Developing A Heart For God (David)

Developing a Heart For God

1 Samuel 17 (David Vs. Goliath)

There are a lot of people these days who are full of fear.

Fearful of health problems,

fearful of failure,

fearful of physical violence,

fearful about relationships,

fearful about finances,

fearful about the future.

Psychologists tell us that our nation that is overloaded with fears.

Without even mentioning the obvious fears of terrorism or disease,

We also see every kind of phobia from autophobia to monophobia.

Autophobia is the fear of self.

Monophobia is the fear of being alone.

Then there’s automonophobia – the fear of being alone with yourself.

All kind of phobias.

There’s even cheriphobia—

cheriphobia is the fear of FUN.

The fear of having a good time.

Of course, many people think Christians have that phobia...

and I’m afraid some of them do!

Fortunately not at this church.

In fact,

(Some of us in this church suffer from Baptistophobia – fear of having to go back to the church we grew up in where everyone looked like they drank too much prune juice.)

Well David knew all about fear and the challenge of overcoming his fears.

In the 23rd Psalm he wrote...

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

But I have to think that,

when David was facing Goliath he must have had at least a little bit of FEE-FI-phobia—

which, of course, is the fear of giants.

There was a good reason to be afraid of Goliath.

Let me just say that

Goliath would have been a very high draft pick in the NFL.

I’m willing to bet that with a guy like him,

even the Bengals could win a few games.

There’s a description of him in 1 Sam. 17:4

He’s over nine feet tall.

He had a bronze helmet and armor that weighed over 125 pounds.

His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod,

and it’s iron point weighed 15 pounds.

Lets put that in perspective.

Anybody here ever throw the shotput?

High School Shotput 12 pounds,

In college or the Olympic its 16 pounds,

and these huge guys can throw it about 70 feet.

On Goliaths spear, just the tip alone weighed as much as a shotput.

That tip was attached to a shaft as big as a weaver’s beam.

That thing was heavy.

Now why does the Bible give such a detailed description,

of Goliath’s size and strength?

The whole point is to show how unevenly matched David was,

against this guy.

In fact,

have you ever thought about how this fight would sound

if it were being broadcast by ESPN.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

welcome to the Valley of Elah Arena for this afternoon’s feature event – Let’s get ready to rumble!!!

Introducing first, the challenger, fighting out of the Israelite camp,

he stands 5’6" and weighs 124 pounds.

He’s a poet and a musician,

he’s called a man after God’s own heart.

Wearing the white tunic,

here he is, DAAAvid!

His opponent,

fighting out of the Philistine camp,

he stands 9’9" tall and weighs 438 pounds.

He brings a record of 92 wins and no defeats – all victories coming by knockout and decapitation,

The heavyweight champeeeen of the world – give it up for, GO-LI-ATH!!!

Not a very even match.

This story is so well known that,

the very idea of "Goliath" has come to represent any force or challenge that seems to be impossible to overcome.

I did an internet search on david vs. goliath

and I couldn’t even find any listings that were about the actual bible story,

They were all things like,

a small high school basketball team taking on a huge school,

a little computer company competing with Dell,

a small businessman fighting the IRS.

Anyone facing impossible odds,

is facing a Goliath.

And the truth is,

all of us face "Goliaths" in our lives from time to time—

Let me give you 3 characteristics of a "Goliath"...

#1 A "Goliath" is a problem that is bigger than you are!

You look at it and it just seems impossible!

Just like Goliath was bigger than David,

our "Goliaths" are difficulties that seem more than we can handle!

#2 A "Goliath" laughs at you and defies your power to defeat it.

A "Goliath-size problem" says,

"You can’t conquer me!

You’re too weak and small to take on something as big as me!"

#3 A "Goliath" has a way of forcing you to rely on God.

If you’re facing a seemingly impossible situation then the best alternative you’ve got,

is to look to someone who is bigger than ANY problem– and that, of course, is God.

Now in this story,

Goliath challenged the army of Israel

to send somebody out to fight him.

and the obvious guy to face Goliath was Saul.