. He says no. He's like, you're just a kid. He's gonna kill you. This guy's been a warrior since he was a kid. Look at verse 34. And David said, yeah, you're right, I'll probably lose. Look what David said. David said unto Saul, thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him, and I smote him and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. He's like, I killed the bear. And then the lion came up, and he's like, I grabbed him by the beard, and I killed him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them. See if he hath defied the armies of the living God. Look, this is the irony of this, how we end the sermon tonight. There was a literal lion here. There was a literal lion. And David slew him. And that was clean in the classroom for David right there. David used the small battles of the lion and the bear to get permission, to get promoted to fight the big battles. And then David became king. Look, we see this method demonstrated in someone's life in this book. It's not just me talking. This man demonstrated this biblical principle in his life in the late 1800s. It works, and it'll work for you. It worked for David. And look, this guy, the reason that this book is so great because he had it way harder than you, this guy. That's the beauty of this whole book. And it's the same plan that we see in the Bible. David did not care that there was a lion there. David saw the lion and he just slew the lion. And it was that classroom lesson that got him permission from King Saul to fight Goliath. And then he slew that obstacle too. And he just kept going through obstacle after obstacle after obstacle. But it starts with the small ones. So look, there's this plan that we see in the Bible of setting goals, of overcoming obstacles, and of starting by slaying the small lions and getting to the bigger battles, by being faithful in the small things, and then you'll be given the bigger things in your life. Booker T. Washington demonstrated it in an environment, in an environment. That's why you have to read the book about what he went through. Think about it. He is a black man trying to navigate this world right after slavery ended in the South. I mean, if he can do it, anybody can do it. That's why, so there's no excuse for you. You need to teach your kids to overcome things. You need to teach your kids to be faithful in small things. Look, these kids need to be given something to do, other than play games or whatever. You know, and then they can learn this method. There's no excuse for any of us when we see that this was executed by people in the Bible and especially in this book. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.