Benaiah the Lion Killer
2 Samuel 23:20-21
• Benaiah was one of the top five soldiers in Israel
• He was a General in the Israeli army
• He was the Captain of King David’s bodyguards.
• 1 Samuel 23:20B
o “He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion.”
• The Spirit of a Pursuer
o Emulated his KING!
o Their Giants were the breakthrough moments in their lives
o The giant was the thing that stood between them and their elevation
o CHAMPION – THE MAN OF THE BETWEEN
o The Giant in your life is anything that is standing between you and you complete –
In healing
In finances
In relationships
In purpose
o What lion do you need to chase?
The lion of anger
The lion of habits
The lion of gossip
The lion of jealousy
The lion of excuses
o 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
• L – LOWER STANDARDS
o There’s a high cost for low living…
o The standard that I am talking about today is not one of man’s opinion
o The standard that I am talking about is still the one that has never changed.
o Kings and emperors have come and gone
o Presidents and governments, once powerful and renowned, have long been forgotten
o Churches have come and gone
o But one thing has remained unchanged.
Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but my word…
John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Psalm 33:4 “For the Word of the LORD is right; and all His works are done in truth
o The Standard of Popular Opinion
The standard of popular opinion says that it’s all right to do what you want to do because everybody else is doing it.
After all, why should you be different from everyone else?
Our televisions broadcast these standards right into our living rooms daily and we don’t even know it.
Believers are fill their minds with the “popular opinion”
But below the surface Satan is doing a masterful job of teaching us and our children that they can and should be willing to do or try anything and nothing is too outlandish if enough people are willing to go along with it.
The standard of popular opinion preaches to the believer “just go with the flow.”
• 1 Peter 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:”
We’ve not been called to follow the trend
• We’ve been called to set the trend
• It’s time to bring holiness back
o I’m not talking about touch not, eat not, do not, ect
o I’m talking about how we act and how we love people.
o When we love people as ourselves as commanded in the Word, then the things we do will fall in line as well.
o What we think, affects what we do
• 2 Corinthians 6:17 “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you,”
Which is more important
• To be received b y this temporary world
• Or to be received by HIM?
“I’d Rather Have Jesus”
• “I’d rather have Jesus is a song written by Rhea F. Miller with the tune written by George Beverly Shea
• This poem, written in 1922, was left on a piano in the She home by Bev Shea who wanted her son to find it and change the course of his life.
• The words, I’d rather have Jesus, moved George so much and spoke to him about his own aims and ambitions in life
• He sat down at the piano and began singing them with a tune that seemed to fit the words
• Shea’s mom heard him singing it and asked him to sing it at church the next day.
• George’s life direction did change
• He was offered a popular music career with NBC,
• But a few years later chose to become associated with evangelist Billy Graham and sang this hymn around the world.
o “I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold
o I’d rather be Him than have riches untold
o I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands
o I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hand
o Than to be a king of a vast domain
o Or be held in sin’s dread sway
o I’d rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today
o I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause
o I’d rather be faithful to his dear cause
o I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame
o I’d rather be true to his holy name”
o The Standard of Feeling and Emotion
Perhaps no other standard is so strong as the standard of feeling and emotion.
It is this standard that leads a person to say something like,
• “I know the Bible says this and that, but I feel…”
• I would have gone to church, but I didn’t feel like it
By a 3 to 1 margin (64% vs. 22%) adults said truth is always relative to the person and their situation
The perspective was even more lopsided among teenagers, 83% of whom said moral truth depends on the circumstances,
And only 6% of whom said moral truth is absolute.
A pastor asked a man recently why he was living with a girl
He said, it just feels right
He asked another lady why she wasn’t willing to forgive someone
Her response?
She didn’t feel like it
Why are people getting divorces?
They don’t’ feel in love
They’ve lost that emotion
It was the standard of feeling that led King David to stay at home when he should have been at war.
It was the god of strong emotion that led him to have affair with his neighbor’s wife
It was the god of feeling that led Achan to steal what God had forbidden
It was the god of emotion that led an angry and worked up crowd to put Jesus on the cross
Living according to feeling rather than God’s commandment is a fundamental hindrance to godliness
• A mother has pleaded guilty to shaking her baby sone to death after she became upset with the child for crying while she was playing the facebook game Farmville.
We must make daily decisions to be obedient to God rather than to our feelings
Listen – how you feel is irrelevant: doing what God says is what matters
Face verses Truth idea
• Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak
• I – INSECURITIES
o In your looking at David you have to begin to see that if He’s able,
o YOU ARE ABLE
Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
o If I’m the enemy and I can’t affect how you see God, I will sabotage how you see yourself
o God can bless him, her, but not you…
o You have settled to be a cheerleader in the cave
o I’m not ministering for your entertainment
o I’m ministering for your preparation
o A cave full of cheerleaders will kill a great preacher
o I don’t want to be surrounded by people who just cheer for my preaching
o I want to be surrounded by people who become what I am preaching
o Lions are always in a low place
o Lower standards and insecurities go hand in hand
Because you don’t know who you are, you set your standards according to the popular opinion
Because you don’t know who you are you follow the crowed
o People will hate you for dealing with your lions
o Colossians 3:1-10 “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
o 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
o 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God
o 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory
o 5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
o 6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
o 7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them
o 8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication your of your mouth
o 9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deed;
o 10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:”
o 11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all
o 12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
o 13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one antoher, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
o 14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
o 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
o 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
o 17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”
• O – OMISSION
o James 4:17 “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
o Little boy gave his Sunday school teacher this definition of the sin of omission
Omission? They’re the sins we should have committed but didn’t get around to.
o The sin of omission (read James 4:17 again)
o Finally, James warns against the sin of omission when he writes, To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin
o Without a doubt, this is a most difficult form of sin with which to deal
o Sin is missing the mark by not only doing wrong, but by failing to do what is right.
James 2:14-26 “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
16 And on of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?
23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
o THE LITE CHURCH
24% FEWER COMMITMENTS
HOME OF THE 7.5% TITHE
15 MINUTE SERMONS
45 MINUTE WORSHIP SERVICES
WE HAVE ONLY 8 COMMANDMENTS
• YOUR CHOICE OF THE 10
WE USE JUST 3 SPIRITUAL LAWS
EVERYTHING HYOU’VE WANTED IN A CHURCH…AND LESS
o Paul’s teaching about faith and works focuses on the time before conversion,
o James’ focus is after conversion.
o LIVING FAITH – NOT DEAD!
o Look at someone and tell them “I’m not dead”
o Some things I learned about a dead body
Has to be carried
Has to be dressed up
Assumes the temperature of it’s surroundings
o John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”
o IF = conditional
o We initiate the fulfillment of the promise
o The promises of God hinge on our actions
o Not on God’s reaction
o Faith has movement
o Faith is believing and speaking
o GOD HAS GIVEN US SO MUCH, AND WE OFTEN DO SO LITTLE WITH IT
Influence
Money
Talent
Luke 6:46 “And why all ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”
o The body of Christ is suffering far more from the sin of omission than the Sin of Commission.
o The sin of omission will most often lead to the sin of commission!!!!!
o Prayer
o Read the Word
o Fast
o Church attendance
o GOODNESS IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF BADNESS.
o YOU CAN DO NOTHING WRONG AND STILL DO NOTHING RIGHT
• N – NEGATIVITY
o KILL the negativity!!!!
o It is what we confess with our lips that dominates our inner being
o Matthew 15:10-11 “And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:
o 11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”
o Defile (Unclean) = to make common
o If we talk sickness, it is because we believe in sickness
o If we talk weakness and failure, it is because we believe in weakness and failure
Most of the sick Jesus healed in His earthly ministry were healed by words
o Everyday we are unconsciously confessing what we believe
o It is interesting what faith people have in the wrong things:
o They get into the habit of confessing their weakness and their confessin adds to the strength of their weakness
o They confess their lack of faith and they are filled with doubts
They confess their fears and they become more fearful
They confess their fear of diseases and the disease grows under their confession
They confess lack, and build up a sense of lack which gains supremacy in their lives
o If the people we keep company with don’t speak what we speak, then we need to invite them up to our level of confession
If they won’t come up then we need to let them go!
o AVOIDING NEGATIVITY IN ITSELF IS AN ACT OF FAITH!
o 2 types of confession
1. Based on Mind – Mind over matter
2. Based Truth of God’s Word
Matthew 8:16-17 “When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:
17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.”
o Your faith opens the door for either God to work or the enemy to work.
o “THIS CHECK IS MORE THAN ENOUGH….”
o Negative confession no only robs you it robs God of His GLORY!!!
o Tithing
God doesn’t need your money.
When you don’t give you’re not robbing God of money
You’re robbing Him of the privilege of meeting your needs.
If you tithe, he receives glory through blessing you in return!
Proverbs 18:20-21 “A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled.
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
o You will never rise above your confession
o When we realize that our life will never rise above our confession, we are getting to the place where God can really begin to use us.
o You confess by His stripes you are healed,
HOLD FAST TO YOUR CONFESSION AND NO DISEASE CAN STAND BEFORE YOU!
REV. 12:11 “AND THEY OVERCAME HIM BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB, AND BY THE WORD OF THEIR TESTIMONY; AND THEY LOVED NOT THEIR LIVES UNTO THE DEATH”
THEY CONQUERED THE DEVIL BY THEIR WORDS!!!!
SPEAK L.I.F.E
Jesus is the High Priest of our CONFESSION!!!!!
• Colossians 2:5 “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ”
Steadfastness = continual confession of Victory
We should never confess anything but victory
Romans 8:37 “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
TONIGHT WE START TO CONFESS WHAT WE ARE AND WHAT HE SAYS WE ARE!!!!!
• CHASING THE LION
o 1) Lion chasers know that the bigger their God is the smaller the lions become
o 2) Lion chsers understand that playing it safe is risky
• And without faith it is impossible to pleased God…Heb. 11:6
• We live by faith, not by sight…2 Cor. 5:7
• For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind…2 TIM 1:7
Stand with me
Are you tired of the LIONS in your life –
Come and chase the lions and be more than a conquorer in Jesus Christ our Lord.
This sermon came from a pastor friend of mine who asked to remain nameless. However, I hope this can be a help to you.
