David, A Hero Who Defeated His Giant
#heroes
Hebrews 12:1 says,
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
UNDERSTAND – that is the verse that God breathed right after He breathed the awesome roll call of the faithful that we find in Hebrews 11… A roll call that tells of the faith journeys of Old Testament Heroes like: Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Gideon, Rahab, Moses and many more including today’s Hero, David.
NOW – I have always found Hebrews 12:1 to be incredibly inspiring because of the power picture that it paints…
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
OKAY - I want you to envision a stadium or a coliseum that is filled with thousands of cheering fans, kind of like you would see at a professional sporting event or at the summer Olympic Games, that btw begins in less than 2 weeks.
AND LISTEN – the point that God is making through the writer of Hebrews is that in a very real way, just as those Olympians are surrounded by cheering fans, you and I also have a huge crowd of fans, of people, of faithful men and women cheering us on as we run the race of faith.
UNDERSTAND – that is exactly the picture God wants us visualize in our hearts and in own minds. A STADIUM - full of great men and women of faith who have gone before us and who are rooting for our successful race through life.
YOU SEE – they have run their race. AND NOW - it is time for us to take the baton and continue the race that they have already run.
UNDERSTAND – we are on the track and they are in the stands cheering us on empowering, inspiring us, encouraging us, challenging us, offering us wisdom.
John Maxwell writes:
“Do you wonder what those heroes of the faith might be saying? When a crowd cheers, you can’t distinguish one voice from another.
But what if individuals could step out of the crowd, come down onto the track where you are running, and jog a lap with you?
What would they say to you?
Their time with you would be limited so how could they share, in just a few words, the most important lesson they had learned from their own life? What words of wisdom would they give you to encourage and empower you?
MGCC - This is the purpose of our Summer of 2016 series… ‘Heroes, Amazing Stories Of Faith.
UNDERSTAND – since June 19th as we have stood on the track of faith (in the middle of this great crowd of witnesses…
HEROES LIKE – Noah, Moses, Daniel, Ruth and Gideon have left the stands and jogged a lap with us…
Inspiring us, challenging us, warning us, encouraging us and empowering us to never give up, to never quit…
BUT – to keep running with perseverance this race that God has marked out for us.
AND LISTEN – they know all about the obstacles and the difficulties that will come against us…
BECAUSE – they’ve been and run through that.
B/S
We need to hear what these great men and women have to say, because the race you and I are running is so much more important than the summer Olympic Games or any other sporting event.
UNDERSTAND - our race is one that has eternal impact.
NOW - this morning we are going to be unpacking a story that I am confident is very familiar to you. IN FACT – it is a story that almost everyone knows about whether they have ever been to church or not, or whether they know anything about the Bible, —the story of David and Goliath.
The story of a great and very unexpected victory
IN FACT – this 3000 year old (one on one) contest is still used to summarize great upsets today…
I MEAN - the mere mention of these 2 opponents that faced off in 2 Samuel 17, lets everyone know without a doubt that an undergo has just won a huge upset…
NOW – this week I googled greatest sports upsets of all time and here are some of the ones I found…
Many you probably know about.
Sea Biscuit and War Admiral
(November 1938… War Admiral was a triple crown winner who odds makers thought would crush Sea Biscuit. My mom was 10 years old and lived across the street from the race track)
New York Jets Beat The Colts In Super Bowl 3
(January 1969)
1969 Amazing Mets
(Baltimore was heavy favorite, they had won 109 games that year)
Ali and Foreman
But there was never one like this one. The unbeaten and younger 1968 Olympic champion Foreman, 25, was going against the older 1960 Olympic champion Ali, 32. The elder had been heavyweight champion. Now the younger was. And he was a 4-1 favorite.
The Miracle On Ice
(Winter Olympics 1980 Lake Placid New York. 4-2 victory against the powerful Russians who had won Olympic gold 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976 and had beaten the US Team 2 weeks earlier by 12-2)
Buster Douglas and Mike Tyson
(Feb 1990 – Tyson undefeated. Douglas a 42-1 underdog
Pistons and Lakers 2004 NBA Championship
(Lakers were heavy favorite and had 4 future hall of famers on their team…)
After the Pistons won game one The USA Today had the following article…
UNDERDOG 1, GOLIATH 0: The Pistons remind us why everyone loves and underdog
The team that wasn't supposed to win won Sunday night. This is what America is all about, right? The triumph of the underdog. Already, some fans are dreaming of a scenario that would make the Detroit Pistons seem like Norma Rae, Seabiscuit and that slingshot-wielding dude, David, rolled into one.
OKAY – just one more sports upset that I find particularly upsetting…
Giants and Patriots (Super Bowl 42)
AND LISTEN – it’s just not in sports that we root for the underdog…
I MEAN – we all rooted for that spunky little fin fish named Nemo… As he makes that daring escape from the fish tank and later rescues a huge net full of fish…
AND – who couldn’t help from Cheering when Rocky Balboa beats Apollo Creed (yo Andrean); when they Karate Kid assumed the crane position and kicks the smirks off those pretty blond boys… when the mighty Titans win the championship, when Rudy runs out onto the field at Norte Dame…
Underdogs & upsets… ARE BOTH – powerful & inspiring.
AND THIS MORNING – David is going to leave the stands and job a lap with us around the track and tells us how he was about to defeat his giant.
Prayer…
B/S - there are giants in the land… Got any?
NOW – I’m not talking about huge people…
BUT RATHER – I’m talking about HUGE: problems, issues, hang ups, hurts, habits and obstacles that stand in the valley and taunt us… intimidate us… frighten us.
QUESTION – what is a giant?
A GIANT - is something that stands in your way, it’s something that keeps you from living the life that God has called you to live… A GIANT – is something that keeps you from living a life that is: abundant and full…radical and satisfying.
NOW MAYBE - your giant is a relationship issue (something in your marriage, your family or with a friend).
MAYBE - your giant is an addiction (alcohol, drugs, food, sex) something that has a death grip on you and is sucking out all that is good… telling you constantly that you will never be free.
MAYBE - your the giant has to do with some problem you're dealing with, A PROBLEM - with your kids, your parents, your health, the health of a loved one… and you're not sure how you are going to get through it.
MAYBE - your giant has to do with money, finances and the lack there of.
MAYBE - your giant is fear, loneliness, self doubt, insecurity, lack of confidence or belief in yourself…
MAYBE - your giant is something that you know you need to do A conversation that you need to have,
A person you need to talk to,
Something you feel you need to do for God…
BUT – there is this huge giant in the way telling you,
that you…
“can’t do that”
“will never be that…”
“go there”
“you should not give up that”
B/S GIANTS – paralyzes us, they keep us in the hills, they keep us from living the life God created us to live.
THEY - keep us from experiencing the mighty hand of God moving in our lives…
NOW – I’m pretty confident that most people in this room know exactly what I’m talking about…
YOU KNOW – what’s in your valley…
YOU KNOW - what keeps you living in the hills…
I MEAN - you’ve heard their taunts more then once.
TELLING YOU – that you’re better off where you are.
TELLING YOU – to forget about life in the valley, to forget about the dreams, to forget about living the awesome life that God has laid out for you… BECAUSE – for that to happen you’ll have to get past them and they are just too big…
They are Goliath and you are just a shepherd.
NOW – we don’t really like being stuck up in the hills…
I MEAN - we grow weary from all the fear and doubt… We are tired of seeing our dreams fade and our hope for a better way dim. AND – every now and then we are able to dig down deep and find enough strength to pull ourselves up and head down to the valley… BUT – just as we reach the valley’s edge… OUR – giant (who seems to be getting bigger & bigger all the time) begins his taunting…
YES – for some, your giant has been taunting you
NOT… for days, weeks or months… BUT – for years (for a lifetime)… AND – you’ve been living in the hills for so long that you are pretty confident…that you like your dreams will die there.
BUT LISTEN – God brought you here this morning,
SO THAT – a guy named David could jog a lap beside you and tell you how he stepped into the valley 3000 years ago, and in one incredible moment (that makes all the sports examples I mentioned earlier seem like a defeat in comparison) took out the giant in his life…
His story is recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 17;
We’re going to read his story together… It’s a familiar story.
BUT – try to hear it with fresh ears today.
BECAUSE – I’m convinced that God had Samuel put this event down on paper….
SO THAT - you and I could discover how we can defeat our giants and run free in the valley as God intended.
In the beautiful valley of Elah, there are 2 armies encamped on two hillsides with a valley between them. The diplomacy was over, the negotiation have failed. AND - these two armies are about to engage in battle. During this time, armies would give a signal and rush each other (think Brave Heart). AND - whichever army was left standing would win all the spoils -- land, money, possessions, people, everything.
NOW THIS - wasn't the first battle between these armies (in fact they had been fighting for years).
BUT - this time ‘before’ the signal to charge was given something unusual occurred…
LET’S – pick up our reading at verse 4;
AND REMERMBER -God wrote this words to help you defeat your giant…
QUESTION – what is your giant…? Think about it as we read…
So the Philistines and Israelites faced each other on opposite hills, with the valley between them.
4 Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was over nine feet tall! 5 He wore a bronze helmet, and his bronze coat of mail weighed 125 pounds.
6 He also wore bronze leg armor, and he carried a bronze javelin on his shoulder. 7 The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver’s beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed 15 pounds. His armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a shield.
8 Goliath stood and shouted a taunt across to the Israelites. “Why are you all coming out to fight?” he called. “I am the Philistine champion, but you are only the servants of Saul. Choose one man to come down here and fight me! 9 If he kills me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, you will be our slaves! 10 I defy the armies of Israel today! Send me a man who will fight me!”
11 When Saul and the Israelites heard this, they were terrified and deeply shaken. – 1 Sameul 17:3-11
In the next several verses we read how David’s father, Jesse sent him to the battlefield to take supplies to his brothers… that’s how is was done back then.
16 For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand. – 1 Samuel 17:16
20 Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry.
21 Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. 22 David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. 23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. 24 Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.
25 Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.”
26 David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.”
28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”
29 “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” 30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.
32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
- 1 Samuel 17:20-31
OKAY
In the verses that we just read we see 2 keys for defeating our giants.
To Defeat Our Giants…
We Must Face Them
NOW – I know what some of you are thinking… “duh, Steve that’s pretty obvious…we have to face our giants…”
BUT LISTEN - for 40 days the entire Israelite army refused to face Goliath.
AND NOTICE – he didn’t go away. He got worse. He got bolder. IN FACT – by the time David arrives on the scene Goliath had already challenged them 80 times.
UNDERSTAND FOR – 40 straight days, God’s people both began and ended their day in fear and intimidation (ever been there?)
YOU SEE - they kept putting it off, and the more they delayed, the more intimidated they got. And the more intimidated they got, the more impossible and hopeless their situation became.
AND LISTEN - it’s the same thing when we battle our giants.
THE MORE - we delay in battling the giant, the more intimidating and hopeless the problem becomes, and the harder it is to handle later.
BUT - did you notice what David did?
David shows up on day 41 – sees the giant, hears the taunts and says, “alright I’ve heard enough, that guy has got to go.” AND - the next morning, when the Israelites woke up there was no longer any giant to worry about.
BUT UNDERSTAND – it’s not easy to face a giant..
AND – though he made it look easy… It wasn’t easy for David to step into that valley either…
YOU SEE – for him to do that, there were a couple of things that he needed to overcome and so do we; FIRST…
We need to overcome fear…
UNDERSTAND - when facing a giant, when going up against, what looks like an impossible situation…
FEAR - is a legitimate emotion to have. LISTEN - I can’t stress that enough, fear is an okay thing to feel…
David was facing someone a lot bigger and a lot stronger than he was. AND – I’m confident that as he grabbed his staff and used it to help get down into the valley… that he was afraid…
I MEAN – as he kept going (further & further down into the valley) Goliath keeps getting (bigger and bigger…)
AGAIN – there is nothing wrong with being afraid…
BUT - the problem comes, when you let fear keep you from doing what God wants you to do.
AND – in 1 Samuel 17, that’s exactly what the army of Israel did… They allowed their fear of Goliath… To stop them from doing what was right as they were consumed with the two words that give fear it’s power… ‘what if’
• What if Goliath wins?
• What if our nation becomes slaves?
• What if they take our land?
What if? What if? What if?
QUESTION – has that ever happened to you?
Has fear ever kept you from doing something that was right?
• Some people don’t share Christ because they are afraid of rejection.
• Some people refuse to break off a relationship that they know is bad for them because they are afraid of being alone.
• Some refuse to be transparent and confess their sins to another believer because they are afraid of what they may think of them.
• Some people never give back to God 10% of their resources, or take on a new ministry for the Lord because they are afraid of the cost
• Others never try the thing that God wants them to do because they are afraid of failure…
AND - still others refuse to give up their style of relating with people (anger-intimidation…etc) because they are afraid of losing control…
YES - fear can be very crippling… BUT - it doesn’t have to be! Listen to these words from the Lord to his servant Joshua (A guy who was called to…),
Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. – Joshua 1:9
NOW – before I move on from here let me say THIS…
YOU – can be afraid and still be courageous.
UNDERSTAND – courage is not the absence of fear it’s the absence of self. Courage is stepping into the valley and facing your giants even though your still afraid.
To defeat our giants, like David had overcome his fear…
and
We need to overcome Naysayers
A naysayer is someone who systematically obstructs some action others want to take.
YOU SEE - many times once we get past the fear factor the next thing we face is the naysayer factor.
AND - David had naysayers coming at this from every side!
His brothers even questioned his motives.
Look again at vs. 28,
"Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave these few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle!"
AND - Checkout what King Saul says to David in vs. 33,
"You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy and he has been a fighting man from his youth."
UNDERSTAND - when you decide to take on a giant, there are going to be people who will want to see you fail, people who want to see you fall flat on your face.
People who want things to stay as they are…
NOW – some of you are shaking your heads, because you know what I’m talking about.
• When you take a stand and say, "I’m done with those behaviors that dishonor God." There will be people who try to pull you back in...
• When you decide to go on that mission trip there will be people in your life who may think that’s a waste of time and money!
• When you decide to do something for ‘significant’ for God - there will be people (maybe close friends or family members) who will act out of love and say things like:
"You don’t want to take on a project that big, you’re setting yourself up for failure!" or
"I just don’t want to see you get hurt" or
"maybe you should rethink that." “
You’ve tried to break that addiction & overcome that hang up for years… what makes you think you can do it this time…
B/L – if we want to step into the valley, defeat our giant and live in a better place/way… We – can’t listen to the nay-sayers! BECAUSE - if you listen to the doubt of those around you.. IT WILL – begin to creep into your life and you to will become a naysayer.
QUESTION - anybody ever put out your fire to take on a giant?
BUT NOTICE – that David didn’t allow that to happen - he ignored both his brothers & the king… AND – focused on what he knew needed to be done.
OKAY – just 1 more quick thing that we need to overcome in facing your giants…
We need to overcome procrastination
As I said earlier on the very day that David, met his giant he faced him…
The Israelite army never did this… For 40 days morning and night Goliath taunted them… AND – each time their fear of him grew… I think that by the time David met Goliath on day 41… taunt 81… to the Israelite army, Goliath was about 900 feet face your giant now today!
They will only get bigger…
To Defeat Our Giants…
We Must Visualize The Reward
NOW - there's an interesting couple of verses in our text (verses 25 & 26). AND – to be honest I’ve never heard these verses mentioned in a sermon or a lesson…
YOU SEE - we kind of ignore these verses…
AND - I think it’s because as Christians we want to spiritualize everything - and we know that David took on Goliath because of his faith in God…. AND THEREFORE - at least in our minds it kind of taints things if there was an additional reason for going into the valley….
David asked - “hey, what does the guy get who kills the giant?” ANSWER - he gets a boat load of cash, he gets the princess. but better than that, he's exempted from taxes for the rest of his life. UNDERSTAND - David went down armed with faith, but he also went down thinking about a reward. "Man, I'm going to get some money, I'm going to get the princess, I'll be the Kings son-in-law, and not only that -- no taxes."
To defeat our giants we must visualize the rewards of victory…QUESTION - what would your life look like if your giant wasn't there? If it wasn’t standing in your way? If it was no longer there?
I MEAN - can you picture what would happen in your life, what your relationships might look like, who you would become, where you would go, what you would do, how you would feel, what peace would you experience…
IF - the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night wasn't this giant rumbling in your landscape?
B/S - we need to visualize the reward….
Visualize your life free from giants…
IMAGINE – what your life would look like…if they were gone.
BUT – unfortunately many times we just get used to our giants and learn to live or I should exist with them there.
Back in the 1950’s some researchers did an experiment. They took a 200-gallon aquarium and put in a northern pike (a fish) and everyday they would dump in some minnows, favorite food for the pike.
I guess for a pike it wasn’t a bad life. He could swim around and had a big tank and then they fed him when he was hungry.
Then one day they divided the tank in half with a piece of Plexiglas. On one side was the pike and on the other side they put the minnows. The pike went swimming and ran into the glass.
Now I don’t know how big a pike’s brain is but eventually it figured out he couldn’t get over there. The pike just swam in circles.
They removed the Plexiglas and now the pike and the minnows were free to swim anywhere in the tank. Guess what happened to the pike. It starved to death. It’s favorite food –swimming along side of it–bumping its underbelly, being able to see this food, but being conditioned to believe that it was no longer available–starves.
I am often amazed at how you and I are convinced we cannot do battle with our giant. This is the way our life is: it’s not our fault; it’s our parent’s fault; it’s somebody else’s fault…
Other people seem to be able to do it, I can’t.
Other people seem to be able to allow God to work in their lives, it doesn’t work for me.
Other people can get rid of their issues; I’m stuck with mine.
Unless we believe in the pike principle, the opportunities before us, the possibilities of what might be, we are almost always destined to live what has already happened to us, what has already happened in our past.
You see, David kept his eye on the princess, he kept his eye on the reward, he knew there was something better for him if he could just get rid of the giant and so armed with what he has he heads down the hillside and faces Goliath.
To defeat our giants… We must face them, We must visualize the reward, and…
We Must Anchor Our Confidence In God
SO DAVID - goes out to fight Goliath.
Goliath is kind of insulted and then he does some trash talk to try intimidate David… “Come here little boy, I am going to feed your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals.”
THEN DAVID – does some trash talking of his own…
“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. Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. Then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, and not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle and he will give you to us.” – 1 Samuel 17:45-47
As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. 49 Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it with his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face down on the ground.
50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and a stone, for he had no sword. 51 Then David ran over and pulled Goliath’s sword from its sheath. David used it to kill him and cut off his head. – 1 Samuel 17:48-51
UNDERSTAND - David's faith was in God, it wasn't in the armor, it wasn't in the army, it wasn't in his own ability. David headed down the hillside with the confidence that God was going with him… with the confidence that hiding up in the hills in fear was not the plan God had for His people.
YOU SEE – To David what really mattered was not the size of his giant, but the size of his God.
I don't know what giants you are facing in your life …
BUT – I do know that you will never step into the valley and face them if your God is too small…
INSTEAD - you’ll be just like the Israelites army, hiding in the hills, afraid…
One of my favorite authors and theologians wrote these words:
Christianity, at any given time, is strong or weak depending upon her concept of God. I insist upon this, and I’ve said it many times, that the basic trouble with the Church today is her unworthy concept of God…
Our religion is little because our god is little. Our religion is ignoble (not honorable in character and person) because the god we serve is ignoble. We do not see God as He is…
- AW Tozer
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us… Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, “What comes into your mind when you think about God?” we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man. – AW Tozer
QUESTION – if we need a big God to slay our giants… how do we make our God bigger? YEAH – we all know that God is big… BUT – how do we translate that knowledge into real life…
AND - I think that David can help us here as he completes this lap on the track with us…
Why was David’s God so big? BECAUSE…
He remembered past victories…
SO OFTEN – when facing our own giants, we forget what we ought to remember and we remember what we ought to forget. We remember our defeats and we forget our victories.
I MEAN - most of us can recite the failures of our lives in vivid detail…
BUT we are hard-pressed to name the victories that God has pulled off in our past…
NOT SO – with David. When the King is flipping out telling David that Goliath would kill him… asking David – ‘son what makes you think that you can do this…”
“You want to know why - I’ll tell you why I can do this… BECAUSE - the same God who gave me power over a lion and a bear will give me power over Goliath… SO – just let me at him…”
(HEY - have you ever pictured David chasing down lions and bears, catching them by their jaws and clubbing them to death. YOU SEE - David knew that if God showed up in his past – then he would show up in his present)…
B/S - victories are significant. Remember them!
CHECKOUT – 1 Samuel 17:54;
David took the Philistine's head and brought it to Jerusalem, and he put the Philistine's weapons in his own tent.
QUESTION – where do you keep your memories?
Do you quickly pass over your victories and forget them?
BREAK – that habit!
UNDERSTAND – God doesn’t want you to waste HIS victories. AND WHEN – he pulls off something that only He can do, He says to us, “Now don’t you forget that.”
IN – the OT many times God’s people would stack up a huge pile of stones as a reminder of God winning victories on their behalf. I THINK – that’s why David took Goliath’s weapons and stored them in his tent after the battle to remember…
What about you? Has God ever showed up in your life and delivered you from something, that was about to take you under?
• A tough past?
• An addiction?
• A health or financial hardship?
• The death of a loved one?
• The divorce of your parents?
UNDERSTAND YOU – need to set up some of your own stones of remembrance
IF – you want a big God you need to remember your past victories…
AND – not only that you need to remember the past victories of others…
The Scriptures are full of those victories…and so are the lives of many believers…
LISTEN – if God was there for (Moses, Joshua & Gideon) THEN – He’ll be there for me…
The 2nd reason David’s God was so big was because;
David pursued a deep relationship with God
YOU SEE - David knew who God was. He knew that God could be trusted… He knew that God would always protect & always deliver his people… WHY – because He knew who God was, He was a man who was after the heart of God…
AND – because David, pursued God, hung out with Him…
Here is what He knew about God;
“The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. He is my refuge, my savior, the one who saves me from violence. I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies. – 2 Samuel 22:2-4
He remembered past victories
He pursued a relationship with God
Are you?
OKAY – let’s wrap this up…
Imagine with me if you would that it’s morning and the mist is breaking, and you see him again.
It’s that giant; the one who has taunted in your valley for years.
Do me a favor and just close your eyes.
Can you see that giant for what he is?
For how ugly, for how disruptive, for how much chaos it has created in your life and in the lives of the people around you? Then can you picture what your life might look like if that giant weren’t there?
Whatever that issue is, whatever that problem is, whatever that thing is, can you see what your life would be like if it weren’t there? Then, can you hear him?
Maybe it is hard to hear him because there are so many other things that crowd out his voice.
Can you hear him say to you, “I love you, you are not alone, I am with you?”
