(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

You know, what a space we have been provided to give our great God praise and worship and honor to meet together in an environment to build our faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

What a space and place we have been given for people's spirit to come alive and the Holy Spirit of God begin to guide and direct their life all the days of their life.

And again, I think every single one of us that are in this space today, we are grateful to the Most High God, our great God, for what He has done to get us to this point in this arena.

The Valorous Arena is where we're reminded each and every day that God is for us and God is not against us.

It's a place where we come to meet.

As that song we just sung a few minutes ago said, it's a place we come to meet each and every weekend as we kick off the next week, it's a place for us to remember that Jesus has already won the battle for the penalty of sin and the power of sin in our life.

We have hope in Christ, in Christ alone.

We are — believe in Him for great, great things and though He has won that battle, we have hope in Him for eternity.

Each and every week is still a battle.

Our faith, we have to fight with our faith because we live in a world that sin has entered and trouble comes our way.

The Bible doesn't promise us a life absent of trouble.

It doesn't promise us a life, you know what, that doesn't have trials and tribulation in it.

And those trials and those tribulations, they come in many different forms.

They come in many different ways.

But what the Bible says is that we can have hope beyond the trials.

We can have hope beyond the circumstances.

We can have hope beyond this week.

And we come in here each week to encourage our faith that God is who He says He is.

That He came to give His life on a cross and He defeated death so that we could have life and have it abundantly.

The arena is a place to remind us that God has won the battle, but we are still in the fight.

And, you know, when we get together as a family, as a church family, as a people of God, that's what this space is all about.

We're worshiping Him.

We're praising Him for His great name and what He's done.

And we're encouraging each other to walk out of here and basically not throw in our towel, but to pick up our towel and keep on keeping on.

Our great God is for us and not against us.

This is a house.

This is a house where spirits are awakened.

This is a house where people can repent of their sin, turn their heart towards the love of God, and begin to move forward with their life.

This is a house of faith.

This is a house of life together on a mission to do what God has called us to do.

And you know, a few short years ago, we changed our church name from Barefoot Church to Valorous Church.

Because we are a people who want to be brave with the goodness of God and step fully into the mission He has called us to, to express His greatness to the world around us.

So we changed our name to Valorous Church because we want to step fully in that.

We want people to join us in that journey and experience what God has for them too.

You know, the Bible tells us that the enemy — you got an enemy — and he's a strategic enemy.

The Bible says the enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy.

But Christ came so we can have life to the full.

Life abundantly, come on.

But again, it's not trouble-free.

There's gonna be challenges your way.

And what you've got to learn to do as a person who is following God and accepting the gift of salvation through Christ Jesus is you've got to learn to fight.

You can't throw in the towel.

You can't quit.

You can't pull over to the side.

God has a plan for your life, but the enemy wants to destroy it and he wants to steal that plan.

He wants to steal what God has placed in you.

He wants to steal what can be deposited in your children.

He wants to steal what can be deposited in the next generation.

But God says for us to have courage in Him, step forward, be people of valor, step into it and keep on keeping on.

I love how the writer who wrote the church at Ephesus says it, and I want to share it with you today.

It's found in Ephesians chapter six.

As Paul wrote the church at Ephesus, he wanted to encourage them to keep on keeping on.

This is how he writes it.

He says, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

Listen to that.

Let that get in your spirit today.

Be strong in the Lord and His mighty power.

He goes on to say this.

He says, put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against the strategies of the devil.

And the enemy is a strategic planner.

And the enemy is setting up ways for you to stumble and fall and stop doing what God's designed you to do.

He is a strategist.

But the Bible says that he who lives in us is greater than he who lives in the world.

Come on.

Be strong in the Lord and His mighty power.

Again, the enemy's going to come against you.

He's going to come against your family.

There's going to be accidents.

There's going to be circumstances.

There's going to be relational fallout.

There's going to be sickness.

There's going to be things that come against you.

But my Bible says to keep on keeping on.

Be strong in the Lord and His mighty power.

For we are not fighting, the Bible says, against flesh and blood enemies.

Let that get in your spirit.

It's not against other people, look what it says, but against evil rulers and authorities in the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in heavenly places.

So right now as I am speaking, there is evil spirits that are working to distract you, to destroy you, and to begin to take away your courage.

The enemy wants you to be discouraged.

He wants you to stop.

He wants you to quit.

He wants you to give up, and he wants you to pull over to the side.

In other words, he wants each of us to throw in the towel.

But today, you know what?

As we step into this arena, this stage will honor the Most High God.

We give Him praise, we give Him honor, and we give Him glory, because He is who He says He is.

And we're going to encourage our faith, we're going to encourage one another.

And so today, I want to talk about not throwing in the towel, but picking up the towel, and keeping on keeping on.

Pick up the towel and keep on keeping on.

There's a story in the Bible of a man of great courage.

And this man has a lot to teach us about how not to throw in the towel, but to pick up the towel and keep moving forward with our assignment and what God has called us to do.

And I think we're all going to be inspired today when we leave here.

And though Jesus has already won the battle of sin, you know what?

We still have to fight the fight of faith.

And what I believe today is, as we go through this story in 1 Samuel chapter 30, God's going to inspire your faith.

And when you leave this place today, you're not going to give your towel over to the adversary.

You're going to hang on to that towel with all you got, your life.

And you're going to keep on keeping on.

You're not going to pull over to the side, you're not going to give up, and you're not going to quit.

You're going to keep pushing.

You're going to keep growing.

You're going to be strong in the Lord and His mighty power.

The Bible says in 1 Samuel chapter 30, verse 6, it says it this way.

It says that David, King David, he encouraged himself in the Lord, his God.

Now to set this story up today in 1 Samuel chapter 30, I want you to know when this happened in King David's life.

1 Samuel 30, it says that David encouraged himself in the Lord, his God.

But this is before David became king.

Before David became king, he had a lot of things come against him to discourage him.

To basically hold him back from his full God potential.

He had challenges in his life, he had misses in his life, he missed the mark of God's glorious standard on several occasions, but you know what, God was with him.

And God worked in him and God worked through him and he did not quit.

As a matter of fact, in the New Testament, the Bible says about King David, who was the king of Israel, it says he was a man after God's own heart.

And he fulfilled his purpose in his generation.

And so this is before, where this passage is in 1 Samuel, this is before David became a king.

David was on the run, because his leader, who was the king of Israel, Saul, had basically chased him out of the country.

Saul, the leader, who David rescued from the Philistine giant, Goliath, remember the story about Goliath?

Saul hated David.

Though David would play the harp, David would sing the consoling songs to Saul, who was the king of Israel, Saul didn't like him, and so Saul set out to kill David, he chased David.

David lived in caves, David was on the run, he was having some bad times.

And eventually, against all odds, David escaped to the Philistine country.

And there was a king there in the Philistine country that decided to take David in.

And he said, David, you're, you know, quite a warrior, and he thought that David was going to help him go back at Saul, where David was not going to do that.

But the Bible says that this king in the foreign country gave David a little country town named Ziglag, kind of like Aner, maybe, I don't know.

But David and his men, this king gave him this town.

So they moved their families there, they set up shop, and it was incredible.

Then they went out one day to help this king supposedly fight a battle.

And all of a sudden, you know, God moved because this battle was going to be against the Israelite people, David's people, but God moved on that king's heart, the Philistine king, and basically told that king to release David to go back to his home in Ziglag.

Now David heads back to Ziglag, and this is where we pick up the story with his men.

He had 600 men with him, hanging out with him, their families.

They had set up shop in this town called Ziglag.

David went out to help somebody.

You ever tried to help somebody?

And he comes back, and now the enemy is trying to discourage him.

Let's see what the story says.

First Samuel chapter 30, it begins in verse one, and it says three days later after David was basically summoned by that king to go back to Ziglag, when David and his men arrived home at their town in Ziglag, they found that the Amalekites had made a raid into the Negev in Ziglag.

That was a different set of people.

They had crushed Ziglag, and they had burned it to the ground.

I don't know if you've ever faced a challenging day or challenging moment, but most of us have.

But this right here is a major challenge.

Because they had set up shop, now their whole town is burned down by an enemy.

David heads back to the town, and look what it says.

When they got back, these raiders had carried off the women and children and everyone else, but without killing anyone.

And when David and his men saw the ruins and realized what had happened to their families, they wept.

They wept until they could weep no more.

That hurt.

Can I tell you, sometimes challenges in life hurt.

And they wept until they could weep no more.

David's two wives, Ahinium and Abigail, were among those captured.

The Bible goes on to say in verse 6, now David, he was in great danger because all his men, the people who were with him, they became bitter about losing their sons and daughters, and they began to talk about killing David, stoning him is what the Bible says.

And here it is, but David found strength in the Lord, his God.

See I don't know what challenges you have faced this week, last year, last month or five years ago.

But what I do know is you probably faced some.

And this story reminds us that though we are in God's hands, the strategic enemy is still at work against us.

And this story begins to show us how to fight with our faith in spite of what happens.

Even if your men, your family turn against you, keep fighting.

Even if, you know what, your former king runs you out of the country, keep fighting.

Even if you have relational struggles in your family, keep fighting.

Even if you have sickness that comes along, you know what, don't you throw in the towel, keep fighting.

This story begins to be remarkable because it begins to show us how David kept fighting in spite of this bad day.

You ever had a bad day?

I've had several of them.

And you know, what I've discovered on my journey is even in the bad days, God is there.

But I've also, because I got a brain just like yours and a mind just like yours, I struggle.

And sometimes I want to throw in the towel.

I want to quit.

I want to pull over to the side.

But as I put my feet on the floor, I'm reminded that my God is who He says He is, and I'm gonna keep fighting, and I'm gonna keep going, and I'm gonna keep plowing until He returns because we have an assignment.

And I'm not gonna let the enemy steal my joy.

I'm gonna let the enemy, I'm gonna put the enemy at bay by letting the joy of the Lord come into my heart and be exactly who He is.

I want to encourage you today in your faith.

You know what, the enemy makes, some of you want to stay at home on the weekend.

But why don't you get out of bed?

Get over here to the church.

Come on.

Maybe, you know, maybe you've got to be online.

It's awesome.

But when you come up in this place, you can be encouraged in the Lord.

We have to step up and begin to let God do a remarkable thing in our heart.

And David here, you know what, he says, I'm gonna encourage myself in the Lord.

In other words, I'm gonna pick up my towel and I'm not gonna throw it in.

So let's spend a few minutes to see how he did it.

And I think that this is going to personally teach you and me in a powerful way from this day forward to hold on my towel and not throw it in and give it to the avistary.

The first way we hold on our towel is this, you may want to jot it down, it's with praise.

Praise is a weapon, my friend.

And we come here and we sing these songs because whenever praise goes first, the enemy begins to flee.

Whenever we lift our voices and our hearts and we praise the most high God, all other, all other evil spirits and gods have to flee, come on.

And we're giving God praise, we're giving Him honor, we're giving Him glory.

But in order to praise the most high God and really give Him praise in spite of what's coming against you, you got to have a personal relationship with Him.

And that's why Jesus came, is to forgive us of our sin as He gave His life on a cross, but to show us the love of our great God.

He came to forgive us of our sin so that we could get on track and begin to be all God's created us to be, but don't miss this.

He came also so you could be in a personal relationship with the most high God.

In other words, He gave you full access into the Father's house.

He gave you and I full access to be able to call on God in the times of trouble, to step into that relationship that you have with God.

It's not a relationship for later.

He's not a far off God, He's here and He's now and He's present and He came through His one and only Son of Christ Jesus so you could step into that relationship and give Him praise and give Him honor.

Look what the Scripture says there again in 1 Samuel chapter 30 verse 6.

It says David found strength in the Lord, His God.

That's key.

The word His, that's personal.

It wasn't somebody else's God, it was His God.

It wasn't just the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

It wasn't just the God of His forefather Moses who led the Israelite people out of Egypt in slavery.

It wasn't just His grandmama's God.

It wasn't just Uncle Fred's God.

It wasn't, you know, just His friend's God.

It was His God.

It was personal.

And see, you can't really give Him praise until you understand personally and put your faith in what He's done for you and your sin.

You can't really give Him praise because it's a free gift that comes from God.

That's why it's called grace.

It's unmerited favor and you can only ride on the coattails of somebody else's faith, but you gotta put your personal faith in the Lord, your God, through Christ Jesus, and then you can have that personal relationship.

Is He your God?

It's personal.

Is your praise personal?

Because I love to come in here and praise God with y'all.

I love these beautiful singers we have.

But when I lift my hands, it's personal.

I know my big old, you know, six foot six, two hundred and fifty something pound guy up here on the front raising my hands, but why do I do that?

It ain't to show you the back of my hands, it's to open my hands and praise a God who's been good to me in the valley.

He's been good to me in the dark.

He brought me out of slumber.

Come on.

And you know what?

He's still good to me in spite of the fight I'm in.

He's my God.

He's my Savior.

And see, if you don't have that personal relationship today, I just want to speak to you for just a moment.

There's no other way.

Why have you made something else your God?

You can't get there on your own.

It's a free gift from God.

His name is Jesus.

Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth and the life.

And no one comes to the Father except through me.

And if you hadn't come to the Father through Christ Jesus, then chances are, you know what?

You're giving your praises in vain and you don't have that personal relationship.

But when you do, and when I do, I can step in to God's throne room and I can get guidance and I can get wisdom in the midst of adversity.

Not the world's wisdom, but God's wisdom.

There's a big difference.

And let me tell you something, the enemy is a strategist.

This is a dark world.

Sin has entered this world.

And if you're going to get through those difficult moments and keep your hope in the Lord, your God, you need to make it personal.

And when you do, he'll give you wisdom and he'll give you guidance.

If you'll call on the name of the Lord.

That's what David did.

But what it says, it says it this way in 1 Samuel chapter 30, verses 8 through 10.

It says, David asked the Lord, once this happened, should I chase after this band of raiders and will I catch them?

And the Lord told him, yes, go after them.

You will surely recover everything that was taken from you.

So David and his 600 men, they set out and they came to the brook of Bezor.

But 200 of the men were too exhausted to cross the brook.

So David continued to pursue with 400 men.

David went to the Lord in the midst of this bad day and he didn't throw in the towel.

He had every right to, oh, I lost everything.

The Bible says he wept.

But he had a personal relationship with his God and he called on that God for wisdom.

What should I do?

And he said, you know what?

Hang on to your towel, David, and start chasing because I'm going to give you back everything that was stolen.

He got his wisdom from God.

He did what God said and he held on to his towel.

He didn't throw it in.

And guess what?

his faith was encouraged.

Your praise needs to be personal.

But not only do we need to praise God in the difficult moments with our towel and not throw our life in, we also got to learn that it's okay to snot on our towel.

It's okay to wipe our tears with our towel.

It's okay to clean a little blood off with our towel.

It's okay to wipe your face of the sweat equity that you put in with your towel, but don't you throw in your towel to the adversary.

You see, David teaches us here to have faith and crown our towel, but not to throw it in.

Look what the Bible says.

First Samuel chapter 30 verses three through four, it says when David and his men, they saw the ruins, what had happened to their families, they wept until they could, they could weep no more, or they cried on their towel.

It's okay to cry every now and then.

Hurts real.

Pain is real.

Your feelings are real.

But here's the key.

Don't let the feelings override your faith.

Keep your faith in Christ Jesus amongst your feelings.

I can't just let my feelings take over my faith and take away my hope and my joy.

Feelings are real.

I'm not denying feelings.

I have them, you have them, we all have them.

But we have to begin to let the faith in who has come and done the battle for us.

We got to let that faith begin to get in our spirit in the midst of the challenges and trials, but not throw in our towel, give it to the adversary.

That's exactly what he wants you to do.

He wants you to quit.

He wants you to pull over to the side.

He wants you to think that, you know what, that, that he's, that, that God's finished with you.

And I don't know how you stepped in here today.

I don't even know what kind of relationship you in or where you've been, but this is what I do know.

You still got a heartbeat in your chest.

You've got air in your lungs.

And my Bible says, God ain't finished with you.

Hang on to your towel, keep the faith and believe God.

Wipe the sweat off your brow.

It's going to be okay.

The Bible says in Psalm 30 verse five, his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime.

Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning.

Come on, hang on to your towel.

David teaches us how to keep on keeping on.

How to begin to put our faith in God and, and begin to put our trust in the Lord and his mighty power.

He teaches us what that really means.

But not only do we need to basically pick up our towel, cry on our towel, wipe our sweat with our towel, we, you know, begin to praise with our towel, I wrote this down.

We have to, we have to serve with our towel.

We have to show honor with our towel.

Honor is an interesting word because a lot of times people, they want to get honor or be honored, but the reality of it is, is honor is something more about what you give instead of what you get.

Honor shows you something about your own heart.

And you honor others in spite of who they are, where they come from or what they've done.

The reality of it is, and you can only honor like that whenever you have the heart of God.

The Bible says that the son of man came to serve, not to be served.

That's Jesus.

The Bible says, you know what?

That He gave His life as a ransom for many.

He gave His life on a cross while we were yet sinners.

In other words, He, Jesus, was a man of honor.

David was a man of honor in spite of what was going on around them or what came against them.

And so, I want to encourage you today, live a life of honor.

Pick up your towel, whether they deserve it or don't deserve it.

Honor all people.

Honor God.

Honor God and you will honor all people.

Jesus was the one to ask, what is the greatest commandment?

And Jesus said, love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

And He says the second one is just as important.

Love others as you love yourself.

See when we choose to live a life of honor and serve others, the enemy has to flee.

Because we begin to represent the most high God's heart when we do that and we become the people in a community that changes a community.

You know that's what the church is, right?

It's a people in a people to change a people.

And the way we do it is we realize that God loved us before we were lovable.

And we step into relationships and we don't get it right a hundred percent of the time, but even if you come against me, I'm gonna show you honor because I'm trying to show you the heart of my Creator so you can get on board with His program and not throw in the towel and become all He's designed you to be.

Come on.

Pick up the towel, serve with the towel, but don't throw in your towel.

Listen to what the Bible says in first Samuel chapter 30 verses 21 through 24.

It says after all this went down, David started chasing the people.

The Bible says finally at the end of all this, remember 200 of the 600 men quit on him.

They got exhausted.

They got tired.

They stopped.

Remember that in the story just a minute ago?

It says in first Samuel chapter 30 verses 21 through 24, David returned to the brook of Bezor.

That's where the 200 quit.

And the Bible says, and he met up with the 200 men who had left, who he had, who had been left behind because they were too exhausted to go with him.

It says they went out to meet David and his men and David greeted them, look at this, joyfully.

But some evil troublemakers among the men, that's some people who went with David, said they didn't go with us so they can't have any of the plunder we recovered.

Look what it says.

They keep going and say, give them their wives and their children, but tell them David to be gone.

But David said, no, my brothers, don't be selfish.

Look at your neighbor and say, don't be selfish.

Tell them to hold on to their towel.

David, the leader, they quit on him, they were exhausted, they were tired.

Some people who went with him said, look, they're not welcome in our presence.

They didn't do it.

And David says, no, no, no, no, no.

Don't be selfish.

Look what he says.

He says, don't be selfish with what the Lord has given us.

He has kept us safe and he has helped us defeat this band of raiders that attacked us.

Who will listen when we talk like this?

He says, we share and we share alike.

In other words, you know, we don't always, you know, get what — we don't always receive what we might thought we would receive from other people.

But whenever the Lord is with us and we begin to do amazing things in this world by picking up our towel and not throwing it in, our job is to go back.

Even when they quit, even when they got tired, even whenever they didn't make it all the way.

Our job is to go back and share and share alike, show honor and show it to all people and show it everywhere.

This is the heart of Valerius.

Our job is not to leave people behind.

Our job as a church and a people is to hang on to the Lord and His mighty power and begin to trust Him for all He's done in our life and open our heart and our hands and be generous to everybody around us.

You know, that's the heart of this church, that's why so many of you have been generous up to this point.

That's why so many of you give financially, sacrificially.

I need you to know that there's people sitting among you that don't just give a tithe, they give an offering, they give sacrificially.

Why?

Because they care about what Jesus has done in their life and they want to extend it to somebody else.

They want them to sit in that seat and they want to show honor to them whether they deserve it from a physical standpoint or not.

See, God called us to make a difference in the world.

And what I've learned in my journey is when I give freely, I'm under the spout where the glory comes out.

That's why I'm telling you right now to not be selfish with what God has put in your hand because when you pour it out, God pours in.

He will fill the cup if you will pour it out.

For His name's sake.

God does what He says He's going to do.

God's inviting us into this journey.

God's calling us to be a valorous people.

Life is challenging, but we come into this arena, this space.

As a church family to praise our great God and find encouragement to keep on keeping on.

So at the end of your life, I need you to know today that God's not looking for you to show up and say, God, here's my life.

Look how clean it is.

God's looking for you to show up and say, God, this is my life.

I trusted you all the way along the journey.

I didn't throw in the towel.

There was some battles, there's some blood, there's some sweat, there's some tears, there's some tears, there's some stuff going on here, but God, I trusted you.

I kept my hope in Christ Jesus all the way to the end and here I am.

And you know what God's going to say?

He's going to say, well done, my good and faithful servant.

That's my boy.

That's my girl.

Come on in.

Well done.

Put down that old life and pick up that new life.

Hallelujah.

Come on church.

God our prayer today is that we will be a people that hold on to our towel.

We won't give it over to the adversary.

God we'll step in and we'll give your name praise and honor.

God we'll step in, we'll crown our towel, we'll bleed on our towel, we'll serve with our towel all the way through the feelings and we're going to hang on to a life of faith.

God, today we want to be a people that pick up our towel, serve the world around us in spite of what's going on, because God our desire is to hear from the one who gave us full access to you.

The one who came to forgive us of our sin freely.

Our life desires to step into your kingdom, not all squeaky clean, but full of faith and belief and hope and say, God I didn't quit, I didn't pull over to the side, I trusted Jesus all the way.

God, may every person here hear, well done, my good and faithful servant, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.