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Let's Do The Math... 80 Times! · Bible Tract Echoes Podcast

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey friend, welcome back to Bible Tract Echoes on Mike McCurray, your host.
• 0:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so very much for taking your time and joining me right here today.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have a singular question for you.
• 0:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have one thought that I want to convey.
• 0:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're not going to hear the question really until the very end of today's broadcast.
• 0:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, if you would,
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Toon your mind.
• 0:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Toon your heart.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Listen into this thought.
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to do a little bit of math here from 1 Samuel 17 as we look at the story that age old story of David and Goliath.
• 0:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: You say, I know that story.
• 0:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, listen in.
• 0:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because we're going to come out of maybe just a little bit of a different angle than you're used to.
• 0:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to be listening to a message I preached just a few weeks ago to a good group of teenagers in Butler, Pennsylvania, at a teen camp.
• 0:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was well received and I felt the leading to share it with our radio audiences as well.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you would, stay plugged in, stay tuned in to what God has for you today.
• 1:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Listen now.
• 1:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Look at verse number one again.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Bible says this in first King's 17.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle and were gathered together at Shoko, which belong to Judah, verse number two, and Saul in the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched by the valley of Ela, and set the battle in a ray against the Philistines.
• 1:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: You realize here, the children of Israel were going to put ourselves in their situation for just a moment.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to identify with them.
• 1:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: They were present.
• 1:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes you can show up.
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I remember some kid, he was one of those kids who always had to mouth off or say something.
• 1:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: The teacher was calling a roll call.
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone was saying present or here.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he said, presentable.
• 1:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, that guy, that guy.
• 1:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not that quick on my feet, but these Israelites were, hey, if nothing else, we're gonna get to the fact that they were dismayed and afraid, but at least they were present.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Aren't you glad?
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, pastors, you, you, you, you love everyone to come to church on Sunday morning with a great spirit, but sometimes you'll just take them being there, you know?
• 2:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just show up, maybe we can change an attitude, but I can't, if you're not there.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: your present tonight.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, mentally, you might be a little checked out.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Physically, you're tired, but you're here, spiritually.
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: You may only be hanging on by the most tenuous of grasps, but you're present.
• 2:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we heard earlier today, but the Cron, that that's the prerequisite for God to do something.
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Gaze, I wasn't present, he missed out, and you're present tonight, and I'll be honest with you as hopeless as your youth pastor or youth pastor's wife thinks about you right now.
• 3:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think you've got potential, because you're present.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't just present though, look at verse number two, and solve the men of Israel gathered together in pitch by the valley of Ela.
• 3:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: and set the battle in a ray against the Philistings.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: They were prepared.
• 3:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: They set the battle in a ray.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're here tonight.
• 3:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're ready for chapel, and we put on maybe a college, shirt, gentlemen, or something like that.
• 3:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we're ready, and maybe even through on a tie or something.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: And but either way, you're here.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: You got your Bible in your laps.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you're acting like, if you're going to fall asleep,
• 3:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: you've perfected your eyes glazing over and falling asleep with your eyes open at least.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: But you look prepared, you know who looked prepared.
• 3:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Those Israelites looked prepared.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: They looked like they were ready for something and they were not only present, they were not only quote unquote prepared, they were in the right place.
• 4:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: You notice the value of Ela, do you know that that's only about 15 miles or so from Jerusalem?
• 4:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Do you realize they stood between it was on Israelite territory?
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: The enemies of God had come and encroached upon their territory, there was a place worth fighting for it directly behind them.
• 4:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now the Philistines maybe they could have outmanoeuvred them and got to Jerusalem.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: They could have maybe just maybe got there, but it would have been unwise probably tactically
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: them as they tried to get to Jerusalem.
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so the Philistines knew if they were going to end this war, they would have to sooner or later, they would have to confront the Israelites.
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And they were pretty confident about it.
• 4:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Israelites, they even had a purpose worth fighting for.
• 5:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: But then you notice a pause, looking verse number three, and the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side.
• 5:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, and there was a valley between them.
• 5:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I noticed the battle has not commenced.
• 5:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's this almost unholy pause going on.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: The moment before the decision, they're gonna be confronted with something if they don't know what it is, and everything just comes to an uneasy still.
• 5:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then, you know how it is when you're trying to finish your outline, this King Kong looking character comes walking out of the other.
• 5:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, if you're looking for the outline, I'm going to call him a primate, looking guy.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, a primate.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Looks like a big gorilla.
• 5:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: In all seriousness, though, this guy looks like he walks straight out of a movie.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: He is massive.
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he's not, you know, you see in the NBA, you see guys that are seven foot six and all that have to suffer.
• 6:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: But the vast majority of them are pencil thin.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: There are a few guys that actually have some bulk to them getting that big.
• 6:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And this guy dwarfed the biggest centers ever.
• 6:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: This guy was massive.
• 6:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he, the only thing coming from his lips is a provocation.
• 6:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: He wants to grab their attention.
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he wants to scare them.
• 6:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Look if you wanted the next verse.
• 6:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: for their went out of the camp of the Philistines named the life of Gath, whose height was six cubits in his span, had a hemorrhage of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail in the way of the coast, five thousand shackles of brass, and it continues on, in verse number eight, this provocation we see, he stood and cried onto the armies of Israel and said unto them, why are you come out to set your battle in a ray?
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not out of Philistine and you serve in Stahl.
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Choose you a man for you and let them come down to me.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: If he be able to fight with me and it kill me, then we'll be your servants.
• 7:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: But if I prevail against him and kill him, then ye shall be, then shall ye be our servants and serve us, I defy the Philistine said.
• 7:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the Philistine said I defy the armies of Israel this day.
• 7:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: What is that cause?
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: A verse number 11, a panic, when Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine.
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
• 7:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're introduced in verse number 12.
• 7:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to get to the message just a moment.
• 7:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I will be long tonight.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're introduced to the, if you're writing a screenplay, if you're writing a story, normally you'll have the bad guy, what we call the antagonist, but then on the other side you'll have the good guy.
• 7:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: In the Westerns he was wearing the white hat, you know?
• 7:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's the protagonist.
• 7:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's the one that comes writing up over the, he comes out of the sunset.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's going to fix the problems.
• 8:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now David was the son of the effertheid of Bethlehem Judah whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons and the man Jesse went among men for an old man in the days of Saul.
• 8:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: But what's the question?
• 8:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've set the table, we've set the preliminaries, we know it's going on here, we understand.
• 8:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: You already knew when I turned the first single 17 and you read the first few verses, you already knew what was going on.
• 8:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: What's the question?
• 8:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Did you look a verse number 16?
• 8:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to see some persistence by this filistine.
• 8:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: in the Philistine, Junir, morning, and evening, and presented himself 40 days.
• 9:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I read this some time ago, and
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I thought about that, and oftentimes, especially in a very familiar passage like this, you brush over that, because we know, 40 days, we remember, it sticks to you for a second, because Jesus fasted for 40 days, there's different occasions of 40 days in the Bible.
• 9:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: But here's one, we all know it's 40 days, but then it was really easy math.
• 9:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was at a camp not long ago.
• 9:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the director, he would poke Japs, who's a fun guy, but he would poke Japs at home schoolers.
• 9:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And their inability to do some basic arithmetic and stuff.
• 9:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was thinking, I was home schooled, what are you talking about, man?
• 9:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thankfully, I got all the answers right when you asked me, put me on the spot, I wouldn't do that.
• 9:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: But this was easy arithmetic, cause 40 times morning and evening, that's twice a day, 40 times two is what?
• 9:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: a good job, no one shot it.
• 9:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's always a guy that's really confidently wrong.
• 10:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ninety-five!
• 10:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for not doing that.
• 10:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: 80.
• 10:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there was a question that came to mind as I'm looking at this patch of scripture.
• 10:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I thought in my life, what's it gonna take for somebody to stand up and do something?
• 10:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: This guy comes out, and he stands before the armies of God the first day, okay?
• 10:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: We can forgive that in the morning, and we're trying to figure out what's going on, and he doesn't in the evening, oh my goodness, he might continue this, and the second day he does it, and the first week goes by, and the second week goes by, and the third week goes by, and the fourth week goes by, we're into the fifth and a half week.
• 11:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we know the story, I don't have to tell it to you.
• 11:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: A little shepherd boy who'd seen God work before stood up and did something.
• 11:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: This message might not be for everybody tonight.
• 11:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: but it might be for you, because my question is, what's it gonna take?
• 11:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: How many times you can have to hear the same thing?
• 11:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: How many times is the world gonna have to challenge you?
• 11:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're gonna say, well, my parents aren't doing nothing spiritual, my peers aren't doing something spiritual.
• 11:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm having problems with my pastor at home.
• 11:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Those all sound like problems David had, didn't he?
• 11:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: His leader, doing nothing.
• 11:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: His peers, doing nothing.
• 11:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: His family, doing nothing.
• 11:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I don't see that affecting David too much, do ya.
• 11:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: My question is, what's it gonna take to get you to move?
• 11:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's reallys to stay in the crowd.
• 12:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: See, I'm not necessarily preaching this at just the young man that haven't moved the entire week.
• 12:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you've only heard some phenomenal preaching.
• 12:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to guilt you into it because the Holy Spirit can do a far better job of talking to you right now.
• 12:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you know exactly the decision that you're ignoring God's talking to you about.
• 12:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: What's it gonna take?
• 12:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Friend, thank you so very much for listening into today's broadcast.
• 12:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Bible track dedico's, I've gotta ask you though, what's it gonna take?
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: A.V.
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: times the Israelites heard the challenge.
• 12:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: and 80 times they dissetted not to rise to the opportunity.
• 12:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if God is speaking to you today.
• 12:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I encourage you listen in all this week.
• 12:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have three more segments of this message that honestly, I bore my heart to these young people that I was preaching to.
• 12:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: My prayer is that maybe just a little bit of what I say will bleed over to you as well.
• 13:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to thank you so very much for your investment time.
• 13:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: My prayer is always, is that you have a great day for his glory.
• 13:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I look forward to speaking to you more.
• 13:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: God bless.
• 13:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for tuning in to Bible Tract Echoes, the radio ministry of Bible Tracts Incorporated.
• 13:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Want to see our gospel tracks and other resources?
• 13:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Visit us online at bibletracksink.org that's bibletracksink.org or follow us on social media to learn how you can partner with this ministry.
• 13:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for listening.
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: May the Lord richly bless you as you live for him.