Taking the Lamb Out of the Mouth of the Lion

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. You see, he'll take your lamb into his mouth. He'll take your victory into his mouth. He'll take your future into his mouth. He'll come into where you are and he'll grab that lamb in his mouth and turn and try to walk away with that lamb.

Thank you for joining us here on A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon. In 1 Samuel Chapter 17, we find David telling King Saul how he once saved a sheep from his father's flock by killing the lion and rescuing the lamb from its mouth. In today's message, Carter will explain how your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He'll do everything in his power to take your lamb away from you. Let's find out more as Carter explains. I want to talk to you about taking the lamb out of the mouth of the lion. 1 Samuel Chapter 17, back again talking about King David.

Now, I want you to put this all in context, what we're about to read. This young man is in the natural. He's in a little place.

Many of us feel like we're in a little place today, like we don't have much influence. He's out in the wilderness. He's considered, in a sense, when we look at the story later on, he's considered the least of all of his brothers. He's got quite a few brothers.

They all are bigger in stature. He seems to be the least among them. When the prophet Samuel comes to anoint the next king, his father Jesse doesn't even bother to send for him initially. He just brings all of his other brothers in. So you can imagine how he feels, and many people feel like that. You feel like you're the least achiever in all of your family. You feel like you're on on the outside looking in, and what you've been given to do is just small. He's got a few sheep out in the wilderness.

It's lonely. He's probably wondering what his life is all about at this point. But keep in mind, he's being trained to be a king.

You see, there's a training that goes on in everyone's life. We don't know the end result of what God is doing, and if we live just by what we can see or think or feel is around us, quite often we will come to a wrong conclusion, and we fail to understand the character is formed in the hidden places. That which God is going to do in a larger arena in the future, we've got to learn to let him do it in the places where nobody but he and I and you can see.

We've got to win the victory in the small places, and this is what we're going to begin to see. The devil was actually after something. He fears these young people that are being set apart for God. For those that are in this Bible school, he fears you.

He knows history. He knows what has happened when a young man, a young woman rises up, and they begin to say, I'm going to go all the way with God, and I'm not going to let the devil stop me, and I recognize it's not by my righteousness that the victory is going to be won. It's going to be by the righteousness of God. The devil is afraid of that because he's been around before, and he's seen Esther's, and he's seen David's, and he's seen other young people like Gideon rise up and literally destroy whole segments, whole parts of his kingdom, and so he will try the best that he can do to take your lamb into his mouth.

Now I'm going to explain to you what that's all about. 1 Samuel chapter 17 verses 34 and 35. Now keep in mind, David's been formed in secret. Now he's about to be thrust into a larger arena, and this larger arena is going to bring him into some reputation among the people, and ultimately the course is going to take him to sit on the throne of Israel where he's going to have an effect over a lot of people.

As a matter of fact, King David has an effect over you and I today. We read his Psalms. We're reading his words. We're reading about his life. He has no idea that God's about to do something in his life that's going to affect millions of people all over the world for ages to come until Christ actually returns.

At this moment in his life, he's just out by a campfire. He's got a few sheep to look after wondering what his life is going to amount to when suddenly a lion appears out of nowhere. David said to Saul verse 34, your servant used to keep his father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth, and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard and struck it and killed it.

Your servant has killed both lion and bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. You see, David found the power of God in a secret place. He had a confidence in God that, thank God, he got it there because you can't get that confidence in a public arena.

It just doesn't pop out of nowhere. It's either part of your character by the time you're thrust into public ministry or it's not there. In 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 8, there's a warning in scripture about the devil himself. It says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He walks about trying to take the lamb of God into his mouth.

You remember John the Baptist pointed to Jesus Christ and said, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Now Christ, as the lamb of God, is your hope and he's my hope. He's your victory. He's my victory. He's your present, the healer of your past, and he's the one who assures your future. The devil will do everything in his power to take your lamb, your victory, your Christ into his mouth.

Now he'll do it in two ways. Number one, he'll imitate the voice of God and he'll try to tell you that somehow there's some secret flaw in you. There's, yes, you've come to Christ for your covering, but God will never use you because you're obviously so flawed that God can't use your life for his glory. And he'll take the testimony, he'll take the words of God into his mouth and try to so distort it to get you to a place where you'll just sit in the wilderness all of your life.

You'll never rise up. You'll let the lion take the lamb and walk away and you'll say, well, I've got at least a few things left. Now 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 4 tells us that we live, God has given us exceeding great and precious promises and you and I live by these exceeding promises that are given to us. Speak to the mountain. If you believe in your heart, the mountain will move and be cast into the sea if you do not doubt. He said up to this point, he told his disciples, you've asked for nothing.

Now I'm telling you to begin to ask me and I will give to you that your joy might be full. He told us through his word that everyone who asks receives, everyone who seeks is going to find and everyone who knocks the doorway shall be opened. If he can't convince you anymore that God is against you, he will take the promises of God and he will try to say to you as he did to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3, has God said? In other words, do you really think this promise applies to you? I recognize it applies to others.

It applies to some who've risen up and have some kind of public notoriety, but what not you sitting where you are in your dorm room or in your apartment or in your car or on your park bench, wherever you're listening to this. No, the promises apply to others, but they don't apply to you. You see, he'll take your lamb into his mouth. He'll take your victory into his mouth. He'll take your future into his mouth. He'll take your future into his mouth. He'll try to take your testimony into his mouth, your hope into his mouth, your victory into his mouth, and ultimately your influence into his mouth.

And he'll come into where you are and he'll grab that lamb in his mouth and turn and try to walk away with that lamb. But I want you to remember Paul the Apostle said in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 3 to 5, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. You see young people, for example, at our Bible school are in their dorm rooms at night and have to fight against the lion who's trying to take the lamb into his mouth. But I want to suggest before any public ministry ever begins in anybody's life, before you and I ever have any kind of an influence in our society, we've got to win those private battles. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

We don't fight back in a similar spirit. The weapons of our warfare are mighty in God for pulling down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. That's why in measure you've got to know the word of God. You've got to fight back with the word of God. Even Jesus Christ when tempted of the devil in the wilderness fought back against his arguments with the word of God.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty in God pulling down these arguments, pulling down these strongholds. Remember David said when the lion rose up against me, he says, I grabbed it by the beard. Now the beard of a lion is down way in front of its chest.

So that means that the lion was like about this probably three, four feet taller than David. He reached up and grabbed it in the power of God's Holy Spirit that came upon him. He not only cast it down, he took his life.

He took its power away from it. We have power against darkness. Do you understand those that are listening at home? You're not just a victim in the church of Jesus Christ. Unless you choose to be. When you opened your heart to the son of God and the Holy Spirit of God came and took up residence inside of you, you are no longer a victim. You are victorious because of the victory that Christ won for you on the cross 2,000 years ago. Behold, I give you power. You have power in your prayer. You have power in your confidence in the victory of Christ to stand against the weapons of darkness and cast them down. You have power to win those secret battles.

And I challenge you that are online, wherever you are, whatever you're going through, your depression, your addiction, your discouragement, whatever your struggle, whatever your trial. And the devil is trying to tell you the words this pastor is speaking don't apply to you. I remind you, Jesus Christ himself said Satan is a liar and the father of lies. When he speaks a lie, that's just who he is. He can't speak the truth. He can only speak a lie. He doesn't know how. It's not inside of him to speak the truth. And so if he tries to tell you, you're not going to amount to anything. It's because he fears that you will understand that God has a magnificent plan for your life and that plan involves casting down and breaking down the walls of his kingdom. He's placed walls around people that you love and people that you care for, your own life, others in your community.

And he realizes because he's been around long enough to know what happens when somebody breaks out of that confinement. Somebody goes after him and says, no, you're not getting my lamb. You're not taking my savior. You're not taking my righteousness from me. You're not taking my calling from me. You're not taking the power of God from me. As a matter of fact, I'm going to grab a hold of you and I'm going to pull you down by the power of God's Holy Spirit within me.

And when you win those battles in secret, then you will have the power to stand in public. As David now is doing in this verse of scripture when he says, I won against insurmountable odds that came against me. When this lion tried to take a lamb out of my flock, I went after this lion.

I grabbed it underneath its chin by its mane, pulled it down and I took his life from it. And this is an absolute type of the spiritual authority that God is willing to give those who put their trust in Jesus Christ. Week after week, I'm going to hammer at your heart. I'm going to hammer on the door of your mind until you finally rise up and say enough of this, enough of living in despair, enough of living in addiction. This is not my calling on the earth. This is not who I am in Christ.

This is not what my life is called to be. I am going to get up in the strength of my God. I'm going to go after that lion and I'm going to take my lamb out of its mouth. Praise be to God.

Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ. Now the scripture tells us when David spoke to Saul, he said that the lion had already left with the lamb in its mouth. He'd already taken something that was precious to him, that he was given to guard as it is. It was given into his care and he went up and he pursued after it. Now this is the second part of taking the lamb out of the mouth of the lion.

It's when the devil comes and maybe he agrees, all right, I agree. You belong to God, but your children belong to me. Well, you belong to God, but your husband or your wife belong to me. Your family belongs to me. Your future belongs to me. Those that were given into your care. You have the right, even if your children are no longer living under your roof, you have a spiritual authority to go after that lion and take your lambs out of his mouth.

You have the right. You see, the devil is lying to them. He's telling them to take their lives. Their lives are not worth living. He's telling them to go out and do drugs. He's telling them to to just give up on life.

And we're seeing that over and over and over again. But I want to challenge the mothers and the fathers and the brothers, the sisters that are listening to these words. I want to encourage you and challenge you to get up and go and get your lambs out of the mouth of the lion. Get your children back. Take spiritual authority. Ask God to do what only God can do. Pray for your sons. Pray for your daughters. Fight for your family members.

Those that are dear to you that maybe were lost through inattention or maybe you had no wherewithal to even fight for them. You had no real relationship with God. But now in Christ, you have the right to pray and to pray and believe.

You have the right to get your sons and daughters back. Paul the Apostle, the next chapter 16, when he and Silas sang and this incredible miracle happened where everybody's prison doors were open and all of the prisoners were set free. And the jailer, an old mean Philippian jailer, came running in trembling. And he fell at Paul's feet and he said, what must I do to be saved? And Paul gave him this answer. He said, sir, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and your house.

You see, this was a promise. He wasn't just throwing some kind of an unattainable pie in the sky promise out to this man. This man obviously had done harm to his family. Obviously would come home at night and you just don't go from being rough and gruff and a keeper of an inner prison to going home and being kind and gentle with your wife and your kids.

No doubt he was the same kind of man at home as he was in the jail and he'd done harm to his family. But Paul speaking in the spirit gave this man a promise. You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and not only will you be saved, but your house will be saved. And the scripture records that as being true. This man turned to God with all his heart. He came home and when his wife and children saw him bathing the scars on the back of these two missionaries of God, they would be so stunned at the change that happened in their father's heart that they too turn to God.

There's a spiritual authority when we get up and start walking with God. When we make the choice to repent of our sin, we make the choice to live life God's way by the power of God. This man needed the power of God to be a new creation. He couldn't have been kind.

I have little doubt he couldn't be kind in his own strength. He needed the strength of God to be the kind man that he had now become. And by God's grace, if you will rise up and you just become the person that God's intended you to be, the Lord will make it known to your children. The Lord will make it known to anybody in your family, your immediate or extended family, that you feel were lost and you wonder if there's any chance to ever regain them. You start walking with God.

This is your responsibility now. You get up and you start walking with God. You let the Holy Spirit change your life. You admit that you're a sinner that needs a savior. Don't try to save yourself and don't make excuses any longer for your sin.

Call it what it is. Call it sin. Admit that it separates eternally from God, that you can't go to heaven based on merit. It's only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on that cross 2,000 years ago.

So admit your condition and believe that God sent his son to die on a cross to pay the price for your sin and open your heart and invite him in to be your Lord and savior and begin to confess him with your mouth, confess him to your family, confess him in your prayers every day, confess this new life in Christ and begin to walk with God and watch what God will do in your life and in your family. We are not destined to go down and defeat. We don't have to give our children and our families over to darkness. We are being called by Almighty God to rise up in this last generation and be men and women of God. We're called to rise up in the strength of God's Holy Spirit and in the promise of the victory of Christ for each of our lives. Take spiritual authority over this lion and take our lambs out of his mouth by the grace of Almighty God.

Our families are going with us. You remember Moses? The devil tried to make a deal with Moses. You remember that in the book of Exodus, right? He says, okay, you can go, the men can go, but you leave your wives and your children here. Just your men go out and sacrifice. And Moses said, no deal. He was talking to Pharaoh like he's speaking right into the face of the devil. Not only do we go, our wives go, our children go, our animals go, our goats go, everything goes with us.

You don't keep anything. We're taking it all into a place that God has called us to, to worship him. Hallelujah to the lamb of God. Glory to the lamb of God. You see, there's got to be a fight that rises in you. David could have sat, he could have cowered, he could have sat by the fire and said, oh, well, it's just only one lamb. I got a hundred more. What my father's going to understand after all, it's a lion.

And what strength do I have to fight a lion? But you see, he was developing an intimate relationship with God. In one of his Psalms, he was looking into the heavens and he said, oh God, when I consider the stars and I consider the heavens and the works of your hands, what is man that you are mindful of him? He had a sense of kindness. He had a sense of awe of the majesty, the power and the might of God.

He got it all by the campfire in the darkness, all by himself. He got it all just because he chose to look beyond his circumstances, beyond the fact that maybe his brothers were esteemed above him. He looked beyond all of it and he started looking at God. Remember that the promise in the New Testament is as we behold him, we are changed. We are changed as we behold him.

And I can see David's heart beginning to change as he's beholding the wonder and the majesty of God. And when he sees this lion come in and take a lamb out of the flock, he says, who is this lion to defy the living God? And suddenly the power of God comes upon him. And in the strength of his God, he pulls this lion down to the ground, a lion that's most likely got 100 to 150 times his own physical strength. He pulls it down, takes its life and takes the lamb out of its mouth. That's what gave him the courage to come into the camp of the Philistines and speak to the king and said, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Your servant was keeping his father's sheep. And one night a lion came into the flock and grabbed a lamb and was making away with it. And I could just see him telling Saul, as the spirit of God came upon me, I took him and grabbed him by his beard, pulled him down, destroyed his life and took the lamb out of his mouth.

And I will do the same thing to this Philistine. You see, he won that first battle. And my word to you at home, you got to win that battle in your living room. You got to win that battle in your bedroom right now. You got to win that battle in your mind. You got to win that battle with the bottle that's in your cupboard.

You got to win that battle with the drugs that you're leaning on in your drawer. You got to win that battle now by the strength of God. And you watch what God will do with your family.

You watch the victory that God will put into your hands. Father, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, only you can cause us to rise up and fight. Only you can give us the strength, my God, that we don't have in ourselves, but is now resident in these physical bodies because of the presence of your Holy Spirit. God, give us the strength to rise up and fight for the sake of this generation, to fight for our children, to fight for our families. God almighty, we ask you for a spiritual awakening in our generation. So powerful that it will cause the devils of hell to tremble.

So powerful that casual men and women will have to stop and take notice, as the Philippian jailer's family did, that you have come and you indwell and you transform and you redeem and you save and you use the people who turn to you. God almighty, I'm praying now for those that are afflicted and addicted and don't have to see a way forward and don't want to live and are heartbroken. My God, help them to rise up and take the promise that you made to each one of them out of the mouth of the lion. Help them, my God, to rise up and cast down these imaginations that try to tell them there's no hope for them and there's no future. Thank you, Lord God, for what you're going to do for each family. Thank you, Lord, that you're going to bring in a harvest in this last hour of time we now live in. Thank you, my God, as you brought the animals into Noah's ark, so too you're going to bring this last generation. Families, children, relatives, friends, my God, even enemies, you're going to bring them into your kingdom and cause them to live with you forever.

Father, thank you, God, for this end-time army that you're raising up out of the dust one more time. How good you are, oh God, how merciful you are, how kind you are to call us in our failure and in our struggles and in our nothingness to show us, Lord, as David said, what is man that you're mindful of him? God almighty, what are we to you?

But we are the apple of your eye. The scripture tells us you love us so much that you died to save us and bring us home. So, Lord, we thank you, God, that you will give us the power to rise up in victory.

In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for joining us this week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. You can count on a powerful message each week on A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.