David and Goliath

Hey, welcome to City Grace. My name's Elliot. I'm one of the pastors here. So good to be with you this week. We're going to be continuing a series in Samuel. First Samuel, before we get there, a couple of events just to make you aware in the life of the church as we kind of really roll into the holiday season here.

Coming up on November 14th, we're going to have Young Adults Friendsgiving. If you are a young adult, single, not single, and you want to get connected in with that, it is always good to be with people instead of be alone.

So hit that QR code. You can find out about that. Also, as a reminder, coming up on November 15th, that's the last chance. Bring your Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes so that we can turn those in and get those off to be a blessing to kids around the world.

And then baptism's coming up at the end of this month. If you've been, yeah, I mean, it is exciting. If you have been following Jesus for a while and haven't been baptized and you want to understand what that's about and why Jesus told his followers it was something that they needed to do, we'd love to talk with you.

So come get with myself or Kirk. We'd love to talk to you about that. And this is your chance to kind of get that on the schedule. Okay. So with that, we're going to jump forward into 1 Samuel.

And today we get to talk about one of the most famous stories, not just in the Bible, but really in all of world history, which is the story of David and Goliath.

And in a certain measure, it's always a little intimidating to preach it. Like, I mean, how many people haven't heard about David and Goliath, right? What are you going to say? I will say this actually fits pretty good into our cultural zeitgeist because Americans, man, we love a good underdog story, right?

I mean, going back and you can see it, you know, in history and particularly in sports, you know, back when they did horse racing, things like Seabiscuit would like jump into the national kind of consciousness.

Maybe it's like the miracle on ice in 1980. NC State Houston, 1983 is a state grad. But I got to throw that in there because we ain't got nothing to celebrate in football right now. So you got to like reminisce about the past a little bit.

But in all those underdog stories, you will hear someone say something like, hey, this is a real David and Goliath matchup, right? Like that imagery is just seared into the cultural memory, not just of us, but of people across the world, across the centuries and across many cultures.

And so on one hand, we feel like we have a pretty good grasp on that. But like all stories in the Bible, when you look a little deeper, God is often faithful to reveal some things you might not have seen at first.

So we're going to read it, trusting that God's going to draw out, as is said in the scripture, both old treasures and new. And before we get there, so we're going to kind of jump into the story in the middle of chapter 17.

So if you have your Bibles, you can turn to 1 Samuel chapter 17. If not, it'll be on the screen behind me. And what we see as chapter 17 opens is kind of the advance of this new enemy that has arisen for the Israelites, which are the Philistines.

And so as we pick up in chapter 17, they have marched into the territory of Israel. And really the scene you've got is kind of two armies encamped on two high grounds.

So there's this valley of Elam in between. And so effectively what you've created is kind of a tactical standoff, right? So like they're encamped on the high grounds. And nobody really wants to risk the attack of attacking the other army on the high ground.

And nobody really wants to kind of risk hacking it out in the valley because you don't know exactly how that's going to go. And so it's kind of become a stalemate. No one feels like they have enough advantage to overcome that tactical difficulty.

And so the Philistines, since they are invading, they try a different strategy. Because in that time, it really wasn't unheard of, just like you've seen in the movies, to come out and propose a single combat of champions to prevent all this bloodshed.

Hey, instead of us, again, hacking away in the valley, why don't you send your best, we'll send our best, and whoever wins, the other one just, nobody dies, but then, you know, we kind of get what we want out of it, right?

And so the Philistines are particularly eager to do this because the person they have to send out is Goliath. And he is described in the Bible as nothing less than a giant, a huge, huge man, a huge warrior that no one else can stand up to.

Like his weapons and his armor are described in sizes and weights that are effectively, no one else could wield these. Not just a big man, like an unfathomably giant of a man.

It's like that thing, if you've ever, like, ran into, like, an NBA player or something, like, on a plane or in a grocery store or something, like, they don't look real, right? Like, I mean, they're, like, so much bigger than what you have seen in real life, and that's Goliath.

And so Goliath comes out, and day after day, he taunts Israel. He says, is no one going to come and challenge us? Are you all cowards? And this goes on day after day, and it says Israel is terrified because they know they don't have anyone they can send out.

And so the stalemate continues, but Israel's heart is starting to get less and less and less. Now, as it happens, three of David's older brothers, who we met David last week, his older brothers are in the army of Israel, and David's portion, he's still a shepherd at this point.

He's not a warrior. And what his father has asked him to do is kind of run food back and forth to the front lines to make sure his brothers are well-provisioned. And also, just frankly, Jesse's a father, and he's worried about his sons.

He wants news from the front lines. He wants to know if they're doing okay. And so that's where we're going to pick up the story in 1 Samuel 17, verse 19. It says, Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.

And David arose early in the morning and left the sheep with the keeper and took the provisions and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry.

And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. And David left his things in the charge of the keeper of the baggage, and he ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers.

And as he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the rank of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before.

And David heard him. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. And the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man who has come up?

Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make him his father's house free in Israel.

And David said to the man who stood by him, What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

And the people answered him in the same way, So shall it be done to the man who kills him. Now Eliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men.

And Eliab's anger was kindled against David. And he said, Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.

And David said, What have I done now? Was it not but a word? And he turned away from him towards another and spoke in the same way. And the people answered him as before.

Again, just kind of harkening back to last week as Kirk ladies. Like, your family's no different than any others. Families are families, right? Older brothers are going to older brother, right?

And maybe he just hadn't got over that thing where Samuel brought out all the brothers and was like, Not you, not you, not you. And they got to David. Apparently he's not over that, right? But he's got no faith for it.

He, you know, why aren't you watching the sheep? You know, you're shirking your responsibilities. But when the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him.

And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and will fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.

And David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him, and I struck him, and I delivered it out of his mouth.

And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.

And David said, The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go, and the Lord be with you.

And so Saul clothed David with his armor. He put on him a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. And David strapped his sword over his armor, and he tried to go in vain, for he had not tested them.

And David said to Saul, I can't go with these, for I haven't tested them. So David put them off, and he took his staff in his hand, and he chose five smooth stones from the brook, and he put them in his shepherd's pouch.

And with his slinging hand, he approached the Philistine. And when the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, his shield bear in front of him, and the Philistine looked and saw David, and he disdained him, for he was but a youth, rudy and handsome in appearance.

And the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.

And the David said to the Philistine, You come to me with spear and sword and with javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you've defied.

And this day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head, and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, and that all may know there is a God in Israel, and that all the assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword or spear, for this battle is the Lord's, and He will give you into my hand.

And when the Philistine arose, and he came near to meet David, David ran out quickly towards the battle line to meet the Philistine, and he put his hand in his bag, and he took out a stone, and he slung it, and he struck the Philistine on his forehead, and it sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.

So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine, and he killed him. And there was no sword in the hand of David. So David ran over and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath, and he killed him, and he cut off his head with it.

When the Philistine saw their champion was dead, they fled. This is God's Word to us. It's a powerful story. There's a reason it's resonated through the ages.

So you have this dramatic scene, right? Little shepherd boy, giant mountain of a warrior. And, you know, kind of like Kirk preached last week, what we see on the surface here, we already know, isn't the full picture.

We already know, because the Bible has told us something that Goliath doesn't know, which is, what David has been doing in the dark all these years is something that God now wants him to wield in the broad daylight.

And David has a sense of that, because when he approaches Saul, King Saul's first reaction is, no boy, you can't do this. And David says, look, here's the deal.

I have been about the regular business of doing what God assigned me to do, being a shepherd. And it's not all roses like you might think it would be, like God on more than one occasion has delivered me from a lion or a bear as I protected the sheep.

And honestly, I don't see any difference in this guy. And so Saul kind of shrugs and says, all right, well, have a go then. And he does what seems natural.

He offers David some armor and a sword to use because he's not come prepared for a battle. You're going to need these if you're going into combat. But as soon as David puts them on, he says, I can't wear them because I haven't tested them.

He doesn't trust what he's been given, even though it seems like it's the appropriate thing for the moment. Which is interesting because, again, soldiers need armor.

And David says, no, I can't wear that because it's not what I'm going to trust in right now. Which tells me something interesting about how God has us approach situations like this, which is God won't ask his people to use false armor.

Now look, there are probably no end to the types of false armor, the things we are tempted to trust in that we could list off here.

But I think one of the things I see in this verse that may not be as obvious is that every one of us are tempted to live out of the untrustworthy armor of a false identity.

And here's what I mean by that. A soldier is supposed to wear armor like they gave to David. That is what a soldier does.

You have to wear this armor. It's what we do. And I think many times when you see in your own life or in other people's lives, when we start to step away from the path that God has given us to follow, a lot of the times it kind of starts with the words either in your head or out loud, I can't do that because I'm a...

And then you fill in the blank with something. When I was in college, like many of you probably had this experience, there were a lot of people that like basically their entire identity was I am the life of the party.

I am a party animal. I'm the person who opens beer bottles with my teeth, right? Like that was how they were known. And if they weren't that, they didn't feel like they were anything special.

And so everywhere you went, they felt like I need to act a fool. I need to drink too much. I need to say funny and offensive things. And sometimes it's because they liked it, but more often they would just be that at all times whether it was appropriate or not because that's who I am.

And if I'm not that, what am I? You see this all throughout when the gospel is spreading to the nations. One of the hurdles you almost always have to overcome is something cultural or something from their heritage.

I can't be a follower of Jesus because we're not followers of Jesus. We're followers of this God or that God or this thing. And it's not just like they've sat down and like reasoned out things and said, you know, I've thought about Jesus and I've thought about these other ways.

Oftentimes it's just like, no, this is what we are. Like we are this and I can't be this if we don't follow this God. And that's why a lot of times you almost have to pray for God to bring an entire family to Christ at one time because if you don't, that person will literally not have a place in the community anymore.

We follow this God. For a lot of people, I think that comes as something where it's just like you've built something in your heart that you take pride in.

Like, hey, I'm not a joke. I am not to be messed with and no one will get the better of me. If you come at me, you're going to find out. And so then when Jesus tells you something like turn the other cheek, well, that's for losers.

And I don't lose. Now look, I don't think the Bible or God who created us intends that to mean our lives are supposed to be lived as just kind of a sterile blank slate.

Awaiting instructions, God. Like, the things we like, the things our hearts connect with, the histories you have, the culture you come from, your family, like all of those things, even though they're marred by sin to some degree, I think they're still gifts and can be gifts.

But never forget when you're navigating that that the truest thing about a believer, the thing that should be the very first thing is that you're a child of God.

I am a disciple of Jesus first and the only armor that I trust without qualification or hesitation is that I belong to God.

God won't ask His people to live out of a false identity. But God will ask His people to use things they might find foolish.

The instrument of God's deliverance in the life of a person, the life of a church, the life of a nation will often be something that is hand-selected to glorify Him.

It says, David took in his hand a staff and he walked over this little brook. You can actually see this if you look at a map of that valley of Elam, there's a little brook there and he stops and he picks out some smooth stones and that's how he approaches this Philistine.

Like, it's a silly image. Like, there's a reason you don't go out to battle like that. But God will choose some things that seem really silly to accomplish His purposes and that's really, really intentional.

Throughout Scripture, you kind of see God doing this. In the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul, speaking to the church there at Corinth, he says this in chapter 1, verse 26, he says, For consider your calling, brothers.

Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. It's really not that flattering because Paul's starting here by saying, you weren't really the cream of the crop to be honest with you.

Like, you weren't really the best of the best. But God chose what was foolish in the world to shame the wise. And God chose what was weak in the world to shame the strong.

And God chose what is low and despised in the world and even the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

It's one of the reasons we here at City Grace really seek to lean on prayer. I mean, there's things we do, but man, we really try to pray into stuff because prayer isn't the answer that the world wants.

It's a foolish answer. The way of the world is if you need something, you go get it. You make it happen.

And then when you do, when you do make it happen, the inevitable thing that happens after that is you sit back and say, yeah, that happened because of me.

I can get it done. God leads His people to use things that are really foolish in the world's eyes to silence the boastings of an arrogant world.

Now, that doesn't mean we are passive. It doesn't mean there's not something for us to do. In fact, God will often call His people right into the fray of a situation.

But when He does, He also gives us instructions to take care for the manner in which we fight because God calls His people to fight in a very specific way.

Look, ultimately, it's not about the tools or the lack of them. Okay? So the moral of the story isn't here, and sometimes people do this, well, you know, actually a sling is a very dangerous weapon that you could kill.

Yes, you can kill someone with a sling just like we saw here. But the moral of the story isn't, hey, that's actually a pretty deadly weapon. The moral of the story is it's a foolish way to go out to battle.

If it was the premier weaponry, everybody would have had a sling. David goes out and he doesn't say to the Philistine, you better watch out because I got a sling here and he can throw a stone farther than you.

He says, you come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts.

the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. It's one of the simplest but most defining features of those who follow God.

We don't trust in ourselves. We don't trust in the things and the tools we have. We trust in God. But it doesn't mean we don't use them.

God gives you gifts, skills, abilities, networks, people, material resources. We use them but we have a settled confidence that that is not where deliverance will come from.

Psalm chapter 20 verse 7 the psalmist says, some trust in chariots and some in horses but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Want to take a stab at the artist who wrote that? It was David. He learned that on fields like this.

And if you think about it, that disposition is actually the antithesis of what we've seen Israel come to in the book of 1 Samuel. Like if we flash back, they said, we can't ever be safe or stable or ruled well because we don't have a king.

Like this is never going to get better until you give us a king. And so God gives them a king and what happens? Doesn't go to plan. There's still Philistines to be fought.

So they get this king, you would think they would be like, now we've got it. Now we're safe. But what's next? Now they go out and they're confronted with a giant. And they're like, oh, look how big he is.

We need something more than a king. God's people are supposed to fight in faith. And just as a kind of a reflective note here, if you're not fighting in faith, then by default that means you're operating in fear.

And those two things can't exist in the same space. you cannot be full of faith and full of fear at the same time. God's people fight in faith.

Now here's kind of the deal with this. If you are a person who says, I want to do that, God. I want a purpose to set my life in that place.

I want to be a person who fights in faith. I'm going to be honest with you, it will immediately beget all kinds of tensions in your life. One of them will be, how do I know when I'm trusting in something other than God or trusting in God if I'm supposed to do stuff in the world?

Like, is the farmer who digs an irrigation ditch because he figured out how to do that, is that using the gifts that God gave you or is that not trusting the God who said he would bring the spring and summer rain?

Should I make a plan or should I not make a plan? Should I pray or should I go to the doctor? Like, where does my effort turn into faithlessness? Now look, I do believe God has not called us to a life that looks like paralyzed overthinking.

It's been joked often in churches before and I think it's the truth, like faith is not intended for you to be leaning on a shovel praying for a hole. You are allowed to use the stuff that God puts right in front of you.

God gives His children, it's part of being created in the image of God. He gives you creativity and imagination and drive to think of things that are not and to try to make them to be because that's part of joining Him in bringing beauty and healing and peace into the world.

It's not necessarily faithless to say I'm going to use what God has given me to be a blessing to the world around me. But there is a danger here and the danger is if you go too far in that you're going to take a story like David and Goliath, you're going to look at that and you're going to take it to mean something like you should be like David.

When you face the giants in your life, be like David. And then you're going to try to figure out all the little methods that David had to replicate them so you can be like David.

But you're going to run into issues with that. I think one of the obvious ones we're going to see as we continue to read throughout 1 and 2 Samuel is be like David is actually not always the best advice.

Bathsheba's dead husband will probably tell you don't be like David. Not a David fan. And in our hearts we know we're like that too.

Maybe not to that acute of a degree as David. Although, just as again as a side road before you judge David, don't kind of overestimate if someone were to drop ultimate power into your lap and you were able to have and do anything you wanted what you might do, what you might be tempted to do.

But even if we're not as sinful as that, surely you do know that we have these moments where we feel like we're filled with faith and trust and then all too often we have these moments that are just born of brokenness and sin.

Many times if we're honest, we know in this scene, like if we were to look at this scene of David and Goliath, we know we're not actually like David. We're like the trembling army on the hill hoping someone will save us.

Unable to move in faith. And certainly I think there's a way you could ingest that that could dishearten you, but I actually think if you take a moment and zoom out, this is a really comforting thing in Scripture to learn that we are not actually the hero of the story.

Now a little preface here. I don't actually think it's a bad thing to imagine yourself being faithful like David here. I mean, part of the purpose of these stories of faith and faithful people in the Bible is to get you to be and to do exactly that, to stir up faith in your heart, to imagine if God did this through these ordinary people, He could do it through me too.

In Hebrews chapter 11 and 12, Hebrews 11 is basically the entire chapter is kind of a litany, like a list of all these faithful people from across the Bible and what God did in their life and when it transitions into Hebrews chapter 12, the writer of Hebrews thinks on all of that and then he says, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

He calls out, there is a great cloud of witnesses, both frankly from history and in our lives today. Like I know there is someone you can look to in your family and your church that you would say, man, that is someone whose life and practice inspires me.

And the Bible says you were to take those, it's like they're standing around you in your hard moments, cheering you on, calling out from history past to be faithful, stand firm.

Like that is a good thing. But ultimately, just like it says in the second verse there of Hebrews 12, we aren't the real hero of the story.

In 1 Samuel, the enemy is a giant, a giant human, which I'm sure was completely terrifying for the people who were there.

But let's be honest, like particularly for us nowadays, a giant might be scary, but it's not the scariest thing because we can think of all kinds of ways to kill a person, right?

Like if we rolled up on Goliath, we got guns, we got biological weapons, we got stealth bombers, you know, laser sharks, the whole thing, right? Like there's nothing, we're not that scared of a person.

All kinds of ways we can think to kill a big man. But in the Bible, Goliath is an archetype. Now, the enemies you see in the Bible are things like sin, death, the grave, the darkness of Satan and his fallen angels.

It's like the real giant are things like a debt that no one can pay back, a need for holiness that no one can live up to.

And it doesn't matter how many weapons you have, it doesn't matter how good a life or how smart you are, you can't beat those things. What you need, just like the armies of Israel, is a champion.

And just like this shepherd boy going out to meet a giant clothed in armor, our champion frankly just looks silly to the world.

1 Corinthians 1.18 says, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

The implement of God's salvation is the broken, forsaken, beaten, crucified life of His Son.

That's what He chose, that's what it took to save us from things like sin, death, and the grave.

There is nothing magnificent about the image of a bloody Savior on a cross to the world. And if you ask the world, here's the story of Jesus.

He was a guy who said some things and then He was killed for His trouble. He was just another man, another figure in history that tried to start a religion or tried to start a political movement and the Romans killed Him for His trouble.

But to those who know Him and want to know Him, to those whom the Spirit has given eyes to see, this suffering servant, this resurrected Savior, is actually the only answer in life that makes any sense.

Think about what I just said. A bloody, crucified person on a cross is the key to everything you seek in life. That is a foolish message.

And so, when we come here, I'm not here to sell you like, here's ten tips for a better life. Here's an emulate what we do at City Grace and you'll live better in the world or you'll be a better person or everyone out there is evil and everyone in here is good.

That's not the message. The message is there is no one like Jesus. There is no one who has ever lived like Him and you will find no one, no rival amongst men, no rival amongst gods.

The reason we worship, the reason we praise from the stage, the reason we live out of that identity and nothing else is because Jesus is the hero of our story.

He is the true David who saves His people. As the band comes up today, a couple of ways we can think about responding.

If you're here and you're not a follower of Jesus, I would say to you, both from my own life and from many others, if you try to be the champion of your own life, I think it will typically lead you to one of two places.

One of those is a place of delusion. You will come to listen to your own press that you are the greatest, you got this, nothing can stop you.

And that might feel like it will work for a little while even though it's corrupting your heart. But eventually, all of us, life always finds a way to disabuse you of the notion that you got this.

So then you move from delusion to despair. Like it's a place so familiar to many of us where you just feel like I can't win. I can never be enough. I will never get what I seek.

None of my dreams will ever come true. I'll never be good enough. What Jesus invites us into is not some middle way.

It's just a different way of being. It's a way that doesn't arrogantly ignore or minimize your faults and your sin but also doesn't despair because it knows whatever is lacking in me has been made up for by Jesus.

However big my sin stacks up, it is the silliest of things. It looks like a giant to me but covered in the blood of Jesus, it can never conquer.

and it's not a message that's impersonal. Jesus isn't a champion who slings a stone, kills the giant and then goes off to the palace to rule never to be seen again.

He is a Jesus. He is a savior, a champion that walks the dusty streets. He sees you. Not just great cloud of trembling host, he sees you.

If you're interested in that, there'll be a prayer that's on the screen that's a way you can invite him for that. If you want to come down front after and chat about him, I would just, if you're tired of trying to beat a giant, you can't beat.

There is one champion. If you are a follower of Jesus, man, what a morning to rejoice in the fact that that battle is won.

I have a champion and not a distant one, one who sits at a table and eats with me, who invites me into who he is and what his father's kingdom is, who knows that I am not what I'm supposed to be, and yet he invites me into a journey in which he intends to make me everything I always hoped I would be.

I'm going to spend some moment kind of praising him for that and as we go to the communion table today, I think about that part, right?

Jesus says, this is my body and this is my blood for you and the reason he wants to invite you into that is so that you may become part of that great cloud of witnesses.

Like that list of names in Hebrews 11 isn't just a list of super saints for you never, it is a shorthand way of saying all of the redeemed of the Lamb throughout history who cry out, I conquered because of the Lamb.

That's what we do when we take this meal. He's saying, all your sin, all your faults covered in me. And so when you're ready, you can take that and take it back to your seat for taking the knowledge and you're ready and you're ready to come and work in your heart.

He is not a champion that leaves you in sin. Well, Jesus, we give this moment to you. Invite your spirit in this place to come and work in hearts whatever is needed.

Jesus, we declare that you are the hero of the story. And Father, we want to be found faithful. We want to be true heirs of your family.

We want to stand in faith. But we declare before you that without Jesus it wouldn't be possible. We praise His name alone. And we ask that when the moment of trial comes, He will give us grace to stand firm.

Whatever we see as a giant, Father, I pray you will help us this morning to see it as of nothing before you and your kingdom. we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.