What's up, free church? Oh man, come on, give let's give it up for that band. Just wow. I told him back there while I was getting my mic on. I was like, hey, I wish y'all would, I wish you guys would put a little effort into it. Like, come on, get in, get into it a little bit. Let's get to work. Come on. But man, what a powerful moment. And Lord. I know, I know I say this a lot, but guys, just what happened, just one second in the presence of God like that can do more than anything you've tried in your entire lifetime. And um I would just say, like the way you usher in the presence of God through worship, we come into his house with thanksgiving. We enter his courts with praise. Praise is when we're talking about God, how great he is, how big he is, all the things he's done. Like God doesn't forget what he's done in your life, but he sure likes to hear you say, Man, God, what you've done for me. And honestly, in all the other areas of life, it's kind of like a what have you done for me lately lyric. But no, I don't ever want that to be my the tenor of my heart. Like, God, what you've done. And so when we enter his courts with praise like that, then that affords us the opportunity where the presence of the Lord moves in. And um, when you're listening I'm, I mean, we're definitely not perfect parents. We have four kids, now we have five because of marriage, and having a daughter changed our life. Like that was we had all boys, and boys don't talk very much, but having a daughter, the conversation at the table and in the house changes. And you know, like when the boys are going out, they'll come and just say, Hey, we're gonna go get something to eat. And it's like, okay. And she'll come in and say, We're gonna go get something to eat. And she's she looks cute, and we're gonna say, You look so beautiful, and she just lights up, and I know. And but when those kids start to tell us how much they love us, it really is in the moment where I'm like, Whatever, what do you need? What do you want? Whatever you want, whatever you want is yours. What do you need? You need gas money, you need food money, you need what do you need? You need a transportation. What is it? What do you need? And I feel like sometimes in the moment that we just have, when you're just telling Jesus how much you love him, he's like, Listen, what do you need? You've worshiped me, you've praised, you've given your heart, you've given your soul, your mind, your strength. What do you need? And I was thinking about as we were worshiping, and sometimes I know it gets, it seems like it's it's an expression. But I think about on the side of the road when Jesus is coming into town and there's a blind man, and he cries out, Jesus, have mercy upon me. And everybody around decided that's too loud. This is Jesus coming through here. You need to be, you need to honor, you need to be reverent, you need to be quiet. Hush.

Shh, shh, shh.

And the Bible says he cried out all the louder. Jesus, have mercy. In moments like we've just experienced, listen, ask away. You don't have it because you ask not, you don't have it because you're not knocking, you don't have it because you're not seeking. And in the moment, Jesus says, just ask whatever it is, ask. And when people tell you no, it's too loud, just say, Listen, it's not for you. This is for him. And I just want to encourage you to lean in. He says, anything you ask in my name. I'm back. In fact, I'm gonna preach a message in a few weeks. Maybe we gotta get through Christmas and into the new year and the year of relationships, but I'm gonna preach a message about prayer and learning how to pray the kind of prayers that Jesus answers. But I think I want to just encourage you, just in those moments, don't be ashamed or afraid to cry out to Jesus for whatever is in your heart. Because he wants to meet that need. Pastor Matthew said that he sees you, he knows where you're at, he wants to meet that need, and there's something that happens that engages when our faith is activated in a response to ask in the name of Jesus. The promises of God are yes and amen through Jesus Christ. Amen, church. All right, well, amen. Well, that sounded better to me than I thought, but I guess we'll we'll just move on. Hey, listen, if you're a guest today, thanks for joining us. I know our team has welcomed you and celebrated you. We're so glad you're here. We know you can be a lot of places. Thanks for being at Free Church today, family. Let's welcome our guests with us and had an amazing nine o'clock service, and let's close this out. I'm ready to preach God's word. Are you ready to receive it today? The year was 2011, and we were still in Houston at the time, although we had already made our decision that we were moving to Oak Park to plant free church. At the time, we did not have a name for the church yet, and uh we were going through that process, just praying and believing God would show us a name, and um and and then we word started to get out that we were moving from Houston to Chicago area to plant a church, and literally had people say, like, what are you doing? And we had this dream in our heart that back in like 2006, 2007, we know God was calling us to plant a church, but there was just this long space of time where we knew we were engaged in what was happening in church life, and there was there was just like it was not the right time, but we had this dream in our heart and we were just serving, and and so we're serving, believing God, whatever is gonna be, and this dream that we could come to an area like this that when we would tell people in Oak Park, like this is the kind of church we want to see, a church that represents Oak Park, the diversity of Oak Park. It looks like Oak Park, it has young and old and every nation represented, and people would tell us that church just doesn't exist here. And we were like, no, we're gonna, this is the church we see, this is the church we're dreaming about. And and so when we were telling people around the Houston area, we just had so many people like if you have a great big dream, I'm gonna tell you sometimes people people are like the worst, they are the worst. Uh like they're people are terrible if you have a big dream. I'll just say it. Like people are like, wait, what do you what do you mean you uh you're moving from Houston to Chicago? Whoa, why would you do that? And we're just like, well no, we're moving, we're moving to Oak Park. And they're like, Oak Park? Why would you go there? And people literally say, like, shouldn't you go like way out in the suburbs somewhere where it's you know maybe kinder and gentler? And and furthermore, why wouldn't you start a church in the Bible Belt where all the churches are? And I was like, because we don't, we're not, we don't have a dream of planting a church where all the Christians are. We have a dream of going somewhere where people need Jesus. Why would you do that? And then and then finally, somebody um on our team in Houston at the church we were serving on our home church, they they just finally said, Why, why would you ever leave this place? You got it made, you got a great job. This the church is growing, you're you could be here forever, you just got comfort zone, like you're crazy for leaving. And as soon as that word came out of his mouth, I knew I was in the right spot to be called into a ministry in an area that everybody else thought was crazy for us to go to. It's the year I learned when you have a God-sized dream, you're gonna have a lot of people to stand in front of you and try to block you, but you just need to keep defeating one giant after another and just determine in your heart, listen, if God's with me, I can do anything. Amen. Do I need to switch mics? Is it is it okay? We're getting it? All right, okay, let's get it right. All right. Turn to your neighbor while we're getting our mic right. Turn to your neighbor and just tell him, hey, I got a God-sized dream. And then come on. I know you've been ignoring that other person all service long, but just tell him you better get out of my way. Don't get in my way. Napoleon said, imagination rules the world. And Einstein said this. He was like, imagination is more important than knowledge because knowledge actually just sits in the space of what we know and understand, but imagination embraces the entire world and it's limitless. There's something about having a powerful, God-sized dream that it actually allows us to become creators of the Almighty Creator. It allows us to walk in that image. And I would say today, Big Ask Sunday, I would say, my big ask for you is this do you have a life dream? Do you have a God-sized life dream that you're pursuing and living out? It's larger than life itself and larger than anything you know, and you know that you cannot complete it on your own, so it must be a God-sized dream. And if the answer to that is yes, I'm gonna tell you that on the way from here to the promise being fulfilled in your life, there are gonna be giants in the way that try to stop you from realizing and living in the power of that realized dream. Nothing great is ever accomplished without great opposition. And if you've ever seen a child flying a kite out in the park, I'm gonna let you know that that kite did not go up to the heights because it traveled with the wind. It goes up because it goes against the wind. And sometimes that's the way it's gonna feel in your life, that you have a dream God's put on you, and you're gonna feel like you're going against the wind the entire time. But with God with you, the Holy Spirit in you. That's why the Holy Spirit, the the Greek word there's ruach, it's a breath of fresh wind. It's just enough wind in you to help you to come against what's against you. So, luckily in scripture, we have we have plenty of stories we could look at that would help us shape this into something real life experience for us. And I'm gonna use probably one of the more popular stories in scripture. It's the story of David versus Goliath. And I just want to read this passage of scripture to you. We've probably heard this story thousands of times, and uh, but I want to read this passage of scripture to just kind of set up the moment and and the really scale of what you're facing in life. So look at this. 1 Samuel 17, verse 1 says, The Philistines now mustered their army for battle and camped between Sokah and Judah and Azekah in Ephesedimim, something like that. And uh, Jesus, that wasn't in the first service. Where'd that come from? We just changed. Dear God, we're reading it in Hebrew. What in the world? I got a marketing degree. We like to say things easy. Give me the give me the message version, please. Uh Saul and uh Saul countered by gathering his Israelite troops near the valley of Elah, so the Philistines and Israelites faced each other on opposite hills with the valley in between them. Now let me just set this up real quick. On the hillside in the mountains is where all the mainstays of Israel are Jerusalem, Bethlehem. That's they are they are they are they are it's they're establishing the kingdom of the kingdom of God on God's mountain. And then on the plains, way plains towards the sea, is uh what we now know as Palestine. That is where the Philistines are coming from, the plains, and they camp out across from each other, and in between there's valley and ridge area, and and in order to go defeat the enemy, you would have to go down into that valley and then back up to the heights to actually reach that army. The problem is when you go down, then you're on your way back up and you become vulnerable because you're in a position of weakness in terms of war and battle. And um, and so you they they basically would just stand across the valley from each other and just shout at each other how cool they are and how bad they are. And I can prove it in the next verse. Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was over nine feet tall. He wore a bronze helmet and his bronze coat of mail weighed 125 pounds. He also wore a bronze leg armor and carried a bronze javelin in his shoulder, and the shaft of the spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver's beam, tipped with iron. The spearhead weighed more than 15 pounds, and his armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a shield. I feel sad for that guy. This guy's nine foot tall, has you know, has a spear that weighs as much as uh the weaver's beam, which that just sounds heavy. The tip of his spear is like 15 pounds, and that guy can't carry his own shield. He's like, you carry it. Can you imagine being that guy? Like, I mean, I think these are the things I think about when I read scripture. Like, who wants to carry that? But he had to. And uh the Bible says every day Goliath would step out onto that spot and try to pick a fight with the Israelites. I dare somebody to come into this valley, man versus man, to fight me. And if you beat me, then Israel can take all the spoils of the war. But if we beat you, you're gonna be our slaves. Come on, who's willing to fight me? By the way, I'm nine foot tall. I am all that, and the bag of chips. So who is willing to step into this field? And when I defeat you, I'll feed you to the dogs and to the birds of the air. Like who's willing to step out on? And uh, we know the story. If you've ever heard the story of David, you know eventually David does step out and conquers Goliath, and the Israelites win the battle, and they win that war. But I'm gonna tell you, long before David ever fought that giant, there were four giants he had to defeat. And you may never face a Goliath that's nine foot tall in your life, but I can tell you this you'll face these four giants on your way to seeing the dream fulfilled in your life. And I'm gonna give them to you, and then we're gonna talk about how to defeat them. You ready? Here we go. Number one, the giant you're gonna face, the first giant you're gonna face is this it is the giant of delay. In 1 Samuel 16, God sends Samuel, the prophet, to anoint a new king of Israel. And he says, You're gonna go to this family, to Jesse, and he's got a boy there that's gonna be the next king. And he says, he's actually a person after my own heart. And so Samuel shows up and it's quite a spectacle, and he goes to Jesse and says, Jesse, one of your boys is gonna be the next king. I need to meet your boys. And he said, Great, great. I have I have I have some boys, let me bring them in. And he brings seven out of eight boys into this meeting, and Samuel sees the first brother, it's Eliab, the oldest brother, and he's like, Oh, this has got to be the king. He's tall, he's handsome, he's he looks strong, he seems like a big warrior. Man, this is the king, and God says, That's not the king. And the next brother, number two, walks in, and he's like, No, that's not the king. And the third brother comes in and still not the king. The fourth, the fifth, the sixth, all the way to the seventh. And Samuel's like, I'm sorry, the none of these. This is not who I'm looking for. Jesse, do you have any other sons? And Jesse's like, Oh, I do actually have one more son. He's out in the field, but I promise you, he's not your king. And Jesse calls for his son David to come in, and when David walks in, the anointing falls on Samuel. He says, This is your king. And he anoints David to be king that day. David, by the structure, is around 15 years old at the time. It's another 33 years, it's another 18 years before David becomes king of Israel. And I'm gonna tell you this when God puts a dream in your heart that's bigger than your life right now, you know what? You may want it to come to pass tomorrow, but there is gonna be some delay in it. And the question is, what are you gonna do during that delay? David, David is immediately anointed to be king. Oh, so where should he be? He's anointed to be king. Obviously, he should be in the palace. No, David, you go back out in the field and take care of the sheep. God has a plan for your life, but I want to let you know everybody else does too. Everybody else has a plan for your life. They've got stuff they want you to do, places they want you to be, people they want you to see. And listen, whenever God's plan starts to contradict everybody else's plan for your life, man, there's gonna be some delay. Because stuff got stuff, I almost said stuff got to be worked out. I don't know where that came from. Dear God, today. My God. The king's English is long far gone. The thing is, what are you gonna do in your delay? David's out in the field. It doesn't say he's he's practicing to be king, but he's practicing where he is. What are you gonna do with the giant of delay? You're gonna have to take that giant down because we live in a world that's like microwave, air fryer, go ahead, I need to have it done today. Like I was warming up my coffee this morning at the house, and I pushed 30 seconds on the microwave. And I know it's bad to microwave coffee, don't judge me. I just can't, I just got I get carried away in the morning. And so I put it in there, I put 30 seconds, and I'm I'm anxious for that 30 seconds to end. Can it end now? I'm ready for it now, and that's the way we are. God gives us a God-sized dream, and we're like, yes, yes, I'm ready. And God says, there's gonna be the a giant of delay is gonna stand in your way. And you're either gonna start preparing yourself for what God's put in your heart, or you're gonna be on the side of destiny delayed as the devil's delight, and you're gonna waste it. The second giant you're gonna have to face is the giant of it is the giant of discouragement. Every single day, the Bible tells us that the Philistine would come out and make a declaration, calling the Israelite army dogs and nothing, no one. And look at David is sent to his brothers to bring a care package, and this is what happens in 1 Samuel 17, 23. It says, as he was talking with them, David's talking with the soldiers and his brothers, Goliath, the Philistine, champion from Gath, comes out of the Philistine ranks, just like we read in those first seven verses. And David hears them shout his usual taunt to the army of Israel. And as soon as the Israelite army saw him, meaning Goliath, they began to run away in fright. Discouragement, fear. And I'm going to tell you this when if you have a God-sized dream in your life, get ready because there are going to be a lot of loud voices to discourage you from pursuing that dream. But you need to know this. The loudest voices are not always right. In fact, typically behind the loudest voices is an insecure person who just thinks volume means uh viability. Like, oh, they they're loud, they must be right. No, they're loud because they know they're wrong. But if they act loud, maybe somebody will get behind them. And look, all of the Israelite army, every single one of them, run in fear. That voice of that giant had convinced an entire army that no one was capable of standing up to him. And listen, if you're gonna hang out with fearful people, you're gonna become a fearful person. You'll just start to accept the fact. Well, I guess I guess this is the way it's gonna be. I guess I'll just cower over here in fear. I guess there's nothing I can do about it. Everybody else is afraid. I might as well be afraid. We have a dog. We have two dogs. One is a German short-haired pointer, and she is the most hyper dog on the planet of all dogs. The other one is a lab, and he is the scaredest dog on the planet of all dogs. And I like to get up in the morning and we feed the dogs, and then I take them for a walk. It's part of my morning routine. And there are mornings where there might be too much noise, and Bishop is his name. Bishop will decide he's not here for the loud noises. Now he's a dog, he's got a mean bark, he can, he can like prop himself up and look pretty like he's pretty intimidating. Even though he's alive, he's got a little bit of city in him. He's got a little street in him. And and he he can seem intimidating, but if there's a loud noise, let it let there be thunder. I'm out. Let there be a garbage truck. Out. Any kind of repair vehicle, out. And today I'm getting ready to walk him. It's beautiful. The sun is just starting to eclipse through the clouds, and and we're getting ready to walk. And he decides for some reason it's too cloudy for him to walk. And he just starts shaking. And I'm now you got to get this picture. I have one dog dragging me because she can't wait to get to where the birds are. And I've got the other dog dragging me because he doesn't want to go anywhere, and I'm caught in this, and I can't pull this dog enough, and I can't stop this dog enough. All I'm telling you is you're gonna become a reflection of the people you hang around, and if you're with fearful people, you're gonna walk in fear. So you got to learn to overcome the giant of discouragement. The third giant you're gonna face is disapproval. And it's oftentimes the people that are closest to you that are gonna listen to the dream you have in your heart and think, no way. Who does he think he is? Isn't that what they said about Jesus? Like, they're like, where's this guy from? And he from Nazareth? Does anything good come from Nazareth? Jesus? And it it says in his own hometown, he couldn't do many miracles because of their unbelief. Because they were like they had they had a problem getting past the question of who does this guy think he is? So even Jesus had to overcome the giant of disapproval. And and it's usually the closest people to us. Look at what it says in 1 Samuel 17, it says this, but when David's older brother, so let me just set the scene before I read you the scripture. David hears the giant shout all these accusations and and all these taunts and the you, like the scripture said, the usual taunts. Every single day he's saying, Who's who's gonna come out and fight me? Obviously, no one, because look at me, I'm nine foot tall. What are you gonna do? And David hears that and says, I'll do it. What's the reward? I'll do it. David's just a kid. He's a kid. He's like, I who gets to talk about God's army like this? I'll do it. And and as soon as Eliab hears David say this, look at what Eliab says. He heard David talking to the men and he was angry. And he says, What are you doing around here anyway? What about the few sheep you're supposed to be taking care of? Demeaning, degrading, disapproving. I know you're just here to out of pride and deceit, and you just want to see the battle. Disapprove, disapprove, disapprove, denied, denied, denied, denied, rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected. That's the giant you're gonna have to face. People are gonna tell you, who do you think you are? A few weeks ago I cast the vision as we move the church forward that we're gonna be a church declaring God's promises, fulfilling his purpose, and then we put this line in, until the whole world knows. And I said that, and I could almost hear people say, Who do they think they are? Who do they think they are until one church, until the whole world knows? Because listen, when people disapprove of you because of your weaknesses, they don't understand God's strength. Peter tells us it's in our weakness that his strength is perfected in us. Paul says this when I am weak, then I am strong. Listen, people are gonna disapprove of you, but you're gonna have to just muster up enough confidence in what God is doing in you and through you and for his glory to say, listen, I'm not listening to you. Because the question isn't, do you know who do they think they are? That's not the question. The question is, do you know who God is? Do you know my God? The last giant is the giant of doubt. And I'm gonna tell you, even the experts can be wrong. The expert of war at the time was Saul. The Bible says before he was anointed king, Samuel also anointed Saul for king. And because the people clamored for a king, they wanted a king. And the Bible says Saul was what distinguished Saul from everybody else, is he was head and shoulders taller than all of the Israelites. And he became the warrior of a nation. He became, he was, he was the war, he was the man. And so the expert on war finds out that David wants to go defeat this giant. Look what happens. David says, Don't worry about this Philistine, I'll go fight him. I got it. And and Saul says, Don't be ridiculous. There's no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win. First of all, why would you fight him? Because you'll never win. And he says, This you're just a boy. And he's a man of war since his youth. There are there are versions that say he was a warrior since birth. Like, no, not he wasn't. He was trained to be a warrior, but like they just because sometimes people who are are looking down upon you, they're casting that doubt. They actually magnify the enemy. They make the enemy bigger than he is. In fact, the way this story is always told, David versus Goliath, is the story of an underdog. It's a teenager defeating this massive warrior. It's a kid with a slang, with this warrior with massive armor. It's it's the the lowly people of God versus the massive army of God's enemies. It's always been a story of the underdog. But let me just point this out. The Bible says David came with only a sling. And you would say, well, he only had a sling, PC. I mean, really, he's fighting this massive giant with only a sling. Well, let me tell you, in warfare, there were three areas of battle. There were the infantry, which is Goliath's crew, those were the man, man-to-man combat, hand-to-hand combat. And then there was the area of the the chariots. They they would, the chariots were the store, they mean the speed, the uh just in the chariot. They could, they were agile, they had their spears, and and and then there was the next area, it was the aerial assault of the time, and it was the bows, bow and arrows, and then they called them the slingers. And let me just tell you a slingshot and a sling are not the same. Things. I mean, my parents bought me a slingshot when I was a kid, and all of my family's still living. Because they're really, they're really not. I mean, I know there could be some, but like the ones they buy for kids, like, it's really not a weapon of mass destruction. I tried. Not that I didn't try to take out area, like, we had a little area of our yard we called the woods, and I would like look at chipmunks and try to never with a slingshot never. Don't judge me. I felt that. Where'd that come from? Not one animal was hurt in that story. What I'm telling you is a slingshot is not is so different than a sling. A sling is this long strip of leather string with this little leather pouch. And there are enough people that have studied this that they say the rotation of that sling for someone who was trained in using it as somebody who sat and spent most of their teenage life in the field, that they could allow that sling to rotate five or six times per second. And that the skilled ones could actually take a bird out of the sky in flight with a sling. And that when they release that sling, that rock would travel upwards to 100 miles per hour to take out the target. So here's Saul, here's here's Goliath, nine foot tall, has to be let out by an armor bearer. I joked about him carrying the shield, but he had literally had to take Goliath out because he couldn't see enough, couldn't see well enough to see what was happening unless it's close proximity. And here's David, who's agile and trained with a sling. So he's got better fighting tactics, he's got better arm, um, better armor, better weapons of war, and the third thing is he's got God within him. And let me just ask you, whenever did God within us make us an underdog? If God be for you, who could be against you? Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. Like I don't know, I don't understand how we have pitched this story as an underdog story all this time when it was actually, no. If God be for me, then who could be against me? And don't you dare talk about my God, and don't you dare talk about God's people that way. I'll take you out. It is a God confidence. It wasn't cockiness, it was just, I know who I am and who God's called me to be. And you know what? I'm not gonna doubt this situation because I got God with me, and with God all things are possible. So you're gonna have to defeat those giants. And the last four things I'll give you quickly. To defeat those giants, four things. Number one, remember how God has helped you in the past. It's called a testimony. David told Saul, he said, Listen, I was in the field and I killed a lion. And I was in a field and I killed a bear. And the same God that helped me kill the lion and the bear will help me take out this giant who stands against God's army. Use the tools God has given you now. Some of you are waiting for better, better tools. No, no, no, no, no. The king tries to put the king's armor on David and it doesn't fit. It's too heavy. And David said, just thanks, king, but I got my own gear. I got my own tools. I got what God's given me. And you say, Well, I don't know what that is, Pastor Chuck. I'm going to tell you what it is. We sang about it all morning long, the name of Jesus. Look, David says this. He says, Listen, you come at me with a spear, you come at me with the weapons of your army. I'm coming at you in the name of the Lord of God. That's who I'm walking in. That is the weapon you have for any war you're battling, any giant you're facing, the name of Jesus above every name. The next one, encourage yourself in the Lord. There was no encouragement from anybody around David. Nobody giving at a boy, you can do it, you're gonna make it. And listen, if you don't have people in your corner, it's so they'll get there eventually. But don't allow them to frame the steps you're taking. Just learn how to encourage yourself in the Lord. Turn on some worship. Have Sunday song on repeat. Encourage yourself in the Lord. And then the last one, expect God to help you for his glory. God's not going to ruin his perfect record on you. The promises of God are yes and amen through Jesus Christ. Like the very same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is living in you. And that means, listen, God is not raising up underdogs, God is raising up overcomers. More than conquerors. Listen, don't give up, don't give in. Put all this into practice. Hold a testimony close to your heart. Use the name of Jesus in every situation. Encourage yourself and worship and in the Lord and expect God to work on your behalf because He's never failed yet. Can you receive that word today?