Certainly a joy to be here. It's my honor and privilege. And it's wonderful to see so many of you that Mary and I would call friends. You know, Brother Ramos, I'm going to have to find out where you get that suit coat. That looks just really comfortable. I have to get one of them. That's, you know, good. But I'll tell you what, you know, you all, you preach a message stronger than I could ever preach. It's exciting to come back here and to see you still teaching your Sunday school class. To see you still driving your bus. To see you still coming to Saturday men's prayer meeting. To see you here in your place doing what God has for you to do after all these years. You preach a message greater than I could possibly preach. If you don't get anything else that I say tonight, get this. Don't quit. Don't give up, don't give in, don't let the devil drag you down. Because you have a testimony that preaches a message to young men and young ladies all over this country, who this church and your lives have impacted. And when you give up, you have no idea how far reaching that is. And you have no idea the power of the message you preach by being in your place. You do that, and it's my thrill to be here with you. You keep going for God. Coming here, honestly, is a lot like coming home. After a long time, long time, like coming home. You know, the problem is the guys that I worked for, they didn't let me come. I had to stay and hold the fort. Well, they, well, anyways. But I tell you what, it's a thrill to be here. My relationship with Fairhaven started many, many years ago. First time I walked on the campus of Fairhaven was April of 1986. I was just a young man, and this was long before you had the dorms over here. We were here for preaching conference, and we were staying above the college classrooms over here, upstairs over there. And there was about 20 of us in that room. And we were sleeping on the floor, and we had been instructed that lights out was at 11. Now those of you that don't know me, you probably would give me a measure of respect because you know my father. Now I assure you that I do not deserve that respect. He's a much better man than I. As a matter of fact, one of the staff here at Fairhaven told me so. Back in 1986, lights were out, but there was a couple of young men in my room who weren't ready to go to sleep. And the door opened, and out of the darkness, these two white eyeballs began to talk. These two white eyeballs looked in the room, and they said, you, you, and you, get out here now. Me and two other boys stood up and walked into the hallway, and I was looking into the eyes of the meanest black man I had ever seen. Mr. Todd Wright was standing there. He separated us. And I don't know what happened to the other two boys. I don't know if they... They might not have made it through the night. I've never seen them again. But I can tell you assuredly that he had honed his skills of yelling at little white boys. I'm telling you. He got about six inches from my face. And he was looking and he said a lot to me. I can't quite be sure. Do you remember this, Brother Ray? I can't be sure of everything he said, but he said one phrase that is in just written on the pages of my mind. He looked about six inches from my face and he's hitting me in the chest with his finger. And he said, it's little punks like you that are giving your dad a bad name. I knew right then and there is where I wanted to go to college. Yes, sir. He said, you're sleeping out here in the hallway, and I slept on the floor. Everybody's coming in the morning. I'm there sleeping in the hallway. Now, in his defense, I was a punk. And things got a whole lot worse before they got a lot better. And the fact of the matter is, is I owe a lot of what I am today to the ministry of Fairhaven Baptist Church and to the people that are here. No place has had more of an impact outside of my family than this place. I could spend a lot of time reminiscing as I look around the room and see your faces, the hours spent working with Brother Leslie. the nights, the Monday night work parties, accomplishing different tasks, remodeling the bathroom over here in the front of the building that got remodeled and tore out and remodeled again, you know, and again, just project after project, praying in Carl Bain's prayer group. Boy, I slept through a lot of those. You pious hypocrites, you sleeping through them too. I'll tell you what, if you haven't slept through a couple of those, you're not working hard enough. But you know what, that prayer group is where I confirm my call into the ministry. On the floor in the basement of that building over there, in the room where I knelt last night with Carl Bain and prayed. You know, work I did on many of your houses. We could go on and on, but they didn't call me here to reminisce. They asked me to preach. So, turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 14. 1 Samuel chapter 14. This is the day for Samuel, apparently, because the memory verse this morning was from 1 Samuel chapter 15, verse number 22. And the message this morning to the young people and to all of us was from 2 Samuel chapter 9. And tonight, we are in 1 Samuel chapter 14. Look with me, if you would, in verse number 6. We're going to read down through verse number 14, and then I'll try and give you the Scripture, the message this evening. He says, And Jonathan said unto the young man that bare his armor, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us. For there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. And his armor bearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart. Turn thee. Behold, I am with thee according to thy heart. Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will pass over to these, and we'll discover ourselves unto them. And if they say thus unto us, Terry, until we come to you, then we will stand still in our place and will not go unto them. But if they say thus, come up unto us, then we will go up. For the Lord hath delivered them into our hand, and this shall be a sign unto us. And both of them discovered themselves unto the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves. And the men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, Come up to us, and we will show you a thing. And Jonathan said unto his armor-bearer, Come up after me, for the Lord hath delivered them into the hand of Israel. And Jonathan climbed up upon his hand, and upon his feet, and his armor-bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer slew after him. And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armor-bearer made, was about twenty men, within, as it were, of half an acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow." If I was going to title the message tonight, it would be, Dream Big Dreams. Let me take a moment and just ask the Lord to guide us through the thoughts this evening. Lord, we ask you that you would give me liberty to preach. Lord, I certainly am an unworthy vessel. But God, You've got a worthy book. And Lord, there's a message here found in the pages of Your book that can be a challenge to the Christian who needs strengthening tonight. It can be an encouragement, Lord, to the Christian who's discouraged. Lord, I ask You to do what only You can do, work in the heart and life of individual Christians with the message from Your Word. And we'll thank You for all that You do. In Jesus' name, Amen. First of all, I want you to see the distress of the situation here, the distress of the situation. Look back. We're going to be looking here just in these two passages of scripture, but chapter 13 and chapter 14. If you would turn back to chapter 13, look at verse number six. He said, when the men of Israel saw that they were in a straight. for the people were distressed." I don't know if you highlight or underline or put things in your Bible, but you might want to circle that word, distressed. These people were distressed. Why were they distressed? Well, you kind of got to look at the beginning of the chapter to figure out what took place here. You see, Saul, he had 3,000 men that he had chosen in the beginning of the chapter. 2,000 of them were with him and Michmash. And then there was 1,000 of them with Jonathan. But Jonathan got into a little scuffle with the Philistines, and the Philistines didn't like that. So look in verse number 5, and you'll see that the Philistines kind of gathered themselves together, it says, to fight with Israel. They had 30,000 chariots, and 6,000 horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore. You know, I just told you, how many did Saul have? Are you guys awake? How many of us all have? 3,000. Now, the Philistines said, you know what? We don't really appreciate these guys. Let's gather ourselves together and go fight them. And they gathered themselves together, 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen. And it says men, so many that nobody was going to bother counting them. They just said, it's like the sea, a sea of men there. And they found that they were distressed. The people were distressed and they started to scatter. They scattered themselves to the place where Saul, here in a little bit, finds himself down to 600 men. 600 men that decided to stay with him. You know, then Saul, being a little bit afraid, look a little further down in the text here. Saul does something he's not supposed to do. See, Samuel is out doing God's work, and he didn't come back quick enough. And Saul's worried about this. He's like, the Philistines could attack at any time. Look in verse number 12. And Saul says, Therefore said I, the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto thee, the Lord, unto the Lord. Forced myself therefore and offered a burnt offering now. He's talking to Samuel here He says hey you were nowhere around the Philistines are gonna attack and I haven't made supplication to the Lord So I forced myself to do this You know, it's like my kids when they bring me something and they say it broke It didn't break you broke it. I You know, they don't want to take the responsibility for it. Dad, it broke. No, you broke it. What were you doing? And then we find the truth of the matter. Saul's like, hey, I didn't want to go into battle. I didn't want to get this to happen without, so I forced myself to do this. And then Samuel, being the man of God he is, he points at Saul and he says, you did foolishly. You shouldn't have done this. Now God's going to take the kingdom away from you. and God's going to look for a man to take your place. And you can read through the text and see that. But the Philistines are now encamped in Michmash, which is where we saw Saul just a few minutes ago with his 2,000 men. The Philistines are there in Michmash and they start spreading out, they start heading around the country. But to top all this off, I want you to see, look down in verse number 19, that they had no blacksmith in the land. In verse number 19 it says, Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel. For the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears. This is sword control. This is disarmament. And that's what a dictator does. That's what a tyrant does. They disarm the people so they can't defend themselves. And that's what they took all their swords away. If you read the passage, you'll find that the only two people in the country that had a sword. I didn't say it. The Bible said it. Saul and Jonathan had a sword. The rest of them just had pickaxe and, you know, shovels and hoes and, you know, implements for working the ground. Well, they were in a distressed situation. The situation looked bad. There's a sense of humor found here, though. It's kind of funny. Look in verse number 21. The Philistines were nice to him. They said, yet they had a file for the Maddox. The Philistines said, here, you can have this file. You can sharpen your ax with that. Don't cut yourself. But the situation was bad. It was so bad that all of the people that were with Saul, save 600, took off. They were discouraged. They were to the point, Saul, you'll find at the beginning part of chapter 6, is having a pity party underneath the pomegranate tree. You know, there's times in the Christian life when we think things are hopeless. We look at this whole world that we live in and we think that things are bad. I mean, things are in a bad way. Is there any possible... I mean, what can we do? This world is so wicked today. Nobody loves righteousness anymore. Nobody's doing good anymore. They're calling evil good and they're calling good evil. Things are so bad. I mean, is there any possible hope for independent, fundamental Baptist Christians to do what's right today? Look at our situation. Things are bad. This is the distress that they found the men, but now I want you to see the day. He says in verse number 1 of chapter number 14, he says, Now it came to pass upon a day, upon a day, that Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to his young man that bear his armor, Come, let's go over to the Philistine camp. It came upon a day. It came to a time where Jonathan said, I ain't living this way. I'm going to do something about this situation. You know what? I'm tired of living a defeated Christian life. I'm tired of trying to work my way up from the back. I think that there is a possibility here and I just I just can't take it anymore. I'm going to stand up and do something about it. Is the day coming your life where you're tired of where you're at? That's when you'll get to the place where you'll do something about your situation, is when you reach that day. Until then, you're going to continue on how you are. But there needs to reach a day, a time, where you finally say, I've had enough. It came upon a day. Now I want you to see the dream. The dream that he had. Look down in verse number 6 where we began our reading. And Jonathan said unto the young man that bear his armor, come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us. For the Lord is no restraint. There's no restraint to the Lord to save by many or to save by few. You see, a garrison was a body of troops stationed in a fortified position. There was a garrison of soldiers right over here. And Jonathan looked over at these soldiers, and I just got through giving you the context of the Scriptures here, and we understand that there's a garrison of Philistines here. And behind that garrison of Philistines, there is 60,000 soldiers. There is men that can't even be numbered. And yet Jonathan stands up and he says, Come here. You see that garrison over there? Let's go whip them boys. I mean, that's a dream. That's a dream. Jonathan said, I'm tired of living like this. And I think that there's a possibility we can do something about it. But you know what? How is it he could possibly think that he could do anything in this situation? Jonathan didn't get up and say to his armor bearer, you know what? You see what you're looking at? I mean, when you talk about a swordsman, you're looking at him. You want to see somebody that could swing a sword? I mean, you've seen me, but you ain't seen me. You know what I'm saying? You want to see me? Let's go over there. No, he didn't say that. What did he say? He said, it may be that the Lord would work for us. It may be that the Lord could do something great here You know what? He stood up and he told his armor-bearer, he said, I don't know what's going to happen. We may go across over there to fight them guys, and we may give our lives for it, but it may be that God could do something here, something miraculous, something life-changing, and we could go attack them. You know what? Because God could defeat them with just a few, just as well as God could defeat them with a whole bunch. So how about we be the few? Let's go get them. I'm saying he had a dream. He had something inside of him that he wanted to do something here. I don't know what it was. Maybe he heard Samuel talking to Saul over the years. Maybe he heard Samuel telling Saul, hey, if you do what God wants you to do, you can go into this battle and you will be victorious because God is on your side. You see the distinction that he has in the passage there. He says, let's go over to the uncircumcised. He's not just calling them a name. What He's saying is that those men over there are not afforded the protection of an Almighty God. Those men are not God's people. We're God's people. God's on our side. And it may be that God would stand up and do something for us today. He was drawing the line and showing who they were and who He was. And he may have heard Samuel talking and got a little, I don't know what it was, but faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Somewhere he got some faith in an Almighty God. Enough faith to stand up and say, if God wanted to do it, we could go over there and whip the whole garrison. He had some faith. Do you have faith? Do you have faith in your Almighty God to do something great? He said, I just can't sit here anymore. It may be that God would work for us like David that went to face the giant. He said, you come to me with a sword and a spear and a shield, and I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts. God can do it. There is no restraint with the Lord. We need some people today to dream some big dreams for God. Where are the moms that are dreaming about what their little boys will be for God? When I was a boy, you heard story after story about moms thinking about and praying. And I pray every day that my son will be called to preach. I pray every day that my son will be called to be a missionary and go to the mission field. Where are the moms that are dreaming some dreams for their boys today? What God could do if God got into their life and did something miraculous with them. Where are the Sunday school teachers that are walking into their classes with more than just a whole hum, getting through the day and filling an hour with a couple of three points and a poem? But you've got to dream about what God could do with somebody on fire with Him, opening a holy book filled with power and investing in the lives of the young children that you get the opportunity to teach week after week. Where are the dreamers today that say, it may be I'm nothing, but it may be that an Almighty God could do something on my bus route, could call another Todd Wright, could call another man to full-time Christian service, could call another lady that would give her heart to God. Where are the dreamers today that look into an Almighty God's eyes and say, I know I'm nothing, God, but You're everything. And it may be, God, if You will, I'm willing. Is there anybody here dreaming today? Where are the young men that have dreams about what God could do in your life? Stop just going through the flow. I know you're in a good youth group. I know you listen to good preaching all the time. I know you come out on Tuesday nights and you go soul winning. And you're going through the motions week after week. I'm saying, where's something down inside of you that says, God, will you use me? We're the young ladies that want to be more, that want to be more than just another team, than just another number. They want to stand up and count for God. Every great work ever accomplished for God started with a man or a woman that said, it may be that God could. Let me just say this, don't use your family as an excuse. If Jonathan would have looked at his dad, his dad was having a pity party under the pomegranate tree and not doing anything. Don't use your family for an excuse. I want you to see next the discover. You gotta discover yourself. Look in verse number eight. Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will pass over unto these men, and we will discover ourselves unto them." You have to discover yourself. You have to stand up and be counted. There's some risk. You have to put your neck on the line. You have to say... See, Jonathan, he went over and he said, Hey guys, I just want you to know I'm coming over there and I'm going to whoop you. We don't want to tell people what God did in our heart. Because when we say, hey, I just want you to know that God told me to give up smoking. And I'm not going to pick it up. If we tell somebody that the next time we have a cigarette in our hand, what's going to happen? They're going to say, hey, I thought you said God told you to give them up. We don't want to tell people God said that I'm called into full time Christian service. God showed me tonight that that's what he wants me to do. Oh, God stirs in your heart. God draws you. God calls you. But you keep it in because you don't want to be held to that. You've got to discover yourself. I had the thrill two weeks ago in the living room of a couple, young couple there in Hunt Valley, Matt and Tiffany. Young couple that the world had a hold of. I was sitting there in their living room and shared the gospel with them. Both of them there holding their four-week-old baby and their three-year-old daughter running around the living room. They bowed their head and asked Jesus Christ to save them and take them to heaven when they die. And I immediately said, you need to come to church tomorrow. And you need to stand up in front of everybody and tell them what you did, that you trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And you need to tell them that you're going to do what God wants you to do. You want to do what God wants you to do, right? Yeah. God wants you to get baptized. You need to tell them you're going to get baptized. And they did it. They came to church. They came down. They stood up in front of everybody and said, and we want to get baptized. A week ago, they came forward with their four-week-old baby and stood before the church and said, we want to raise our four-week-old baby in church. We want our baby to grow up in a church like this. You got to stand up and be counted. You got to discover yourself. Tell people the decisions that you make for God. It'll help you stay accountable. It starts with you letting God give you a dream. Then you stand up. Jonathan could have stood there talking about it all day with his armor bearing. You know what? If it wasn't so cold out here, we could go over and whip them boys. If it wasn't so hot, if i wasn't so old i would go do that for god if i you know if i if i was set a little bit better financially i would do that for god they could have talked about it all day but like david he said look no man's heart fail because of him david said thy servant will go fight this Philistine. He stood up and said, I'll do it. Are you willing to discover yourself to those around you and those you love? Let me just say, if you're going to discover yourself, you've got to defend against doubters. When David stood up and said, I'll go fight, what did Saul say? You can't go fight. That man's been, you know, you're just a youth and that guy's been a warrior since his youth. And his brothers made fun of him. You got to Defend against doubters. There's people that are gonna doubt you're gonna say God called me to preach or God called me to full-time Christian service God called me to do this and they're gonna look at you and say what? Are you sure? Trust me. I know You got to defend against doubters, but you know what if you're gonna soar like an eagle you got to be prepared for some hunters When you get off the round and start doing something for God There's gonna be some people hunting you But don't worry about it. They never set up a statue to a critic yet. You're going to find those people that just came from Walmart. They got a great big sale on wet blankets. They're going to be real happy to share them with you. Want to put out any fire that God's burning in you. Be prepared for that. Can I share something with you? I had a dream. I did. I came to college here, and I was a nobody. I mean, I didn't even know what God wanted me. I mean, I was a punk. Staff told me so. I knew that they would never ask Caleb Bottrell to preach. As a matter of fact, I'm sure that Brother Armacost got in big trouble for doing this. You know, there's so many batrels, he was in the contacts, he's like, hello brother, yeah, I just wanted to book you to preach. And when I sent him the confirmation email, he's like, oh my goodness, I booked Caleb. Whoops. I knew they would never ask me to preach, but you know what I would do? I was here in college. I didn't even know what God wanted me to do. But I would come in here in the middle of the day when there was nobody in here, and I would sneak up onto the platform. I'm not telling you stories. I'm telling you the truth. I'd sneak up onto the platform, and I'd be up here. Bless God, you gotta get it right! You wicked reprobates! You know it's not your outline, you gotta get in line! Amen! And I would go, I don't even know what I was saying, I'd be yelling stuff I heard people preach, like, don't look at me as bug-eyed as a bullfrog in a hailstorm, I'll stop right here and plow your taterpats for the next 30 minutes! Amen, brother, that's good preaching! I'd be up here yelling away and having a time, and then somebody would come through that back door, And I'd be like, just straightening these books, yep. But I got to go. We'll see you. And I would sneak out. You know what? I didn't really know I was saying that. But in my heart, I was saying it may be. It may be. And then, almighty God, could use somebody like me one day to stand behind the pulpit of where am I? It may be that God could use me. I didn't know it. And you know what? If I'm dreaming tonight, then don't wake me up because I'm having a time. It may be. If you would get a dream, discover yourself. And I've got several more points we got. At what time are we supposed to be done? Listen, you can get a dream. You talk to a bum on the street and he has a dream. As soon as that gets over, I'm gonna. But there's more to it than just having a dream, friend. You've got to develop a plan. We see here in our text that he developed a plan. Then John, in verse number 8, Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will pass over unto these men, and we will discover ourselves unto them. And if they say thus unto us, Terry, until we come to you, then we will stand still in our place, and we will not go up unto them. But if they say thus, come up to us, then we will go up, for the Lord hath delivered them into our hand. Now that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I mean, if they come up and they say, We're coming over there and we're gonna whoop you and if they say come on Then we're going that doesn't make a lot of sense to me But if you study the passage of scripture a little bit, they were up on a Craig there was actually some steep ravine in between them and The only thing I can picture is there's a possibility here. You see they climbed the they had to climb up It says they climbed with hand and feet. I So those of you that have done some climbing, you know you can climb a pretty steep area by just feet. They had to do some climbing. And maybe they pictured in their mind, if they say, come on up here, and they'll let us get to the top of the hill, if they'll let us get up to the place where we can pull our sword out, then we'll do it. But yeah, I mean, we're sitting ducks climbing that rock. If they say, you wait there, we're coming, then no, we're not going to do it. Whatever it is, that's the plan they put in place. You have to set a plan, figure out how you're going to get to from where you are now to where God wants you to be. The dream that he's put in your heart. There has to be a plan. You gotta put it into action. Say, what am I gonna do to get where God wants me to be? I'm gonna have to start reading this book every single day. I'm gonna have to make a commitment to be faithful to God's house. I'm gonna have to be here every single time the doors are open. Whatever the thing that God put in your heart, there are some steps that need to be taken to get you there, and you need to plan it out. You know, it takes more to plow a field than just to turn it over in your mind. You gotta have some determination. You gotta take that plan that you have and then do it. Then do it. See in verse number 11, and both of them discovered themselves to the garrison. So they've been talking about it, they planned it out, and then they walked up there and they discovered themselves unto the garrison. And the Philistine said, behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they hid themselves. You know, it's about time some of God's people come out of the holes where you hid yourself. The hole that you crawled into when somebody offended you. And you said, I'm done doing this. I'm not working on this anymore. I'm not serving in that ministry anymore. I ain't gonna do this anymore. You need to climb out of that hole you hid yourself in because the fact of the matter is, is life's too short and eternity is too long. for you to stay hidden out. Somebody did you wrong or said the wrong thing or somebody didn't recognize your service. Get over it. And go on for God. You think that you're hurting the leader of that ministry. You think, oh, I'll show him. I won't show up anymore. You know something? It's not his ministry. It's God's. And God's work is going to go on without you. And you know who you're hurting? You. If I start slinging mud, you know who I get mud on? Me and those I love. The root of bitterness springeth up, and thereby many be defiled. You're not hurting that guy you think you're hurting. You're hurting yourself. It's about time you climb out of the hole that you've hid yourself in. These men had to climb up. They had to go and do what they said they were going to do. It wasn't easy. The determination to go do it. Most people succeed because they're determined to. Because they're determined to. It doesn't just happen. I know life's got a way of getting in the way of the dream. But talk is cheap. You got to do something about it. You got to stand up and be counted. You got to develop a plan and then get some intestinal fortitude, some determination to work that plan and see what God will do through you. You know, triumph is just a little oomph added to try. You stand up and God just may do something miraculous. I want you to see the delivery. Look in verse number 12. And the men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, come up to us and we will show you a thing. And Jonathan said unto his armor bearer, come up after me for the Lord hath delivered them into our hand. God delivered them into, well, he doesn't say his hand. He says the hand of what? Israel. This wasn't about Jonathan. It wasn't for Jonathan. It was for God. And God delivered them into the hand of Israel. You know, this is the miracle of living the dream. This is the miracle of stepping out by faith and seeing God do something miraculous with you. God shows himself strong and you get to be a part of it. You know, when you have enough faith to step out of the boat onto the water, you get to walk on water. Because God comes on the scene. When you have enough faith to say, I don't know how I can do it, but I know God told me to give this much this year in our stewardship, and I don't know how it's possible, but by faith I think it may be that God would do something here, and I'm going to do it. And then God comes through in a miraculous way, and meets your needs week after week after week, and He provides for your family, and you get to be a part of it. The delivery is the miracle of living by faith and living the dream that God wants you to live. What God has for you to do. Something happens. I can still hear Daryl Champlin, who went home to be with the Lord this last week. I can still hear Daryl Champlin standing in this pulpit saying, something happens, young people. When you begin to study this book for yourself, you begin to see a God. When it takes light traveling at 286,000 miles a second, you begin to see a God that can cross the universe in a single step. When you, by faith, step out, you get to see a God. Use you in miraculous ways. I can guarantee you Jonathan He got to the top of that Craig and he pulled out his sword and his armor bear with him and they started they slaughtered 20 guys I can guarantee you they're up there swinging that sword and they're fighting these guys and after a couple minutes They're like man. I never swung a sword this good before is this how you swing a sword? I don't know I never swung a sword. Wow, this is fun. Look at this. And the armor bearer got in on her. Hey, let's get another one. Come on, let's go. Let's get another one. Because God came on the scene. Because God began to do something. Because God showed up. The miracle of living the dream is you get to see God deliver you. Look in verse number 23. He says, the very first phrase, he said, so the Lord saved Israel. Jonathan didn't do it. God did it. It may be that God could do something with you. God moves in when you give up what you want and do what God wants. You're standing at the door and you're trembling and you're saying, I don't know if I can do this. I never showed anybody how to be saved before. But you open the New Testament and you're not even sure what to say or how to share it. But you start walking through the Romans' road and God comes on the scene. And that person melts under the influence of the Scripture. And they realize their need of a Savior. And you get to lead somebody else from an eternity in hell to an eternity in heaven. It may be that God if we would get out of our comfort zone and get a dream. Y'all doing all right? Got two more and they'll be short. I got to give it to you because it's in the scripture. Look in verse number 20, I believe it is, verse number 20. If you've been circling these, you'll want to circle this one too. Saul and all the people that were with him Assembled themselves and they came to the battle and behold every man's sword was against his fellow and there was a very great discomfort er There was a discomfort er You know the world gets uncomfortable when God gets on the scene There was a great discomfort er to the point where these people started killing themselves. They started killing each other. Every man's sword turned... I mean, we already know Israel didn't have any swords, and here every man's swords... God said, you don't have any swords? No problem, I'll let them use their own. They turned on themselves. When Almighty God comes on the scene, the world gets uncomfortable. And you know what's really neat? Christians that aren't doing what they're supposed to do, they get uncomfortable too. Look back. I Think it's 19 No, 21 sorry look in the next next verse 21 moreover the Hebrews that were with the Philistines I don't know what those yard birds were doing with the Philistines But the Hebrews that were over with the Philistines before that time which went up with them into the camp from the country roundabout even they also turned to be with the Israelites that were with Saul and Jonathan and Even they. You know, you do not live an island unto yourself. If there would be a few here that would get a dream and begin to live that dream for God, the fact of the matter is, is you've got an armor bearer that's going to be coming alongside of you. You say, I don't have it. Yeah, you do. You don't know who they are, but there's people watching you. And you get a fire, and God starts doing something in your heart and in your life. It won't be long, and there'll be some other Christians who've been sitting too long, who will say, that's what I want. I want God to do that with me. And they've been sitting on the sidelines, but they'll get up off the sidelines and get back in the battle, because you took the step to do what God wanted you to do. the discomfiture. Lastly, I want to give you the description. Look in verse number 14. Back to verse number 14. Here's a description of the place where the battle took place. In verse number 14, it says, and that first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made was about 20 men within, as it were, a half acre of land which a yoke of oxen might plow. I just want to give you this thought. You don't have to be in the biggest place to see the biggest miracles. This took place in just a half acre of land. God came on the scene for Jonathan. You don't have to have the biggest Sunday school class or the biggest bus route or the biggest junior church or the biggest family, praise God, to see God come on the scene for you. The greatest victory, the greatest battle that was ever won was the victory over death and sin that was fought by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He came from a small town of Bethlehem. He was killed on a small hill called Calvary. And three days later, he rose from a small grave. This victor, your Savior, wants to give you a dream and wants to give you the power to live it. If we would just get out of our comfort zone and say, it may be, it may be that God could do something with me.