In the late 1960’s there was a TV show called Land of the Giants. Seven people from earth found their spaceship caught in a time warp of some kind and ended up on a planet where everything was twelve times larger than it was on earth. Each week and each episode they battled giant cats, mean children, and military soldiers that tried to bring them to a demise.
This series was a little strange to me but it raised some interesting and curious questions. The first question that I have is what would we do if everything and everyone in our lives was a giant accept for us?
What would we do if everything that surrounded us was so gigantic and over whelming to the point that we seemed helpless in all of our efforts? What would we do if all of our problems were so huge, enormous, massive gargantuan, and colossal. What if our problems were just so titanic, oversize, and extremely large what would we do.
The truth of the matter is that there are some of us that live in a land of giants. There are things that are bigger than us, which seems to stand between us and being where God wants us to be.
If you remember in the Old Testament, God sent His people, Israel, to a place called The Promised Land.
It was a great place to live, but also it was inhabited by giants in whom they would have to face and defeat. And New Galilean we also live in a land of giants, and if we are to be where God wants us to be, and go where he wants us to go, and do as he want us to do, we will have to face some giants.
One of the giants that we are going to have to face is Warfare, and we must all face the fact that spiritual warfare is a necessity. God never varnishes, or paint over the fact that there is going to be warfare for His children. God has never made it seem like this journey would be a bed of roses.
In fact, he told Moses in Exodus 3:16-17 that there would be blessings and enemies in the Promised Land. There will be warfare. He promised Joshua, in Joshua 1:1-7 that the Land would be theirs, but told him that he would have to be strong and courageous to face its challenges that going to come with the land.
There will be warfare. He promised Gideon (Judges 6:15-16) that he would save Israel, but in the saving process he would have to face the Midianites. There will be warfare. He anointed David in 1st Samuel to be king as a youth, as he was a lad of a boy, but still he had to deal David had Goliath and Saul. There will be warfare.
Our Savior was no less forthcoming with His disciples and with us when Jesus said in John 15:18-20. If the world hates you, you need to know that the world hated me before it hated you. Now if you were of the world, the world would love its own. But you are not of the world, because I chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. And remember the Words said, A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also.
You might be going through this morning, know that it is a form of warfare. You might not have a dime in your pocket; it’s a form of warfare. Things might not look the brightest, be the happiest, feel the perkiest or the see the sunniest, know that it is a form of warfare.
In other words, you may have some battles, some encounters, some scuffles and some confrontations. Yes you may have some let downs, some conflicts and some struggles. You may have some issues, some disputes, and some up rises in your life but there is great joy and blessing in following Christ, but also know this, that in following Jesus there will also be battles to fight.
We need to know the nature of this warfare
The nature of the warfare that we have to fight, teaches us that we are to be engaged in offensive warfare. We are not called to hold the fort against the giants of life. Unfortunately, that is the plan many Christians seem to have. They want to circle the wagons at the church building and hide and hold off the devil until Jesus comes back. That is not God’s plan.
When Goliath challenged Israel, Saul hid in his tent and just hope everything would work out. When the Midianites were destroying Israel, Gideon was hiding in a wine press. They had adopted the philosophy of that theologian, Charlie Brown when He told Lucy, "I have a new philosophy. I’m only going to dread one day at a time." We aren’t called to run for cover and hide and be scared, and we are not to carry the burden on our shoulders.
That remind me of a story of how a mother came home from shopping one day only to find five of her children sitting quietly in a circle. When she looked inside the circle she saw that they had five young skunks they had found outside. Without thinking, she yelled, “run children, run!” They did, but before they ran each child grabbed a skunk and took one with them. We are often like those children. When we are faced with the giants of life, we panic and make a mess out of things and we grab the problems that are before us, and run with them. That’s not the answer.
Instead we’ve got to know that God has called us to pull down strongholds (v.4). The word pull down means to dethrone, depose, oust out, overthrow, defeat, and to triumph over.
In Acts 19:21-27 when the Apostle Paul preached the Gospel at Ephesus many people were saved. As they were coming to Christ they realized that they needed to get rid of their idols, the goddess Diana. As people gave up their idols, the local idol makers became alarmed that they were losing business. They said that Paul’s preaching of the gospel had destroyed the magnificence of Diana. In other words, the gospel had pulled down the stronghold of that false god. That is what we are called to do. And that’s what I’ve came to tell you all this morning through the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we must pull down the strongholds of this world system we live in.
Verse 5 says that we are also called to cast down imaginations. That means we are to conquer them. We are to attack and conquer the imaginations of this world. What are these imaginations? They are the deceptive and fleshly way of thinking common of this world.
Paul spoke of this in Colossians 2:8-10 when he said, “Beware lest anyone spoil you or cheat you through philosophy and vain or empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”
So, what is a giant?
2nd Corinthians 10:5 tells us that a giant is anything that exalts itself above God. We are to cast down every high thing. These are those things that seem too far above us, and we don’t even hope to win against them.
Look at this Goliath towered above everyone else in Israel. He was even taller than their king (Saul), the tallest man in all the kingdom. But I’m here to tell somebody this morning that no matter how big Goliath is, Israel could bring him down if they let God fight their battle for them. Tell your neighbor that Giant will come, but they must fall, and the bigger they are the harder they fall.
You’ve got to know that a giant is anything or anyone that refuses to give God His rightful place. It is whatever that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. This includes people who are operating in the flesh rather than in the Spirit, circumstances that make it appear that God is not in control, and the attitudes that put man before God.
Here is a nugget: When fighting
We’ve got to know what weapons that we are allowed to use, because there are some weapons we cannot trust.
Watch what the Word says, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal (v.4). We cannot face the giants of life with weapons of our own making. We want to fight by fussing, fighting and cussing but these are not weapons that we can trust. These weapons don’t win, they only keep the fight going.
But God has given us weapons that we can trust. These weapons are mighty in God (v.4). Though we live in this world and we are faced with the problems of this world, we have a different way to face those problems.
Look at the emphasis of Galatians 2:20 which reminds us, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
We cannot trust the weapons of this world – we must trust God’s weapons. If you remember David refused to fight Goliath with the weapons of Saul. He knew he must fight God’s battle God’s way.
Saul clothed David with his armor, and David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.” In other words I cannot testify that these weapons will stand up in the battle, I don’t know if I can win with this stuff, it feels awkward. So David took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in a pouch which he had, and he had his slingshot in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine." (1 Samuel 17:38-40)
But in it says 1st Samuel 17:41-53 And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and when the Philistine looked at David, he looked down on him and laughed because he was a youth, and ruddy little boy. And may I tell you that, people might look down on you. People may laugh at you, and people might even curse you, but when you know that you have the Lord on your side, you can start praising God.
I heard that the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.
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.
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 carcasses 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.
And all of the people shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S.
Don’t miss that, David said 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. When you go in Jesus name, and when the Lord has sent you, you can walk in victory, but you must know that the Lord has sent you.
Well, I heard that in verse 48 it came to pass, when the Philistine got up, and came nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.
And David put his hand in his bag, and took a stone, and slung it, and it landed in the head of Philistine that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
The bible said that David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone.
And just like God has given David a weapon that he can trust, God has also given us a weapon that we can trust.
What is it Pastor? God has given us
·His Word – because it will never returns void.
·Prayer – He is always listening and ready to answer.
I remember growing up in school and I was about to have my first fight and I remember that the young man that I was supposed to fight we were supposed to meet up behind the library and it was just supposed to be, me and him, but when I got there, there was a crowd of on lookers, and some of his friend that I thought might jump me, and to me they looked so big. So I took off running towards home as they chased me. But all of a sudden I looked up and seen my daddy. My daddy said come here son and stand behind me you don’t have to run no more. The crowd turn around and started running in the opposite direction because they seen my daddy.
And the Lord told me to tell somebody this morning that it doesn’t matter how big your problems are, or how big the giants might look, the Lord God almighty is telling me to tell you to just come and stand behind him, and you don’t have to worry any more.
So, whatever giants that you are facing I’m here to tell you that God’s Word and Prayer is all that you need to make it through.
Because God sons has already paid everything else on Calvary’s cross
