Music Today I'm going to talk to you about the weight.
No one sees the weight no one sees, right.
We, we talk a lot about David and we love David the
worshipper. We love David the giant Slayer.
We love David the king, but we often ignore David the servant,
right? We often overlook David the
servant. It's not one of his most like
well known features. I feel like when it comes to
serving and when it comes to like someone who was just
faithful, we tend to find potentially other people to kind
of pull from. But when I was going over my
notes, I realized, man, there's one thing I, I, I really noticed
that stuck out to me about David.
And that was his servanthood. That was the way he served in
every position, right? Because everybody wants, you
know, everybody loves a song. Everybody wants the victory,
right? Everybody wants authority.
But few want to look at the assignment that David had to get
there, right? A lot of times we like to think,
man, I'm a worshiper like David or I'm, I'm dislike David.
I want to be this like David, but we overlook what got David
to those positions. We overlook the the one
character thing that really can't.
We celebrate the crowns, right? We celebrate the victories, we
celebrate all that does, but God measures the faithfulness,
right? God's looking at the
faithfulness. So today what I want to do is I
want to talk about David a little bit and, and just to help
it flow, I'm going to kind of break it down into three key
sections, right? I want to talk about three key
portions of David's life that I believe as we get into really
breakdown the way he served because before he ever ruled a
Kingdom, he served in a Kingdom, right?
Before David ever ruled the Kingdom, he served in the
Kingdom, right? And so the four first session or
moment of his life I want to look at.
I'm going to call the staff season, right?
Is the staff, right? This is David's moments in the
field. This was David, the shepherd.
This was David that we all know and love, the one who killed the
lion and the bear, right? This is David's staff season.
We're going to start in first Samuel 1611, First Samuel 1611
and says, and Samuel said to the to Jesse, are these all the
children? And he said there remains yet
the youngest. And behold, he is tending the
sheep. Then Samuel said to Jesse, send
and bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes.
So he sent and brought him in. Now he was Ruddy with beautiful
eyes and handsome in appearance. Side note, a lot of people kind
of think that maybe that Ruddy means he was a redhead.
And so that's one of the reasons that I think David speaks to me
so much. It's pretty easy for me to put
my, my, myself in those shoes and we're just going to keep
rolling with that. So for the rest of the sermon,
just imagine David with red hair.
He had beautiful eyes and was handsome in appearance.
And the Lord said, arise, anoint him for this.
Is he right? One great thing that we see
right here, right out the gate in David's life is David is
anointed to be king, but was not in the room to be chosen.
David was anointed to be king, but where was he serving out in
the field? David's first moment of God
moving on his life came while he was out serving somewhere else.
Then he becomes anointed and sent right back out into the
field. God crowned him privately.
God took him with Samuel and his family and anointed him as king.
No one else knows this. A private anointing of private
crowning then sent him back out into the field publicly and said
continue to do what you were doing privately.
He was crowned. So the staff season, right it
represents and what we're going to continue to break down as it
represents unseen obedience. It represents repetitive
faithfulness. It represents serving without
applause. See, David learned God's voice
while no one was watching. Revelation was formed in his
isolation in the field. David learned the still small
voice of God while he was serving alone privately in a
field. Because in these moments, right
of isolation, in these moments of when we're alone and we, we
take time in our serving, that we're just by ourselves where no
one knows, no one's seen everything we're doing, but
we're just alone serving and loving God.
And then God can speak so much into our lives.
It was in David's quiet service that God called him, anointed
him, but then said you're still not ready for anything else yet.
Go back to your quiet service. How many times in our own life
do we feel God call us to something and then think that
something has to manifest? Now David, anointed king, goes
back to shepherd. That doesn't feel like much of a
promotion, right? That feels like that feels like
more responsibility, but yet you still get everything you already
had. David didn't relinquish his
field duties. David didn't see Dave, didn't
look at his brother and go, hey man, I can't deal with sheep
poop anymore. I'm king, bro.
I can't be doing this no more. Like God chose me, not you guys.
So I got to start studying up on king stuff, right?
I got to start getting ready for the Kingdom.
So you're going to need to go tend all these.
No, he went back out and continue to serve exactly where
he was. Psalm 7870.
Psalm 7870 says he also chose David his servant, and took him
from the sheepfolds, from the care of the ooze and the
suckling lamb. He brought him to shepherd Jacob
his people, and Israel his inheritance.
So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,
and guided them with skillful hands.
Before David LED people, he led sheep, and before he sang
publicly, he learned obedience privately.
Before we ever hear the songs of David, he is serving and obeying
privately. Some of the greatest psalms we
get in the season of the staff are from his lessons of
obedience and service. When he's by himself.
What what it's kind of crazy. We, we do this with artists a
lot. I believe it was like Van Gogh,
who was an artist that ultimately had all these kind of
paintings and no one thought he was a good painter.
Everyone thought he was crazy. Then he died and all of a sudden
his paintings became something which means he never saw the
success of his work during his lifetime.
But he didn't give up. He continued to paint, continue
to do it during his private this.
So by all accounts, you would have to assume he painted for
himself because nobody wanted it.
But he believed in his own art and did this for himself
privately. David went back into the field
privately and just said, I just want to love, serve and obey
God. And then he shows up anointing.
He goes, that's great. I just want to love, serve, and
obey God, which means I don't need anything to change.
I just need to continue to love, serve, and obey God.
So God forms worshippers in obscurity before he trusts them
with influence. God forms worshippers in
obscurity before he trusts them with influence.
In your moments where no one knows how much you're giving,
how much you're pouring out, how much you're invested in, those
are the moments God is forming you and He's building you for
what's to come. Because if God can't trust you
unseen, he won't elevate you seen.
If God can't trust you unseen, then he won't elevate you.
Seen, we have to live a life that says it doesn't matter
what's going on because I love God.
I will obey his word and I will continue to serve him right.
Because like I said, we love the stories of David's victories.
We love the stories of David becoming king.
We love the stories of all that David did, all the great stuff
he did. And his influence was loud, but
his formation was quiet. And God moves in the quiet.
He starts with the crock quiet. Why?
Because it lets us know so much about the Bible.
God speaks in a still small voice.
It's a gentle nudging. It is all small little.
Why? Because he says, if you break
away and get with me, I can lead you.
The only times in the Bible we get those crazy like those
sayeth the Lord moments are when people are so far gone.
That guy's like I got to get their attention, which is why
I'm like, I don't brag about I heard God's voice when it's like
I hear God still small leadings. I don't need big booming voice,
right? All I need to know is if I get
quiet, God can work on my heart. If I get quiet, God can move in
my life. Elevation reveals what obscurity
already formed. When God elevates you in your
life, all it does is show all of the formation in the quiet time
it is pulled out from from. This guy has loved me and obeyed
me and served me. Because of that, now I can place
him somewhere. Now I can put him where he needs
to be because I've seen his faithfulness.
Luke 1610. Luke 1610 says he who is
faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much, and he
who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also
in much. God is looking for your
faithfulness in the quiet season because God doesn't promote
potential, He looks for proven faithfulness.
He's saying no. I've seen his faithful in
little. Now I can give him faithful and
much not man. Maybe if I just give him this
big thing, he'll run hard. Maybe if I just go ahead and
give him this title, then he'll he'll form it together.
No, God isn't giving out things hoping that you'll finally live
to the potential He knows you have.
He's looking for your faithfulness in every season so
that you can say no. I've seen it here.
I've seen the quiet alone time. I've seen Him separate.
I've seen him deal with these situations.
I've seen Him lean on me. I've seen Him put me first.
I've seen what happens when pressure comes to His life.
I see how He handles the little. So now I can trust Him to handle
so much more, right. We we look at David's time in
the field and all the times we talk about, oh, we have the
lion, we got the bear and then we build to Goliath and we
always try to tackle this from just like, well, he was faithful
with little the lion and the bear.
And so then he saw God move and now he can handle Goliath.
But what's interesting about Goliath story is why was he
there? The only reason David was even
around Goliath is because he went to serve his brothers,
which means David's greatest moment of victory with Goliath
came from a moment of serving. How many moments in victories
are we missing out of because we're not serving where we're
supposed to be? We passed on serving, therefore
we lost an opportunity to win. We say God use me, God use me.
Then we decline the opportunities to be used.
God's looking for your service. David had no intention of
fighting Goliath. David had no intention of being
in a battle. David had no intention of doing
any of anything but serving his family and serving his brother.
Then how dare you insult my God? How many of us have missed out
on something God has wanted from us because we weren't willing to
serve somewhere? Come on.
Because we didn't step out? Because David could have been
like, man, that's a long walk, dad.
Like, you know how long it's going to take to get there.
This food's like, not even going to be good by the time I get
there, right? He ain't calling an Uber, but
he's not like he ain't jumping on the sheep and riding him down
there. Maybe he lassoed a bear or
something, like, I don't know. But at the end of the day, like
he had to work that he could have had so many other reasons.
Like Dad, the army feeds them. What are we talk?
Like, why? They're already fed.
Who's going to watch the sheep while I'm gone?
It's easy to come up with excuses to not be somewhere.
But are we letting excuses keep us from the victory?
God wants us. And so here's the thing.
You don't graduate from the staff season.
You're shaped by it. David never left the staff
season. It shaped him and then it
started to look different in the rest of his life.
Because after we have the staff season, we have the sword
season, David kills Goliath, who got First Samuel 18 to 23 is
like the chapters. I'm obviously not going to read
them. I'm going to kind of paraphrase.
But after Goliath, this major victory, we have David, who's
already been anointed to be king, kills Goliath.
Everyone now knows this. Everyone's seen this.
He doesn't. He still does not step into the
throne. David's next step after this big
glorious battle is not the throne.
It's just a deeper level of service.
The closer, the closer David got to the throne, the more David
served. The closer he got to his
ultimate calling, the more he served.
He's placed in this Kingdom long before he takes it over serving
First Samuel 18 five, it says. So David went out wherever Saul
sent him, wherever Saul sent him, and prospered.
And Saul set him over the men of war.
And it was pleasing in the sight of all the people, and also in
the sight of Saul's servants. David did not choose his
assignment, he honored it. It says he went out wherever
Saul sent him. David, the one anointed king who
knows one day it will be king serving in the Kingdom.
David knows, man, I'm going to. One day I will get this Kingdom,
but now it's not mine. And I will honor this service.
I will honor every step during this season.
He led Israel's armies, and with wisdom he protected the borders
of a nation he did not yet rule. He strengthened a Kingdom he
would one day inherit. He carried authority without
entitlement. He fought battles for a throne
he would not yet sit on. See, this is where most people
quit. You get you born again.
We love God. Or maybe we we get rededicated,
we're back on fire. And then we we attack our Bible
reading plan, we attack our personal worship.
We start making shifts. We're like, I'm not listening to
this junk anymore. Now I'm putting on worship in
the car, man, I'm waking up an extra 10 minutes earlier and I'm
praying, man, I'm praying in the shower.
We start getting this hunger and thirst like we should have for
this personal devotion. And we start growing and God's
like, yes, that's it. You've got it.
So he starts to pull us out and says, man, I'm getting ready to
put you to something else. I'm going to put your hand to
work. Then they start working for
someone else. They start serving even deeper.
And see, by all rights, David could have said, I'm anointed,
like I'm anointed. Why am I still serving?
Like I'm supposed to be king? Why am I doing whatever he says?
I killed Goliath. I've won these battles.
I fought these things. I'm gifted.
It's my sword that's slaying your enemies.
I'm the one that's called. Why am I still waiting?
I'm in the throne room, but yet I have none of the power of the
king. If we're not careful, we find
ourselves who get called into deeper service then lose sight.
Of why we are here in the first place.
But calling doesn't cancel serving, it deepens it.
Your calling does not cancel serving.
It should only deepen it. It should only set you in more.
It should only have you looking for even more that you can do.
It should only have you looking for more opportunities.
Why? Because if we know from David's
life we see his serving led to his victories, then man, I'm
going to serve even more. How do I have chances to win?
Maybe like man, I want to be used by God.
Then get serving somewhere to be used by God.
I love our youth, man. I'm, I'm the, I speak to youth
every Wednesday night, right? And I've had a couple moments
now where some of them have come and be like, Hey, my friend
wants you to pray for him. And I always ask this question
for I love praying for youth. I have no problem.
But I always ask this question. Do you want to pray with them?
Because I want to give my youth an opportunity to step in to
something more. Not that if they don't, it's
wrong, but if they want to, if they're ready, then it's there.
Why? Because I want to train and show
you that you being here, you invited them, you got them here.
God used you to set this thing. I can finish it or you can.
It's up to you. Your serving got you here.
How many of you are missing out of opportunities to lead people
to Christ because you think, Oh well a pastor has to no get
serving and look for the opportunity.
Calling doesn't cancel serving, it deepens it.
See all of First Samuel 18 to 23 is not about waiting.
It's not David waiting to be king.
It's not David waiting to get the crown.
It's not David waiting for something to take place.
It's David working all of this journey.
He goes through serving underneath Saul, fighting all
these battles, hiding in caves. All of this stuff deepened his
service. And in no place did he lose
honor for what he was serving because he realized, I'm not
serving Saul, I'm serving God. And my service goes far beyond
this one moment. So he wasn't being passive in
waiting. He was faithfully participating.
He wasn't passively waiting for something that happened to Saul
so that he could step in. He was actively participating
and showing faithfulness and serving and putting himself in a
position that knows when I'm fully ready to step into all
God's place, me will I will be ready.
It was the dedication to the service the sword season
represents, serving under authority without demanding
recognition. It's fighting for God's purpose
before receiving God's promise. It's obedience that cost energy,
time, and personal advancement. It's obedience that cost your
energy, your time, and your personal advancement.
Dave is served under Saul and said, man, I'm serving the
Kingdom, I'm serving God. I'm going to bleed this Kingdom.
I'm going to bleed this vision. I'm going to bleed everything
God's told me. I'm going to give it everything
I have. Every moment I'm consumed with
God's plan and purpose for my life.
Every moment I will feel serving this Kingdom.
Kingdom I will serve. He learned how to yield, how to
wield authority by first submitting to it.
See, David didn't wait for the crown to act like king.
He served like a king long before he had the crown.
If you're waiting for a position to act like what the position is
required, the position will never come.
This isn't this is even into your worldly jobs.
If you're waiting for a position, man, I should have
that promotion. Am I acting like that promotion
is going to require, am I doing all that's required so that when
it comes, my faithfulness will show?
Because see, here's the thing. I I tell my kids this all the
time, right? They study for spelling words.
They study for all this kind of stuff.
And they're like, you know, they want to pray.
We pray over my spelling. I'm like, yeah, did you study
like, well, I didn't get to study?
Well, here's the thing. God can only bring back to your
remembrance what you put in your memory, which means God cannot
show your boss your faithfulness with no faithfulness to show.
So we're like, God work for me by making something up.
No, God needs you to do some work so that he can then be
like, look at the work that was done.
He's waiting for you to show yourself faithful so that then
he can remind everyone of your faithfulness.
I'm not passively waiting. I'm being a faithful
participant. So serving isn't punishment,
it's preparation. Like I said, David anointed
king, then sent out to the to the back out to the field.
And I'm like, oh, poor David, like no, David continued to
build and grow kills Goliath and you're like, oh, he's still just
around Saul. Now he's got to play harp for
the king all the time. That's sitting in his throne.
He served faithfully. I guarantee you David isn't in
there thinking, man, I can't. We know it.
We know it from Scripture. David isn't in there playing
that harp, being like this guy. You know what?
He doesn't even like this song. You think he, he doesn't even
he, he doesn't. He's not even a musician.
Wrong note. Like he, he can't.
Dave is serving him and he's sitting there pouring his heart
into everything he does because it's not about this moment.
It's about all of his faithfulness, all of his
faithfulness. Philippians 2, five through 9
says have this attitude in yourselves, which also in Christ
Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not
regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in
the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, He
humbled himself by becoming what obedient to the point of death,
even death on the cross. For this reason, God highly
exalted him. He humbled himself, becoming
obedient even to the point of death.
And it says for this reason, God is looking for your obedience.
And we saw this in David because David playing that heart don't
even know what sound a heart makes, but like dodge and
Spears, obedient to the point of death.
At no point was he wavered by what was going on around him.
He was just serving God, loving God, obeying God.
And obedience always comes before exaltation.
God is not crowning your ambition, He's honoring your
obedience. David wasn't worried about
getting to the throne because he knew if I'm faithful and I
serve, God will place me where I'm supposed to be.
Which means when it comes, it'll come and I'll be ready.
So David didn't chase the throne.
He carried the sword faithfully until God moved him.
And what's crazy is in all this we see even through all these
moments, David's worship stayed alive and active.
We have so many Psalms written during his season in the field
and during his season serving Saul.
He kept serving, he kept showing up, He kept advancing the
Kingdom. And his worship was alive and
strong and active in his writing was strong.
And he continued to serve and fight someone else's battle.
And that's why the sword always comes.
Before the third season. I want to get into which is the
scepter. And this is when David becomes
king, David's king. The crown is real, the authority
is heavy. And David has a lot of great
moments as king. He's got a lot of great moments
as king. But I'm, I'm going to focus on
this other moment that I saw when I was studying for the
second Samuel 11/1, it said. Then it happened in the spring,
at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and
his servants with them and all of Israel, and they destroyed
the sons of Ammon. And then it says, but David
stayed at Jerusalem. This is the season when kings go
out to battle, but David stayed at Jerusalem.
The weight of the crown replaced the posture of the servant.
This is one of the first moments we see David step out of his
servanthood in the comfort of the Kingdom when he finally
attained the calling. This is one of the first moments
we see David has now not done what's required of him in
service. And this is important.
This is the moment David stayed back from serving.
This was also the moment his fall began.
Now listen. David didn't stop loving God,
but his serving narrowed. This wasn't a question of David
no longer loving God, but his service of the Kingdom narrowed.
And this is when David sees Bathsheba.
When he abandoned his assignment, he drifted into
spaces he was never meant to occupy.
When he abandoned his assignment, he drifted into
spaces he was never meant to occupy.
He stepped away from his responsibility and stepped into
vulnerability. This is a very important
correlation because we see as his service of the Kingdom
stopped, he opened himself up to see, be around and do things he
was never meant to handle. He was never meant to see he was
never meant to be with. Disengaging from his calling
positioned him where compromise became possible.
His moment of not serving put him in such a vulnerable state.
So see, David is traditionally credited for around writing
around 73 Psalms. Most of them rise from seasons
of like pursuit, obedience, compromise or not compromise,
dependence. They come from the fields that
he was in the caves, battles, his exile from the Kingdom when
Saul kicked him out, and then obviously his service of the
Kingdom. But what I find interesting is
like his early Psalms, they overflow with trust,
faithfulness, wander, and this intimacy with God.
But his later psalms shift to repentance, defense, and
survival. He goes from overflow to
maintenance. His psalms shift from songs to
survival and they can. Obviously all the psalms are not
put in chronological order and not all of them can be placed
exactly where they go, But the only two that they really know
for sure that most theologians agree are accredited during
David's season of non serving and during his sin of Bathsheba
are Psalms 51 and Psalms 32. And Psalms 51 is all about
repentance, and Psalms 32 is his reflection after forgiveness.
So we have 73 psalms written, but only two during David's time
of not serving his Kingdom properly.
So worship dries up where obedience dries up, not because
God withdraws, but because our heart closes.
David's writing shifted in this season.
A tone went from all these victories, this intimacy, this
love. They were no longer triumphant.
They were survival related. They were based on I need to get
somewhere. And then during his season of
sin, during his season of lack of service, he only even wrote 2
out of 73. Most of them come before.
And then he repents. He gets right.
This is why we know this is the David was a man after God's own
heart. He sets his life.
And of course, the tone shifts, but the writing comes back,
which lets us know our worship is connected to our service and
obedience. Amos 521 says I hate, I reject
your festivals, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you OfferUp to me burnt offerings in your grain
offerings, I will not accept them and I will not even look at
the peace offering of your fatlings.
Take away from me the noise of your songs, I will not even
listen to the sound of your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an
ever flowing stream. God rejects the worship
disconnected from obedience. They are giving and doing
exactly what they should be doing, but they weren't being
obedient in their offering. And God said I don't want your
worship. He rejected it.
He said it's like noise worship served from disobedience or
worship severed from obedience becomes an empty sound.
When we step out of our alignment, we step out of our
serving, we step out of our obedience, our worship becomes
empty to God. This is the prophets warning.
See, it's not that David stopped worshipping, but the source of
it changed. The source of it changed because
here's the thing, we never leave the staff.
We never leave the sword just because we have the scepter.
The staff season comes with you. The sword season comes with you.
These seasons stay with you. Because if you don't keep your
private worship, your quiet moments, if you don't keep your
passionate service, then the weight of the crown will crush
you. If I don't stay in the field, If
I don't have my field moments, even though I'm no longer in the
field, I find a new field to quietly be with him.
When I've got my sword, I'm serving passionately so that
when my calling comes, it doesn't crush me.
See, David stepped out of a season because he had attained a
new one and thought I could just let it go.
I can set my sword down. They won that battle, by the
way, David's team still won. But God didn't ask for just a
victory. He asked for David's service.
He asked for David's heart. He asked for David's obedience.
We cannot set down what we're going.
We don't ever graduate from the staff, and we don't ever outgrow
the sword, the scepter season, doesn't it?
It doesn't take away, it doesn't replace them.
It rests on them. When serving becomes optional,
obedience becomes selective and worship becomes hollow.
When service becomes optional, obedience becomes selective and
your worship becomes hollow. This is the weight no one sees.
The greatest weight in. Leadership isn't authority, it's
faithfulness. It's not about having authority,
it's about staying faithful. God never asked David to stop
serving. He asked Him to lead from His
service at no position where you ever gain.
That doesn't just require you serving even more.
God never elevates you out of serving.
He elevates you to deeper, deeper levels of it.
He puts you in places that require even more intense
serving. See, some of us in this moment,
we haven't lost our worship, but maybe you've released your
obedience. Maybe in this season of life,
you've put away your staff and you've lost your quiet times.
Maybe some of you have never had quiet times, those daily
devotions, those moments that were with him.
And see what I love about David's season in the field is
it was his filled season, was always quiet in service.
Quiet time wasn't I cannot do anything, I must get away from
everyone and be alone. No, while David served, he was
mindful because God honors your service.
Maybe we've set the sword down. Maybe we have kept our devotion,
but we've let go of the service intensity that we should have.
We've gotten like David will. I've become comfortable in what
I'm doing, and I'm no longer looking up to pick up my sword
and fight a battle. That's not my fight, that's not
my area, that's not my job, that's not my calling.
That's not what I should be doing.
David was anointed king. He should have only been doing
what kings do, but yet he served wholeheartedly wherever Saul
sent him. The missing component component
in your life might just be serving like you've never served
before. David's victories were burst
from the servant's heart. Every moment that we love to
talk about, every Psalm we love to sing, every victory that he's
had that we love to chant, every story, every kid story we tell
was David's serving. If I need victory in my life,
maybe I need a little more service in my life.
Maybe my disconnection from my serving has called me to be
disconnected from my worship. And this, like I said, this
isn't a matter of, oh, you've stopped loving God.
David never stopped loving God. He just stopped serving like he
was supposed to. He just stopped serving at the
capacity he was meant to serve with.
And, and what I'm wanting to get across to you guys today is
we're moving into a new year and I know everyone looks at New
Year's revolutions, everyone's resolutions, everyone's looking
into what am I going to do? What, how am I going to diet?
What am I going to, what's my fitness goals?
What's this goal? And it's easy for us to get in.
You know, I go to the gym at like 6:00 every day and I get
there and January's the worse because it's going to be just
the most full of people for like a solid month that, you know,
aren't going to be here in February, right?
Like, you know, they're not going to make it.
Maybe one out of the 100 sign ups, which I'm sure is great for
the fitness industry as a whole. But for those of us who want to
continue to work out, we're like moving our stuff around, trying
to find a machine. And since there's only like one
leg extension in there, you're kind of stuck on leg day just
waiting for people to get off, right?
And we, we start to assess all of these natural things.
We want to adjust. This is one thing I love about
Anchor Faith Church. They challenge us not just to
set goals physically, but to set goals spiritually.
Our spirit, soul, body goals, right?
We set goals not only for our body, but where do I want to be
spiritually this year? What are some spiritual
aspirations you have to accomplish this year?
Maybe some of you have never made it through the full Bible
reading plan without missing months at a time.
Make that your goal. Maybe some of you do the Bible
reading plan every single year, but you've never gone deeper
into study outside of that. Add some time going into 2026,
what I want to challenge us to do is to pick the staff back up,
pick the sword back up. Start serving again like we've
never served before. Start showing up again like
we've never showed up before. Start submitting again.
Start obeying again. Not for a title, not for
recognition, but because faithfulness is what matters to
God. Faithfulness is what he's
looking for. My 2026 resolution is to be more
faithful than I've ever been in all those little things.
I've always said this. I've told my wife all the time,
she's like, what do you want? And I'm like, I want to be
someone that when Apostle Earl calls on, he says, I know I can
give this to Chase because Chase will do it like I did it and
he'll make sure that it gets done.
There would be no greater compliment in my life than to
know I can be called upon because they know I will see it
through. Our goal should be, man.
I want to be someone that God says I'm ready to give them
their next step. Because they've shown their
faithfulness all year. They've shown they're ready to
step out. They've shown that they can
stick through thick or thin. They've shown that it doesn't
matter what season they're in, they're going to be faithful.
They've shown that they won't put down their staff, that they
won't put down their sword, that the scepter won't crush them.
That in any season I finally call them up to, they're going
to rise up to. And they're going to rise up to
something they've never done before.
Because 2026 doesn't have to just be a year where that I'm
looking forward to is the year of faithfulness that I continue
to press on in and I continue to press forward to.
So that I look back one day and say, look where God got me.
Look where I was then and look where I've gotten now.
Because of faithfulness, because of one small step every single
day to continue to serve like I've never served.
I'm not looking for my time. I'm looking for time that I can
sow into the Kingdom. I don't need anything more than
to look back and say God was with me.
If God needs it, I'm ready. If God's there, I'm there.
When someone needs someone to show up, I'm going to be in the
room. I'm going to be ready with
expectation that the Kingdom of God will advance, and it will
advance through my faithfulness. The crown never replaces the
calling. It reveals whether you are
faithful before it. This is the weight no one sees.
It's the weight that keeps your worship alive.
Because the Kingdom is built by people carrying the weight no
one sees. Carrying the weight no one sees.