I Want To Walk Out Of The Valley Like David Did Series

Introduction

Last week, in the Valley of Elah, we saw David’s breakout. He was no longer fighting the bear or fighting the lion to save his sheep; he was now fighting a giant named Goliath because he was mocking the greatness of Israel's God. And David was not going to stand for that; so, David went out into the Valley and did battle with the giant, and we know that David walked away the victor. It was his breakout moment.

But in this valley as David is having his breakout moment; King Saul and the Israelites are stuck; they are stopped in their tracks. As good as this moment is for David; it is the complete opposite for King Saul and the Israelite army; it is their sad moment. And so, what we learn from this story is that two people may enter the same Valley, but they may come out of the Valley with completely different outcomes. David is flying high; his faith in God has hit new levels; he trusted God to bring victory and God did not disappoint. Saul and the Israelites come out of the Valley not growing in their faith at all. Their faith in God did not grow; at best, they stayed stuck or maybe even had a decrease of their faith.

If I have a choice of how I am going to walk out of a Valley, I want to walk out like David with my faith in God soaring to new heights; I don’t want to walk out of the Valley like Saul and the Israelites stuck right where I am.

So, in today’s sermon, I want to know what caused Saul and the Israelite army to stay stuck; to be stopped right there in their tracks so that it does not happen to me in my walk with God. If you are spiritually stuck or you think your faith is growing like it should be, then this sermon is for you.

So, if you have your Bibles or if you would like to read from the bulletin please look at our Scriptures from 1 Samuel 17.

Points

#1

YOU WILL NEVER WALK OUT OF THE VALLEY LIKE DAVID IF YOU ATTEMPT TO FIGHT A SPIRITUAL BATTLE IN YOUR OWN STRENGTH.

1 Samuel 17:2-3(NKJV)

2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. 3 The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, with a valley between them.

Saul and the Israelite army wanted to fight this battle the conventional way. You line up your men and we line up our men and each of us start throwing spears and shooting arrows at one another and engage in some hand-to-hand combat. And the last army standing wins.

David arrives in the camp at the instruction of his father, Jesse, to bring supplies to his brothers. He drops them off with the supply clerk and then David runs to the battlefield to check on his brothers. He hears the words of the giant and he says, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” David saw this battle for what it was- a spiritual battle. Saul and the Israelites missed that.

I am afraid there are a lot of us that are like Saul and Israelite army and we miss that the Valley we are in and battle we face is a spiritual battle. We fail to call something a spiritual battle because we are only looking at the situation from our natural eyes and not our spiritual eyes.

Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV)

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Listen, if we are wrestling with something in our life right now there is a high probability that it is a spiritual battle, and we need to call it for what it is. Saul and his army didn’t do that; David did.

You may be wrestling with an addiction today, but I am here to tell you there is some physical elements to addiction, but it is a spiritual problem. I have seen people sell out to God and that addiction came under control.

You may be wrestling with a financial problem today. Certainly, there is a financial element to it, but it may be a spiritual problem. God may have told you it is not time to buy a certain thing and you went ahead anyway and purchased it. Call it for what it is, a spiritual problem.

You believe that you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior at an early age but now as you have gotten older you are just not certain; fear grips your heart. But your pride will not allow you to come forward and get the matter settled today once and for all and be at peace with God knowing everything is right. It is a spiritual problem that is keeping you from finding peace with God- your pride. You are worried: What will people think about me? It is more important what God thinks about you.