In the hands of the people who need
it most, and the gifts of the Holy
Spirit are the tangible vengeance of God against
the enemy.
They operate in battle zone situations.
You don't have them in non-battle situations.
God loves doing miraculous things.
He loves giving pictures and visions and revelations
when you run out and he's ready to
start.
We say we trust God.
We say we need God.
We say all these things.
Well, he is about to put you in
situations where you can put your money where
your mouth is.
And I love this guy.
Jonathan is the one who got him into
trouble the first time.
And this is what he does.
Hey, they're feeling hot.
They got a spear and a sword.
There's two of them.
And I love this.
Chapter 14, came to pass, Jonathan, the son
of Saul, said to the young man that
bore his armor, Come on, let's go attack
the Philistines.
But he told not his father.
I bet he didn't.
And Saul tarried in the outermost part of
Gebeah under a pomegranate tree, which is in
migraine.
Migraine, but migraine will do.
And here were the trembling 600 that were
with him.
It's a bunch of guys with funny names.
Ahatab, Ichabod, and, you know, forget those guys.
Between the passages by which Jonathan sought to
go over to the Philistines' garrison, there was
a sharp rock on one side, sharp rock
on the other.
Hebrews went on naming rocks.
One was Bozes, the other, this may have
deep spiritual significance.
If you find it, reveal it to me
afterwards.
I've never found any spiritual significance with Bozes
in Sinai.
And it tells you, forefront was one situate
northward over against Mitzmash, the other southward.
In other words, they had a little narrow
channel.
The Philistine garrison is there.
Philistine army is on the other side.
There's this little narrow channel.
You know, if you've looked at any of
the martial arts, apparently a person who doesn't
get blown away by a magnum can take
on up to seven people at one time,
providing...
There's only so many people can get close
to, you see.
And so what they did is they narrowed
their bets.
They figured, hey, we've got a little narrow
place.
There's only a couple who can get it
at a time.
We can attack a guy.
Ooh, you know, take him.
How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
That's what you do.
Now, if you are going to go out
and attack the entire Philistine army, both of
you, don't you think you would need a
revelation?
You could say, hey, has anybody ever done
this before?
The answer is no, nobody's ever done it
before in the whole Bible.
Oh, do you have a scripture on this?
No, it hasn't been written yet.
Now, if these guys had gone to their
church elders and asked, Brother Saul, do you
feel we should attack at this time?
You know what the answer would be, don't
you?
Nope.
I feel we need to survive at this
time.
So they were there.
And this is what Jonathan said.
Let us go over to the garrison of
these uncircumcised.
It may be the Lord will work for
us.
Would you go on?
It may be.
I would want a sky-written sign.
Go, Winky, attack.
You know, it may be.
See, some of you, you want to trust
God.
You want it so enrightened.
There isn't any trust left at all.
You don't want faith.
You want an ironclad contract.
You want, Oh God, on these conditions will
I serve thee, that thou showest me everything
you're going to get me into, that you
do not make it painfullest, that I sufferest
not, that there is no threat, no risk,
no nothing, amen.
Now reveal your will to me.
You are a nerd.
I love this thing.
He goes, there is no restraint.
What is he looking at?
Is he looking at this Philistine army?
Is he counting the two that he has?
And is he counting the army?
Is he making some IBM PC2 comparisons?
Is he doing little graphs of probability?
I'll tell you what he's doing.
He's looking through all of this motley crew,
sand of the seashore and multitude, where there
are 6,000 tanks and everything else.
And he is looking through and past all
of that, and he's looking to the one
who makes the difference.
And he is saying it is nothing for
the Lord.
That is called big picture of God.
There is nothing for the Lord to save
by many or by few.
He can do it without yawning.
He understands something, this young man.
He's got a revelation from heaven.
He's got a vision that's bigger than the
problem.
He's got a vision that's larger.
And he goes, maybe the Lord will work
for us.
Hey!
Now, they're going to ask for a sign,
right?
That's all right.
You can ask for signs at this situation.
You get into this situation, you can ask
for a sign, too.
Remember, they've got no scripture, they've got no
accounts.
There are just two of them.
I believe this.
If you have something in your heart you
want to do for the glory of God,
God will always give you an armor bearer
with you.
Somebody will say, Hey, do all that is
in your heart, man.
Isn't that cool?
Do it.
I'm with you.
I've found somebody crazy like me.
Then we both die together.
See?
Love this thing.
God will give you an armor bearer.
I got saved last three months in high
school.
Last three months.
I was, as far as I knew, the
only Christian in my high school.
We had a thousand kids in our school.
Nobody ever witnessed.
Nobody talked about Jesus.
Nobody rode fish-eyed bicycles to school.
There was no Christianity in our high school.
I got saved.
I had three months.
So at the end of the year when
I graduated, I found there was a rule
that, there's no rule that said you had
to leave when you graduate.
So I asked the teacher and I asked
my parents, Can I stay on another year?
I had so much fun those last three
months.
I'm graduated now.
Can I just stay and take all the
courses over again and witness?
My parents had got saved.
They were crazy too.
They said, OK, fine.
Stay as long as you like.
Can you imagine what it was like to
go first day of school with a Bible
and now I'm saved?
And I look out over a thousand faces
that don't know Christ.
Well, God is good.
He gave me one armor bearer.
A young Canadian guy that had to get
a New Zealand qualification in order to go.
He's with Wycliffe and just finished a little
while ago translating the whole of the New
Testament to a language that's never been written
before.
And he came and we joined up.
Now there were two of us.
Hey, you know what we said looking out
over those thousand faces?
It is nothing for the Lord to save
by many or by few.
Well, few, that's it.
We got minimum qualification.
Were we talented?
No.
Were we articulate?
No.
But we did know Jesus Christ and we
knew what He could do.
And we had more fun that year.
We would just be sitting discussing things at
lunch time and a bunch of kids would
come hanging around and we'd get into these
big debates and stuff with the local rationals
saying this and preaching this.
The end of the year we saw a
tenth of the school get saved.
And that was our favorite verse.
Nothing to the Lord to save by many
or by few.
I went back to my high school reunion
some years ago and it was a funny
thing.
I hadn't been there for like 20 years.
I'd never been in the door of my
high school for 20 years.
I walked in there.
It was about a thousand people there.
All jammed into a thing.
And many of them were the people I
remember.
And you could look out over the crowd
and you could pick out the Christians.
You could just look.
They were just shining.
You know, the guys that were all party
cut-ups.
They were all drunk, vomiting in the bushes.
You know, just the same mess.
Had some wonderful side effects, side reactions.
A couple of years ago in New Zealand
I witnessed to my football team.
Now we play rugby in New Zealand and
rugby players eat their dead.
In these sissy pads and helmets and stuff.
Just basic raw gut stuff.
And I witnessed to this guy who was
one of the toughest dudes in our team.
A little short, muscular monster.
And he used to put me down and
stuff and just give me a hard time.
I thought that God has not elected him,
obviously, to salvation.
Well, two years ago I was having a
pastor's conference in New Zealand.
And I went up there.
And I said, well, where is it?
They said, well, it's in a new assembly
of God church.
I said, oh really?
Well, I've never been there.
They said, well, they've got a new pastor.
So I went up there.
And I looked at the corner.
I went in there with all these pastors.
And I saw this guy that I was
in the football team.
And his name was Alex.
And I said, Alex, what are you doing
here?
I mean, here he is.
I thought maybe he came off the street
to get saved or something.
I said, Alex, what are you doing here?
He put his head down.
He said, hi, Wink.
I'm the pastor.
He got saved, man.
I said, I bet you never thought I'd
get saved.
He said, no, I had a revelation.
Here's the end of this, because I know
Colonel Sanders is calling.
Jonathan said this.
We will pass over to these men.
We will discover ourselves to them.
Like this.
Na, na, na, na, na, na.
That kind of, it's called discover yourselves to
them.
If they say thus to us, you stay
there till we come to you, then we
will stand still in our place.
We will not attack them.
But if they say, come upon to us,
then we will attack.
For the Lord has delivered them into our
hand.
They shall be a sign to us.
Now let me ask you a serious question.
Do you think these guys are in a
survival mode?
And it's got a lovely ending, this story.
They go up, and there's a Philistine God
pacing up and down.
And suddenly two guys leap out between a
crack in the rocks and go, na, na,
na, na, na.
Awful things about your mother.
Stuff like this.
And this Philistine is pacing up and down,
and he can't believe it.
He can't believe it.
And this is what he goes, hey.
He says, the Hebrews have come out of
the hole.
They hid themselves in.
And then the men of the garrison answered
Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said the
dumbest thing they ever said in their short
life.
Scoop into it, and we will show you
a thing.
And Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, what
happened up there on that day?
God came down, and they began to attack.
They really did begin to attack.
The Bible says it got suddenly very heavy
up there.
Over 20 men went down instantly.
What if the ground, an earthquake took place
at the same time?
And these Philistines didn't know what hit them.
Here are these people.
There seems to be only a couple of
them.
And one Philistine looked.
He went, look out, there's two of them.
One that escaped ran back to the garrison.
He said, look out, they're coming.
And they got that look in their eye
again.
And one of them said, well, I remember
that look.
I remember it was the look Moses had
when he went through the sea.
I remember that look.
Another one said, I remember the look too.
That's what Joshua had in his eyes when
he marched around Jericho and the walls fell
down.
And others, you remember, maybe at other times.
I remember that look.
It's what?
That long-headed, wimpy little skinny dude called
Samson suddenly got in his eyes and made
Philistine paste out of all of us.
I remember that look.
They got that look back in their eyes
again.
I want the Church of Jesus Christ to
get that look back in their eyes again,
not this, you know, we're doing our best.
We praise God.
We are surviving, brother.
We are doing quite well.
Everything is all right, more or less.
The Church get that look back in their
eyes again, the look of victory and not
survival.
And I don't know what happened.
God got in on this.
You can read about it.
Jonathan climbed on his hands and his feet.
They fell before Jonathan and his armor boy.
They flew after him while he missed the
second guy picked up.
They went through like a motor mower goes
through a field.
And that first slaughter was about 20 men
within half an acre of land, which a
yoke of oxen might plow.
And there was a trembling in the host
and the field among all the people.
The garrison and the spoilers, they also trembled.
The earth quaked so there was a very
great trembling.
And they saw the smoke and all this
stuff and screams and yells and the whole
world shaking.
They go, what is going on?
And they said, I don't know.
We're looking.
It just seems like, and I know what
happened.
You see, even the backsliders have a yoke.
Those Philistines fighting each other.
They couldn't believe there's only two of them.
They think, well, who's doing all this stuff?
And I thought, I remember when I was
in the bar.
There were some guys with suspicious accents, man,
and they're dressed just like us.
Who are you?
I never met you before.
Yeah, I'm from, ah, Nazi.
And it goes on.
Suddenly the Philistines are killing each other.
Bit of a change, don't you think?
And I'll tell you what's neat.
When that happened, guess what happened to all
the guys up in the tree?
Hey, we're winning.
Give me my fork, man.
People came out of the lakes, threw their
McDonald's stores away.
People climbing.
I want to get in too, see.
Anybody can be in on the end of
it.
It only takes a couple to get in
and start.
Nobody ever writes down in the history books,
these people came in on the end of
it.
They remember the two that took the risk.
They remember the two that moved out of
the survivalist thing into victory.
They remember the two with a look in
their eyes.
And it's time the Christian church got that
this morning.
Keep bowing your heads in prayer, because God's
going to give you that look back.
Jesus, I thank you this morning.
You've not come to entertain us, but to
speak to our hearts and make us different
men and women.
I pray this morning for every man and
every woman in this place that is in
a survivalist mode.
And I pray you will break the chains
of that thing.
You'll move us out of that easy compromise.
My God, that you will do something fresh
and new.
We've got a new year coming up, and
we need to be new people for it.
Now Lord, I pray first of all for
those who've had long-term battles with habits
that they have just not plain broken.
And have never gotten mad enough or angry
enough with themselves to say to you, I
have had it with this thing, I'm going
to turn the whole thing lock, stock and
barrel over to you, and I'll do it
now.
If you're in this building, you're a man,
God's spoken to you about some long-term
stupid habit, some stupid thing that needs to
be broken up.
Are you angry enough today?
Are you mad enough to do something about
it?
If so, then stand on your feet and
say by standing to God, that's it.
I had it, that is it.
That's it.
You've taken some rage?
Now make a resolve.
I am quit with this thing.
There are women here, you need to stand
and join these men.
If that's your battle, that's your problem, some
long-term battle, and it's just been too
costly, you've loved it too much to give
it up.
It is time you got mad enough to
quit.
You stand and you join these men who
are standing and you say by standing to
God, that is it, I want the anger
of God in my heart by the Spirit
of God against this thing that hurts him.
God is going to break some yokes.
Aren't you tired of those naysayers circling the
town asking for your eye?
Aren't you tired of living in fear that
some guy is going to come along and
punch out your guidance system?
The devil has come to gouge at the
souls and eyes of our generation, but Jesus
has come to imprint his majesty on our
souls.
Those of you here, you're one of those
four that are mentioned.
You're either hanging out with the Philistines, sneaked
in to see if anything is happening this
morning, or you've gone over to the other
side, you just didn't want any more battle.
You just decide I'll go some nice safe
place.
God has ways and means.
You go somewhere else, he'll get you there
too.
Don't run away from God.
Those of you who followed trembling, isn't it
time you broke the yoke?
Those of you who felt like you've been
in a survivalist mode too long, and you
want God to put you in a victory
mode.
You're saying to Jesus this morning, I want
that look, I want it back in my
eye.
I don't care what, let the devil stir
up whatever he wants to do.
I have a mandate from God.
I'm going to get that look back in
my eye, and I am going to go
out and do the works of Jesus Christ
in my generation.
Bless your name.
My Father, we thank you this morning.
We stand here in your presence, needing to
get that victory note in our souls again.
Deliver us, Lord, from this skulking survival mode.
Give us a big picture of who you
are.
Father, we look too long at the Philistines.
We worry too long about losing an eye
to the naysayers of our time.
What we need to do is get new
eyes from you, a new vision, a new
picture, a new revelation of what you're like.
You can use Jonathan and the armor bearer.
You can use us.
We don't have much.
We've only got one spear and shield and
sword between us, but you and us are
a majority in any situation.
And we ask now for a fresh revelation
of the power and the greatness and the
glory and the security and the graciousness of
Jesus Christ, the risen warrior king.
Now, Father, we remember the invasion of Jesus
into our time.
We thank you that in just a week
or so time we celebrate your invasion.
We know you came in a baby, but
the next time you come you're going to
come as the ruling and reigning king of
the universe.
And we want to be ready, Lord, not
like babies, but as men and women who
have fought a fight and have finished a
course and a crown of righteousness is laid
up for us.
Jesus, take all of us here who stand
in your presence.
Give us back that look, we pray.
And we ask it in the glorious name
of the living God.
Hallelujah.
We bless you.
Hallelujah.