Sunday, March 15, 2009
There’s a wind blowing across America and in fact around the world, suggesting that there are powers that are indestructible. There are voices, including the President of this great country, suggesting that there are institutions or powers that are too big to fail.
On Friday of this past week, God spoke to my heart and told me to tell His people that only He, God, is too big to fail. According to scripture God is a jealous God, and does not recognize nor allow us to recognize any authority or power whether it be institutional or otherwise to take on an image of perfection. Usually when God speaks to my heart, He instructs me to tell my church, but the message this Friday was different. He directed me to tell His people, suggesting that we need to reach beyond our walls with a message of His strength and integrity.
In God’s eyes, He went on to tell me, if you claim to be too big to fail, and you accept assistance, that’s a sign of weakness. There is only One Who has no weaknesses, and that, my friend, is God. I believe God is offended by His creation suggesting that there exists powers that are sufficient within their own selves. I believe He is offended even if it is our President.
According to His word, there is no power except the power of God (which is sufficient) and the Power that is ordained of God. So tonight, the difference in man’s interpretation and God’s interpretation is quite different. In man’s eyes you can have banks, auto manufacturers, insurance companies that are too big to fail, but yet find themselves in a position of not being able to survive within their own means. This according to what God told me shows signs of weaknesses, and again, God has never shown signs of weakness. He, unlike those that claim to be too big to fail, has been self sustaining for millions of years, and even during the mutiny which occurred in heaven years ago, God single-handedly overcame the adversity and cast the mutineers out of heaven.
Yes, satan now understood that God was in fact too big to fail. But the difference here was simple, God had no need to request or receive any type of assistance (or bail outs as we like to call them).
In I Samuel 17, we find another example in scripture of a power that according to everyone in the theatre of that day was too big to fail. According to them all, he had no weaknesses and had never lost a battle. But he too was about to learn that God is the only power that is indeed too big to fail. The whole chapter is consumed with the premonition that this man (Goliath) was too big to fail.
Before we see David or notice anything about his God, we are introduced to this enemy and told how fierce he is. Even before we are told the details of the story, we are given a huge dose of his ability. Reading this we begin to feel a feeling of defeat for anyone who would dare stand up against this man who was, in their eyes, too big to fail.
Isn’t that the same thing the devil wants us to digest today? Stand down is the cry in the church today, the road’s too tough, the way is too hard. Too much effort, too much commitment, on and on it goes, until one day it’s too late, we’ve made the decision and we’ve decided that living for God requires too much, that the forces we face are greater than the forces that assist us. Both sides of the mountain were sure that Goliath was the champion. His size suggested this, his ability suggested this (never lost a battle in hand-to-hand combat), his armor suggested this and his strength suggested this.
But someone forgot to tell Goliath (as many pastors do today) that God is a jealous God and deals with every threat, not only against Himself, but also against all of His children. Throughout history, God has always dealt with adverse situations and I Samuel 17 was no different. God was up to the task. The stage was set and God had heard the rhetoric. Not only had God heard the rhetoric, He had a man prepared and on his way.
After all, isn’t this what Goliath wanted? He prayed every day send me a man. What a fool! When his prayer was not answered immediately, he prayed the next day, send me a man, and several days thereafter, until one day his prayer was answered. This man wasn’t the biggest, maybe not the brightest, but he certainly was able to follow the commandments of God. I won’t go into the rest of the story, but on that day, God as He does today, assisted and did not need assistance, because, Brother, God had no weaknesses and God is too big to fail.
History would be made that day. Two powers, each supposedly too big to fail, would collide, and one would have to stand down. Notice David had no clue who this “Bluto Brute” was, and in verse 20 he offended him and also his family by asking, “Who is this uncircumsized Philistine?”, insulting not only the giant, but also his family. This is equivalent today of asking someone, “Who’s your daddy?” Not being circumsized in David’s day was a big no-no.
Most folks today just want to get along with the enemy. It was no different then. The Israelites got mad at David. They should have been mad at themselves, because it was they, themselves, who allowed fear to conquer them before there was even a battle. It wasn’t the army they were afraid of, they were in fact poised on one side of the mountain to engage in battle. It was Goliath who they had only heard about. Isn’t that the way satan attacks the church today? Most of the time we’re ready to surrender before there’s a battle, just because we HEARD how fierce the enemy is. They wanted to be politically correct and portray David as a renegade. Saul even suggested in verse 33 that David was not capable of the task at hand. But he knew in his heart that he, David, was not too big to fail and would need assistance. That’s when God stepped into the arena.
In life today, when we realize that we cannot make it without the assistance of God, we also are comforted by knowing that at that moment God steps into the arena with us. A giant too big to fail needs no assistance; that was the attitude of all of them, including Goliath, that were on the hillside that day. A shepherd boy who realizes he is not to big to fail but needs the assistance of a power that is too big to fail, becomes victorious.
So in conclusion, never give up the ship, or the fight before the battle starts. It doesn’t matter who suggests that your problems are too big, the mountain’s too high, the valley’s too deep and wide, step out and pursue the enemy. You will find you’re not alone, there is a power that needs no bail out (no assistance) and is too big to fail. That power is my Heavenly Father and yours.
God bless you, and remember stand up never stand down in the face of the enemy.
Pastor Sanford Colquitt
Abundant Life
Manchester, Georgia 31816
