God’s Endowments

As you know, Israel was facing the Philistines. David came along. He learned that no one would fight Goliath, who had blasphemed the name of David’s God, and he decided that if no one else would fight him, he would.

Illus: Isn’t it good that you always find, among God’s people, those with the attitude, “If no one else is willing, then I must!”

The other men in Israel’s army felt they had an excuse for not responding to the challenge, but David was not looking for an excuse. He was looking for a way to defeat that giant. We have no way of knowing if he was frightened inside or not, but we do know he had confidence in the God he served!

God uses people who are not looking for an excuse. These are the people God uses to get His work done across this nation. These are the ones He uses to defeat Satan time and time again.

David was willing. However, Saul insisted that if David was going to respond to this challenge he had at least better have some armor on.

Look at verse 38, “And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.”

That must have been a sight. We know David was a short man. We also know Saul was a tall man. So, David no sooner got all that armor on when he realized it would not work.

Look at verse 39. We read, “And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.”

Why did David feel uncomfortable? It is possible he realized if he had killed Goliath with all that armor on then men would have said he won because of the armor.

Illus: Without a doubt, one of the reasons our churches are suffering one spiritual defeat after another is because we have “armed” the church with every piece of human armor we can put on.

• We have the best buildings money can buy.

• We have the best trained and educated pastors and staff workers money can buy.

• We have the best programs money can buy.

All these things are good, but they will not get us the victory God wants us to have.

Yet we are losing young people to drugs and illicit sex and our marriages to the divorce courts.

In order to claim some victory, what we have done is re-define “victory” in our churches. “Victory” is no longer that the power of God overcomes the devil in the people of our churches. People now measure “victory” by the size of the buildings, budgets and crowds. If these are big, then the people feel they have a “victorious” church. As a result, the “armor” is exalted more than the God we claim to love and worship.

It was a great thing for Israel that David refused to wear Saul’s armor.

Illus: When David stood before Goliath with only a sling and five smooth stones, and God directed that stone to the center of Goliath’s forehead, God received the glory. It did not go to man-made armor.

Notice, David allowed the armor to be placed on him, but in verse 39 he said, “...I cannot go with these...And David put them off him.”

David took one look at himself and concluded, “This is not me!”

When Saul had told David why he felt David would not be able to fight Goliath, David answered, verses 34-36, “And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God”

David remembered when God had helped him kill the lion and bear. He did not have any man-made armor on then. But he went in the strength and wisdom of the Lord.

Smart is the man who recognizes that God can only use him when he is HIMSELF.

One of the major problems we have today is that we have people trying to be something they are not.

Illus: Dr. Charles E. Jefferson told a group of young preacher boys, “Be yourself. You are only strong when you are yourself. You are persuasive only when you speak in your mother tongue, and of those things which you yourself do know. If you walk on the stilts of other men’s high phrases, or wrap yourself in the embroidered language of men of genius long since dead, you will be as impotent as David was the day he fitted on Saul’s armor. Use the pebble taken from the brook which flows by your door. Use the sling which you have used from boyhood and which belongs to you by the will of God. Let other men preach as they will, you preach as you must.”