FACING GIANTS IN LIFE & WORK
50 Days of Transformation– Part 7 (Your Career)
Pastor Rick
April 19, 2015 Exodus 35:30-35 I Samuel 16
This sermon is my variation of the sermon from Rick Warren in the 50 days of Transformation Series. Some of the background information on David and Goliath is from Malcom Gladwell.
We are in our final week of 50 Days of Transformation. How many of you can look and see ways in which you are different. One of my goals under the physical transformation was to change my eating habits. I have done so, and as a result I am 20 lbs lighter than I was from week 2. Today we are going to look at Transformation at work or in a career.
We have celebrated Pastor’s Toby 30th anniversary because God put a calling on her life to be a pastor. But did you know that God created you and placed gifts in your life so that you could do a particular kind of work. In our Old Testament reader we met a two guys who were jewelers, sculptors, carpenters, craft designers and teachers all because God’s spirit put the ability in them to be skilled at such task. They had the same calling on their lives as Pastor Toby has on hers. Their skills were to be used to glorify God.
We think we can separate a secular job from a spiritual one, but God never makes the distinction. Our work or career is sacred to God, because that’s where God wants us to be to use us for God’s glory. Whether you are a cashier, counselor, driver, painter, secretary, supervisor or entrepreneur, your work is sacred to God and you need to see it as such. We are going to watch a woman take her calling and turn it into a ministry for God.
How do we get to the place of recognizing our calling from God. God always uses the circumstances in our lives today, to prepare and equip us for how He intends to use us in the future. Even those of you who are retired, are called to do ministry with the gifts God has given you. As you get to the place God is calling you, you are going to face certain giants in your life, that will seek to keep you from becoming what God intended.
In our OT reading, we say that God had Samuel anoint David to be the next king, when all David was, was a shepherd boy. Right after his anointing he was sent right back into the fields to take care of the sheep. You can look at where you are today, but that does not mean that’s where you are always going to be. You can look at us today as a church, but we are not where God is going to have us be in terms of our growth, our ministries and our outreach. Today, we’re just a shepherd, but tomorrow God is going to do something new.
God places dreams inside of us because God knows we can accomplish far more than we think when we align our lives with his. Do you realize that if all of us who sat in the video on transformation with our giving did what the teaching said, there would not be any financially struggling at New Life At Calvary. We’d feed more people each month, we’d have summer camp jobs for all our youth, and we’d have scholarship money for our students. Nobody would have to worry about an eviction because they could not pay their rent. We would be able to love each other in word and in deed.
You can be certain that for every dream God places inside of us concerning our work or careers, the devil is going to send some giant in our path to keep from obtaining it. We have a story in the bible that helps us to understand how to overcome giants that keep us from getting from where we are to where God wants us to be. It’s called David and Goliath.
Here’s the story in a nutshell. Israel and the Philistines are at war. Both sides are on a hill with a valley between them. Neither side wants to give up their position of being on the higher ground by crossing the valley to fight. Finally the Philistines suggest they both put up their best warrior, let them slug it out, and whoever wins the fight wins the war. It sounded good until the Philistines came up with a warrior who was big enough to make Lebron James look like a short little guy. The guy was so tall and big that someone walked in front of him with a shield to keep away enemy arrows. He had on a bronze helmet, a coat of armor weighing 125 lbs, bronze to cove his legs, a huge javelin that the tip of it weighed 15 lbs.
This guy also had a big mouth. Each day he would come out and ask if anybody was willing to take him on. He defied them and their God. When this guy spoke, all of the Israelites soldiers shook with fear. Now David’s father had told him to take some food for his 3 brothers who were in the army. David arrived just in time to hear Goliath make his challenge. David is shocked that no one takes him on. He starts asking questions about, what will happen if somebody takes on this guy. His brothers see him, and yell at him for leaving the sheep. David goes to the king and lets him know, he will take on Goliath. The king tells him, you’re just a kid, you don’t stand a chance against this mighty warrior. David says, well I’m more than a kid. I’m a shepherd and when lions and bears have attacked the sheep, I’ve killed them both. The king says, well, at least put on my armor. Saul is over six feet, David is five something so the king’s armor is way to big.
David says, look I can’t wear this. Just let me go with what I have in the fields. My staff, and my sling, and five smooth stones.. David goes to Goliath. Goliath is insulted because of David’s size and weapons. He says am I a dog that you come at me with sticks. Come to me and I’ll cut you in pieces. David says, you come against me with sword, spear and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord. David takes out a stone, puts it in a sling and hits Goliath right between the eyes, knocks him out cold, Goliath falls to the ground and then David cuts off his head. His is victorious.
That is the story of David and Goliath. But there are actually more details in the story that we miss when it comes to fighting giants. We think that David is like a number 16th seed going after number 1 or that he has a one shot in a million at pulling this off. But David has more going for him than we think, and Goliath is not as powerful as we think.
What are the odds 1 David is a kid, a shepherd going against an adult experienced warrior. 2. David is about 5 feet something and Goliath is about 8 feet. 3. David has a sling, and Goliath is decked out in a full coat of armor, with a weapon hanging from every side of him.
In our Sunday school class pictures, we think that David had a slingshot to go after Goliath, but he didn’t he had a sling. Ancient armies had three kinds of warriors.
Ancient armies had three kinds of warriors. They had people who rode in chariots – cavalry. People on horseback and in chariots. They had heavy infantry which is foot soldiers wearing armor, full body armor, and carrying swords and shields. And they had artillery. Artillery was made up of people with bows and arrows and slingers. Slingers were trained artillery who used a sling. A sling was a leather pouch which had two long ropes attached to it. You put a rock in the middle of the pouch and you would whirl it around like this and let one of the ropes go and so the rock would be propelled forward.
Slingshots are not deadly weapons. If they were most parents would be dead by now. David did not have a slingshot. He had a sling. A sling is very, very different and far more lethal weapon.
We have people who’ve studied slings and there are, as is the case of most interesting things in the world, a group of sling nerds out there who have done all the calculations. We know that an experienced slinger would rotate that sling six or seven times a second. Which means if you do the math that the rock would be traveling at 35 meters per second. So if Goliath is a hundred feet from David the rock will reach Goliath in less than a second.
Goliath barely knows what’s happening and boom, it’s hitting him in the middle of the head. With the kind of rock that David used, it had the stopping power of a 45 caliber hand gun. That’s why one hit took him down.
David was accurate with the sling because he had needed accuracy to take down the lions and bears that were going after his sheep. Experienced slingers were so accurate they could hit birds in flight.
So there’s Goliath. He’s heavy infantry. What he expected was a battle with another heavy infantry man. That’s when he says, “Come to me that I might feed your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.” The key phrase is “come to me,” meaning come right here. Because we’re going to have hand to hand combat.
But David’s not an idiot. He’s not going to go into hand to hand combat with a guy who is twice his size. He’s going to use the weapon that he’s spent his career as a shepherd training with which is a sling.
So here we have a guy who has changed the rules of combat without telling his opponent. Has superior technology and is filled with the Spirit of the Lord. Yet we insist on calling him an underdog. Why? Isn’t he the favorite? He’s got superior technology and you’ve changed the rules without telling your opponent and you have God in your heart… that doesn’t make you the favorite?
Second interesting thing about that story. Is that we have overrated Goliath as being the baddest dude in the land. But there are details in the story that suggests other wise.
The first is that he’s led on the valley floor by an attendant carrying his shield .Someone brings him down to the point where the fight is supposed to take place. That doesn’t make any sense. If he’s the greatest warrior in all of Palestine why is he being led by the hand like a preschooler crossing the street?
The second thing is that the story, the Biblical account stresses how slowly Goliath moves. Why is that great, fearsome, ferocious warrior moving so slowly?
Then there’s the fact that it takes Goliath an awful long time to figure out what’s going on. David comes down from the hill. He’s got a staff and a little bag of rocks and he wearing a shepherd’s outfit. It’s clear from the outset this kid has no intention of fighting a sword fight. What does Goliath do? He just stands there and says “Come to me that I may feed your flesh to the bids of the air and the beasts of the field.” He’s not getting it. Why is he not getting it?
Then there’s the strange thing he says when David draws close and he sees that he’s carrying a staff. He says, “Am I a dog that you would come to me with sticks?”
David doesn’t have sticks. David has a stick. Why does Goliath seeing two sticks when there’s only one?
Goliath has a vision problem which is often found in people who we consider giants. They are giants because of condition called acromegaly which produces growth hormones. A common side effect of the disease is limited vision. Goliath had a hard time seeing where he was going.
Here’s a man who moves really slowly. Why? Because he’s scared of tripping on a rock that he can’t see. Here’s a guy who has to be led on to the valley floor by an attendant. Why? Because he can’t make his way on his own. Here’s a guy who it takes forever to figure out that David is not in fact intending to fight him in a sword fight. Why? Because he can’t see David. When he says “Come to me that I might feed your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field,” the key phrase is “come to me.” Because he needs David to be right here because otherwise he can’t see him.
Then when he says “Am I a dog that you should come to me with sticks.” Why is he seeing two sticks? Because he has double vision.
What the Israelites saw from high up on the hills was someone who appeared to be this mighty warrior but in fact the very thing that gave the giant his size was the cause of his greatest weakness. That is the first lesson of the story of David and Goliath. Giants are not what they seem.
The kinds of obstacles we face in our life are not nearly as insurmountable and depressing and overwhelming as they appear to be at first blush. Look closely and you’ll see a different truth. Giants can be slain. Particularly by those who have the Spirit of the Lord in their hearts.
THE OTHER GIANTS DAVID HAD TO FACE
There is actually quite a long delay between when David is anointed as king and when he actually sees the fulfillment of his dream years later. There’s a big delay. And I would say that this is the exactly what happens in your life.
1. DELAY:____HIS DAD HELD HIM BACK________
The first giant in facing your dream is delay. No dream is fulfilled instantly. God gives you the dream on one day but he doesn’t fulfill it the next day. No, it’s years later that you see the fulfillment of your life dream. There is always a time delay. There is always a time lapse. There is always a waiting period. After Samuel anointed David as the next king, as soon as he left, David’s father said basically, “ I don’t know what all that was about, but you need to get back out there and take care of the sheep.
In David’s case his dad held him back and said, David you need to get back out there and start tending sheep. He didn’t think David was old enough or experienced enough to be the king of Israel.
In verse 12-15 it says this “Now David was the youngest of Jesse’s eight sons... His three older brothers enlisted in Saul’s army... but David was held back to care for the sheep in Bethlehem.”
The first barrier of your dream is this: There are going to be people who hold you back. There are going to be people in your life who hold you back from the dream that God has given you.
Some of you know what I’m talking about. You have been held back from what you want to do with your life because of your age. Some of you have been held back from what you want to do with your life and the dream God’s given you because of your race. Some of you have been held back because of your gender. Some of you have been held back because you weren’t pretty enough or handsome enough or smart enough or whatever enough.
Discrimination in any form is a barrier that you have to break through. There will be people who want to hold you back.
God has a plan for your life. But so does everybody else. When God’s plan contradicts somebody else’s plan, there’s going to be a delay and people are going to try to hold you back. They have plans for your life too. David’s dad just wanted him to be a shepherd. There’s this delay.
And you’re going to see this delay in your life. Sometimes even people who love you will hold you back from the call God has given you.
When David went the battlefield that day and saw Goliath for the first time, he was amazed at the reaction of the Israelite soldiers to all the bad mouthing he was doing about them and their God.
David notices nobody’s doing anything about this guy. And he notices that everybody around here is scared to death. They’re all embarrassed, they’re all afraid, they’re all terrorized, they’re all traumatized. Nobody wants to do anything. They’re all scared to death. This is the second barrier you will face in finding and fulfilling your dream or our call. It is this: discouragement.
2. DISCOURAGEMENT: EVERYONE WAS AFRAID.
You will face discouragement because everybody around you is scared to death. Nobody thinks you can do it. Nobody has hope. Nobody believes that you can take down this giant. And they’re all scared to death and they’re all convincing each other that it’s impossible to make any difference.
Goliath had created a climate of fear in Israel. And everybody had concluded we’re going to lose this battle and nobody can beat Goliath.
Verse 8-10 it says this “Each day Goliath would stand and shout at the ranks of Israel’s army, ‘Why do you come out here and line up for battle?... Choose one man to fight me. If he’s able to kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I kill him, you’ll become our subjects and serve us.’ Day after day [circle that] Goliath taunted them saying ‘This day I defy the ranks of Israel!’ When Saul [that’s the king] and the Israelites heard this, everyone was deeply shaken and paralyzed with fear.”
Notice the situation. They’re all demoralized. They’re gripped with anxiety. They’re terrified. They’re traumatized. They feel hopeless. One translation says “They were so frightened they couldn’t do anything.”
Have you ever been in a situation where everybody around you thought this is hopeless? Maybe you’ve been at work and in your office they say, “In this economy nobody can grow anything. We can’t solve this problem. It’s going down the tubes.” And everybody around you is saying it can’t be done. It can’t be done. It’s never going to happen. It’s never going to happen. They’re all discouraged and they’re all convincing each other because they’re all filled with fear. And they say there’s nothing we can do about this problem.
Let me tell you something. Conventional wisdom is often wrong.
Everybody there was wrong. It says twice in that passage, Goliath challenged the ranks of the Israeli army. Sometimes the solution has to come outside the rank and file. What you need is a little kid from the village coming up. “We can do this!” What you need is a fresh set of eyes. . Just because everybody says it’s so doesn’t make it so. The crowd is often wrong. Just because the crowd says it’s true doesn’t mean it’s true.
Why had everybody given up? Why had they gotten so discouraged from this one giant?
The answer is they were listening to the wrong voice. They were listening to this guy every single day. Verse 16 “For forty days, twice a day, morning and evening, the Philistine giant loudly berated the Israelite army.” It’s no wonder they got discouraged. They’re listening to this guy day after day after day.
Question: Who are you listening to? Who are you listening to who says it can’t be done? Who hating on your dream, putting down your dreams, saying it won’t ever happen. Forget it. Who’s telling you that you’re not the person to do it?
If you listen to negative people long enough you know what happens? You get negative. It’s highly contagious. And if you listen to people who are against, against, against every day of your life you end up being against everything. Negativity is contagious.
And so is fear and so is discouragement. If you listen to people who tell you what New Life At Calvary can’t do, you start believing them and acting like it. But when you listen to those who say here’s what we doing, you start doing as well.
Let me give you some advice. Don’t hang out with fearful people. Don’t hang out with fearful people. Because if you do you will become fearful. If you hang out with cowards you become a coward. If you hang out with bitter people you become bitter. If you hang out with angry people you become angry. If you hang out with negative people you become negative. It’s highly contagious.
The first barrier to your dream or call is delay. Somebody’s trying to hold you back. But the second barrier to your dream or call, the second dream buster is discouragement. Because everybody around you is telling you that there is no hope. My friends with Jesus in your life, there is always hope. Where God’s calling is upon you, God can. Make it happen.
The next giant you are going to run into is Disapproval
3. DISAPPROVAL: HIS BROTHERS QUESTIONED HIS MOTIVES
David had to handle this one. He had to be willing to face the disapproval of people around him in order to go after his dream. And you will too.
Here’s the problem. The reason why most people don’t ever go after their dream is they’re afraid of disapproval. They are afraid of rejection. In this case David’s own brother questions his motives. David’s own brother questions his motives and disapproved of David going after the giant.
We want everybody to like us. We really do. We want everybody to approve of everything we do. But if you go after God’s dream for your life, I’m guaranteeing you this: There will be nay-sayers. There will be critics. There will be misunderstanding. There will be attacks. There will be people who are judging you for what you do because they don’t get it. And that is the disapproval giant.
When David was asking, what happens to the person who fights and defeats the giant, his brothers say In verse 28-29 notice his conversation between the older brother and the younger brother. Listen to this conversation and see if you can identify with it. “Why are you even here anyway? Why aren’t you taking care of your scrawny little flock of sheep? You cocky little brat. I know how conceited you are!’‘Now what have I done?’ said David. ‘Can't I even ask a question?’”
The sad truth is this: Sometimes it’s your own family that doesn’t want you to accomplish God’s dream. It may be envy. It may be jealousy. It may be they think they know you better than you do and they know your weaknesses. But they don’t know God’s strength. It may be that they would be embarrassed. It may be that they would resent you being successful and it would make them look bad. I don’t know what it is. But sibling rivalry often leads to resentment.
Did you know that even Jesus had to deal with this? Jesus was born of a virgin. Mary and Joseph hadn’t had sex. Because God was the Father of Jesus. But the Bible tells us very clearly that after Jesus was born Joseph and Mary had many kids. We’re given their names in the Bible. In fact Mary and the kids followed Jesus around during his ministry.
What’s interesting is none of Jesus’ half brothers or sisters accepted him as Lord and Savior until after the resurrection. Then they all became believers. Because when your brother has died on the cross and then three days later he’s walking around talking to you that would make me a believer.
How do you know if your dream is from God? It’s so big you’re bound to fail unless God bails you out. The dream will be so big you are guaranteed failure unless you totally depend on God to see it happen. It’s outrageously enormous. It’s a big dream from a big God.
The right question is who do we think God is? Let the size of your God determine the size of your goal.
When God gives you a dream and it’s a dream that other people are afraid to attempt or afraid to accomplish or afraid to even step out and try. If you take that dream and you go for it, you will be misjudged. You will be maligned. You will be misinterpreted. And you will be misunderstood. That is the giant of disapproval. You have to decide what matters more to you – the approval of other people or the approval of God.
But then there is the fourth dream killer David had to face even before he faced Goliath. It is the giant of doubt.
4. DOUBT: THE EXPERTS DOUBTED HIS ABILITY
First, there is delay. Then there’s discouragement. Then there’s disapproval. Then there is doubt. Am I capable of this? Am I up to the task for this? Can I actually do what God is asking me to do?
Then there are people all around you who tell you, you can’t. In David’s case the expert doubted his ability. There was nobody who was a greater expert on war than King Saul because Saul had been in battle his entire life. When King Saul hears that this little kid is willing to take on the giant who’s paralyzed the nation he invites David to come see him .
So David goes to see King Saul. Here’s the conversation, verse 32-33 “Don't worry about a thing,’ David told the King, ‘I'll fight this Philistine!’
‘Don't be ridiculous!’ Saul replied. ‘There’s no way you can go against this Philistine! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a professional warrior all his life!”
That expert is saying you can’t do it. That’s enough to make you start doubting yourself. Even the experts can be wrong.
There’s the doubt that comes. How do you defeat the giants that are keeping you from being the man God wants you to be? How do you defeat these fears that are keeping you from being the woman God wants you to be? To be a person of great faith with a great dream and a great life work. How do you overcome those giants?
You do the very things that David did. The four things that David did to defeat these giants before he gets to Goliath.
HOW TO DEFEAT GIANTS
1. I remember how God has helped me in the past.
That’s the first thing you do to face the giants and to fulfill your dream. Remember how God has helped you in the past. Think about the small things that God has done for you. What other people called coincidence, you knew was the hand of God.
You remember how God has helped you in little times and realize he’s going to help me in big times in the future. Because God never changes. God doesn’t love you one day and not another day. If he’s helped you in the past in little ways he will willingly help you in the future in big ways. You remember how God has helped you in the past.
This is what David did, verse 36. David says when everyone tells him it can’t be done
“In protecting my sheep, [as a shepherd] I’ve killed both a lion and a bear... The Lord who delivered me from the teeth of that lion, and the claws of that bear, will surely now deliver me from this Philistine too!” That’s confidence. I remember how God’s helped me in the past.
2. I use the tools that God has given me now!
I don’t wait for something I don’t have. You use the tools you’ve got right now.
Some people are just waiting for something to happen. You don’t wait for your ship to come in. You swim out to it. You use the tools God has given you now.
David goes to see Saul and Saul says if you’re going to fight this guy you may as well use my armor.
David rejects Saul’s armor and goes with what he has. A staff, a sling, and five smooth stones. He didn’t wait for a custom armored suit to be made for him.
When you start going after your dream that God has given you some people are going to oppose you on it. There’s going to be opposition. But other people will say, Yeah go after your dream but do it my way. They’re going to try to convince you to do it their way but you’re not them and God may be fulfilling your calling by a different route. Other people’s stuff may weigh you down and keep you ineffective.
3. The third thing he did was – ignore the dreambusters!
You must ignore the dreambusters in your life. It’s interesting to me that as David’s going to take on the giant that everybody else is scared to death to take on, he didn’t get any encouragement from anybody. Not a single word of encouragement as he went out. Nobody gave David any encouragement.
What did he do? He had to encourage himself in the Lord. 1 Samuel 30:6 “ ... When others were speaking against him, David encouraged himself in the Lord.”
You’ve got to learn to encourage yourself in the Lord. Jesus tells us that in this world we are going to have tribulations but we can still have peace in Him, because he has overcome the world.
When you encourage yourself in the Lord there is a bedrock trust in God’s faith, God’s grace, God’s provision, God’s security, God’s kindness, God’s power. You’re trusting in God. It’s not just a positive mental attitude.
4. The fourth thing David did – I expect God to help me for his glory!
I expect God to help me for his glory. This is what David did. This is what you must do in going after your dream. It is the faith factor.
I love what David says to Goliath as he runs on to the battle field: David runs onto the battlefield shouting and he says this. “David shouted to Goliath ‘You come at me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord Almighty!...Today the Lord will conquer you . and the whole world will know that there is a God! And everyone will know that the Lord doesn’t need weapons to rescue his people. It is his battle, not ours. [Are you fighting God’s battle and that’s why you’re tired?] It is his battle not ours. And the Lord will give you to us!’”
God’s given you your dream and your calling to be used for his glory. You can make a difference for the cause of Jesus Christ right where you are today. Why not slay your giants and let God make it a reality.
What are you expecting God to do in your life? Without even knowing you I can tell you this: God is doing exactly what you expect him to do. No more and no less. Because every time God moves out of heaven and moves on earth and does a miracle it’s because somebody believed. The Bible says “According to your faith it will be done unto you.” The Bible says “The just shall live by faith.”
