A familiar passage of scripture here. As I was preaching the other week, I was actually preaching in the book of Judges and talking about Samson, whenever he slayed the lion. And as I was doing that study there, just on him and preparing that message, I just got to thinking about, I wonder how many people in the Bible slew lions. And so I just started thinking about that and started doing a study on that. And so I found three. And I wanna give them to you tonight, but I wanna mainly focus on David here this evening. And then I found just some things that, what are some characteristics they all share together. Thought I'd share that with you tonight as well. But let's read tonight, 1 Samuel chapter 17, entitled this message, The Lion Slayers. And 1 Samuel 17, let's begin there in about verse 34. The Bible says, and David said, Undersaw 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 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. And thy servant slew both the lion and the bear. And this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them. Sin he hath defied the armies of the living God. And David said, moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the pawl of the lion and out of the pawl of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, go and the Lord be with thee. Let's pray. Father, we come to you tonight. Lord, we just thank you for your blessings. Lord, I pray that you would help us this evening, Lord, as we go through your word and just talk about these lion slayers tonight. And God, how can we in this day, in our time, in our lives, What can we learn from these men that will help us and encourage us to slay lions that maybe perhaps come up in our life or things that we need to get victory over? Lord, I'll pray to help us learn some things from these men. And Lord, may it be a blessing to us here tonight. God, I pray that you would just help me to preach this evening or just be emptied of myself. Lord, not to speak man's opinion, but God, just to give your truth. Lord, I pray that you would just watch over us once again, keep everybody safe. And this we ask in Jesus' name, amen, amen. As I mentioned, there was three lion slayers that are in the scriptures. One, the very first one that came to a priest on the other week, of course, we talked about Samson. And a little bit about him, he was in Judges chapter 14 and verses five and six, whenever he was slaying the lion there. Now, Samson's name means son, S-U-N. His name means son or the son. And we noticed that they were in verse five, and I'm not gonna go back and preach that message, but we noticed that he was on a journey. He was on a journey. He was going down to Timnath, which means to complete. He was looking to complete a journey and whenever he was, a lion came his way and of course approached him, roared against him. The Spirit of God came upon him, gave him the power that he needed. And then the Bible says in verse six that Samson, he rent, he tore that lion in pieces. He had nothing in his hand, did it with his own hands. And I'll tell you what, what a miracle from the Lord there. And the Bible also says he was alone when this happened and he didn't tell nobody about it. And I ended part of that message really just kind of saying that sometimes that there are lions that we may slay in life Sometimes there are lions that we may slay in life that we do on our own. Nobody's there. Nobody's around. Sometimes things, they stand up against us in battles that we face that nobody knows about. And it's just between us and the opposition, the challenge, whatever it could be. And we learned that he was on his journey, you know, and just in the Christian life we have obstacles and challenges that come our way that do confront us like that. And then the next one we see here in the scriptures is David. Now his name means beloved, which is where we're at right now. We'll take a look at the other one here in a little bit. His name was Benaniah. Benaniah's name means built by the Lord. We'll take a look at him here in a few minutes. He's in 2 Samuel 23 verses 20 to 23. But we'll look at him here in just a minute, but his name means built by the Lord. So let's take a look at David here real quick. We've kind of mentioned Samson, so let's kind of go back to David and then we'll make some comparisons and see what we can learn from these men. But as I said, just in life in general, we understand that there are lions, obstacles, challenges that we face, things that come up against us. The Bible says, Satan, as a roaring lion, seeketh whom he may devour. There are just lots of things. Lions have been used in the Bible to demonstrate and to give pictures of things that are good. Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah. but we also understand that Satan is described as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. So here as we look at our text in 1 Samuel chapter 17 in verses 34 and really going down to verse 37, one of the things that we see is that there in verse 34 is we notice that David was just a young man. He was just a young lad, a young boy really. He was just a young shepherd watching over his father's sheep. But one of the things I liked about him is the fact that Whenever he slew this lion, there was one thing that he didn't let stop him from slaying the lion like he needed to and that was his age. There was one thing he didn't let get in his way. That was his age. Now the reason why I say that is this. Yes, was he young? Of course he was. exactly how old I don't know but he was young but listen one of the things we got to understand too that listen not not young people aren't the only ones that slay lions listen there's a lot of older lion slayers as well all of us here tonight we've had battles we've had challenges and we've had things that's come up in our life that have roared up against us you know as we were seeking to complete our journey in We've had things that's kind of stepped in our way and roared up against us. And so we here tonight have also slayed our fair share of lions along the way. But there's one thing that I want us to see here tonight is that, listen, a lion slayer doesn't know an age. Listen, you can slay lots of lions in your life, and you don't have to be young to do it. Listen, as I said, David was a young person here and he slew this physical lion, but yet there were other lions in his life that did come his way. There were many that he did that he was able to be victorious over. Now there were a few that came his way that he wasn't victorious over, that he did give in to sin. We think about his affair with Bathsheba. And that time appeared in his life. And even when he had one of his friends, Uriah, killed there on the battlefield. And so there were some lions that did come his way that he did lose against. But it wasn't because God wasn't strong enough to help him defeat the lions. It's that he just submitted himself over to his sinful passions and forsook the power of God and went his own direction. And so, listen, we can understand that when those things happen, when we forsake the power of God and we go in our own direction and we turn away from what we know to be right and true, then, listen, instead of slaying these giants that come our way, we're going to end up surrendering or succumbing. to these giants and then we're going to end up, or these lions, and then we're going to end up suffering the consequences of these things. But listen, there are lions that come up in many aspects of life. And some we win and some we lose against, but listen, but we have the ability and the power within us to win against every single one. I mean the Bible does tell us that greater is he that is in you than he that is in this world. And the Bible does tell us and assure us that I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. And the Bible does assure us and tell us that if we walk in the Spirit we won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. And so we have great precious promises of God that we can stand on them. and that we understand that God is there and He is ever-present, that He is all-powerful, that we can do all things through Him. And so we understand the power of God is there, and we can slay any lion that comes our way, but let us be careful as we are, when these lions approach us, that we make sure that we are number one, are doing the very first thing, is submitting ourselves to God. And you know, the Bible does tell us that The Bible says that whenever we are wrestling against the forces of evil, and when we're wrestling against the lion itself, the Roman lion that seeks whom he may devour, the Bible says, submit to God, resist the devil, and he'll flee from you. So the very number one thing we've got to do is make sure that when we're facing these lions, the number one thing that we want to do, if we're going to be lion slayers in our life, then we're going to have to make sure that we're doing our job in submitting to the power of God. And knowing without a shadow of a doubt that we cannot do these things on our own. That we are putting on the armor of God and that we are submitting to the power of God. Because the last thing that we want to do is to wrestle with the lion in our own strength. In our own strength. I think we can see in the scriptures, we can see I believe even David, he even gave the Lord the recognition for watching over him and keeping him safe whenever he wrestled with the lion. Samson of course, the Bible says the Spirit of God came upon him and so of course God gets the recognition for helping Samson to have the strength and the power that he needed to fend off that lion. And so there are just things that are coming our way that face us every single day that we have to make sure because Jesus said, and I say it all the time, but it's worthy of saying that without him, the Bible says in John 15, we can do nothing. And so we submit to the power of God and when we face these lions so that we can be victorious. So number one, that's one of the very first things we have to do is submit to the power of God, but also understanding that as we submit to God, it don't matter how old we are. I mean, you can be a young child, you can be a teenager, you can be middle-aged, you can be more senior. Listen, there are lion slayers in every single group. And so let's make sure that we don't make age a factor. You ever heard that saying too? Out of the mouth of babes. You know, sometimes just, sometimes just even words that even the wisdom that can sometimes come out of some of the young ones that sometimes us adults, we don't see for whatever reason, but sometimes these kids do. And man, those words can really slay some giants. We can sometimes, these kids, they offer up some swords for us to use to slay these giants that we didn't previously know that they had. So I'm just saying here tonight to listen from the young all the way up to the more senior, we are lion slayers here tonight, and we do not have to give in to the things of the flesh. And so the Bible shows us here, I believe, when we think about David's life and we look at the things that he's done, we can see that David, yes, he was a young man, but he didn't let his age be a barrier to him. And listen, just like us, the older ones here tonight, We don't need to let age be a barrier for us, too, to where we would say, well, I'm just too old for this and I'm too old for that. Listen, you know yourself. Let's be honest with ourselves. We have to know ourselves, but also understand that God can do anything through us. Amen? So let's just don't let our age, whether we're young or whether we're more senior, let that be the stopping point in our life. Let that be the place where we say, let that be the place where we say, well, God could use me if I wasn't this old, or God could use me if I wasn't this young. Listen, let's don't let age be the barrier that we put God in that box in. Let's just let God use us the way he wants to use us. Amen. And so he didn't let age be a barrier to him and his life. He was obviously someone that put God first in his life. God was with him. God was helping him. God was fighting for him. And so I think there's a couple of things. I think number two, one of the things that David had to learn early on, and we all face in our life too, is he had to ignore the naysayers. Listen, there's lots of naysayers that'll come up. Listen, there's gonna be lots of people that come up in your life that don't believe in you. There's gonna be lots of people that come up in your life that'll criticize you. There's gonna be lots of people that'll come up in your life that's gonna discourage you. Listen, David had the same thing. I mean, we see David, I mean, throughout all of his life, especially his younger life here, we see there was lots of times and even a good number of people that were discouraging to him in his life. But one of the things that he had to do was he had to push that off to the side. He had to ignore the naysayers. He had to understand, listen, what God had called him to do and what God had called him to be. And listen, he had to understand, I mean, we see, let's go back up to verse 28 here in our text in 1 Samuel 17. Notice the Bible says that Eliab, his eldest brother, when he heard when he spake unto the men, talking about David whenever he spoke, when his brother heard that David spoke to the men, Now Eli's anger was kindled against David and said, why comest thou down hither? Listen, there's gonna be people that'll come up in your life that are gonna wish you weren't around. There's gonna be people that come up in your life that'll wish you weren't present, that'll wish you weren't there, that'll discourage you, that won't be positive, that won't be reassuring, that won't be encouraging in your life. And we gotta listen, we gotta make sure that we understand but listen, I can't stop every time somebody else is discouraging to me. Listen, I can't go in a different direction every time somebody else is discouraging to me. Listen, I can't just lay down the sword and just go back and watch the sheep and not stand there on the battlefield just because someone was discouraging to me. The Bible shows us right here in verse 28 that his brother, his eldest brother, It says, Why comest thou down hither? And with whom hast thou lest those few sheep in the wilderness? You see how condescending that was to him. His purpose there, Eliab, his purpose was to be condescending to David. But David didn't let that stop him. Listen there's going to be lots of people that rise up lots of lions that rise up in your life of people that will be Condescending to you the people that will people that will try to divert you in another direction Just simply because they do not like you or approve of your presence But listen we also got to understand this to listen you can't make everybody happy. Oh Amen? And in the moment you make everybody happy, as you've heard me say before, there'll be one person that's miserable. And that's you. Because you can't make everybody happy. Everybody has their own opinion, and everybody has their own way, and everybody has their own viewpoint. But we see right here Eliab, he was coming out of anger. And one of the reasons why he was so angry was because David had been, just prior to this, David had just been anointed by Samuel to be the king of Israel. Now, whenever all those sons came out, Eliab came out first because he was the oldest brother. And even Samuel said himself, when he saw Eliab came out and he saw how big he was, you know, and that he was the eldest, even Samuel said himself, surely this is the Lord's anointed. But then God passed by this one, and God passed by this one, and God passed by this one, and God passed by this one, and went all the way down to the youngest. And so David, we see here, was not even old enough to be at the battle. But his dad came, he says. But his dad told him to come and says, listen, deliver some supplies down there and bring me some news about what's going on. So David shows up. And when David shows up, he gets on the scene, he hears Goliath, and he sees all the men in the trenches. And then David, as a young boy, he and stands up there and begins to speak, and all of a sudden, just like that, because Eliab can't stand his youngest brother, and obviously, probably because he's still angry over the fact that God didn't choose him to be king, but chose his youngest brother, who's doing nothing but watching his sheep, because that's why he said that in the first place. What are you doing here? Who's watching those few sheep that you're supposed to have? Condescending to him. Made him feel like and tried to make him think that what he did was inferior, that he was an inferior person. And listen, you'll come across people in your life, and there'll be circumstances that you'll face in your life where people will try to, or people will make you even maybe feel inferior in your life. or that you're just not good enough. Listen, one of the lies from the devil is this. Listen, none of us is good enough to serve God. It's just a privilege that God lets us do it. Amen. I mean, none of us, let's be honest. Just like the apostle Paul said, he said, I'm a wretch. He praised the Lord, and he was thankful. Listen, he says, oh, wretched man that I am. He even used the illustration, listen to this. God used me as a pastor. for everybody else that came along, because if God will save me being the man that I was, then he'll save anybody, and he'll use anybody, you know? And so what we ought to see and understand, there's gonna be lots of things and lots of people and lots of situations that come our way that they roar out and they may make us feel inferior, and sometimes we'll feel like, listen, well, I'm not good enough, or I'm not old enough, or I'm not young enough, or I'm not this, and I'm not this, and I'm not that. But listen, through God, we can be whatever it is that the Lord wants us to be. And so let's make sure that we are number one. Make sure that we are right with God. Make sure that we are walking with the Lord. Fill with the Spirit. Because without Him we can't do nothing. Let's also make sure that we're submitting to God and resisting the devil. Not resisting the devil and leaving the submitting to God part out. Let's also make sure that we don't let age be a barrier in our life, that we don't put God in a box and say, well, God, you can only do it if you have this certain recipe. God can only use me or God can only do this unless we say that he has this or this or that. No, God can do anything he wants to do and use anybody he desires. And so let's not let age be a barrier, but let's also make sure that we ignore the naysayers. Because we have to, and I mean, notice what happened there in verse 29 after he had heard these things. Of course, Eliab, his brother, was real condescending to him, not only talking about the sheep, but also tried to investigate his heart and said, listen, I know thy pride. He said, I know the naughtiness of that heart. Listen, here he was doing an investigation of his heart, like he actually knew what was going on in the heart of David. Really trying to really trying to dissect his interior motives, and he knew nothing about it He was so totally wrong But the Bible says in the naughtiness of the heart for thou art come that thou mightest see the battle well That's wrong dad told me to come down here to give you some stuff to eat and to bring me some news back I mean he thought he knew but he didn't and then they were in verse 29. He says is there not a cause and is they're not a cause. Listen, we're going to be lion slayers in our life. And I think one of the things we have to really focus on is, listen, I know there's a cause. Because listen, if you don't understand there's a cause in why you're slaying the lion, sometimes it can be, it may be a more difficult process. Listen, the reason why we fight the lions, the reason why we slay the giants, the reason why we do what we do, is because we understand that there's a cause. The goal is ahead of us. The idea of what we need to accomplish is ahead of us. And so he says, is there not a cause? I mean, the reason why he was there and the reason why he was speaking to these men was because there was a cause. And listen, if you don't feel like in your heart that there is a cause, then how can we be so motivated and energized to keep pressing forward and slay the giants that are in front of us? No, we have to see that there's a cause and it has to be greater than us. Has to be greater than us. Has to be a cause. And he saw this cause as greater than him. He said, you're gonna let this guy come down and defy the armies of the living God? He saw past himself. It wasn't just about David. It was about what he was doing against God and about what he was doing against God's people. And that right there, that was the cause. That was what motivated his passion and his energy to slay the giant that was in front of him. And listen, when we begin to see what's in front of us, like these lion slayers saw what was in front of them, then we can really slay some giants in our life, really slay some lions. He said, is there not a cause? And so he saw there was a cause and a purpose in what he was doing. So if you're going to slay that giant tonight, you're going to slay that lion tonight, understand the reason why I'm slaying this giant. What is my purpose? What is the cause? Why is it so important that this lion gets slayed? What is this lion doing? What is this lion saying? How is this lion making me feel? Why do I need to slay this lion in my life? There is a cause. and it was greater than himself. Listen, any cause that isn't greater than you is a prideful cause. It's all about you. But his cause was greater than him. It was about God. And so he also, the next thing, He fought for what was his. Notice, let's take a look in verse 34. The Bible says, and 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. So we see that he fought for what was his. There in verse 35, he says, I went out after him. Why did he go out after him? Because there in verse 34, there was a cause. And what part of this cause was, he was remembering back on what he had done before. And part of this cause was, is the fact that David said, he said, I was keeping my father's sheep. And a lion came and took a lamb out of the flock. You see, I believe whenever he saw that this lamb was taken out of the flock, that this was also, he looked at it as, these are the father's sheep. And because these sheep belonged to the father, he saw that there was a cause and the last thing that he wanted was this lamb or was this sheep to be completely taken away and to be devoured by this lion that was out there. So when they were in verse 34, he says, thy servant kept this father's sheep. And there came a lion and a bear. But he fought this lion because the sheep belonged to him. He was personally invested in these sheep. These sheep belonged to His Father because they belonged to His Father. He saw that in essence really that they belonged to Him. He was personally invested in these sheep. These were the ones that He led by the still waters. These were the ones that He watched out after. These were the ones that He guided and directed. These were the very same sheep that He that he steered toward greener pastures, these very sheep. And so when this lion came out from wherever it was, when this lion came out and grabbed a hold of the sheep and took off away with him, with the sheep in his mouth, with the lamb in his mouth, there was a purpose and a cause for him to go get it. He fought for what was his. Not only that, but we notice there in the text, the Bible says, and David said to 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 in verse 35, he says, and I went out after him. Wow. Talk about courageous. You're going to slay some lions. You're going to have to be courageous. You have to be brave. Because there's gonna come some things, listen, we've all been afraid, right? We've all faced some things, we've been afraid, we've all had some fearful things come up in our life. And if we're gonna slay some lions, if we're gonna have some giants come up our way and stand over us and tower over us and cast a mighty shadow upon us, if we're gonna have lions come our way and roar and intimidate in all their strength, then listen, there's gonna be some times, listen, we're gonna become fearful, we're gonna be afraid, but what it's gonna take for us to slay these lions when these things come our way is for us to be courageous and understand that we're not just trusting ourselves. but an almighty God that is there with us. There's lots of, as I said, lots of lions that can come up our way. Lots of giants that can tower over, down, over top of us. And the Bible says there in verse 35, he says, when this lion and this bear, when they took a lamb out of the flock, he said, I went out after him. He says, you know what? I wasn't going to let him have the lamb. I wasn't going to let him have, I wasn't going to let him have that sheep. Now, he could have very easily just stood there and said, well, I've got plenty more. That's just one. See you later. He could have very well said that. But what I liked about the fact is he saw how important that lamb right there was. That sheep was very important. That lamb right there was very important. Now, was it as big as these other ones? I don't know. Was it as nice looking? You know, was its coat as full and all that as maybe some of these other ones? I don't know. But I do see this. I do know this. I know that whenever he looked at that, I know whenever he saw that lion running away with that lamb in his mouth, the last thing he thought of was, is that one is just as important as this one. What he wanted to do was retrieve the lamb out of the lion's mouth because he understood He understood that the lion was gonna completely devour the lamb. It's gonna destroy him, completely devour him. So he was there to be a rescue. He was there to deliver. And he said, when that lion came up and took that lamb, I didn't just let him go scot-free, I chased after him. I chased after him and I went after him. I didn't just let him have, I didn't just let him have the lamb, but no, I went after him. And listen, there are some lions, they're gonna come in, they're gonna take some things that are precious to us and they're gonna take some things that are meaningful to us and they're just gonna run away with it. And then you're gonna have to decide, am I gonna go chase that lion or am I just gonna let him have it? He decided he wasn't gonna do that. He was going to chase that lion, because you know what happened if he wouldn't have chased that lion and destroyed that lion? That lion was going to come back and get him another lamb. So sometimes there are some things in life that you say, well, man, he went and chased after a lion. He fought a fight. He didn't have to fight. No, what he did was he fought a fight that he wouldn't have to fight five times again. Because that lion came in and took the lamb and then left. And if he wouldn't have went out and killed it, that lion would have came in again and got another one. How many is he gonna lose before he fights the lion? Amen? How many lambs is he gonna lose before he fights the lion? And one of the things I believe David understood whenever he saw that lion come in, he says, you know what, I'm not gonna let you take that lamb. I'm going to come out after you. You don't think I'm going to, but I'm going to come out there after you. And when I come out there after you, listen, the God of heaven is going to be with me. And the Bible says that David himself said, listen, I grabbed him by the beard. So one of the things we see is, man, I'll tell you what, it got tough, but it got up close and personal. Some of these lions that we slay in life, man, it's just like the Bible says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Now wrestling is a close combat. We put on the armor of God. We put on the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith. Why do we have all these things? Because there's a close combat. The devil is wrestling against us. The darkness is wrestling against us. And so what do we do? We understand that as the roaring lion comes across our path that we better be armed and we better be prepared and we better be ready because he's not coming in to feed the sheep. He's coming in to devour the lambs. And so what you have to do is decide, how many am I going to let the lion take? Or am I going to chase after him and destroy him while he's out there so that I don't have to deal with that lion again? Sometimes we have to be bold and courageous in our lion slaying. So we can see that it got up close and personal. He grabbed a hold of this lion. The Bible says there in verse, let's see, let's read it there in verse 35. He says, I went out after him and 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. And so man, what a close combat that was he had with this lion. He grabbed him by the beard, and I can only imagine, I mean, if you're like me, you've got a wild imagination, and you can just picture this lion who was roaring, who was biting and snarling and throwing his claws everywhere. And then here we see David, the person just like us, who was there fighting this lion. Now, what all did he have? Did he have a sword with him? I don't know. I mean, it doesn't seem like he really carried one. I mean, usually most of these shepherds didn't carry swords. You know, they carried a shepherd's hook, and they had a little club that they carried with them, you know, and things like that. Most of you shepherds didn't carry huge weapons. So the fact that he was fighting this lion, and the fact that he was grabbing a hold of this lion by his beard, and the fact that he says, I delivered him out of the lion's mouth. I delivered him out of the mouth. The lion, his goal was to destroy the lamb, to devour the lamb. And that's where we see there in the scriptures when the Bible says that the Satan is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour to come in and snatch you and to hold you in his mouth and to run away with you and to devour you. And he said, I'm not gonna let that happen. He chased that lion down. How far he went, I don't know. He says, I went out after him. How far did he run to get ahold of him? I don't know, but I guarantee you this lion didn't wanna, the last thing he wanted to do was to stop and let go of his prey. We see here, David, he chased him down. How far, I don't know, but the Bible says he got ahold of him. He says, I went out after him and I smote him. I delivered him out of the mouth. I delivered him out of the mouth. He rose against me and I caught him by the beard. What I'm just trying to say is sometimes with our giants that we face in life, sometimes with our lions that come up against us, it may get up close and personal, but you better be courageous. You better be counting on the power of God to help you. Because these are things we can't do on our own. Amen, we need the power of God to help us and he sings just like just like the other lion slayer that we talked about the other week Just like just like Samson the Bible says he the Bible says Samson tore that lion apart with his hands He ripped him apart. He tore him asunder There ain't no way could have done that without the power of God So being courageous listen when that lion come across Samson's way He could have turned around and went back the other way, but he didn't He stood there because he counted on the presence of God, and he counted on the power of God. So, sometimes it may get up close and personal, but you better be courageous, be brave. You see, he didn't run or quit. Just like I said a second ago, Samson, he could have run away. David here, he could have run away. He could have said, no, I'm not going to have anything to do with that. I'm just going to let that sheep go. But he said, no, the Bible says in verse 35, when I went out after him, That's pretty courageous. That's pretty bold. I mean, just think about this. If a lion came up in your yard and grabbed ahold of your dog and took off down the road, are you going to sit there and say, well, I hate that it happened, but it's just nice knowing you. I ain't chasing after a lion. What would we do? The Bible shows us there. He says, I went out after him. That's amazing. But listen, that's the thing. is that we say in our mouths, man, I wanna see God do something amazing. I want God to use me in a tremendous way, man. I want God to feel me and use me and do this and do this and do that. And the lion comes up and we say, oh, sorry, you can have it. And we completely forfeited what the lion, completely forfeited what God was gonna do. Because we turned around and went back the other way because the lion roared real loud. The lion was there to take something that we love. But we'll say, oh, God, I want you to use me, God. I want this and this and that and the other. But then, when the lion roars, we turn around and leave. Now, we gotta be bold and we gotta be courageous. The Bible says, shows us here, he went out after him, delivered him out of his mouth. He didn't turn around and go back, neither did Samson. He didn't turn around and go back. He believed he could do it. Notice there in verse, notice there in verse, 36 he says thy servant slew both the lion and the bear and this earth and search this uncircumcised Philistine Might be as one of them Now he said he shall be City shall be He says, I slew that lion and I slew that bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine right here, he's gonna be the same way as the lion, he's gonna be the same way as the bear. This can be done, I can accomplish this. He wasn't counting on his own strength, but he knew the power of God would be there to help him in the midst of it. But see, if he would have never counted on the power of God, And if he would have turned around and went the other way, then we would have never read about this great story that's been preached umpteen million times from pulpits across America and all around the world and in Sunday school classes and all kinds of outlines and poems and pictures and all kinds of stuff that was written about what David had done if he had turned around and just went the other way. We wouldn't even be reading about it. The Bible shows us here that He said, no, this can be done. He wasn't counting on himself, but the power of God to move and work in his life. And that's what we have to do, too. He counted on the power of God to move and work in his life, to help him to stand up against the lions that came up in his life. He believed he could do it. I had somebody, I was talking with somebody the other day. They was kind of frustrated about something they said about themselves. And this person said, I'm just a loser. And I said, hold on a minute. I don't say that. And they turned around, looked at me, and they said, I knew you was going to tell me not to say that. Well, I'm glad you knew I was going to tell you not to say that. That means you know who I am. You know the, not that I'm a pastor, but you know how I feel. You know that that's not truth. Don't ever think that you're a loser. Don't ever degrade yourself. Listen, the devil does enough of that, amen? Don't ever degrade your own self. Sometimes we may feel like we don't amount up, yes, and sometimes we, listen, there are thoughts that come in our head, but listen, don't say that stuff out loud about yourself. You're not a loser. You are valuable. You are important. And you can do all things through Christ that strengthens you. Don't believe the lies of the devil. Because if you give confirmation through your mouth to the devil's lies, it'll do nothing but continue to drive you further into the dirt, and you'll never press forward. He believed he could do it through the power of God. The Bible says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. And if you walk around telling yourself that I'm a loser, that I'm a nobody, and I'm not valuable, and I'm not this, and I'm not this, and I'm not that, eventually, the words that you're saying, you will actually really believe them to be true. Most of the time, we say it because it's just how we, you know, we're just kind of, we're just saying it, you know, because it's like we feel like we maybe sometimes have to just vent and get it out, but you say it long enough, and you say it loud enough, and often enough, you'll really believe it. And the devil will use all those words against you. The Bible shows us here that he believed that he could. He counted on God. He spoke in confidence. He says, I shall. He says, this shall happen. This will happen. There was no doubt. He was completely, man, he was in faith. When he fought that, when he was getting ready to fight Goliath, he was full of faith. Why? Because he looked back at the testimony of how good God was with him. When he fought against the lion, when he fought against the bear, he believed in his heart that he could do it. And I tell you what, that was helped thrust him forward in the calls. He saw the calls. When he looked at the giant, he saw the calls. And he felt like that he could win because God had come through for him so many times before. He believed he could. He spoke in confidence. The next thing he did there was Verse 37, gave credit to God. David said, wherever the Lord that delivered me out, the Lord that delivered me. He gave credit where credit is due. He understood this wasn't something he can do on his own. Listen, if we're going to be lion slayers in our life, we better give credit where credit is due. And understand that it is the God of heaven that enables us and equips us and empowers us to do these things. That is not in us and of our own selves. We don't have the strength and the power to do this kind of stuff, but the God of heaven can. And we give credit where credit is due. We give glory where glory is due. He gave credit to the Lord. Real quickly, Ben-Aniah. Ben-Aniah, 2 Samuel chapter 23. Versus 20 to 23. I hear somebody turning. Let's just go ahead and go there And then we'll close for tonight second Samuel 23 versus 20 to 23 Lots of things that we can say, but Benaniah, he was one of David's guards, one of his commanders. The Bible describes him as a very valiant man there in verse 20. He slew, the Bible says, two lion-like men. In other words, they were just men who fought like lions. They were fierce men, they fought like lions, and he slew them. But then the Bible also tells us there in verse 20, notice the latter part of that verse, the Bible says, he went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in a time of snow. And there in verse 20, it sounds like this was almost kind of like another voluntarily thing. Now I wasn't there, I didn't see the whole thing transpire, so I don't know the whole story and the Bible don't give us too much of it. The Bible just says that he went down and also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in the time of snow. As I said earlier, listen, sometimes there are some lions that you may just have to slay That way you don't have to fight them tomorrow. That way you ain't got to worry about them coming back and stealing more sheep and hurting more lambs. Listen, notice there in verse 20, the Bible says, he went down and they slew a lion in the midst of a pit. Well, that's an uncomfortable place. Not only that, but it was in a time of snow. Things were unfavorable. The conditions weren't really like he would like for them to be, but sometimes slaying lions, we have to do it in an uncomfortable place. The lion don't always wait for you to be the strongest that you can be before it comes. The lion don't always wait for conditions to be as favorable for you as possible whenever they come. But he went down there and he slew that lion because he knew he needed to. I dare say he probably didn't do it for sport. It was for a reason. Lastly, we think about this. I could say a lot of other things about Ben and I, but there's the last one. I want to get to this one. Jesus. There in the wilderness, what we see is lion against lion. the lion that walks about seeking whom he may devour and the lion of the tribe of Judah there in the wilderness. And when did the lion that walks about seeking whom he may devour, when did that lion come to the lion of the tribe of Judah? On the 40th day, when he was fasting and praying and when his body was at the weakest moment on the 40th day, the lion came. The lion didn't come on day one whenever he was still strong. The lion didn't come on day two, day three, day four, day five. The lion knew he was out there, but the lion left him where he was until the lion felt like he was able, through his strength, to bring the other one down. And so the roaring lion that walks about, seeking whom he may devour, the devil himself, walked into the wilderness to face the lion of the tribe of Judah on the 40th day. At the moment when he would have been the weakest, on the moment when maybe perhaps he would have thought that in his weakened state that his body would not be able to think or his body would, that he would be so infatuated and so enamored with wanting to have something to eat, having been fasted for 40 days, that he would be able to tempt him. And what is the very first thing that he tempted him with? That was to turn the stones into bread. The very first thing that the lion of this world that walks about, seeking whom he may devour, the very first thing he did to get the lion of the tribe of Judah to fall was to cast before him and before his body in his weakened physical state to get him to succumb to temptation. And that is how the devil fights against us too, oftentimes, in our weak places. But of course, in this battle, the Lord Jesus won all three times. Use the book of Deuteronomy to win victory over the day. And so when we think about our lions, we think about slaying the lions. Jesus showed us there in the wilderness that we can be victorious. When we look at all these other men, they slew lions. All of them killed them all. Because if you don't kill the lion today, it'll come back tomorrow and take a lamb. Let's pray. Father, we come to you today, we thank you.