As I was reading my bible this week, I came across a familiar piece of scripture about a guy who should have been on a box of “wheaties” in early Jerusalem.
The story comes out of 1 Sam 17. It’s the story of David and Goliath. To refresh your memory, this is where David a little shepherd boy has come to the front line of a major battle, filled with the love of God, hoping to see his brothers and his friends beat the big bad philistines. But what he discovers is a group of people who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. He ends up volunteering for the assignment to take on bad, bad, Goliath Brown - The meanest man in the whole darn town. David offers his services to Saul the king who rebukes him but then relents when nobody else steps forward. Saul tries to equip David with conventional wisdom by putting his armor on David but of course, David looks like a boy in a man’s suit. David is wise enough to say it won’t work and he takes off the garb, grabs a few stones and sling shot. Now listen to verses 1 Sam 17:48-52:
As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49 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 face down on the ground. 50 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. 51 David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. 52 Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron.
I think we all love this story because it’s about the underdog winning. However, there is a lesson for us today because it recaps the main theme for this series, we’ve entitled, “Run.” It tells the story of young man who was unsure of his place in the kingdom but knew God was at work, all powerful and could be trusted in his faithfulness. The story tells of the least threatening of all the people present that day running towards the enemy and sparking an entire army into action. We shouldn’t be too hard on the Israel army. Let’s face it; we all have moments of fear and doubt in this life.
Story of fear and doubt… I can remember after I sold everything to follow Jesus. It was January and I finally received the check for selling my business. I had just deposited it and was driving home. I started to have a panic attack. I kept thinking, “what did you just do?” what kind of an idiot sells a perfectly good business. What were you thinking? How are you going to provide for your family for the next year? I was in total fear. What if one of us gets sick? What are we going to do for health insurance? What if it wasn’t God who aligned the guy to buy my business? What if……. The list goes on and on. I was really afraid.
I think as humans its natural for us to doubt and stand back when the outcome is uncertain. However, this is the exact place our faith begins. It’s been said courage is not the absence of fear. It’s recognition of it and the choice to move forward anyway. God knew we would wrestle with the belief in the unseen so he telegraphed his coming in the Old Testament writings. He then sent Jesus to make the message perfectly clear. In His coming, the price has been paid. The sin of the world can be forgiven. Life everlasting is possible. Why? Because he created you and you are important to God. But he didn’t end there. In His final words on earth, he assured us of our access to his power through the leaving behind of His Spirit for us whenever and wherever. But not whatever! Listen to His final words in Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
This where I think many Christians get tripped up. I think once we become a Christian we hear all the sermons on prayer, its importance in our journey and its power but we fail to accept the truth stated here. God left his spirit and power behind for us to access as we become witness to the ends of the earth. This is His will. It’s the reason this campus exists. We opened this campus 21 months ago to be witnesses.
This is where we come in. The David story is actually a huge object lesson of the larger establishment needing the smaller, more nimble believer to show what faith and trust look like. Our Naperville campus has over 1400 members who call that their primary place of worship. However, over the years their impact has dwindled due to many factors and with the pastoral transition, they are wrestling with change.
So how do we help? We need to grab our stones, slingshots and God’s power. Our slingshots are disguised as gifts, talents, skills and stories. Our battle field lies outside the front door of our homes. Our Goliath lives in our neighborhoods, swims at our pools, plays in our parks, shops in our grocery store, comes to our the backyard parties, sits with us at the ball field, sits next to us in the waiting room, and even works with us. He or she is disguised and may not know why they oppose your or the good news your represent. It could be they just have a long history of dislike or a recent experience with other Christians. Our smoothed stone is our testimony about what God is doing in our life, the lives of those we hang out with here and the activities we have done together and will do again in the future.
I was asked a couple of weeks ago to speak at the general conference about all the different ways we have attempted to connect to the community. The leader of the event asked me to speak for 10-15 minutes. I literally had to eliminate about 10 minutes of my presentation because I had so much material. I’ll list some of them for you: Coffee and Donut days, Christmas and Valentines parties, Summer Secret excursions, spring break getaways, serve the community days, serving at the local food pantries, Hesed mission nights, soccer church, Prairie-fest, Christmas walks, coat drives, serving at the High schools, Mayor’s prayer breakfast, offering parenting classes at the park district, recovery nights, blues services, Chicks and Chocolate, Men and Bacon, partnerships with the Y, Fam Jam on Tuesday nights this summer and coming up, Motorcycle Sunday. All of these were stones thrown at the larger community that trash talks us daily.
To slay our Goliaths, our action is as simple as David’s. We are to run towards the giant, sling our testimony towards them and trust. Trust in the name of the Lord that His power will slay the beast and inspire others to join us.
Imagine what might happen if we took Christ at his word and begin to run to slay our goliaths: the Goliath in your home, your bunko party, at the pool or even the neighborhood poker party? I challenge you this week to run the race for Jesus, not for your own recognition but His?
Let’s pray!
https://communitycenter.life/rev-robert-butler-info
