—Sunday Sermon—
Standing Firm when facing Goliaths
-David, God & Goliath
Popular Story
David and Goliath has to be one of the most popular stories in the Bible.
It seems like most people have heard the story.
There are cute, little children’s story books about it, (excluding of course the part where David cuts off Goliath’s head with Goliath's own sword).
There are videos made, songs written, and costumes for Halloween and children’s plays at church.
We can ALL relate
It is popular with children, teens and adults alike because most people can all identify with it.
We have all been afraid of at least one person or one thing in our life.
I remember one person that said in counseling years ago that he couldn’t think of anyone or anything that he was afraid of.
When I heard that, I knew that I had my work cut out for me.
If he was in denial about the existence of fear in his life, then I was pretty sure that “denial” would probably be playing a huge role in the issue that he came in
to talk to me about.
Sure enough, it did.
Since everyone faces fear,
it was clear that his fear,
that he did not know that he had,
was admitting that he had fears.
To make a long story short,
when I eventually convinced him that
fear did not mean weakness,
and strength did not mean that he could control situations to accomplish
his desired outcome,
he was freed to live with fear and to deal with it the proper way.
NO ONE IS EXEMPT FROM HAVING TO FACE GOLIATHS, NOT EVEN JESUS
Though no one experiences that same “exact” details when tempted, categorically we all face challenges and temptations that can be shared at least under “categories” of temptations. The same goes with Goliath challenges that we will face.
Jesus is no different.
The Bible says;
“We do not have a high priest [Jesus]
who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, [and FEARS] but we have one who has been TEMPTED IN EVERY WAY,
[“WAY” = Category]
just as we are—yet he did not sin.”
-Hebrews 4:15
The only difference is,
that he answered every temptation and challenge perfectly.
The biggest Goliath that he faced
was the cross.
On it, he personally faced punishment for our sin which, could only be accomplished through experiencing separation from God. Separation is the punishment for sin.
When he said on the cross,
“My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me?”
He was all alone.
He was baring the weight of the world’s sin on his back, and he defeated death. By dying and resurrecting.
“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.”
-I Peter 2:22)
“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
[Forgiveness]
-2 Corinthians 5:21
He had to face every category of Goliath challenges that we will ever have to face.
He overcame because he always saw things from his heavenly Father’s perspective.
When facing Giants, realize that:
YOUR GIANT (GOLIATH) IS NOT UNIQUE
What makes you afraid has made others afraid as well.
The giant problem that you are facing in your life, whether spiritual, physical, relational, emotional, financial, etc. has already been faced by countless others
(even by some people that you can’t even imagine have faced it.)
Solomon said that there is nothing new under the sun.
“What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again; there is
nothing new under the sun.”
-Ecclesiastes 1:9
Knowing that others have had to deal with the problems in life that you do
can be comforting, inspiring and educational.
However, Satan wants to use them to educate you, inspire you, and comfort you in the wrong way.
Here is how he will try to do this.
Others have either successfully or unsuccessfully dealt with their problems.
If someone in the past SUCCESSFULLY faced the Giant that you are facing,
Satan will tempt you to think that you are not as strong, smart, equipped, etc. as that person.
This can leave you feeling even more afraid and powerless.
If the person failed, UNSUCCESSFULLY dealing with the problem, then
Satan will tempt you to wonder why you think that you could do any better.
Satan will use his deception to fuel your fear either way, leaving you feeling even more afraid and powerless.
David & Goliath is a story which is true,
but in many ways seems to be unbelievable.
That is because it seems that most of our problems don’t necessarily involve
physical strength.
They have more to do with attitude, perspective, finding solutions, finding hope, finding endurance.
The answer to facing Goliath Fears in our life is in
SEEING THINGS FROM GOD’S PERSPECTIVE
rather than our own.
HOW DAVID SUCCESSFULLY
DEFEATED GOLIATH
1. HE SAW GOLIATH FROM GOD’S VIEW
Key to standing firm against the “Giants” that we have to face in our lives is
Found in 1 Samuel 16:7
It reminds us that God has a different perspective on things, in contrast to the one that we often have.
In other words, we must remember to try to see things the way that God does,
rather than with our own eyes.
Because King Saul ceased trusting in God, God anointed a new King that would take over in the future.
1 Samuael 16
The Lord said to Samuel,
“How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” [He’s talking about choosing David as the next King of Israel]
… When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab [David’s oldest brother. He would later be very jealous of David and accusatory toward him.] and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.
The Lord does NOT look at the things
people look at.
People look at the
OUTWARD APPEARANCE,
BUT the Lord looks at the HEART.”
[David is chosen by God after all of his older brothers are considered first.]
That reminds me of the saying,
God looks at the heart of the dog in the fight,
not the size of the dog in the fight.
All of Israel’s army looked at the
size of Goliath.
David looked at the
Size of God.
That perspective gave David the heart of God.
You too can have the heart of God which dwarfs the size of any problem that you will ever face.
Look at the fighter’s source of strength, rather than the fighter.
God Provides us the source of his omnipotence (all-powerfulness),
regardless of the size of the giant (situation or person) that we are facing/fighting.
John wrote this about overcoming
anyone or anything that Satan
wants to throw at us.
“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them,
[Anyone or anything that is against God]
because the one who is in you
[Jesus]
is greater than the one who is in the world.”
[Satan and those against God]
-1 John 4:4
This means that with God as your source of strength,
you are stronger than you think or can even imagine
They say of some people that.
“They don’t know their own strength.”
Who comes to mind when you here that?
I remember a guy who had the strongest grip I have ever experienced when shaking hands.
It hurt.
I mean, it really hurt.
This was not just,
“Wow, this guy has a firm handshake”.
My hand actually felt as if it was going to be separated in two, never again to go back together again.
This was a Goliath handshake.
I tried adjusting my grip for awhile before I just simply had to tell him that he was killing me.
I said, “J.B. you’re killing me.”
He was as neighbor friend and member at my first church.
Of course, as you can imagine,
he told me that I wasn’t the first one to tell him that.
He proudly told me that.
He loved his Goliath-handshake.
I loved my attached-hand.
So, something had to give.
He, with great humility, proudly yielded to my request.
Though from time to time he would, Quote/Unquote “Accidently forget” to back off his death-grip on my hand.
Even though he is in heaven now, and I have not shaken his hand for many years, I can still see his big smile and beaming face proudly apologizing for “forgetting” not to squeeze my hand soooooooo tightly.
I picture Jesus in heaven bypassing the death-grip, Goliath, handshake issue of my friend by simply hugging him and welcoming him “home”.
He didn’t know his own strength.
So, when they say of some people that,
“They don’t know their own strength”
picture them talking about YOU.
The Bible says this about YOU.
“… because the one who is in you
[Jesus]
is greater than the one [Satan and whatever Goliath-problem form that he appears to you in your life]
who is in the world.”-John 4:4
LESSONS FROM
DAVID, GOD & GOLIATH
1 Samuel 17
“Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled… 2 Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. 3 The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them.
[About a mile wide]
4 A champion named GOLIATH, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp.
His height was six cubits and a span. [9’-9”] 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing [Anywhere from 125 to 200 pounds] five thousand shekels; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels.
[15-25 pounds] His shield bearer went ahead of him.
[In addition to Goliaths height, weight of armor, etc., he had a guy ahead of him holding a man-size shield to protect Goliath]
WITH GOLIATH PROBLEMS,
THE ODDS ALWAYS SEEM TO BE
STACKED AGAINST US
8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? [Said sarcastically]
Choose a man and have him come down to me.
9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.”
[This is a tactic commonly done in the eastern world. They often had “Representative Fights” where the battle would be a “One-on-one” fight with the winner take all of the opposing party’s land, wealth, and the people captive as slaves, etc]
10 Then the Philistine [Goliath] said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.”
11 On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. [That is FEAR at its worst.]
12 Now David was the son of … Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. … JESSE had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was very old. 13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah.
14 DAVID was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul [into battle vs Goliath], 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.
16 For forty days [Symbolic of time of testing] the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand. [does your fear taunt you every morning and evening? Is it waiting for you every morning that you wake up? Are you thinking about it every night before going to “bed”? Notice that I did not say going to “sleep”. How many nights have been robbed of hours of sleep by the Goliath worry and fear that you are facing?]
GOD LEADS DAVID TOWARD GOLIATH
[Most people want God to move them “out-of-the-path” of,
or “away from” Goliaths.
But God will often do the opposite as is the case here with David.]
IF GOD LEADS YOU
“TO” A GOLIATH,
HE WANTS YOU TO GO
“THROUGH” THAT GOLIATH
As with David here.
17 Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah [36 lbs] of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18 Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. 19They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.”
20 Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. 21 Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. 22David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. 23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it.
[View challenges in your life as challenges from Satan to God.
You are just the representation of God that Satan is challenging.
You are the SERMON ILLUSTRATION that God will use to show His strength and the fact that He is God (not Satan, or the Situation).
24 Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in GREAT fear. [They were running away from their FAITH and their JOB]
25 Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.” [Sweet Deals]
26 David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.”
28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked,
[His jealous, brother who remembers being overlooked by God as the next King when his youngest brother David was chosen by God and anointed the next “King-in-waiting”, looks like he is asking David a question but he is actually making accusations even calling him conceited and wicked in his heart.]
“Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”
29 “Now what have I done?” said David.
[With the angry, jealous and accusatory attitude that the oldest brother is demonstrating here, it is pretty clear that David has previously heard and experienced his brothers distain for him and hate towards him. I picture David saying, Can’t I do anything right, can’t I even talk? He actually says to his brother, “Can’t I even speak.”]
“Can’t I even speak?”
[Notice what David does next. He ignores his brothers question and gets on to God’s business. Who do you need to ignore who is trying to keep you from God’s business? Who is distracting you from what God wants to do in your life? Is their someone in your life that has undealt-with-issues in their life that are having an effect upon you and your spiritual life? Don’t let their anger, fear, or even bad feelings towards you get you down. God needs to deal with them. You do not need to. Can you imagine if David got into a debate at that time with his brother who obviously had a wrong view of David and made accusations against him? If David would have, he would never been able to fight Goliath, much less defeat him. This is what I see in David’s next words in vs. 30 “He then turned away to someone else…”]
30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.
32 David said to Saul,
“Let no one lose heart [Don’t Fear. Don’t let Goliath frighten you any longer. God will take care of him through me]
on account of this Philistine; YOUR servant [Since King Saul was to represent God, David is saying here that he is God’s servant that God will utilize to defeat Goliath who really is the enemy of God himself.] will go and fight him.”
33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
[This is a perfect example of our earlier verse 1 Samuel 16:7
“People look at the OUTWARD APPEARANCE, BUT the Lord looks at the HEART.”
David actually had the heart of God in the body of what looked like a teenage shepherd.
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant [God’s servant]has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine [Godless enemy of God] will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who rescued mefrom the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” [Remember what God has done for you and others in the past, because he will do it again against the next Goliath that you encounter.]
Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”
38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling [Slingshot] in his hand, approached the Philistine.
41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42 He [Goliath] looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy,
[Here we Goliath proving 1 Samuel 16:7 right once again. He looked at the outward appearance of David.
“People look at the OUTWARD APPEARANCE, BUT the Lord looks at the HEART.”
But what Goliath failed to see was David’s godly heart.]
glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him.
[Goliath is insulted that he wasn’t respected by this teenage kid. People get really insulted and angry when they think that they are not taken seriously.]
43 He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?”
[Major miscalculation by Goliath. There have been a number of people who have made major miscalculations towards me and have not found them to be to their advantage. While I have felt some of the pain inflicted, it has always been they who have inflicted the greatest amount of pain upon themselves. In every case God has protected me and His ministry.]
And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”
[Threats, Threats, Threats. Satan always tries to threaten us to make us experience FEAR.]
45 David said to [Goliath] the Philistine,
“YOU come against me with sword and spear and javelin,
[The power of worldly, physical, seen things]
BUT I come against you in the name of the LORDAlmighty, [The power of God and UNSEEN things. He is the “LORD ALMIGHTY”]
the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for
THE BATTLE IS THE LORD’s,
and he will give all of you into our hands.”
48 As the Philistine moved closer to attack
him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.
[David did not hesitate. He aggressively faced Goliath head on.]
[David faced Goliath with the right guidance/God’s, at the right time/after assessing the situation and knowing what the nature of the battle was, with the right speed/no hesitation or second guessing, with the right attitude/not for his own reputation or credit, and with the right source of power/the power of God ALMIGHTY. He said it right, THE BATTLE IS THE LORD’S.]
49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. [We all wish that all of our Goliath-fighting experiences went so quickly and painlessly. But they haven’t. God will help us to endure through all of the Battles that are truly the Lords’].
GOD CAN DO EXTRA-ORDINARY THINGS THROUGH ORDINARY MEANS
[This can be clearly seen through the very next verse.]
50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
51 David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.
When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. 52 Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines…”
WHEN FACING YOUR GIANTS
1. Remember your “wins” from the past.
(David remembered his success in the past killing lions and bears with his slingshot and it helped him in the future in situations like with Goliath)
2. Don’t get sidetracked or distracted.
There will always be something that you will be tempted to use as an excuse for not facing Goliath situations in your life.
Keep the main thing the main thing.
3. Don’t be intimidated by the things that normally “impress” people.
(I picture David not saying Goliath is so big How can I possible win, but rather,
Goliath is so big how can I possibly miss him with my slingshot.)
With God’s backing you can’t lose.
4. Your Goliaths are YOUR Goliaths.
What you face may not be a big battle for someone else.
They may tell you that it is no big thing.
But to you, it is. So, it is.
But remember that God will always help you, strengthen you, equip you and remind you of how through past successes, He has prepared you to deal with things in the present.
And He also provides others to help further prepare you for the Challenge at hand.
It can “feel” very lonely when you face Goliaths in your life..
But you are never alone.
Sometimes it is on the lonely battlefield that we really learn to trust God.
And it is on that same battlefield that we will see God, be God.
Just like in the painting “The Chess Player’
See what the expert chess player saw, namely a way out.
“I’ve found it! All is not lost!”
5. When you face Goliaths in your life , you do not have to wear someone’s armor.
It did not work for David.
God will equip you sufficiently for the confrontation.
6. There is always a way to win.
The Battle is the Lord’s.
Illustration
I read the story of “The Chess Player” by Moritz Retzsch
and an international chess master named Paul Morphy.
He and a friend were taking a tour of Europe and went into an art gallery. Being a chess player, he was drawn to the painting by Moritz Retzsch. It was titled, “The Chess Players”.
It depicted two figures playing chess.
Satan was one and the other was a young man. They were playing for the young man’s soul.
Satan had just moved into position for checkmate. It’s obvious now the young man has no way of escape. Pale with fear, he realizes the devil has outwitted him. All is lost. There’s no apparent move that he can make. He looks bewildered and hopeless.
That is where the story of the painting ends.
You have to fill in the rest of the story.
What does he do now?
What did he do to get himself in this pickle?
The story’s ending is up to you.
The interpretation is up to you.
The application and take-home message is up to you.
What are you doing now that could get you into a similar situation?
What do you do next when there seems like you are facing GOLIATH and there seems like there is nothing left to do?
That’s it.
That’s the painting.
So, the two guys look at the painting for a few minutes before Paul Morphy’s friend moved on to the next painting in the exhibit.
But the international chess master
stood intently studying the chessboard.
After a while, he sees it.
He sees a way out.
He sees the next move.
He then actually says to the guy in the picture;
“Young man, there’s one move you can make!”
He then ran to his friend “I’ve found it! All is not lost!”
It takes a Chess Master to tell you “All is not lost”, when you think that you are in checkmate.
And it read that story it made me think that it takes God, the Master of ALL to tell me,
“All is not lost.”
“There is a way out.”
There is no Goliath that cannot be defeated with the wisdom and power of the Lord.
Remember what David said to Goliath,
“The Battle is the Lord’s.”
So, give your Goliath Battle to him,
And he will fight through you and you will win.
That’s a promise.
Prayer:
Lord, thank you Lord for “your” strength.
Thank you that we do not have to face anything alone.
Help us always to remember that
Greater is Jesus that is in us,
than Satan and all the Goliaths that we will face that are in the world.
In Jesus’ name we thank you and pray.
Amen!
Pastor Dave
Word of Life Church
17525 W. Bell Rd.
Surprise, AZ 85374