2 Samuel 21:17 Our text passage shows us a time David the King almost fell in battle. He was almost killed by a Philistine giant, he was blessed enough to live to tell the story. King David fought a lot of battles in his life time. The similarity between King David's era and the end times is that there are lots of battles and warfare. There is no disputing the fact that we are in the end times, the signs are all around us. One of the signs of the end times according to Jesus is that nations will rise against nations and there will be wars and rumors of wars. Matthew 24 With the direction the nations of the world are going, with nations showing allegiance to nations at war, with what's happening between Israel and Palestine, Ukraine and Russia, only God's mercy can prevent world war 3. As it is in the physical so it is in the spiritual. We are in times of intense spiritual battles and warfare. As king David fought his arch enemies the Philistines who were largely giants an

 1 Samuel 17:41-49 Our text passage shows us the importance of not allowing anyone to despise us. Goliath despised David the shepherd boy and the rest is history, he didn't live to tell the story. David didn't allow Goliath's despising him to stop him neither should you let despisers stop you. God thinks highly of you so don't allow anyone to despise you. Psalm 8:3-8 God loves you, this places value on you; for this reason you must not allow anyone despise you. John 3:16 Jesus's death was for your rising since you are his follower, for this reason you shouldn't allow anyone to despise you. Luke 2:34 In Christ Jesus we are anointed, for this reason we should not be despised. When a true child of God is being despised it is the anointing that is being despised. It is a great mistake to despise or turn against an anointed person. David's first wife Michal despised David's public dancing before the people in praise to God as the ark of God came into the city

  2 Thessalonians 2:3,4 It is possible to fall away from the faith. It is possible to be in the faith, to be a follower of the Lord but choose to fall away from the Lord. Jesus doesn't lose anyone, we lose Him by choosing to fall away from Him. John 17:12 People fall away from God because they were deceived and led astray. Matthew 24:11 People fall away from God because they were seduced by false doctrine, false ministers and evil spirits. Matthew 24:24 People fall away from God because they chose darkness over light. John 3:14 People fall away from God because they follow the desires of their flesh over the Spirit of God. Galatians 5:17 Just as sheep can fall victim to predators like wolves if they wander off from the direction and voice of their shepherd, a believer can also wander away by choice against the wishes of the good Shepherd. Judas Iscariot is an example of a sheep  who wandered away from the leadership of the Shepherd (Jesus) because he was seduced by the love of mone

  Galatians 6:9 Our text passage is clear that we should not be weary in doing the good we have always done so as not to lose our reward or harvest. Every good thing we do is an investment and it is noted by the God who created the heaven and earth, the God with whom all things are naked/transparent/made plain/visible. Weariness means losing heart, to become discouraged, tired, to have reduce courage. Tiredness and fatigue leads to loss, it robs us of our opportunities and time. When we are tired we don't see a bright future, we don't see opportunities and we struggle to keep on top of things. For this reason the enemy of our souls uses fatigue as a weapon. He wants you to be weary, weariness makes us give up. He brings fatigue into our lives by trying to wear us out. Daniel 7:25 Satan tries to wear down the saints of God (the church/followers of Christ). He does this by oppressing them, persecuting them, and intimidating them. He has been given a moment in time to do so. Such

  Luke 4:5-8 In our text passage we see Satan trying to get worship from Jesus in a very sly and cunning way, he failed to tempt Jesus successfully. When he didn't succeed in getting worship from Jesus he tried to kill Jesus. He tried to tempt Jesus to jump off the high mountain region of a temple and misused the scriptures in a twisted fashion to achieve his aim. Of course, it failed. Luke 4:9-13 We are created for the glory and pleasure of God and worship glorifies and pleasures God. Revelation 4:11 Satan has always desired worship, knowing most human beings will not directly or intentionally worship him he tries to get it indirectly. Matthew 4:8,9 Isaiah 14:13 The scriptures tell us not to worship another except the creator. Our worship options are between God our creator and Satan our enemy. There's no other option, it's either you're a worshipper of God or you're a direct or indirect worshipper of Satan. John 8:44,45 Jesus called the Jews who didn't know Go

 Galatians 5:1 Our text passage encourages us not to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage but to stand in the liberty that Christ has given us. Jesus came for our freedom. We shouldn't go from freedom back into bondage, we must not be entangled . Entanglements are part of the strategy of the enemy of our souls to keep us bound and defeated. The spiders web comes to mind when entanglements are mentioned. The spider is a very interesting creature when you think about it. God has given the spider the unique ability to spin webs, these webs are what become cobwebs in our buildings and homes, they are the spider's traps for its potential prey and they are part of the spiders survival strategy. The purpose of the spiders web its to get the spider fed, it's to catch the spiders potential prey. The victim gets entangled in the web the spider has weaved skillfully with clever patterns. Very much like the spider, Satan sets traps to capture souls and destinies. Like a spider h