David's Mighty Men

We are going to read a passage that talks about David's mighty men. I was thinking about that this morning, Lord. So I wanted to make space between the series that I am preaching about the life of success, etc., but that occurred to me, right? You are here this morning and many times extraordinary situations require extraordinary people, extraordinary gestures of faith and the Kingdom of God has always advanced based on extraordinary people, people who did extraordinary and different and unexpected acts.

The church will always need people, let's say ordinary, who love God and serve him in a normal way, but also the Bible generally points to people who did extraordinary things, and Those extraordinary, heroic people are the people who bless the Kingdom of God. In times of need, in times of emergency, of urgency, people are needed with an extraordinary heart, with an extraordinary passion for God.

I have always told the Lord 'Father, I want to be an extraordinary man', not out of pride or a desire for greatness, but because I have an extraordinary God and that I want to be one of those people that pleases the Lord, and I know that many of you here want to do the same. Amen. And I ask the Lord for a church made of extraordinary people, people who have a warrior heart, a heart exceptionally consecrated to the Lord.

We're going to read here in Second Samuel, Chapter 23, beginning with verse 8. If anyone can get a little bit of water, I appreciate it brother, thank you. That one was delicious but a little water is fine too. Chapter 23, verse 8. If someone does not have a Bible, go to someone who does and help them here. Thank you Magali, that's right, please come closer so we can all read and we can benefit, we can do this kind of thing at that time.

Chapter 23, second Samuel, beginning with verse 8 says “These are the names of the mighty ones –say brave ones- that David had. Joseb-basebet, the tachmonite. Brothers, if you don't know of an original name to give a son who is going to be born soon, here is one: Joseb basebet, okay? I assure you that there will not be many with that name and your son will always be known at school by his name.

“.... Joseb-basebet, chief of the captains; This was Adino, the eznite -another original name- who killed 800 men on one occasion. After this Eleazar the son of Dodo, ahohite, one of the three mighty men who were with David when they defied the Philistines who had assembled there for battle and the men of Israel had gone away. He, that is, Eleazar, rose up and struck down the Philistines until his hand grew weary and his hand clung to the sword. -Imagine what this man did- That day Jehovah gave a great victory and the people turned after him, only to collect the spoils.

After this was Sama, the son of Age, an ararita, -this is another great valiant of David's men, they are heroes who are being mentioned here- The Philistines had gathered in Lehi where there was a small field full of lentils, and the people had fled before the Philistines. He, this man Sama, then stood in the middle of that terrain and defended it and killed the Philistines and what happened? Jehovah gave a great victory. -I am noting something interesting here in the text while I read.- .And 3 of the 30 chiefs descended and came to David at harvest time, in the cave of Adullam.

This is where I'm interested in going, in this verse 13 onwards- 3 of the 30 chiefs came down and came at harvest time to David in the cave of Adullam, and the camp of the Philistines was there. in the valley of Refaim. David then was in the strong place and there was a garrison of the Philistines in Bethlehem. And David said vehemently, that is to say with a lot of passion and many desires in his heart, 'ah, who would give me a drink of the water from the well of Bethlehem that is by the door!' He expressed a wish. Then the 3 mighty men broke into the Philistine camp and drew water from the well of Bethlehem, which was by the gate, and they took it and brought it to David, but he did not want to drink it, but poured it out to Jehovah, saying 'far away'. be it of me, O Lord, that I do this. Should I drink the blood of the men who went with their lives in danger? And he didn't want to drink it. The three brave did that." The Lord bless his word.

What a beautiful passage! No? This is a portion of Scripture that points to an extraordinarily brave group of men who were part of David's army when David was fleeing from Saul. This was before David became the great King David. He was in a transition period. He had already been anointed by the prophet Samuel.

God had chosen David, a simple, humble boy to be king over his people, but David had not yet entered into his role, his position as king. And the word says that he was joined by many men who had debts, were in trouble, who were depressed and sad, and had no family. And little by little it became a group of men that became an army that supported David and helped him in his battles and in his struggles, etc., and it became a band, like an armed army.

And there were many men, there were hundreds of men who had joined David with their families, but here is noted a group of extraordinary men who distinguished themselves by their great courage and by great deeds they did while they were with David. As I was saying, this is how it is with the Church of Jesus Christ. We are here now, and the Lord has not yet entered in all his glory. Like David, we are in an in-between period. God has already given the Lord, he has told him that the earth belongs to him, that all nations will serve him, but we are waiting for that to become a reality and that one day the Lord will be placed on his throne on earth and that all the earth recognize that Jesus Christ is Lord, as the word says; let every knee bow, let every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.

In a sense we are kind of in that middle stage that David and his men were at. God had already anointed David, had told him 'You are going to be king', but David had not yet entered into his full position as king, and required a group of men to be with him and to accompany him at that time of fighting and struggling, in which God put him in his position as king.

In a sense like that is happening right now. God has given the kingdom to his Son, but we are here at a time in history in which God has placed us, the church will one day reign with Jesus too. But we are now at a stage where we have to conquer, we have to wrestle with the devil, we have an enemy like David had Saul, we have an enemy called Satan and all his demons who are making war and trying to prevent Christ from enter into his full function as king.

And God needs an army, which is the church that struggles with the devil and that advances the Kingdom of God in what God gives to the church of Jesus Christ: dominion over all the earth. And in that struggle there will be people who will join the army of Jesus Christ, as they joined David, and everyone will have a part to play.

But you know what, brothers, it's going to take a group of brave men, too. The church needs a group of men and women who do extraordinary things for God, people who do feats for the Lord, people who have a special heart for God, people who say 'I'm going to be there, as Yanzu said, I'm going to serve. to the Lord this morning, I am going to arrive at the house of God', and that they be people who love God with an extraordinary passion.

Guess what? Those people, God uses them in times of crisis and need in extraordinary ways. I was thinking right now, for example, I just realized something. If you read that passage again, notice that two men are mentioned: Eleazar, for example, who when there was a battle against the Philistines who were terrible enemies, there in verse 9; they had assembled for battle, and the men of Israel had gone away. The Philistines predominate at that time, and then a man named Eleazar stands up, says that that man just got up and smote the Philistines until his hand got tired. That is to say, he gave so many blows with his sword until his hand was already tired, and his hand stuck to the sword.

How did his hand get stuck? Perhaps because of the blood that gradually dried up, becoming sticky? Maybe he got his sword stuck that way. Could the sword have stuck to him because his skin peeled so much that perhaps, and the heat and whatever, caused a reaction of his skin that the sword stuck to his hand? We don't know, but the fact is that what he is saying is that this man was battling, battling, battling, giving blows with the sword until his hand couldn't give anymore. And God used that for what does he say? It says that ‘on that day Jehovah gave a great victory and the people turned after him only to gather the spoils.

This man, and when they all fled, he stood in the gap. And it was what God needed, a man who dared to do something extraordinary. God used that to give him a great victory and in the Bible there are many cases of people at a time when the people were fleeing, someone came, stood in front, began to strike with the sword and the others who were fleeing, from At that moment it's like they took courage and said 'let's go ahead, if he's doing it, we can do it.'

And a defeat turned into a great victory because someone dared to risk their life. Because? Because there was in them passion and extraordinary love for the Lord. And that love for the Lord motivated them to do something extraordinary at an extraordinary time, because their hearts were attached to the Lord.

Consider, for example, David himself. David loved the Lord so much, that is why men like these followed David, because David set an example and strong men joined David, because they recognized in David a heart equal to theirs. So, you remember when David was a young man and Goliath was insulting the people of God. Goliath was an incredible giant, a warrior, with a sword that was bigger than some Jews, how big this man was. And Goliath, who was from the Philistines, an enemy tribe, stood up every day to insult the people of God, insult God and challenge the Jews that someone dared to challenge him. Nobody dared.

This inexperienced young man came, because he loved God so much, he was ashamed that God's people were insulted and that there was no one to come, and David was one of those brave men who took the place. And what happened? That when Goliath was killed by David, the Philistines were afraid and the Israelites then took courage and put their hands on the Philistines and that day there was a great defeat for the Philistines and a great victory for the people of God, because a man , a young man, dared to step into the gap and do something extraordinary for the Lord.

The people of God, 80% I would say of the people of God are people who, rather, can serve the Lord, and can do certain good things, but they get to a certain point and get discouraged or stop doing it. do this or that, if the circumstances are not right. Most human beings are like that. And you can't wait any longer, because that has been the case and it will be that way, I believe.

But there's 20%, I would say, in every army, those are the ones who get the medals, they're the ones who get the decorations, those are the ones who go into some level of leadership in life , because they have a different heart. What I say to the Lord is 'Father, I would like to be one of those 20%. I don't want to be 80%.' And I say to the Lord 'Father, help my heart so that I can love you like that 20, or that 10 or that 5 or that 3%.

And I believe that we should strive as much as possible to be such people, that God can count on me in a moment of trial and need. And that God can say 'Look, I'm not sure who is going to say present in this crisis, but I think so and so, I know I can count on him. I know that I can count on her. If there is a need in my kingdom, I know that person is going to say present.'

Through the twenty-odd years that I have been pastoring, I have always been blessed, brothers, by a handful of people who I know that I can count on them. And when there is a need, if we are going to build a new temple, if there is a need in the missionary church, if there is a need to clean something, you do not know how it blesses me when I see someone that I arrive and see a Naranjo brother cleaning the sidewalk on Sunday mornings.

Fabio called me this morning, 'pastor, they are going to open the church, is there going to be a service there? They live over there, far away, but they come and are here and the people who serve, the hujieres and people you see and if there is a need, you see them sweeping without anyone asking them. If something is missing in the bathroom, they go and find it and put it there. If something extraordinary has to be done, you see that these people say: 'Yes, Pastor, I'm going to do it, I'm going to go'. And that when I have a problem in a meeting or something, there's not even a lady around, and I tell her 'look, my sister, you can take care of this table here, because right now I don't have anyone else and that person will gladly do it. does. That, you don't know, how that blesses the life of a pastoral leader. But you also don't know how that blesses the lives of those people who serve the Lord in such an extraordinary way.

Do you know people who are blessed by God? The people you see are always growing, that God does things for them in their lives, that he provides for them, that he blesses them, that opens doors for them, that gets them out of their predicament, that gets them out when they screw up, gets them out of their troubles and blesses them. Those are the people who love the Lord in that extraordinary way. These are the people that God says 'Don't worry, my son, you and I are going to fight whatever it takes but I am going to bless you and I am going to provide for you, and I am going to open doors for you and I am going to enlighten you. '

It is, brothers, the strong and courageous people, if you look through the Scripture you will see many people that when God finds them they are working, they are moving. There are very few people that I have seen in the Bible that God called them to service while they were sleeping. Most of these great men you see, and women, you always see them in action, always doing something. They had a diligent heart.

How did God tell Joshua? He told him, 'Look, I'm going to bless you, I'm going to give you all the land that the soles of your feet tread on, but I only tell you one thing, look, what am I commanding you? Make an effort and be brave.'

There is something special in the heart of a person who passionately loves God, who moves the heart of God and who blesses his children, blesses his finances, blesses his economy, blesses his house, blesses Your health opens doors in life.

Oh my God if we understood that the path to success in life, the path to blessing in life is to give the Lord the best, to love the Lord above all things, to always prefer the Lord , do things that please God and bless your heart.

You see here, two men dared at one point and served as a blessing. On that day, in both cases, it says 'the Lord gave a great victory' for those people. But what I was telling you, the part that I like the most about this whole passage is that passage where it says that David found himself one day, imagine him after running from one place to another, escaping from Saul's army that I was chasing him, David sits down one day, and maybe he's out there with his men somewhere, resting for a while and David thinks. David came from Bethlehem, in fact, his homeland was Bethlehem. And David got to thinking and there were his men around them and he said, 'wow, how.....'. It is as if you were saying "how I would love to drink a lemon juice right now, from that lemon plant that was in the patio of my house, over there." So David said. David said as if on air, 'how I would like to drink a little water from that well that is in my home village! He did not say it so that no one would attend to him. He never imagined that no one was going to take what he was saying seriously, he was just thinking out loud. And it says here that 'then -in verse 16- the 3 brave men burst in -that is, they got in- why? Because Bethlehem was at that time occupied by a garrison, a group of enemy Philistine soldiers.

It says that then these 3 brave men were 3 special men, these were the elite of David's army. You could understand that maybe brother, right? So the three mighty men went into the field, that is, they broke ranks, went into the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and drank from that water and brought it to David.

The hearts of these men loved their leader and they said 'we are going to do something extraordinary, we are going to give him the pleasure of having him drink from that water, from that well.' And they dared, how many people they had to kill. We do not know. They definitely risked their lives, but they wanted to make an extraordinary gesture for their king, for their leader.

Brethren, I say that's the way it is with God. I am establishing a parallel between God and us, that many times there are things in God's heart that He would like someone to know..... God also has dreams and God has things that He would like to see his children do. There are things in the heart of God that, perhaps God is not going to force you to do it, nor is God going to expect you to do it, not even, but if you dare to do it. And I think that it is important, brothers, that in God's people there are people who like to make extravagant gestures, because this was crazy, this was extravagance, this was something extravagant, what these men did. For fetching a little water for their leader, risking his life and perhaps killing enemy people. Because it was a symbolic feat. They wanted to show their love to their leader. And that blessed David's life.

I believe there are things that bless the heart of God, when we dare to do extravagant things for Him, when we decide to live extravagant lives for God.

God I ask the Lord likewise ‘Father, help me, help us to live an extravagant life for you that brings special honor to your heart. Each one of us should want to be one of those three brave men that when we discern that there is something that would bring glory to the Lord, that would bring special benefit to his kingdom, that we say "look, I'm going to do it." Because? Because the majority of Christians do not leave the zone of what is reasonable, what is legitimate, what is comfortable. Most human beings say 'well, that's fine, it's good that you have that desire, but of course, I'm not going to go there and have my head cut off for going to get a little water, let him drink a Pour Springs, there from the winery'.

But these men wanted to do something that would please their king's heart. And that touched David's heart in a special way. God blessed them and honored them, and look at almost four thousand years after they did that, today on a snowy morning in Boston, Massachusetts they are talking about the feat of these men. They did not do it for that, and so many times, brothers, when we make extraordinary gestures towards God, we do not realize what resonance, what reverberations it can have, how it can inspire someone elsewhere.

People are inspired by men and women consecrated to the Lord. David was so touched by that, he says that when he saw what these men did, look, he didn't even want to drink the water. He said 'this water is the blood of these men, it is the life that they put'. And what he did? He poured it out as an offering to Jehovah.

Do you see? Do you see what happens? That when we do those things, God is blessed, God is honored. That water became something that seemed simply, merely on the human plane into something that was used to honor God.

Many times we say 'wow, giving money for such a thing, for that temple... am I going to be giving my money to my church? Brothers, it is not for the church, it is for the Lord. the Lord is glorified with what you do. When you give to the Lord, when you strive for the Lord, you do something here on the human plane, it may seem that it is only for the institution, but you do not understand that the one who is receiving the glory is finally God. The one being flattered and honored is the Lord, and that God is going to bring blessing to your life if you dare to give to the Lord in that heroic way.

Do you think that God is going to remain indifferent and will not bless you? Impossible. Oh, brothers, may God help us to live heroic lives for Him. I ask the Lord that our church be made up of God men and women like those three brave men, that it is enough for them to discern and distinguish any minimal movement of the heart of God and that say 'I'm going to fulfill whatever craving my Dad has and that we give to the Lord with joy'. Amen.

We are going to get up and we are going to ask the Lord to touch our hearts and make us brave, to touch our lives and make us heroes for the Lord. I ask the Lord that our church can, oh my God, that it can increase the number of the brave, that it not only be 3, or 4 or 5 or 10, that it be hundreds, men and women who take seriously the Kingdom of God and that they love the Lord above all things.

Brothers, do not put limits on the Lord. Everything you have belongs to the Lord, let it belong to the Lord, your time, your money, your energy, your life. Do not hinder the Lord. Don't say 'this is mine, and this is God's'. Look that everything belongs to the Lord, your clothes, your money, your bank account, your time, your energy, your children, your work, everything belongs to the Lord and what the Lord wants in your heart you must be willing to give it to him and you know what? the only thing that will happen is that God will give you more and more. You are going to have more, you are going to be more, you are going to be happier, you are going to have more joy in your life, you are going to live life with more enthusiasm. You will lack nothing because the Lord will be with you.

The word says that the eyes of God travel throughout the earth to find those with a perfect heart towards Him, to show themselves in His favor. If your heart loves the Lord in an extraordinary way, God will show himself in your favor extraordinarily. Perhaps you will go through testing times, because testing times will come, but God will take you out of them and put you in high, strong and safe places and you will go from blessing to blessing, from growth to growth and the Lord will give you the desires of your heart.

Father, I bless my brothers this morning. We thank you because the lamp in this place has not gone out on this day and because you have brought a group of brave men to keep the cult of your name up this morning. We bless each one of them, Father, and may this day mark a special moment in their lives and may their hearts be changed, Lord, and may they be strengthened, Father. And may your provision be with their lives, Lord. And for them who is here, Father, as your word says that that day Jehovah gave a great victory to his people.

Father, I ask that by our presence on this day here, there be a holocaust raised before your presence that blesses all our congregation, Lord. Father, I turn this service, this morning, into a holocaust to You, who is going to bless the León de Judá congregation and the heart and gesture of each one of my brothers, Father, in some way it is going to impact this church and there are going to be changes, Lord, that are going to take place in this church as a result of what has taken place here this morning, for the glory of your name, Father. We raise up a holocaust, that water that we have procured from the well of Bethlehem and we pour it out before you, Lord, and we declare that a holocaust for your glory and your honor and for the blessing of this town, Lord.

Hallelujah! Thank you, we received that spirit from those three brave men for the Lion of Judah congregation, Lord this morning, for our musicians, our worshipers, Father, for the hujieres, for the teachers, for the elders of this church, Lord, for the children , the youth, the adults, Lord, of this church, for the finances of this church, Lord, in the name of Jesus, for each leader, Lord of this congregation we ask for a spirit like that of David's mighty men. Thanks, Dad. We adore you. Hallelujah! Glory to you Lord.