On this day the last Sunday of the month of January already 2009, we greet you in the matchless, Name of Jesus, giving honor to God who is the head of my life and to Jesus who is the head of the universal church and this local fellowship, it is indeed an honor and a privilege to stand before you once again for the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God.
I invite you once again back to the book of 1 Samuel and chapter 17 as we close out our series today on David as we have been walking through this month on David, Sunday number one was David as the unlikely candidate, 1 Samuel 16, 2nd Sunday was learning from David’s Sheep field, 1 Samuel 17, third Sunday was lessons from David’s Sheep field part two from Psalm 100 and verse 3. And today we go back to 1 Samuel chapter 17 and verses 38-51. 1 Samuel chapter 17 and verses 38-51 and when you have found it, let me hear you say amen. Let us stand for the reading of the word. While we are standing let us hold up our Bibles for the affirmation of the preaching of the word in this local fellowship. Repeat after me, I believe that God is who God’s word says that He is. I believe that God will do what God’s word says that He will do. I believe that I am who God’s word says that I am. Thy Word O Lord is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Amen. I will be reading aloud from the New King James, 1 Samuel chapter 17 and verses 38-51. Follow along as I read aloud. You may be seated. Thanks be to the Lord for the reading hearing and doing of God’s Holy Word.
1 Samuel chapter 17:45 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
1Sa 17:46 This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
We want to speak from the thought today, entitled your giant is no giant to God. Your giant is no giant to God. Say that to your neighbor your giant is no giant to God. You must believe this. You must wake up every day and live by this biblical principle that whatever you giant you face in this life in whatever form it is, it is no giant to the God you serve. Everything and everyone in this world is subject to God the Father, God the Son, Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit. Your Giant is no Giant to God. And when you come to that conclusion in your life and when you accept the godly spiritual revelation in your life that every giant you face in this life is no giant to God, than you are ready to join up with God to face your giant.
Because listen closely the sooner you face your giant the better off godly you will be because your giant is not just going to go away. Giants will face you down in this life and they do not just walk away. They have to be dealt with.
We can find this in the word of God because in an earlier verse that we read two Sundays ago when we were dealing with the first part of this chapter, it says in verse 16 the giant the philistine, verse 16 of 1 Samuel chapter 17, the Philistine drew near to the Israelites, morning and evening for 40 days taunting the children of Israel, saying who will come out to fight me. The giants are not just going to go away in your life. You see that’s why we have to deal with the bears and the lions in our lives as we have said over the past two Sundays because one day you are going to face the giants of your life, and the giants in our lives are not just going to walk away. The giants in our lives must be dealt with and eliminated, taken care of, taken out, they must be done away with so that we can move on and graduate to the next thing in God. Would not life be so much easier if we didn’t have to deal with the giants that rumble up into our lives. I am a living witness, young as I am, there have been some giants in my life and in my own thinking, I could declare that it would just be easier if they just go away and don’t come back on another day. But I am here to tell you that’s not how it works. Giants don’t just go away, you’ve got to join in with God to put giants away from your life. Just like Goliath, he presented himself 40 days morning and evening that means 80 times he came up in the presence of the Israelites, twice a day for forty days to say in other words, look a here, I am not going anywhere, I will be back tomorrow to remind you that I am a giant in your life that you must deal with.
Procrastination, in other words putting off, hesitation, in other words being in decisive, and denial which means pretending that things are not as they really are…all three procrastination, hesitation and denial will keep Goliath in your face and at your front door all of your life and all day long. You’ve got to deal with your Goliaths. That’s point number one for today. Make up in your mind when a giant comes up in your life, you may not deal with your giant on day one or day two or day three, but on one of these days if you want your giant to go away, on one of these days, you’ve got to make up your mind that between you and mostly God, between you and the leadership of God your giant is going down. Because if you do not decide and declare that you are going to deal with the giant in your life, I am here to tell you he will continue to draw near to you and present himself to you morning and evening everyday until you decide that between you and God and you following God’s divine leadership that this giant is going down.
Now in this story, Saul is convinced that David really does want to fight against Goliath and so Saul already we have said in the past, he lifted up to David how big Goliath was versus how big God is. Saul magnified the problem more than he magnified and lifted up God. Now in this portion of the chapter Saul decides to lend David Saul’s armor. He wants David to put on his fighting gear. In Saul’s mind it’s still a battle too much for David and in Saul’s mind, which is not at this point the mind of God, Saul is thinking that if David have on my armor he might be able to do something. If David carries my spear and my weapons than David might be able to do something. Saul was thinking the regular traditional stuff that if you are going to be a solider you’ve got to do this and you’ve got to do that and you’ve got to follow all of these certain protocols. 1Sa 17:38 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. Oh yes Saul put the traditional solider stuff on David. David at least you need some armor, some weapons, David, at least you need a helmet. David you need a coat of mail, which is a protective breastplate. But you see Saul missed God. God is not always about our traditions, and what we know and what we are familiar with. God is always about what God wants to do.
You see it’s like we said yesterday in our visioning conference here at the church, going to church and knowing God is two different things. You can go to church all day long and all life long and still don’t know God. In other words following traditions and following the Holy Spirit is two different things. Oh yes, the tradition in this text with Saul is to be suited for the battle, put on all of the stuff we are wearing. David I am going to lend you my helmet. David I am going to lend you my weapons. David I am going you to lend you my breastplate. But David says, I cannot wear this because I have not proved this. In other words, I have not practiced fighting anything in this. I have not tried this in battle before. I do not know if this is going to work for me. It’s too heavy. It’s too big. It does not fit me. I will lay it aside because I do not hear God saying that he is going to work through me with this. And saints of God, every tradition, is not meant to be carried on. What we use to do is not always what God is doing now. How it use to work may not be how God is working now. Going to church and knowing Jesus is two different things. Following church traditions and following the Holy Spirit is two different things. You might know this and you might that but if you want to win against Satan you better know Jesus for yourself and be able to discern the will of God through the power of the Holy Spirit for yourself. It is each one of our spiritual Christian Biblical responsibility to know the difference between the moving of the devil and the moving of the Lord.
Just like Saul he knew about his weapons and he knew about his helmet and Saul knew about his breastplate. But what he didn’t know is that for this battle it was not about Saul’s breastplate. For this battle it was not about Saul’s armor. For this battle it was not about Saul’s helmet but it was about what does God want to do. How does God want to win the battle. And saints of God, we know what we know, and we do what we know to do …..but if you want to hit the mark on the regular basis…and not miss God…you better know God..better than you know tradition. If you want to hit the mark in your life, you better know God….better than you know how to do church… If you want to hit the mark on the regular basis, you better know Jesus and the moving of the Holy Spirit more than you know the rules and the regulations and all the what nots and do nots. I am here to tell you that Jesus said to Pharisees over and over in the Gospels, you follow everything to the letter of the law, but your hearts are far from me. And that’s what the problem was here in this text, Saul knew all of the traditions of the battle but his heart was far from God…and he missed God…..God did not ask Saul to put all of that stuff on David. It wasn’t going to do David any good anyways because David was not a traditional soldier anyways. In fact David was not even in the army. He was just visiting the battlefield. And David had enough of godly wisdom not to try use something that he wasn’t familiar with and also not only was it something that David was not familiar with but it was also not what God was leading David to do.
And let me tell you here’s an example of something that was not evil to do but it was not what God was leading David to do. That’s why David resisted it. It was not evil to use Saul’s helmet, or to use Saul’s armor, or use Saul’s breastplate. To use somebody’s gear for war in itself is not evil…but if it’s not what God is leading you to do than it becomes sin. Because all sin is is disobedience of God. And God had not lead David to put on Saul’s stuff. And my friends, we have to be so careful in our lives that even when something looks like it might work. Even when something looks like it seems convenient for the hour. It seems like it might be the easy way around things. If God’s not in it, it will not work. If God’s not in it, it’s not for you. If God’s not in it, it’s not what God is up to right now. It may have worked in the past. It may have been a solution before. But the key question we have to continue to ask God is God what are you up to in my life right now. How do you want to deal with what I am facing right now and don’t try to circumvent, don’t try to override and usurp God’s will for your life. If you cannot wait upon God and how God wants to do something, you will miss God everytime and you will have to keep starting over and over again in your life. There comes a time in our life when we don’t keep starting over and over again in the same area in our lives. If you are starting over and over again in the same areas in your lives, you are not going anywhere my friends, we need to be graduating from time to time into some new areas in our lives. Let me tell you David was confident that God was leading him to use a slingshot. And a slingshot might seem to be minuscule, in other words a small ineffective weapon in the face of a giant. But I want to tell you, it was not about the weapon, it was not about what kind of weapon that David would use. But it was about who was behind the weapon. You see it was not David who was behind the weapon it was God who was behind the weapon. And if God wants to use a rubber band against your giant, versus a missile. Let God use a rubber band because I am telling you a rubber band sling shot in the hands of almighty God is greater than any missile man can build. If God wants to use a spit ball gun against your giant versus a rocket launcher, let God put his hand on a spit ball gun. You know what a spit ball gun is…we use to play with them when we were little, my brothers and friends and I, we would take a regular ball point pen, take the ink cartridge out of it and put one spit ball on the front end of the pen and one spit ball on the back end of the pen and use that point of the ink cartridge to push pressure down that pen between those two spit balls and when it got so far, you would aim and you would hear a pop. And if God wants to use a spit ball gun versus a flame thrower or a rocket launcher against your giant, just follow God and let God lay his hands on a spit ball gun…and it may not seem like much but if God has his hands on the weapon, the giant is going down. I don’t care what weapon it is…if God’s hands are upon it, the giant got to go down. Matter of fact, we serve a God who does not need to use any weapons anyway. All God have to do is look. All God have to do is speak. All God have to do stand up. All God have to do is move. All God have to do is get up off his throne and something is going to happen, whatever giant you are facing in your life, it’s going down my friends. God does not need any of our weapons anyways. God will use things in the earth realm to manifest himself from time to time. But God’s got some stuff in his arsenal that we don’t even know about.
Yes sir and yes maam, it was not about whether it was a sling shot or whether it was a spear or whether it was a bow and arrow or whether it was a sword. It was not about whether it was a javelin or knife…but it is all about whose behind the weapon. And if God’s behind the weapon, you’ve got the victory over all of the giants in your life.
I want to close out this afternoon talking about the smooth stones from the brook. You see first thing we said is that your giant is not just going to walk away. Between you and mostly God, you will have to face your giants. The next thing we said is that we need to know what God is doing now in our lives and it may not be the traditional. It may not be the regular protocol. It may not be the usual letter of the law and the do nots and cannots and should nots that will give us the victory. Now I want to close out this afternoon talking about the smooth stones from the brook. It is said that the reason why the smooth stone was chosen is because although getting hit by a rough stone might sound more deadly, a rough stone flying through air can easily get off track. But it is said that a smooth stone, when you sling a smooth stone, whatever direction that you sling it, and however you aim it, it is more likely to keep that exact path because a smooth stone, the air going against the smooth stone is less likely to turn it off track. And that’s why the text says that David didn’t just pick up any stones but he got some smooth stones which mean he meant for the Lord to work through these stones and take the giant out completely. The text also says that he got five smooth stones from the brook. Somebody has commented that David got enough stones just in case he missed. But I choose to believe differently. I believe that David knew that all he needed was one stone for Goliath. And so why did he need the other four stones pastor, well if you are a bible reader and bible learner you would know that Goliath had four sons who were also giants…yes he did. It’s over in 2 Samuel Chapter 21. We will not tarry there today other than to say that in 2 Samuel Chapter 21 and very last portion of the chapter you will read an account of several battles with other giants, and the last verse of the chapter notes that four of these giants were sons of Goliath that David also eventually killed, David and David’s men. That’s why I believe that David had five stones, one for father Goliath and four for Goliath sons if they showed up. David expected to leave victoriously. And I am here to tell you…that we too, we have a stone for our giants…Same stone for every giant…Same stone….same stone, the stone that the builders rejected.
Same one stone for every giant, the stone that has become the chief cornerstone.
Same one stone, the stone that is our solid rock on which we stand because all other ground is sinking sand.
Same one stone for every giant, the stone that is our rock, our fortress, our deliverer in whom we trust.
Same stone, the stone that is our buckler, our shield, our strong tower.
Same stone, the stone who is our refuge, our strength, and the shade over our right hands.
Same one stone for every giant, and his Name is Jesus Christ, the anointed one, the Savior, the redeemer, the deliverer. At the Name of Jesus, every giant must bow, on earth, above the earth, and beneath the earth. Yes, yes, yes, just like David said to Goliath, I came at you in the name of the Lord of hosts of Israel….we can tell that Devil, Devil you come at me with all of your fiery darts of disappointment, confusion and frustration, and Devil you come at me with all of your devices of temptations and sin…but listen I come at you in the Name of Jesus. I come at you in the Name of Jesus the everlasting word. I come at you in the blood of Jesus that shall never lose it’s power…And if your life is wrapped up and tied up in Jesus, when you think of the Name of Jesus he already there. If you life is wrapped up and tied up in Jesus, when you just whisper the Name of Jesus, God is already there, you don’t have to call long, hard and loud…all you have to do is whisper in your heart, in Jesus Name I need you now, I need now, I need now, I need you now, right now my savior, I come on to thee. That’s why the song artist say He will hear your faintest call. Your giant is no giant to God. Your giant is no giant to God.
