Armorbearers | 9 to 5 (Part 1)

[00:00:00] Introduction: You're listening to the Travis Rutland Podcast. Travis Rutland is a spirit filled pastor and ministry leader who has been featured on International Christian Television. He serves as lead Pastor of Liberty Square Church in Cartersville, Georgia and as President of Global Servants. His sermons focus on clear biblical teaching, practical truth and encouragement for everyday life. Each message is designed to strengthen your faith and draw you deeper into God's word. This podcast is brought to you you by Global Servants. For more information about Global servants, please visit globalservants.org now here's Travis Rutland. [00:00:42] Travis Rutland: Well, good morning again. It is great to see each and [00:00:44] Travis Rutland: every one of you with us. I'm excited about this new series as well. I'm looking forward to it and I hope it'll be a blessing to you. The next several weeks we're going to be dealing with this. So as Megan said, this series is is entitled 9 to 5. That music was about as far from 9 to 5 as you could possibly get. So I will say in planning this series I always try and find, you know, work with different titles and things like that. And so I was vaguely considering calling this series Take this Job and Shove it. [00:01:15] Travis Rutland: But cooler heads prevailed. So instead you get another country song, 9 to 5. [00:01:24] Travis Rutland: So instead of the Johnny Paycheck classic, [00:01:27] Travis Rutland: so turn if you will to 1 [00:01:28] Travis Rutland: Samuel chapter 14 as we begin these jobs in the Bible, we're going to talk about both work in Old and New Testament, but this morning is Old Testament and we're going to deal with armor bearers. So this morning as we begin this series, we're going to begin with armor bearer. There's a number of of stories about an armor bearer, but this one is my favorite one and possibly one of my favorite stories in the entire bible. I love 1 Samuel 14. So turn if you will there 1 Samuel 14 and verse 1. Now I'm going to just remind you of where we are in the story. Most people think or some people think David was the first king of Israel. But he wasn't. Saul was the first king of Israel. But you remember the kingdom was taken from Saul because he disobeyed God. He wouldn't do what God said. He wouldn't do what the prophet Samuel said. And so the kingdom is taken from Saul and given to, as the Bible tells us, a man after God's own heart who is David. But this is before that has happened. So Saul is the king of Israel and he is fighting against the Philistines and Saul's son is Jonathan and Jonathan and David were are best friends. However, David does not feature in this story at all. It's not about David at all. It is about Jonathan. This is probably the most well known story about Jonathan, or the one at least, where he is the hero, the star, the protagonist, whatever you want to call it. So Jonathan is the prince, Saul is the king, and they're fighting against the Philistines. Look, if you'll at 1 Samuel 14 and verse 1. Now, it happened one day that Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who bore his armor, come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison that is on the other side. But he did not tell his father. Let's pray. God ask in the next few moments, you will speak to each of us, all of us. We want and long to hear from you. This morning, speak to us, God. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. The first church that I pastored there was a couple in my church whose son had gone to a school of ministry at a large church in the state. At the time, it wasn't in the Church of God. I was in the Assemblies of God. And so we were a smaller church. I was in North Georgia at the time, but we were a smaller church. And he had gone to this school of ministry that was at the one of, if not the biggest assembly of God church in the state of Georgia. And so they were telling me about what he was doing. He was in his early 20s, and instead of going to college, he was at the school of ministry. And they were saying how great it was and how much he was enjoying it. [00:03:57] Travis Rutland: One Sunday, they came to me and [00:03:58] Travis Rutland: told me that the lead pastor, the senior pastor at this church, had made their son his armor bearer. [00:04:05] Travis Rutland: And I said, wow, that's great. I'm so excited for him. [00:04:08] Travis Rutland: They said, yes, we're excited, and he is too, and he's loving it and all of that. [00:04:12] Travis Rutland: And I said, great, wonderful. A couple weeks later, he happened to [00:04:16] Travis Rutland: be home visiting his folks, and he came to church, and I saw him, and I had heard of you probably have as well, these pastors that say, oh, I have an armor bearer. This guy's my armor bearer or something. So I was curious about what that looked like. [00:04:27] Travis Rutland: So I said to this young man, I said, hey, I heard that you're [00:04:30] Travis Rutland: the armor bearer for this guy. [00:04:31] Travis Rutland: I said, yeah, I am. [00:04:31] Travis Rutland: It's great. [00:04:32] Travis Rutland: I said, wow, well, that's wonderful. I said, what does that look like? What do you do? Because I was thinking maybe he poured [00:04:39] Travis Rutland: into the young man's life like they [00:04:40] Travis Rutland: did devotions together or I don't know, he prayed for him or worked with [00:04:45] Travis Rutland: him or was mentoring him or counseling him or, I don't know, they're memorizing scripture together. [00:04:49] Travis Rutland: I had no idea. So I wanted to know more about [00:04:51] Travis Rutland: what this armor bearer was. [00:04:52] Travis Rutland: I said, what exactly are you doing? He said, oh, all kinds of exciting things. I said, well, that's great. [00:04:58] Travis Rutland: So what does it look like? [00:04:59] Travis Rutland: What do you do? He said, well, you know, one day I might get his car washed. Another day I might pick up his dry cleaning. And I was like, wait a minute, that's not armor bear. You're a personal assistant man. And so I just thought, what a fascinating thing that they would take this thing from the Old Testament. They would take this biblical concept and warp it around the idea of just having somebody that, you know, goes and does their errands for them and gets some snacks and does all these things. That's not what armor bearer is. In the Old Testament, armor bearer is a no joke, heroic, courageous thing. Not only are you carrying the king's armor, the prince's armor, the general's armor, you are also carrying your own armor. You are expected to fight. You're expected to fight right next to the king or the prince. You're defending them. You're a bodyguard, you're a best friend, you're a companion. You're. You're. You're the armor bearer. You're not a personal assistant who goes and gets the chariot washed. You understand what I'm saying? And so it's important to know who this armor bearer is and what we [00:06:05] Travis Rutland: can learn from Jonathan and his armor bearer in 1 Samuel 14. So turn, if you will, back to the story. And we're going to work through a number of these verses. [00:06:13] Travis Rutland: So Jonathan says to his armor bearer, [00:06:15] Travis Rutland: we're going over to that philistine garrison, verse 2. And Saul was sitting in the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree, which is in Migron. The people were with him. The people who were with him were about 600 men. Ahijah, the son of Ichabod's brother, the son of the Son of Right, the Lord's priest in Shiloh was wearing an ephod. [00:06:36] Travis Rutland: So they had a priest with them. So it's the king. [00:06:39] Travis Rutland: They have a priest with them. [00:06:40] Travis Rutland: All the people, 600 people, they're hanging out under the shade of a tree. [00:06:44] Travis Rutland: Look at the end of verse three. But the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. Now skip down to verse six. Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his Armor, come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us. For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few. So his armor bearer said to him, do all that is in your heart. [00:07:08] Travis Rutland: Go, then here I am with you [00:07:10] Travis Rutland: according to your heart. There is a moment, probably multiple moments for all of us where our. Where our faith has to be stretched. Where our faith has to be stretched. There's Saul and 600 of his buddies are sitting under a tree doing nothing. The Philistine garrison is right over there. [00:07:33] Travis Rutland: They could have marched on the garrison anytime. They could have started a battle anytime. They could have advanced God's kingdom anytime. They could have done anything they wanted. But instead they're just hanging out, sitting under a tree in the shade, enjoying themselves. There comes a moment where God is calling us to no longer sit under the shade of a nice, peaceful tree. There is a battle raging around us and God wants us to stretch our faith, to get out there and to do something that is scary but also is exhilarating. God is calling us to have bold faith. [00:08:14] Travis Rutland: That is the first thing that we [00:08:15] Travis Rutland: see from Jonathan and his armor bearer [00:08:17] Travis Rutland: is this concept of bold faith where [00:08:19] Travis Rutland: they take ownership of this thing that is happening. And they say, we're going out and [00:08:24] Travis Rutland: we're going to do it. [00:08:25] Travis Rutland: I want you to look again at verse six. [00:08:28] Travis Rutland: I love this verse. Jonathan says to the armor bearer, let's go over to the garrison, look at the next sentence. It may be that the Lord will work for us. It may be that the Lord will work for us. I love that level of faith. That is what God is calling us to be about. Instead, we want God before we do [00:08:51] Travis Rutland: anything scary, before we launch out in any levels of faith, before we embrace [00:08:56] Travis Rutland: the new calling or the new season in our life. What all of us want is a signed contract from God that nothing is [00:09:02] Travis Rutland: going to go wrong. [00:09:04] Travis Rutland: Isn't that what we want? [00:09:05] Travis Rutland: God, I'm willing to do exactly what you tell me to do. But I need you to make a guarantee that nothing bad is going to happen to me. [00:09:11] Travis Rutland: I need you to sign it and [00:09:12] Travis Rutland: I need it to be notarized by [00:09:13] Travis Rutland: one of the angels. [00:09:14] Travis Rutland: Right? And that's not what faith is. Bold faith says, we're going to go over there and kill some Philistines and maybe the Lord will work with us for us, but we're going to do something. That is what bold faith looks like. Where we step out in levels of uncertain. It's not sure. It may be that the Lord will work for us. Do you remember when you were taking [00:09:41] Travis Rutland: the sat, the standardized testing, if you did that when you were trying to get into college and those kind of things that. [00:09:46] Travis Rutland: All kinds of different stuff. [00:09:47] Travis Rutland: They had a math section that, you know, scored your level of math, and they had a verbal section that scored how you knew different what you knew and what words you knew, things like that. [00:09:57] Travis Rutland: Do you remember? [00:09:58] Travis Rutland: This was multiple choice, of course. And they would say, what is the opposite of this word? And you had four choices. And they would say, what is a [00:10:06] Travis Rutland: synonym of this word? [00:10:07] Travis Rutland: You had four choices. It was to test your vocabulary. [00:10:10] Travis Rutland: I want to. [00:10:11] Travis Rutland: I want to give you something this morning that I want you to think about, and I want to challenge you a little bit. The opposite of the word faith is not doubt. Doubt is not the opposite of faith. The opposite of faith is certainty. The opposite of faith is certainty. [00:10:31] Travis Rutland: It is okay to have doubt about what God is calling you to do. Launching out in faith doesn't mean that the odometer is 100% faith and 0% doubt. Launching out in faith means you just need to get the faith to 51%. That's all you need to do. You got. You say, oh, I can't do this. My Faith is at 51% and my doubt is at 49%. No, that's enough. Maybe the Lord will work for me, for us, you say, but how can certainty be the opposite of faith? Because if you are certain that you will fail, you will never leave the shade of the comfy tree. Saul knew that he couldn't defeat the Philistines. Saul knew that he would never defeat the Philistines with the small 600 men that he had. He was so certain of his imminent defeat that he refused to leave the place where he was. Certainty is the opposite of faith. If you're certain that you're not called, if you're certain that you're unqualified, if you're certain that you're going to fail, if. If you're certain that God can't use you, if you're certain that this is not the next season for you, if you're certain about what's going to happen in the future, you're never going to launch out in faith. It is okay to have doubts. It's okay to have a lot of doubt. It's okay to be unsure of your own qualifications. That's okay. What God is calling us to do is step out in bold faith, and [00:11:53] Travis Rutland: maybe the Lord will work for us. Maybe the Lord will work for us. That that is the essence of bold faith happening is doing what seems scary, [00:12:08] Travis Rutland: what seems uncertain, what seems dangerous, what could. [00:12:12] Travis Rutland: Let's be honest, it's a garrison of Philistines and it's Jonathan and his armor bearer. [00:12:19] Travis Rutland: The armor bearer is like, I love [00:12:21] Travis Rutland: this armor bearer, by the way. [00:12:22] Travis Rutland: No name. [00:12:23] Travis Rutland: If I was the armor bearer, I'd be like, maybe we could ask a few more people to go with us. [00:12:29] Travis Rutland: You know what I'm saying? [00:12:30] Travis Rutland: Like, there's 600 dudes over there. I mean, we could ask a couple of them, like, maybe your dad doesn't want to go, but maybe a few of them want to go with us. Jonathan says to the armor bearer, we're going. [00:12:39] Travis Rutland: And by the way, God has not [00:12:42] Travis Rutland: made a guarantee to me that we're going to win. He says, I'm going over there and do something to advance what, what God is doing. [00:12:50] Travis Rutland: I'm going over there and walk out in bold faith. [00:12:54] Travis Rutland: And maybe the Lord will be with us. And the armor bearer says, I'm with you. Do whatever is in your heart. [00:13:00] Travis Rutland: That is how we need to be. That is where we've got to get [00:13:03] Travis Rutland: in the levels of our own personal faith. [00:13:06] Travis Rutland: If you have doubt about your qualifications, that's okay. So does everybody else. You understand what I'm saying? If you have. [00:13:15] Travis Rutland: If you. If you don't think that I have doubts on a regular basis that I can pastor this church, you're wrong. [00:13:21] Travis Rutland: I have doubts. I have doubts. Who am I? Why am I called here? What can I do here? If you think that I think I'm too good for this place, you're wrong. I'm always worried that I'm not living up to the standard that I need to advance. I have doubts about my own ministry. I have doubts about my own calling. But all I have to do every Sunday morning in my office before I come down here, I just got to get my fault, my faith to 51%. It's okay to have doubt. It's okay to be feel unqualified. It's okay to feel like you're not the right person. 600 guys, any of them could have attacked the Philistine garrison, but Jonathan was the only one willing to step out in faith. I'm going over there no matter what. I have doubt about it, but that's okay. I'm operating in bold faith, and maybe [00:14:09] Travis Rutland: the Lord will be with us. [00:14:11] Travis Rutland: That's what it looks like. That's what the beginning looks like. [00:14:15] Travis Rutland: That's not how it ends. But that is how it begins. That's how it starts. Now look if you will, at verse 8, right back where we were, 1 Samuel 14 and verse 8. Then Jonathan said, very well, let us cross over to these men and we will show ourselves to them. [00:14:31] Travis Rutland: If they say thus, wait until we come to you. [00:14:35] Travis Rutland: Then we will stand still in our place and not go up to them. [00:14:38] Travis Rutland: But if they say, thus come up [00:14:40] Travis Rutland: to us, then we will go up. For the Lord has delivered them into our hand and this will be a sign to us. So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden. Then the men of the garrison called to Jonathan in his armor bearer and said, come up to us and we will show you something. I love. I love these verses. [00:15:05] Travis Rutland: I love that. Again, I always try to imagine being somebody in this story. If I'm the armor bearer, Jonathan's like, [00:15:12] Travis Rutland: hey, let's go fight the Philistines. And I'm like, great idea. Do whatever's in your heart. [00:15:16] Travis Rutland: I'm with you, Jonathan. [00:15:18] Travis Rutland: And Jonathan says, here's my plan. [00:15:20] Travis Rutland: What we're going to do is we're going to walk over there and then we're just going to stand up and expose ourselves to fire. They could shoot arrows at us. [00:15:27] Travis Rutland: They could throw spears at us. [00:15:28] Travis Rutland: We're just going to stand up and look at them. We're not going to attack. [00:15:31] Travis Rutland: We're not going to be sneaky. [00:15:33] Travis Rutland: We're not going to hide behind a tree. We're just going to stand there. And if they say, hey, come over here to the garrison, then we're going to go over there and we're going [00:15:40] Travis Rutland: to know that God's going to be with us. I'd be like, oh, man, can we pray about this one more time? [00:15:47] Travis Rutland: Imagine if you're a soldier and you just decide, hey, here's what I'm going to do. I'm just going to walk out on the middle of the battlefield exposed, by the way. No guarantee. Maybe the Lord will be with us. We're still at. Maybe the Lord will be with us [00:16:01] Travis Rutland: in this section of the story. [00:16:02] Travis Rutland: And he says, we're going to just show ourselves to the enemy. We're going to expose ourselves, be totally defenseless on the battlefield. And if the garrison of the Philistines says, come over here, then we're going to know that that's God's sign and [00:16:14] Travis Rutland: we're going to go over there. [00:16:17] Travis Rutland: That. [00:16:19] Travis Rutland: That is a big prayer that is an audacious prayer, and that is the next step. When you operate in bold faith, you move from bold faith to begin to [00:16:32] Travis Rutland: pray and speak audacious prayers. Prayers that make no sense, prayers that seem bigger than you. Prayers impossible. You have to. We need to. Myself included. I'm not preaching at you. I'm preaching for all of us. We need to start praying much bigger prayers. We. We talk about serving the God that created the universe, and then we pray such puny, pathetic little prayers. Well, God, if it's not too much trouble, if you're not too busy. No, we need to start speaking truth and big stuff and large stuff. And when you pray your prayer, people need to be. Whoa. People need to think that's impossible when you pray your prayer, because the thing is, you're not going to do it anyway. God's going to work on your behalf. You cannot bring about the miraculous. But we have not, because we ask not. So if you're not seeing big miraculous things happen, it's because you're not asking for them. Pray for big stuff, Pray for huge stuff. Believe for these enormous, audacious prayers that seem impossible in the natural. There's some stuff that you need to pray regularly. Not every day, maybe not every time you pray, but you need to pray some stuff regularly that seems impossible in the natural because it stretches your. What? Your bold faith. You see, you operate in bold faith, and then you pray audacious prayers, and then God brings one of those to pass, and it builds your bold faith, and your bold faith grows, and you pray even bigger prayers. Do you see how this works? Pray some big stuff, some impossible stuff, some things that you need to have a prayer that you pray that you're not telling anybody else about because it seems so crazy that people would laugh at you if you heard it. But you need to have those prayers. [00:18:27] Travis Rutland: He created the universe. He spoke light into existence. The mountain in your life is a pebble to God. [00:18:38] Travis Rutland: The ocean in your life is a [00:18:42] Travis Rutland: thimbleful of water to God. [00:18:45] Travis Rutland: We need to be praying much bigger, much bolder, much more audacious prayers. Jonathan. Jonathan prays the most difficult thing. He says, we're going to walk out there, we're going to expose ourselves to [00:19:02] Travis Rutland: enemy fire, and they're going to stand up and say, come on over here to the garrison. [00:19:08] Travis Rutland: That's a crazy prayer. If you walk out on the middle [00:19:11] Travis Rutland: of the battlefield, what are they going to do? Shoot at you? Yes, shoot at you. [00:19:17] Travis Rutland: Or they're going to tell you, stay there. What they're almost never going to do is say, oh, yeah, walk up here towards us. Come on up here, buddy. Everything's going to be fine. So Jonathan prays the most difficult scenario, [00:19:31] Travis Rutland: and he says, if that's the scenario [00:19:33] Travis Rutland: that happens, excuse me, then we will [00:19:36] Travis Rutland: know that God is with us. [00:19:38] Travis Rutland: Pray big prayers. [00:19:40] Travis Rutland: There was a guy in England in the 1800s named George Mueller. He was a pastor and he was a prayer warrior. You probably may not have ever heard of George Mueller, but he is an amazing hero of the Christian faith. And I encourage you to read more about his story. George Mueller in particular felt like the government of England was failing orphans. And so George Mueller felt convicted as a pastor, that he needed to start building orphanages. But George Mueller said to himself, I'm [00:20:11] Travis Rutland: never going to ask for money or donations. [00:20:13] Travis Rutland: We're going to operate 100% by faith. And George Mueller became a prayer warrior in his lifetime. George Mueller built five different orphanages that cared for more than 10,000 orphans in his lifetime. And he never asked for a pound or a shilling. He never asked for any of it. [00:20:33] Travis Rutland: One day, when he had first started [00:20:36] Travis Rutland: his first orphanage that he had built, [00:20:38] Travis Rutland: he had several hundred kids come down [00:20:40] Travis Rutland: to the dining room and sit there at tables ready for breakfast. And George Mueller knew that there was no food in the orphanage. None. [00:20:49] Travis Rutland: They had no breakfast. And George Mueller prayed over breakfast as [00:20:54] Travis Rutland: if it was there and said, and [00:20:56] Travis Rutland: gave the situation to God and prayed [00:20:58] Travis Rutland: a prayer in front of all the orphans. [00:21:00] Travis Rutland: This is documented in front of them [00:21:02] Travis Rutland: for breakfast in this orphanage with no food in the kitchen. [00:21:06] Travis Rutland: When he said amen, there was a knock at the door. It was the local baker, and he said, I baked too much bread this morning and I felt like I should [00:21:15] Travis Rutland: bring the extra to you. [00:21:17] Travis Rutland: And he brought in boxes of bread, just gave bread, started passing out the [00:21:23] Travis Rutland: bread to all the orphans. [00:21:24] Travis Rutland: They got done passing out the bread. The baker left. Minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and it was the milk delivery person. [00:21:32] Travis Rutland: You remember, this is a long time ago. [00:21:34] Travis Rutland: This is the 1800s, when they delivered milk to your door in glass bottles. And the milk delivery guy knocked on the door. [00:21:42] Travis Rutland: He was horse and carriage at that point. It's the 1800s. [00:21:46] Travis Rutland: The milk delivery person knocked at the door and said, oh, George, I'm so glad you're here. He said, my carriage broke an axle right in front of your orphanage, and all this milk will go bad before I can do anything with it. So I just wanted to give you all of this milk that was in my carriage. And his orphans that morning, had enough bread and milk to eat breakfast. But if you're standing in a room full of 150 orphans and you know there's no food in the kitchen, that is an intimidating prayer to pray when you say, thank you for this breakfast. But that. That's what we're called to do. That's what we're called to be about. I am not. I want to make it clear. I am not discounting what doctors and nurses and modern medicine do for us. I am not discounting that one bit. As most of you know, I had a heart attack last month. I had a heart attack minutes after [00:22:42] Travis Rutland: finishing a sermon on a Sunday morning. [00:22:44] Travis Rutland: My kids rushed me to the hospital. The doctors did an operation on me. [00:22:48] Travis Rutland: They put a stent in my heart. [00:22:50] Travis Rutland: They. They saved my life. On the other hand. On the other hand, God was moving in that situation in ways that I have shared before. I am not discounting what doctors and [00:23:04] Travis Rutland: medicine and science and technology do for [00:23:07] Travis Rutland: us, but we cannot overinflate it. At the risk of under emphasizing what prayer can do, do you see what I'm saying there? We serve a big God. We serve a huge God. You need to pray some. Some huge unattainable stuff, seemingly unattainable. It's not unattainable to God. It's not impossible to God. But there's some stuff you need to pray about on a regular basis that [00:23:33] Travis Rutland: seems impossible to you, that's important for you to continue to operate in bold faith. Pray some stuff that you think it will never happen. [00:23:41] Travis Rutland: Just pray it. Just pray. Just pray. [00:23:44] Travis Rutland: Now look what happens. Verse 13. [00:23:48] Travis Rutland: Philistines say, Come on up here and [00:23:50] Travis Rutland: we will show you something. Look, at the end of 12, Jonathan [00:23:54] Travis Rutland: said to his armor bearer, come up [00:23:56] Travis Rutland: after me, for the Lord has delivered them into the hand of Israel. 13 and Jonathan climbed up on his [00:24:01] Travis Rutland: hands and knees with his armor bearer after him. [00:24:04] Travis Rutland: And they fell before Jonathan. And as he came after him, his armor bearer killed them. That first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made was about 20 men within about half an acre of land. Let's stop right there. Bold faith is wonderful. Audacious prayers are fantastic. But there comes a moment where we must operate in courageous action. [00:24:34] Travis Rutland: There is a moment where we have to do the thing, where we have to actually step out. We cannot simply sit on the sidelines and believe with bold faith and pray audacious prayers and never get involved in the fight. There's a moment where we have to take courageous action, where we have to step out, where we have to do the thing. That's what God is calling us. There's a moment where you have to do something. Jonathan and his armor bearer went all the way. Jonathan could have said, oh, I didn't [00:25:06] Travis Rutland: think they were going to stand up. I didn't think they were going to call us to the garrison. [00:25:09] Travis Rutland: You know, I totally miss God. [00:25:11] Travis Rutland: Let's go back and sit under the tree with my dad. [00:25:14] Travis Rutland: You see, you can operate in bold faith. You can pray audacious prayers, and then you can totally and completely drop the ball at the very end, you. The final step, the thing that we must be about is having had bold faith, having prayed audacious prayers, we must take courageous action. We must, as Jesus told them, launch out into the deep. There is something God's calling you to do. There's something God's calling you to be about. And it is insufficient to have faith that it will happen and to pray big prayers. At a certain moment, somebody has to take the Philistine garrison. Somebody's got to climb the mountain on their hands and knees, and you got to kill 20 guys in the space of half an acre of land. That is intense, courageous action. Somebody's got to do that. It has to be done. But it doesn't start by just storming the garrison. It starts by saying, you know what? [00:26:14] Travis Rutland: I'm having faith. I'm operating in faith that God is calling me to something. [00:26:20] Travis Rutland: I believe he's calling me. [00:26:22] Travis Rutland: I'm not positive. I have doubts, I have concerns, but I'm going to move forward and maybe God will work for us. [00:26:30] Travis Rutland: And then we pray big prayers and [00:26:31] Travis Rutland: we believe big stuff, and doors open and we go. I think God's continuing to call me forward. [00:26:36] Travis Rutland: And there is a moment where we [00:26:37] Travis Rutland: grab our shield and our sword and we walk out in new courageous action. That's what has to happen. As Pastor Megan mentioned, a team from Liberty Square just returned from Thailand visiting House of Grace in Thailand. House of Grace is a ministry of Global Servants of which, as most of you know, of which I serve as the president. My dad started global servants almost 50 years ago. About eight years ago, my dad resigned, and the board of directors at Global Servants asked me to serve as president. So in addition to being the pastor here, I also serve as the president of Global Servants. And I'm proud of all that we do around the world. In 1986, exactly 40 years ago, in 1986, my dad went to Thailand for the first time. He was invited to preach a series of evangelistic services in Bangkok, the capital. My dad had never been to Thailand before. And some of you may have heard this story before, but I want to share it this morning because of this. My dad went to Bangkok, Thailand the first time. He was just there to preach some messages. A local pastor had invited him and that was the extent of what he was going to do in Thailand. [00:27:49] Travis Rutland: At the time, in the 80s, my [00:27:51] Travis Rutland: dad was traveling all over the world. He was gone all the time. And so he just went to Thailand. The first night in Thailand, he was [00:27:57] Travis Rutland: staying in a pretty nice hotel. [00:28:00] Travis Rutland: Bangkok during the evening. There was a knock at his door. He answered the door and there was a Thai businessman standing there. Slacks and a button up shirt, sunglasses on. He was holding a rope. [00:28:18] Travis Rutland: At the end of the rope, tied [00:28:19] Travis Rutland: around the neck, was a little girl that my dad thought looked probably 11 or 12 years old. [00:28:25] Travis Rutland: He said to my dad, he said, [00:28:26] Travis Rutland: I bought this little girl in the villages of northern Thailand today. [00:28:31] Travis Rutland: He said, I guarantee that she's a [00:28:32] Travis Rutland: virgin and for $400 you can have her all night. That's what this man said to my dad in that hotel. My father got furious with the man. [00:28:44] Travis Rutland: He said, are you crazy? You can't sell human beings. At that time, it's hard to remember that moment. Before the Internet and Technology in the 80s, nobody had ever heard of human trafficking. [00:28:55] Travis Rutland: It wasn't a word that we used or bandied around. [00:28:58] Travis Rutland: It wasn't something that was spoken about. If we knew about it, I'd never heard the word. My dad said he never had either. So he yelled at this man. He said, are you crazy? You can't sell human beings. You can't own them, you can't traffic them. This girl's a little girl, she's a minor. He said, I'm calling the police. He said the man pulled those old [00:29:16] Travis Rutland: timey cell phones out of his pocket [00:29:19] Travis Rutland: and he said, I'll call the police. He said, I'll call the police. He said, my brother in law is on the police. He said, I'll call the police and you'll go to jail, not me. He said, go back in your room. And he pushed my dad back in [00:29:33] Travis Rutland: the room and slammed the door shut. My dad said he just stood there. [00:29:39] Travis Rutland: He knew what to do. [00:29:41] Travis Rutland: He was totally overwhelmed by the situation. And then he said, I got to do something. He said he pulled the door open, walked out in the hall and they were gone. He never saw the man or the little girl again. [00:29:58] Travis Rutland: He said he went to breakfast with [00:29:59] Travis Rutland: the pastor that invited him to Thailand the next morning. [00:30:03] Travis Rutland: And he was retelling this story to [00:30:05] Travis Rutland: the pastor in Thailand. The guy in Thailand said, yes, it's a problem. This pastor, this local pastor said, it's [00:30:11] Travis Rutland: a real problem, this selling of these girls from northern Thailand. He said, they're local indigenous people. [00:30:18] Travis Rutland: They're hill tribe people. [00:30:19] Travis Rutland: They're Akar, they're Hmong, they're not Thai citizens. He said, it's a real problem. And my dad said he kept going on about it. He said, well, what about the Thai authorities? What about the government? Aren't there laws? What about the churches? [00:30:34] Travis Rutland: And the guy just kind of sat [00:30:35] Travis Rutland: there and listened to my dad. Finally my dad said, somebody ought to do something. And that Thai pastor looked at him [00:30:43] Travis Rutland: and said, aren't you somebody? [00:30:46] Travis Rutland: He said, aren't you somebody? And he said those words rang in [00:30:51] Travis Rutland: his head for the rest of his trip to Thailand, all the way home, all the way back to Atlanta, Georgia. [00:30:58] Travis Rutland: My dad sat down with my mom [00:31:00] Travis Rutland: 40 years ago in 1986. They said, we are somebody and we have to do something. [00:31:08] Travis Rutland: House of Grace, Thailand was started in rented facilities. Two or three rooms. We took in five girls initially, five [00:31:17] Travis Rutland: girls 40 years later. We have a massive campus in northern Thailand. We have another one in Ghana. And we have seen thousands of girls come through House of Grace rescued. [00:31:31] Travis Rutland: We are a preventative work rescued before they are sold into the horrors of [00:31:36] Travis Rutland: human trafficking and Bangkok. [00:31:40] Travis Rutland: But here's the thing that requires courageous action. That requires somebody to say, I gotta do something. I must do something. I can no longer sit under the shade of the pomegranate tree. The garrison of the Philistines must be destroyed. And that requires somebody to operate in courageous action and climb on their hands and knees, disregarding their own personal safety. That's what is necessary in order to see these things happen. We just finished a brand new middle school dorm that the staff is going to dedicate in just a week or two. I was planning on going, but I can't because of the recent heart attack. So I'm going to have to see pictures and videos from America. The staff is going to dedicate it. Dorms, gyms, chapels, kitchens. Two campuses. Girls in West Africa, girls in Northern Thailand. But that happens because somebody says, I'm going to do something. My parents didn't know anything about running a girl's home, about building buildings, about operating in foreign countries and trying to own property and land. And let me tell you something, it's complicated, but somebody had to do something. Bold faith, audacious prayers. [00:33:02] Travis Rutland: But after that, you must take courageous action. Now watch what Happens. I wanted to save this for the end. Now look, if you will, at verse [00:33:14] Travis Rutland: 15, [00:33:17] Travis Rutland: the first slaughter, verse 14. [00:33:20] Travis Rutland: Jonathan and his armor bearer killed about 20 men. All of that, they operate in faith. They pray audacious prayers. They take courageous action. [00:33:30] Travis Rutland: Now, finally, look what happens. [00:33:32] Travis Rutland: And there was trembling in the camp, in the field and among all the people, the garrison and the raiders also trembled. And the earthquake. [00:33:40] Travis Rutland: So that was a very great trembling. [00:33:45] Travis Rutland: Now God shows up. Do you see that? Now God shows up. Jonathan can't bring about an earthquake. Now. What so many of us want to do is sit under the shade of the pomegranate tree and pray, God, please send an earthquake to destroy the garrison. See, because that's nice and safe. That's easy. Nobody gets hurt. I don't get killed. I don't get stabbed. Me and my armor bearer don't get destroyed. It doesn't cost me anything financially. It doesn't cost me anything in the natural. I just want to sit here under the shade of the tree and ask God to send an earthquake to destroy the garrison. [00:34:21] Travis Rutland: That's not how it works. We got to have bold faith. We got to pray big old prayers [00:34:26] Travis Rutland: and then we take courageous action. But then God does. Maybe God will work on our behalf. And he does. And the earthquake comes and the garrison is destroyed. And we haven't read it, but the people are roused and the Israelites attack the garrison and the battle is won. And it's great and it's magnificent and it's awesome. And it's all because Jonathan and his armor bearers said, we're not going to sit here any longer. [00:34:49] Travis Rutland: We got to do something. Somebody has to do something. [00:34:54] Travis Rutland: That. That's our call. That's the call on our life. I don't know what your courageous action looks like. It's probably not building a girl's home in Northern Thailand, but it's something. There is some courageous action that God is calling you and you alone to do. It starts with having faith. Faith mixed with doubt is okay, just got a little more faith. [00:35:21] Travis Rutland: Starts with faith. It continues with praying, huge prayers, and it always, always ends with somebody taking courageous action. And then the earthquake comes. Then the earthquake comes. Let me close with this quick story. [00:35:38] Travis Rutland: We have three boys. [00:35:39] Travis Rutland: Our two older boys, Mark and Owen, are much older than Liam, and they're only within about two and a half years of each other. So when Courtney was pregnant with Owen, our second son, our son Mark was two, a little more than two, and he was a precocious little guy. He was He. [00:35:57] Travis Rutland: He's been running us ragged for the [00:36:00] Travis Rutland: last almost 30 years now, but he was precocious when he was 2 years old. [00:36:05] Travis Rutland: And so we're getting closer and closer to Owen being born. And one day I was riding with him in the car, just me and him. [00:36:11] Travis Rutland: He was sitting in the back seat with his little car seat, and I [00:36:14] Travis Rutland: was saying, mark, are you excited about Owen being born? [00:36:19] Travis Rutland: We knew. We knew it was going to be a boy, all that. We said, are you excited? I said, are you excited about your brother being born? [00:36:24] Travis Rutland: He said, yes. I said, well, Marky. [00:36:27] Travis Rutland: We called him Marky when he was little. [00:36:29] Travis Rutland: I said, marky, you got some stuff you got to do as a big brother. I said, you're going to be a big brother now. I said, are you ready to be a big brother? He said, yes. I said, okay. As a big brother, you got to protect. You got to protect your brother. You got to watch out for him. You got to take care of him. You got to stand up for him. There's some stuff you got to do as a big brother. Are you ready for that? [00:36:52] Travis Rutland: He was quiet for a second. He said, dad, I'm not God. I'm Marky. [00:37:02] Travis Rutland: I've always remembered that. [00:37:05] Travis Rutland: Listen to me. It's true. It's true. You can't bring about the earthquake that destroys the garrison. You're not God. You're you. But what you can do is do the same thing that Jonathan and his armor bearer did. All of us can. There is nothing in this story that is not possible for any of us. Bold faith, audacious prayers, courageous action, and then watch what the Lord will do. I'm gonna go over here and do this, and maybe the Lord will be with us. And he is, and he will be. Bold faith, audacious prayers, courageous action. That is God's word. To each of us this morning, there is something that you and you alone need to accomplish for the kingdom. Let's pray. God, I pray that you would finish this message in the hearts of every person here. [00:38:10] Travis Rutland: We thank you, God, for what you're [00:38:12] Travis Rutland: doing in this place. Among this is your church, we are [00:38:15] Travis Rutland: your people, and we thank you for [00:38:16] Travis Rutland: what you're doing in this place. [00:38:18] Travis Rutland: God ask that you finish this sermon. [00:38:20] Travis Rutland: The hearts of every person. [00:38:21] Travis Rutland: Help us, God, to be courageous, to take ownership of that thing that we know you are calling us to be about, that we've maybe run away from, that we've been afraid of, that we haven't been operating in faith about. God, give us deeper levels of faith. God help us to pray bigger and more audacious prayers and above all, God, when the moment and the season presents itself, when the opportunity arises, God help us to operate in courageous faith. God, speak to us, each of us, and show us that thing you have [00:38:51] Travis Rutland: for us and us alone. We thank you. [00:38:54] Travis Rutland: God move among us. [00:38:55] Travis Rutland: We are your people. In Jesus name we pray. [00:39:00] Travis Rutland: Amen and Amen. [00:39:03] Travis Rutland: Thank you for listening to the Travis Rutland Podcast. If you enjoyed this message and you're in the Carter's, Georgia area, we invite you to join us at Liberty Square Church. You can also watch online and connect with us on Facebook and YouTube. We'll see you next week for another message from Travis Rutland.