 I'm gonna read the verse right now and before we go into worship I'm just gonna remind you again of our vision and remind you of why we've gathered here today the famous chapter in first Samuel chapter 17 It's about the Goliath and David and permit me to read to you one verse and the verse is nine 17 for Samuel and And if he is able so this is the challenge Goliath is throwing if he is able to fight with me and kill me Then we will be your servants But if I prevail against him and kill him then you shall be our servants and serve us It's interesting Goliath came every morning and every night for 40 days To just trash talk Israel in In the morning he would say really bad words and in the evening he would say really Discriminating words against Israel and that's what the enemy loves to do to come in the morning and to just literally Trash up your mind and to come in the evening before you go to sleep and fill your mind with just the trashy thoughts and The Goliath had a very interesting challenge for Israel He threw a challenge where he said that instead of armies fighting armies Let's just make this war less bloody Instead of losing many people Let's just have one person out of your army who's the strongest Fight a person like me and if we win if I win you guys are our servants And if we lose we will willingly submit to you and we will just simply drop our weapons Lift our hands and go as your captives if I will lose the battle And we know that Israel Listened to that bargain and they gave into it. I Want you to notice that this is not the way God wanted Israel to fight battles. I Want you to notice this was not God's idea and this was not prophet Samuel's idea This is Goliath's idea and let me assure you if it's his idea most likely it's to his advantage It's not to our advantage though David came and slew the Goliath But we don't see this being God's approved way of winning a victory and I'll give you two reasons why one is It makes you Be isolated from a community to fight a Goliath and to fight him alone The enemy strategy number one is this is to isolate you from a community and to fight you alone He knows if he fights us as together he will never win But if he fights us as one we cannot win Can somebody say man We are strong in the community and we are vulnerable alone and The enemy loves to separate you from the church and maybe sometimes give you reasons why you don't need the church You don't need a community. You don't really need they don't understand you plus There's so many of them are hypocrites and you don't have the time, you know, it's snowing You don't feel good. It's a fever. You have a fever. You have so many problems and therefore fight him alone Fight your issues alone because honestly, nobody really cares about you like you do the devil is a liar a Snowflake one snowflake will melt in your palm When snowflakes gather together, they shut down schools Stop traffic and create accidents You alone one person you are like the snowflake you are vulnerable and you actually cannot overcome by yourself You and I are the body not a finger or a lone island or a lone Ranger can somebody say man We are strong when we are together. That's why we need a church That's why we need a community. We need spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers. We need home group leaders That's why we need each other you need me and I need you and If you are hunting and searching for a perfect church like Derek Prince said make sure you don't join it because the moment you join It it will no longer be perfect There is no perfect church We are one another strength and the TB Joshua says if you do not if you reject somebody an account of their weakness You will never benefit from their strength We all have weaknesses and we all have strengths and we manage and we have space for each other's weaknesses Because we also need each other strengths We need one another I Am because you are you are because I am say this out loud after me say I am because you are You are because I am That means today I am who I am because of you and you are who you are because of me We are all a family and we make an impact on each other and Goliath's strategy is to say I want you to come out from your Army I want you to leave your influence your community and come fight me alone and today We're gonna say devil. I know that you want me to feed my pride, but I am strong when I am together I am strong when I have a pastor. I am strong when I have a home group leader I am strong when I have brothers and sisters I am strong when I'm not alone and it may look like I am weak when I am not alone But honestly who gives a rip about that I am together with my family Can somebody say amen? But the second challenge of a Goliath second problem with the Goliath's challenge is this He wants to make a victory be dependent on one single event every army understands You can win a war and lose many battles Goliath wants to make it seem like if you lose one battle you lost your whole life Goliath's strategy is to make you think if you had a bad week that means you have a bad life If you have a bad day or if you had a bad weekend That means you have a horrible terrible life and you should live with that and extend that weekend for the rest of Your life that devil is a liar One day does not determine your whole life and Having a one bad day does not mean you lose a whole life having a one bad weekend Does not mean you have a whole bad life It's simply God wants us to know that in every day God will give new Mercies new grace and new opportunities and God does not want you to some your whole life and back in your whole life and one single event You may lost one day, but you're gonna get up and fight again You may lost this weekend, but you're gonna get up and fight again You may feel down and feel like everything is falling apart But I gotta tell you something that the devil is a liar because you and I are promised to have a victory at the end You may lose a battle, but you're not gonna lose the war because the captain of your salvation is on your side And he never lost a battle Somebody say praise the Lord Yes, let's put our hands together for Jesus Christ One of the biggest challenges to learn in life is not how to allow to have objective perspective Not to look at everything to the lenses of your temporary situation Sometimes when you go into something, there's very challenging or very difficult. It seems like your whole life sucks Because you begin to in that moment Remember every single time you failed and you forget all the good things and you put them under the rug And they become unimportant you lose your praise you lose your Thanksgiving and you gain this gift of complaining Grumbling doubting depression Just just down as just sourness and listen. This is the moment you have to remind the Goliath Remember Goliath Samson beat the living lights out of you Samuel did that to you Saul did that to you David is gonna do that to you Solomon is gonna do that to you every generation You are going to get beat and one battle is not determining everything Even one victory is not gonna mean every single thing because every day God has promises me victory Not just one time and not just in one day if you had a bad day Maybe you had a bad weekend. Maybe you had a bad week Maybe you had a bad month. You just literally you lost it. You blew it. You fell I want to tell you something today God is on your side And he is stretching his hand today and says get up. I am still on your side. You did not lose your life You did not lose anything yet because as long as there's breath in your nostrils. There is mercy in God's heart Can somebody say amen? Can somebody say praise the Lord? Even if even if you've fallen into sin and you feel more guilt on you right now than you've ever felt before Maybe you feel so hopeless, but I tell you something he who puts his hope in the Lord is never hopeless Do not let your situation Mislead you today or create a direction for your prayer The third is the third lie of the enemy through this challenge is that he wants to make it seem like That you can get away from fighting and there is a way you can get victory without paying a price He's saying if I get killed we all will just bow our knees and submit to you Now he did get killed my question is did they did they submit of course not so when the enemy Speaks he lies We must understand one thing about the enemy many things, but one thing is very important. He will never Submit he must be forced and fought Any notion that he will leave on his own any notion that if I just take the pills It will go away any notion if I just simply put something or if somebody will do something It will just go away if it's just with enough time My body will it things will just kind of recover any notion that I do not have to fight And he will go away on his own is a lie from the pit of the devil devil only leaves when he is forced and when he is fought and Even when he defeats he still doesn't submit he runs and the Bible says Israel rose up and ran after him They should have not believed him the first time he opened up his mouth because he was lying and they believed Oh, if we overcome Goliath the philistines will submit themselves to us and the war is gonna be over They were deceived because philistines will never submit without a fight and devil will never leave without a war Lust will never be overcome without resisting it. Listen. All kinds of financial curses will not be overcome Until we stop stealing and we start giving All the success in life cannot come until you start working. There is really nothing for free in this world In this world you get what you pay for in the spiritual world You get what you pay for my sister Lillia mentioned a night prayer is when you go in in the airplane And if you ever had the opportunity to flow first class you found out very quickly how different on the same airplane first-class service is from the economy Class service the same airplane. You are flying with the same pilot, but you can enjoy the treatment more leg room You can have your own TV in front of you your your Cheer it bends almost all the way to the back and they serve you food and meal before the plane takes off There's so many privileges there. I mean you're there and you feel the overwhelming favor of a most high God But anybody who's been in the first class knows you don't go to the first class because you are lucky You only go to the first class Because you paid for it My friends churches that enjoy revival churches that enjoy miracles It's not luck. It's not that God blind the mini mini money. No, it's people who pay the price That's why me wakes up in the morning earlier on Sunday morning And we stand here and cry out at 9 o'clock till 9 45 why because I like first-class That's why on Friday night when other people would rather go watch the latest movie You know you say yeah, I'm gonna get some extra coffee and come why because I like the first-class anointing I'm okay. I know it's okay and I'll make to heaven with the economy anointing But I like first-class anointing I like first-class favor from God if you want the favor of God on your marriage Please understand the devil is not gonna run Just for no reason he will only run because you're gonna chase him out from your life And because you're gonna pay a price to see a victory in your life can somebody say man hallelujah Guys our church are the people who understand our home group leaders and The Sunday school and the prayers and all of these things that are happening What we are doing is we are paying a price now the price has been paid we know that But we also know that Satan doesn't leave an accident We are paying our price to see many people come to Jesus Christ many healings that take place and many Deliverances many Cell groups to be open and many churches to be open for the glory of God We are paying a price for a high and for the first-class My friends our future is not going to be the same as the future of people who don't pay that price I Want to encourage you today those of you who came overcame the snow and maybe you're you're feeling a bit discouraged You today are in the right place Please pay the price today to press into God. God is gonna reward you God is going to honor you and God is going to give you a victory But please do not lie to yourself and do not believe the lie of the enemy that he will run on his own Nothing, he will never run on his own He will only run when you put pressure and when you give pressure to him and only then he will flee That's why every prayer we get up and we We drive him we command him We force him we know he's not gonna run on his own He is only gonna be defeated when he is going to be fought and therefore when we fight He is gonna be overcome in Jesus name. Amen. We are gonna be a first-class church We are gonna have a first-class anointing and we're gonna have a first-class miracles. Amen We're gonna have first-class salvation and you're gonna be a first-class Christian for the glory of God If you believe rise up give God a shadow praise and we're gonna praise the name of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah