Facing The Giants

I heard of a group of people who visited a zoo. As they passed the elephant pen they noticed one of the attendants sitting and crying. One of the visitors asked another attendant what was wrong. The attendant replied “The elephant has died.” The visitor said “Oh, he must have been fond of the elephant.” The attendant who shared the information said, “No, he has been given the job of digging the grave for the dead elephant.”

Do you ever feel like sitting and crying? The job is overwhelming! The challenge is too demanding! All of us know the frustration of facing an overwhelming task. Tonight we will view the movie, “Facing the Giants,” We can all relate to the concept of facing giants. All of us will face giants from time to time. The question becomes, how do I deal with my giants?

There is a familiar passage in the Bible that goes well with this movie, the story of David and Goliath. Let me review the context. A war was raging between the armies of the Philistines and the armies of Israel. The Philistines had a champion named Goliath who was nine feet 6 inches tall. Goliath challenged the Israelites to send forth one man and the two of them would decide the battle. The winner would claim victory for his army. As you can imagine most of the Israelite army trembled in fear. They were like the zoo attendant. They were overcome by the size of the enemy. David was not fearful of Goliath. David had been at home tending his father’s sheep. David had three older brothers fighting in the Israelite army. None of them would fight Goliath. David’s father sent David to deliver supplies to his older brothers. When David arrived on the scene he was disturbed to find this giant of a man taunting the armies of Israel. David believed that, with God’s help, he could overcome this giant. David was able to defeat Goliath. Even so, God wants you and me to be victorious with our giants. How do we do this? Initially we will only read the climactic verse in this inspiring story. As I move through the message I will read additional verses to explain concepts. Notice verse 45. “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.” With those words David defeated Goliath. What principles do we find in this story? Before dealing with the text let me assure you of this. “God will never allow you to face a giant you are not equipped to battle.”

I want to consider this story in order to discover the secrets to defeating the giants in our lives. To begin with I want to identify four negatives to avoid. David avoided these.

1. The first negative to avoid is, do not limit God. David was the youngest of eight brothers. He did not let his age hinder his victory. Also, he did not let the size of the task hinder his victory. In short, he did not limit God by his limitations. Sometimes we let the negatives of our situation hinder the outcome. The negative could be poor self esteem. The negative could be negative thinking. The negative could be a bad attitude.

Illustration: In the Bible we find such examples. One such example occurred in the lives of the Israelites. God had miraculously lead them out of slavery in Egypt. He miraculously opened the waters of the Red Sea in order to rescue them from the iron fist of Pharoah. They traveled through a wilderness to arrive at the borders of the Promised Land. Everyone was primed to enter the new land that God had promised. They sent out scouts to investigate this new land of promise. The scouts saw a land filled with promise. The scouts saw a land they desired. The scouts saw a land that was everything God had promised. However, the majority of the scouts were intimidated by the sight of giants in the land. They limited God because of what they saw.

Unbelief limits God to what we can see, feel comprehend or control. Faith sees the impossible and believes the unbelievable.

• We should never limit God to what we can handle.

• We should never limit God to what we can understand. I cannot understand computers but they are a wonderful gift to use. I cannot understand cars but they are a wonderful gift to drive.

Illustration: The Japanese introduced a tree to the world that is called a Bonsai tree. It is measured in inches instead of feet as other trees are measured. It is not allowed to reach its full growth potential but instead grows in a stunted miniature form. The reason for it growing in stunted form is that when it first stuck its head out of the ground as a sapling, the owner pulled it out of the soil and tied off its main tap root and some of its branch feeder roots and then replanted it. By doing this, its growth was stunted limiting the roots ability to spread out and take in adequate nutrients for normal growth. What was done to the Bonsai tree is what Satan has purposed to do to you. He wants to limit the provision we find in God.