Isaiah 51:1 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. In the family of God there is a strand of DNA running through this vast family that produces people like Moses and Esther and Gideon and Joshua and Ruth and Abraham. And this strand of DNA is also in us Let’s talk about cousin Benaiah. His life is highlighted in one particular portion of Scripture; 1 Chronicles 11:22 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was a valiant man of Kabzeel, a doer of great deeds. He struck down two heroes of Moab. He also went down and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. 23 And he struck down an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits tall. The Egyptian had in his hand a spear like a weaver's beam, but Benaiah went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. 24 These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada and won a name beside the three mighty men. 25 He was renowned among the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard. What would cause a man to Chase a lion? My only guess is that the lion had become a threat. 1 Peter 5:8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith… We don’t run from lions – from demons – from problems – from politicians – from the powerful – from our enemies – or from hell itself. What runs in our family DNA – and it’s in you, even if it’s buried way down deep inside – is that we have a courageous heart of a warrior. Cousin Benaiah didn’t just jump foolishly into that pit. Before you jump into that pit there are at least four things we need to do. 1. Before you go down into that pit you better go up. This is a spiritual principle outlined by Jesus. Luke 14:28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Psalm 24:3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. You need supernatural help to fight the lion but before you jump into that pit you need to give God your hands, your heart, your devotion, your ego, your mouth, your plans, your sins and put them under the blood of Jesus Christ. Come to Jesus and get clean, get baptized with the spirit, get equipped and get reconnected. The blessing zone that I want to live in… Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory… 2. Before you go down, read up. If I’m going to be in a pit with a lion it might be wise if I could take a sword with me. Did you know that the Bible is called “the sword of the Spirit?” It is a cutting machine. It slices and dices. It is a weapon. It protects and inflicts damage. Jesus met Satan in the desert once. Satan tempted him to turn stone into bread. How did Jesus defeat that lion? He quoted Scripture. Matthew 4:4 Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus said that there was a word from God. A word that gives life like bread. And that we should live on his words. The word of God will produce something in you that every warrior needs; faith. Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Faith is believing it is so… When it’s not so… Because God said so… And so it will be so. 3. Before you go down you, better pray up. Prayer is the ultimate and essential weapon of the Christian and the church. Prayer is the line that connects our finite, limited abilities and resources to the infinite, limitless and giving God. Matthew 6:9 “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. When we pray in Jesus name we are asking for something great to happen… We are asking for an extension of his greatness to this world. We are asking for an extension of his greatness to meet your personal needs we are asking for an extension of his greatness to permeate this church.