Exercise Faith - Experience God’s Power

Exercising Faith, Experiencing God’s Power

Facing Your Giants

1 Samuel 17:1-50

We are never too young to experience God’s Power

To Experience God’s Power…

…We must exercise faith with humility

…We must exercise faith with courage

…We must exercise faith with the gifts we already have

…We must exercise faith for the glory of the Lord

Intro

Announcements/Giving

Slide

Well, I am glad that you are here at our Family Sunday. I always enjoy when our kids are with us. It is a great opportunity for all of us parents to example to them our worship to the Lord through our own singing and through hearing and responding to the Word of God as it is preached.

This morning we are going to talk about something that I believe each of us want, yet are unsure how to experience.

And that is God’s Power.

Now when I say God’s power, what comes to your mind?

I think some people think that God’s power is like having magic powers to do things like we see in the movie Bruce Almighty.

I’ve Got the Power video clip

Slide after video

That is not what I am talking about.

What I am talking about is God’s power as it works in us and through us to accomplish mighty and awesome things that apart from His work in us, would be impossible for us.

How can we Experience God’s power working in us and through us?

Well, today we are going to look at the story of David and Goliath, and seek to find out how we might experience God’s power working through each of us like it did in David.

Turn with me to 1 Samuel 17.

Slide

I want us to see today how no matter who we are, we can experience God’s power and be able to defeat our own Giants.

Now, as we begin the story of David and Goliath found in 1 Samuel 17, we find the armies of Israel and the Philistines squaring off against one another.

And beginning in 1 Samuel 17:4

1 Samuel 17:4-11, 16

4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing 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. His shield bearer went ahead of him.

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? 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." 10 Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy the ranks 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…

16 For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.

Now imagine this scene for a second.

Someone 9 feet tall, a giant, provoking you, taunting you, and the reality is that you have nobody in your army that can take him out.

Some may say you could pull and Indiana Jones on him.

What’s that you ask?

Indiana Jones clip – Guns are better than swords

Slide after clip

Well, you need to remember that this is in an age when there are no guns. Yes you could use weapons that you threw, but Goliath’s defenses, were such that it would have little effect and throwing weapons were not very accurate at all.

You had to have someone that could go at him in hand to hand combat.

This is why Saul and his army were “dismayed and terrified” and this went on for 40 days, day in and day out.

Facing our own Giants

Now, while we probably aren’t facing a 9 foot tall giant who wants to kill us, many of us are facing what seems to be a problem in our life that is impossible to defeat and it seems like each day, it is there to mock us.

Lack of a job

Maybe the giant you are facing is your lack of a job.

You get up everyday to go look for a job, but it seems the want ads taunt you. You are under qualified, You are over qualified.

It seems you have filled out a thousand job applications and yet you still can’t defeat this giant of unemployment.