1, 2, 3……

O Lord my God, you have performed many wonders for us. Your plans for us are too numerous to list. You have no equal. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them.

Psalms 40:5 NLT

The song says; you ought to count your many blessings, and name them 1 by 1. That song I used to lead in our youth choir back home. Then I didn’t know what it meant because in my mind as a youth I looked at things literally. I looked at things as they were said. I often thought, how can you count everything that God does for you if he does everything for you. How many times do you inhale and exhale a day? How many times do you blink, or your heart pumps, or have a thought? Just those alone we would lose count. It’s things like this that shows just how literal God is. Sometimes we dig deep into God’s word (which is good) when we really just need to see it for what he says.

HERE IT IS…

Stop complaining about what it is that you wish you had, or where you would be, or trying to make God deeper to explain what happen to you. His word is true and does not change. Take God’s word and apply it and see what he has done for you now. If your reading this, your blessed. If your breathing, your blessed. If you woke up, this is for you. God has done to much for us right now in this moment for us to complain about stuff we don’t have. You should count all your blessings foe what you have, and praise God in this moment. 

Honor

But Jesus deserves far more glory than Moses, just as a person who builds a house deserves more praise than the house itself.

Hebrews 3:3 NLT
I am pretty sure that we have all heard the saying; give honor where honor is due, right? The reason that is used so much is because it’s to help us realize that whatever it is that we so don’t forget that we all need some help at sometime. We didn’t get here by ourselves. We all have had some assistance getting to where we are. This scripture reminds me that we have all been assisted, but we can’t just give the praise to the people that helped us, but to the one that placed those people in our life. 
HERE IT IS… 
The people helped you, pushed you, comforted you, paid some things, baby sat for you. But if it had not been for the Lord who was on my side, I don’t know where I would be. I thank God for all those people that helped me. I praise God for everything they have done for me. When I think about how it wasn’t on my own or their own they were there for me,  but God who is and was working through them. I have to give honor where honor is due. I thank God for all of you and praise God for you, but if it was not for the God in you none of this could be as it is… 

Whos your daddy

“Tell me about your father, young man,” Saul said. And David replied, “His name is Jesse, and we live in Bethlehem.”

1 Samuel 17:58 NLT
This is the part I celebrate about when I do something great. This scripture here tells us more about how great David was, than him receiving an award or anything else. He said to David “tell me about your father”. Saul wanted to know more about who taught David to be fearless and strong, rather than how he did what he did. Is feels good to me when people tell me how good of a job I did, but what means the most is when people tell me my parents did a great job. 

Why? 

Because I brought them the glory of what I did and not just giving it to me. Okay maybe you didn’t get it yet. Saul said tell me about your father, after David conquered what nobody else could do. Out of all his soldiers and his brother, the strongest, oldest, and most sought after was on of them he wanted to know just who David’s father was. I would suggest to you that this was not just talking about David but you and I.
HERE IT IS…
OUT OF everything we have been through in our life our main priority should be to bring our father glory. I’m not talking Mr. Berry, bit my father in heaven. See David had to tell Saul who his father’s name was and where he is from. It’s just a little suspicious that David’s fathers name is very close to another name, and he is from the very place this man was born. Y’all should get it by now. You should not want to do things to get the glory but to bring God the glory. David is from Bethlehem, Jesus is born in Bethlehem. David’s fathers name is Jesse, but when Jesus died for us he is known to be from David’s blood. The things you do reaches and goes past your physical blood line but is actually your spiritual blood line. The blood shed for you, the blood the washes you right as snow. Your representing God, and the things you do will bring people closer asking who is your father that gives you this power and favor… 

Over my dead body

As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him.

1 Samuel 17:48 NLT
This right here is the most profound of this story. This is what we all need to hear and do at times. David is in the valley where the 2 sides meet talking to this giant as a young teenager. As he is there talking to him, confident and standing tall the giant is towering over him. Taunting him. Laughing at him. After David gives his last statement and tells him this battle is not mine but the Lord’s and he will be defeated, I can imagine goliath getting mad. Once he hears it goliath charges at David with sword at his side spear in hand. At this moment most of us if not all right now would run at this moment. We would turn around and go as fast as our feet can carry us. David, he did the opposite of what we would all do at this moment. David charges at goliath to meet him at that clashing point. 

Why? 

What makes him charge? 

Isn’t having faith knowing God will defeat him enough? I’m glad you asked.
HERE IT IS…
I believe that in this moment David realizes that he has to much to lose. Sometimes we don’t charge or get ahead of our problems but we wait to see what happens. Sometimes it’s God’s will that you don’t just sit there and wait on him in the situation, but in fact sometimes you have to actually engage in a fight to win a fight. We tell our kids the best thing to do is walk away from confrontation now. I can hear Willie Berry telling me, you don’t stand there if some one is coming at you and brace for impact, but you have to sometimes beat them to the punch. So before you get to my family, before you get to my kids, before you get to my house, before you get to my peace, joy, money, love, marriage I am going to meet you there and make sure that you will not get past me. I will win

It’s not yours

And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord ’s battle, and he will give you to us!”

1 Samuel 17:47 NLT
I am a baseball fan and is one of my first sports love. I ha e so many people I could name that I love in baseball, but their is one guy that has been like the king of baseball. Babe Ruth! His name is or of the first names people think of when baseball is talked about. One of his famous stories is when he called a home run before it happened. He came up to the plate, raised his hand and pointed it upward as if to say he was going to hit a homerun. He came up with the expectation to hit the ball out of the park. Without knowing what the pitcher was going to throw, a curve ball, fast ball change up. He signified to everyone that the ball was leaving the park and their was nothing anyone could do about it. It’s that type of confidence that he had in his self and ability. As he did that’s exactly what happen. He said it was going to happen and it did. This is what type of faith David had. He had the faith and knowing that God was going to take care of this situation that the Israelites were in. David stepped up to the plate and raises his hand and pointed outward to signify that goliath had to leave this place. 
HERE IT IS…
If David can tell a giant that no one else could beat and were afraid of, and babe ruth can signify a home run before he sees the pitch, what causes us to be so fearful not knowing what’s coming next when we know the person who created what’s coming next? David said “this is the Lord’s battle, and He will give you to us”. Don’t get so caught up and so fearful about what’s coming and create different scenarios of what could be when you know the one who created what is and is to come. This battle is not yours, it’s God’s. All you have to do is step up to the plate and trust God’s power in you.  

It’s about to go down

Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel!

1 Samuel 17:46 NLT
Have you ever woke up with a determination to complete a task? 

Ever told yourself that when I wake up I will get this done or that done? 

Said to yourself that today is the day it happens. 

In my Kevin heart voice, it’s about to go down. Here is the point that David reached. Nobody wanted to face the giant that just keeps playing them and no one believes they can defeat the giant. But because this boy named David has the belief that God has the ability to do all things he is ready. I believe that this is where we need to be in life. We get upset and worried about our giants of life and fail to realize how big our God is. David went out with less than what the giant had on and knew he was going to be victorious.
HERE IT IS…
You, we, I, all of us should be sick and tired of being fearful of what could happen and start thinking about who controls what will happen. We should all wake up with the same authority that David dis and look in the mirror and say, TODAY THE LORD WILL CONQUEOR IT ALL. We all should be ready everyday and die to flesh. Take off all the armor that the world says we need, go out in the world with a clear mind and spirit and say today is the day. Today is the day that it’s about to go down. In fact it’s the day that devil you have to flee. Devil you have to go. Devil you have no place in my house, my marriage, my children, my business, my mind, my church, my leaders. Devil TODAY IS THE DAY THAT YOUR ABOUT TO GO DOWN…

I came to fight

David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

1 Samuel 17:45 NLT
Sometimes I feel like I have been in this situation. Where I am entering a battle and I am ready to fight but it seems that I am not equipped with the same weapons that the enemy has been equipped with. It often times feels like the enemy has been equipped with much better weapons to defeat me than I have to defeat him. It’s hard going in THINKING, that I will win when I am feeling less equipped to win. 
HERE IT IS…
Though you and I may feel less equipped naturally as David is here, david reminds his giant that he is not fighting him physically but spiritually.  
but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.verse 45b.
You have to tell your giants and enemies, and remind yourself that I am not here to fight you in the natural but I am here to win this thing spiritually.  
For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12 NLT
Your equipped to fight and win this battle. Only thing you have to do is let your enemy know, I come in the name of the Lord. 

Chosen to do this

Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear. Some of Saul’s servants said to him, “A tormenting spirit from God is troubling you. 
And whenever the tormenting spirit from God troubled Saul, David would play the harp. Then Saul would feel better, and the tormenting spirit would go away.

1 Samuel 16:14‭-‬15‭, ‬23 NLT
Have you ever met someone or know of someone that just seems like they wake up on the wrong side of the bed everyday? It’s almost to say that their life is so bad that when they go to sleep they are troubled. When they wake up they are troubled. Life can’t be that bad, right? Well Saul is being tormented by God here in the scripture. God wouldn’t do that, right? It wasn’t that God was being mean to him but his disobedience to God is what caused it. Ever felt like no matter what you just couldn’t get peace? 
HERE IT IS…
Look at the scripture. 

And whenever the tormenting spirit from God troubled Saul, David would play the harp. Then Saul would feel better, and the tormenting spirit would go away.

1 Samuel 16:23 NLT
You may be the only way for people to realize that God is the only way to live peacefully. When Saul was troubled by God, he called David who was anointed by God, to have the spirit sent by God to go away. 
Did you catch that?
Sometimes God will send trouble to people, and bring them to you, to show them the way back to God. People always ask me how I can get some kids to behave around me, but when they are somewhere else they don’t. It’s not me it’s God in me. God sent a spirit to cause a stirring in the person to bring close to a person who has been saved by the same God. Your chosen, anointed, and designed for this.

Are you ready

So Saul sent messengers to Jesse to say, “Send me your son David, the shepherd.”

1 Samuel 16:19 NLT
Y’all remember this on your mark get set go. Something we did as kids when we were racing, or something we did as kids when we are having a competition. these are the three words that David had actually heard on your mark get set go, because at this time David has now been anointed by God. has now been chosen by God and now he has to go for God, and at this time David is being trained and moved into position to do what God has called him and anointed him to do. God has called David to be the next king of Israel and now he has to go play for the current king of Israel, and isn’t it ironic that the same person he’s there to replace he’s going to be working for. isn’t it ironic that God anointed him to be king even when there’s a king already. this is very strange in how God works but God doesn’t make mistakes. 
HERE IT IS…
 in your life what is God telling you to go do what has told you to do. remember that one, God has chosen us, two we have been not only chosen by God but anointed by God, and the last thing is is that when God chooses us and he anoint us we have to go for God. me and a couple of my friends that are also preachers we have a saying that says you need to preach hard or go home, and in essence I believe that’s what God is telling us that we have to go for him because that is the talent and the very thing that he anointed us to go do. so what is it today, what is it now, what is it that you have been thinking about, what is it that you have been wondering what is it that God has placed in your heart to actually tell you to go and do. even though it may not seem right even though it may be strange even though it may not be what you imagine God’s telling you to go for him. 

Are you ready. 

Are you set. 

To go for god.

Your chosen

So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the flask of olive oil he had brought and anointed David with the oil. And the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David from that day on. Then Samuel returned to Ramah.

1 Samuel 16:13 NLT
Have you ever been chosen to do something? have you ever had the opportunity of being picked for something? I can remember as a kid when we would play kickball or football or basketball or baseball we were always select captains to select who their team was going to be, and as they selected the captains and selected their teammates there was always somebody that was left behind. there was always somebody that was not able to play because they only needed a certain amount of people and as they picked somebody had to be left behind. 
HERE IT IS
 we’re looking at David and David is  being presented and being selected last. Samuel went there to speak to Jesse his father to see which one of his sons was God going to anoint and as he did that Jesse brought all of his sons except for the smallest and the youngest and it is for today that we should always know that God is going to choose us to do something you may not be chosen first you may not be chosen second but out of everything God will choose you and has chosen you. the fact remains that even though David was selected last he was selected in front of his brothers he was standing there in the mist of his brothers when God said to Samuel that’s him he’s the one anoint  him.  so it is my prayer today that all of you would know God’s voice when he selects you for what you have to do.