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.
(Contributed to Sermon Central by Bill Lobbs)
2. The second negative is, do not walk by sight. Look at verses 24-25. “When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him and were greatly afraid. And the men of Israel said, "Have you seen this man who is coming up?” Twice in these two verses you find sight mentioned. The Bible says “we walk by faith, not by sight.” II Cor. 5:7
Illustration: When I was in high school playing basketball we had to avoid being psyched out by the size of the other team. When you are 5’9” and the other team has players 6’5” or better that works on your mind.
Illustration: We find the danger of sight in Genesis 3, the record of mankind’s first sin. God had instructed Adam and Eve to avoid the forbidden fruit of the garden of Eden. Initially they obeyed. However, Satan planted a different thought in their minds. He told them it was okay to eat the forbidden fruit. The Bible says Eve yielded to Satan’s words. The Bible says “the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes.” Gen. 3:6 My translation…she saw and she enjoyed what she saw.
Why do advertisers appeal to sight? They know that the road to your heart is through your eyes. The television screens are filled with diet products. They always put these gorgeous people on their commercials. Last week I was listening to some of those commercials. One lady says “I feel so sexy.” Another one said “My husband calls me his trophy wife.”
When you go to the mall, have you ever seen a sloppy window display. It is neat and appealing to the eyes.
3. The third negative is, do not listen to your feelings. Feelings can cripple. Notice verse 24 “When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him and were greatly afraid.” They were controlled by their feelings and their fears. Feelings are not faith and faith is not a feeling. Feelings are on the human level whereas faith is on the spiritual level. Feelings are subject to change whereas faith is constant. Feelings are centered in you whereas faith is centered in God. Feelings handicap whereas faith will strengthen you.
Illustration: When George B. McClellan was commissioned Major General of the Army, he wrote his wife, "I don’t feel any different than I did yesterday. Indeed, I have not yet put on my new uniform. I am sure that I am in command of the Union Army, however, because President Lincoln’s order to that effect now lies before me."
(J.Kirk Johnston, Why Christians Sin, Discovery House, 1992, p. 74. Contributed to Sermon Central by Paul Fritz)
4. The third negative is, do not listen to others. At least three times in our text David was tempted to listen to others.
• In verse 28 David’s brother Eliab said "Why have you come down?”
• In verse 33 the king tells David “"You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth.”
• In verse 43 Goliath, the enemy says “"Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.”
David got hit from every direction. He was discouraged by his family. He was discouraged by the king. He was taunted by his enemy. Do you ever feel as if you are getting hit from all directions?
Illustration: In sports, teams sometimes get involved in trash talk before games. Team players will try to psyche out the other team through trash talk. They will say things such as “we are going to beat you 30 points.” “Your momma is ugly.” “You are a bunch of sissies.” The point of trash talk is to get the other team’s mind off of the game.
We have covered four negatives: do not limit God, do not walk by sight, do not listen to your feelings and do not listen to others. There are many forces that will bankrupt your faith. God wants you to walk by faith. God wants you to depend on Him. God created you to be dependent on Him and to walk by faith. We learn several valuable lessons from David that will strengthen our faith.
We should check these aspects of our faith.
1. Check our experience. When David was sharing with the king he referenced his faith experience. He told King Saul "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." David testified of what God had done for him. Faith is a matter of what God can do for you, not what you can do for God. David had a faith experience to lean on. This was tried and true. Your experience validates the word of God and confirms your faith. Your experience cannot be denied.
Illustration: There is a good example of this from the life of Jesus. In Luke 9 we find an occasion when Jesus healed a blind man. The religious legalists debated Jesus over His methods. The blind man was at the center of the debate. The legalists accused Jesus of breaking religious rules. They tried to use the blind man, who was healed, as a pawn. They asked him his thoughts about Jesus. He said “one thing I do know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." (John 9:25) The man was not sure about his theology but he was sure about his experience. You may not know much about the Bible but there is no denying what God has done in your life.
Illustration: Another example of this is found in I John. John said “what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life.” (I John 1:1) John taught and preached from truth but also from personal experience.
Do you have a personal relationship with God that has given you personal experiences? We accept by faith but we are confirmed by experiences. If you are a believer there are several kinds of experiences you can confirm.
• You can confirm the time you asked Jesus to come into your life. You know that God spoke to you about that decision and you can identify that experience.
• If you are a believer you can confirm the times when God has given you specific directions or a word of comfort. You know that you had an encounter with God.
2. Notice what David said, as recorded in 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.” What does this phrase teach us? David walked in humility and depended on God for his strength. David had an experience with God. However, he also had learned to depend on God in every aspect of his life. There is a verse that many people have memorized and turned to for direction. Prov. 3:5-6. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”
Many times we are unable to defeat the giants in our lives because we are depending on our own strength or other things.
• There may be some here today who have turned to alcohol for strength.
• There may be some who have turned to drugs for strength.
• Some may have turned to work.
• As Americans we tend to rely on our wealth, education and technology.
God wants to be our strength, our supply and our source.
3. I refer to verse 45 one last time. David said Goliath came with a sword, spear and javelin but he came “in the name of the Lord.” We can draw another principle from that verse. David had dedicated his life to living for God. His faith was not a tack on. It was not a ritual he fulfilled on Sunday. It was not something he did out of a sense of guilt. It was his life.
Several passages in the New Testament teach this truth. In Mark 12 we read about an occasion when a religious leader tried to trap Jesus. This was one of the religious groups that saw Jesus as a false teacher. He asked Him which was the greatest commandment. If Jesus answered incorrectly he would use His answer as a trap to turn people against Him. Jesus quoted from Deut. 6. His quote was “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mk. 12:30) That verse stresses total dedication to God.
Another passage is found in Rom. 12. Paul teaches us to “to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Paul did not tell us to dedicate one hour a week. Paul did not tell us to dedicate ourselves when we are in trouble. Our dedication to Christ becomes a life commitment.
If you are facing a giant you can overcome! God will give you the victory!
