Title: Killing Lions-Fear
Date: 8/2/15
Place: BLCC
Text: Psalm 34.4-14, 1 Samuel 17
CT: Kill the Lion of fear keeping you from God’s ideal.
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The phrase "Be afraid, be very afraid" was a tagline from the 1986 horror flick The Fly. Google the phrase and you'll get about 183 million results for that phrase. But the trick is to be appropriately afraid of the right thing. What people commonly fear is not always what should be causing that spike of adrenaline. Here are some examples:
Are you afraid to fly? You have a 0.00001 percent chance of dying in an airplane crash. On the other hand, the car insurance industry estimates that the average driver will be involved in three or four car crashes in their lifetime and the odds of dying in a car crash are one to two percent.
Are you afraid of heights? It's the second most reported fear. Your chance of being injured by falling, jumping, or being pushed from a high place is 1 in 65,092.
The chance of having your identity stolen is 1 in 200.
Do you fear being killed by a bolt of lightning? The odds of that happening are 1 in 2.3 million. You're much more likely to be struck by a meteorite—those lifetime odds are about 1 in 700,000.
On the other hand, your chance of being injured while mowing the lawn is 1 in 3,623.
How about sharks? You're much more likely to be killed by your spouse (1 in 135,000) than a shark (1 in 300 million).
-What fear is keeping you from seeking God’s ideal for your life?
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I.A. We are in our 4th week of the sermon series, “Killing Lions.” So far we have dealt with despair, doubt and Tyler dealt with pride last week. [Screen 3]
We have learned that Satan is the Lion King of his pride of lions trying to devour us as Christians and tear us away from God’s ideal for us. [Screen 4]
We have also made it clear that only by sticking together as a community of believers, can we drive the lions away from our church and ourselves.
We want all of Satan’s lions to look like the one in this picture running from the water buffalo.
This week we are going to slay the Lion of Fear.
B. If there was anyone in the Bible we can look at who stood up to fear, it would be David. Here is a young shepherd boy who showed a king and an entire army of men how to face fear. [Screen 5]
Let’s look at his story from his youth in 1 Samuel 17.
This was like the standoff at Gettysburg between the north and the south. Both armies lined up to face one another. The Philistines on one side and the Israelites with king Saul on the other.
We pick up the story at verse 4. A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.
Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
Now while all of this was going on, young David was going back and forth from the battle area to tend his father’s sheep. His father, Jessie, sent David one day with some food for his brothers who were on the battle line with Saul.
David watched as Goliath stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance to the Israelites. David watched as all the Israelites fled from this Philistine giant of a man.
David learned that Saul had decreed that anyone who could kill this Goliath would receive great wealth, his daughter and live tax-free.
David’s brothers rebuked David for even being nosy about what was going on. But David was not deterred. He went to Saul himself and said,
“Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
So Saul gave David his armor which was of course too big for David. David took it off and got his shepherd staff, chose 5 smooth stones, put them in his pouch and with his sling in hand he went out toward the oversized Philistine.
Of course the oversized Philistine started laughing when he saw David.
He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?”
And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”
David said to the Philistine, [Screen 6] “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord ’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.
Lot of courage here from a young shepherd boy.
As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.
So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
The Philistines were then overrun and defeated.
David stood up to the fear that had been too big for the others to face.
C. How did David accomplish this?
1) [Screen 7] God guided David. David was a spirit-led young man. His every decision had to be the will of God and for the glory of God.
2) [Screen 8] God encouraged David. Whenever you step out by faith to slay the lions in your life, there will be those people around to discourage you and tell you, “you can’t do it.” David’s brothers and even Saul gave no real support or encouragement to David.
But David had experienced the power of God in his own young life and knew God would help him defeat this oversized blowhard. David saw this Goliath freak as just another lion after God’s flock. David’s encouragement came from God.
3) [Screen 9] God enabled David. “All God’s giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.”
David knew God would be with him. God enabled him to overcome his fear.
II. David did three things we all must do in our battle with our fears. He even wrote about them in a Psalm he later wrote. Turn to Psalm 34 and we will be staying here a few minutes.
A) [Screen 10] First we must seek him.
I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.
This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.
Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him
God delivers. God blesses.
B) [screen 11] Second, we must fear Him. Not the world.
Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
Come, my children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Whoever of you loves life
and desires to see many good days,
keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from telling lies.
Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their cry;
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
to blot out their name from the earth.
Those who fear (revere, stand in awe of) the Lord lack nothing.
Lions will be brought down.
God hears the righteous. He is for them.
He moves to blot out evil. The lions seeking to destroy us.
C) [Screen 12] Third, we must trust Him.
The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
The righteous person may have many troubles,
but the Lord delivers him from them all;
he protects all his bones,
not one of them will be broken.
Evil will slay the wicked;
the foes of the righteous will be condemned.
The Lord will rescue his servants;
no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.
No where is David saying that a life of faith will exempt us from trouble. He does promise that if we trust Him and call on Him, the Lord will see us through our troubles and even make them blessings to us and through us to others.
III. Application. So What? [Screen 13]
What does this have to do with us? Could it be we were born into an epic war? A war for our souls? A war between Satan and his pride of lions and God’s people. Us.
Are we not warriors on the front line battling oversized fears that are doing their best to destroy us and deceive us away from God and his ideal for us?
And let me say it is not enough to simply acknowledge this war. We must deal with it. If we don’t, it’s like saying, “I know my house is being broke into on a regular basis-sometimes even when I am home-but I’m not going to do anything about it; I’ll take my chances.”
When open war is upon you, you can’t just cover your head under the sheets, you have to fight. [Screen 14]
We face many forks in the road as we journey through this life-each one determines what kind of life we will have.
Will we sell out for Money?
Will we pursue the one we truly love for our spouse?
Once we have them will we continue to fight to keep that relationship?
Will we let our health go?
Will we fight for friendships?
But maybe the most important battle is this. Will we face evil?
Will we have the courage to slay the lions?
The key for us when we are tempted to give in to our fears is to say-[Screen 15] NO!!
NO!! I am not giving way to this.
NO!! I am not surrendering my heart to this lion attacking me.
Our enemy is a brilliant liar-the father of lies is what Jesus calls him.
He waits, crouching nearby to pounce like a lion.
To destroy families.
To cause people to be lost to addictions.
To bring despair, doubt and conflict.
We must be prepared to reject his attack.
Do it in the name of [Screen 16] Jesus Christ. By the power of God’s Word and Holy Spirit the lions in our lives can be slain.
Won’t you come today? Say NO to the lions trying to ruin your life. Come forward. Make the commitment to fight for your soul and the souls of those you love.
Be baptized and get rid of any lions keeping you from God’s ideal. Come as you are.
Bibliography: Eldredge, Sam, and John Eldredge. Killing lions: a guide through the trials young men face. Nashville: Nelson , an imprint of Thomas Nelson, 2014. Print.
