As you know, Israel was facing the Philistines. David came along. He learned that no one would fight Goliath, who had blasphemed the name of David’s God, and he decided that if no one else would fight him, he would.
Illus: Isn’t it good that you always find, among God’s people, those with the attitude, “If no one else is willing, then I must!”
The other men in Israel’s army felt they had an excuse for not responding to the challenge, but David was not looking for an excuse. He was looking for a way to defeat that giant. We have no way of knowing if he was frightened inside or not, but we do know he had confidence in the God he served!
God uses people who are not looking for an excuse. These are the people God uses to get His work done across this nation. These are the ones He uses to defeat Satan time and time again.
David was willing. However, Saul insisted that if David was going to respond to this challenge he had at least better have some armor on.
Look at verse 38, “And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.”
That must have been a sight. We know David was a short man. We also know Saul was a tall man. So, David no sooner got all that armor on when he realized it would not work.
Look at verse 39. We read, “And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.”
Why did David feel uncomfortable? It is possible he realized if he had killed Goliath with all that armor on then men would have said he won because of the armor.
Illus: Without a doubt, one of the reasons our churches are suffering one spiritual defeat after another is because we have “armed” the church with every piece of human armor we can put on.
• We have the best buildings money can buy.
• We have the best trained and educated pastors and staff workers money can buy.
• We have the best programs money can buy.
All these things are good, but they will not get us the victory God wants us to have.
Yet we are losing young people to drugs and illicit sex and our marriages to the divorce courts.
In order to claim some victory, what we have done is re-define “victory” in our churches. “Victory” is no longer that the power of God overcomes the devil in the people of our churches. People now measure “victory” by the size of the buildings, budgets and crowds. If these are big, then the people feel they have a “victorious” church. As a result, the “armor” is exalted more than the God we claim to love and worship.
It was a great thing for Israel that David refused to wear Saul’s armor.
Illus: When David stood before Goliath with only a sling and five smooth stones, and God directed that stone to the center of Goliath’s forehead, God received the glory. It did not go to man-made armor.
Notice, David allowed the armor to be placed on him, but in verse 39 he said, “...I cannot go with these...And David put them off him.”
David took one look at himself and concluded, “This is not me!”
When Saul had told David why he felt David would not be able to fight Goliath, David answered, verses 34-36, “And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God”
David remembered when God had helped him kill the lion and bear. He did not have any man-made armor on then. But he went in the strength and wisdom of the Lord.
Smart is the man who recognizes that God can only use him when he is HIMSELF.
One of the major problems we have today is that we have people trying to be something they are not.
Illus: Dr. Charles E. Jefferson told a group of young preacher boys, “Be yourself. You are only strong when you are yourself. You are persuasive only when you speak in your mother tongue, and of those things which you yourself do know. If you walk on the stilts of other men’s high phrases, or wrap yourself in the embroidered language of men of genius long since dead, you will be as impotent as David was the day he fitted on Saul’s armor. Use the pebble taken from the brook which flows by your door. Use the sling which you have used from boyhood and which belongs to you by the will of God. Let other men preach as they will, you preach as you must.”
The greatest gift that man can give is to be himself at the best God has made him. One can be no greater.
Instead, today many are “wearing the armor of others.” That is, they are trying to be something they are not. Why do they do this?
I. SOMETIMES BECAUSE OF AMBITIOUS PARENTS.
God has a plan for every child He has allowed to be born, but often parents decide they know what is better for that child than God does.
Parents often begin imposing their ambitions and goals on their children without praying and consulting God and seeking His will for the children.
Illus: A young man desired to become a professional baseball player. From the time he was able to throw a ball his dad had wanted to train him to become a baseball player. As he grew up, he became good. He was probably the best baseball player that lived in that city. His parents had convinced him that one day he would be a professional baseball player. However, even though he was the very best player in his city, when he tried out for the big leagues there were a lot of players trying out who were better than he was and he was rejected. That young man went through all kinds of emotional problems because his dad has him believing he was going to play professional baseball. His dreams were shattered. In his early 20’s he felt like a complete failure.
Later, he got married and guess what? They have a son and he is doing the same thing to him.
Sometimes it is tragic what we do to our children.
God never willed that some people do the things they are doing.
Illus: Some parents have decided their child should become a minister. When their child was very young they started telling everyone that when he grows up he will be a minister of the gospel. The only problem is if this person does go into the ministry, it may not be at God’s calling. Those God has not called are not endowed with the gifts to be a minister. No matter how hard they may try, they will never be able to be a minister of the gospel because God has never called them to that task.
Illus: We have mothers all over this country who aspire to make beauty queens out of their daughters. They constantly teach their daughters they are going to be a Miss America one day. They enter them in every beauty contest they can. The only problem is that most of these children only have average, not rare beauty, and that will be a painful thing to face one day.
It is cruel what some parents to their children.
Saul insisted that David became a warrior, with all the outward armor, to face Goliath, but David was wise enough once he got it on to know it was not for him. He took it off and told Saul he had to fight God’s way.
In our schools we have guidance counselors to help students determine what gifts and abilities they have so they can see what they are qualified to do with their lives.
Illus: Can you imagine a student who worked hard in school but could only maintain a “C” average? Can you imagine a guidance counselor recommending that student should pursue a medical profession and become a brain surgeon.
Such a guidance counselor would be fired on the spot. Why? Because it would be obvious she was not qualified to be a guidance counselor.
Parents, we need to ask God to help us. We need wisdom and care in the vocational guidance of our children because we want them to fulfill God’s plan for their lives and do it to the best of their ability.
Many adults are frustrated today because their parents, that God entrusted with the job of raising them for the Lord, decided they knew more about what was best for their children and imposed their own wills on them.
It is going to be rough on many parents as they stand before the Lord and give account for using their influence, as parents, to cause their children to be something God never intended them to be. The lives of many children have been ruined BECAUSE OF AMBITIOUS PARENTS.
Some try to be what they are not equipped to be...
II. SOMETIMES BECAUSE OF AMERICAN PRESSURE.
Parents want their children to be successful. The trouble is by what criteria they measure success.
Most parents measure success in monitory terms. This is because the American yardstick for measuring success is usually based on how much money a person makes. Those who have other standards are often looked down upon.
For example, if some children were to tell their parents they felt led to become medical missionaries, or ministers of the gospel, their parents would protest, “Oh no honey! You do not want to do that. You can not make much money doing something like that!”
Yes, we measure success in America by how much a person is capable of making. But, there are many people who have more money than they need who are total failures in God’s sight.
Illus: Revelation 3:17 makes a revealing statement. “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
God did not say that church was successful! He told them their true condition, that they were wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. God did not see them the way they saw themselves.
Illus: In his Yale Lectures, Dr. Tittle said some years ago: “It is not the occasional presence of genius that fills the millions of us with dismay, but this does: the belief, all too common in our Western world, that when it comes to ordinary mortals, the most significant of all tests of personal worth is money or power. So long as that belief remains unchallenged millions of men are destined to suffer from a humiliating sense of inferiority; they are destined to go through the years tormented by a sense of failure, making pathetic and, it may be, even tragic attempts to acquire some sense of personal importance.
But what if we, the millions of men, should begin to change the measure used in determining human worth? What if we should stop estimating it in terms of money and power and begin to estimate it in terms of service?”
Conclusion:
It is truly a great day when a person stops trying to be like someone else and just becomes the best they can be in who they are.
Robert Browning said it this way in one of his poems, “Best be yourself, imperial, plain and true!”
Real happiness and full usefulness begins for many people when they make up their minds to accept themselves and be themselves. This world has been deprived of many services it might have had simply because so many have kept on trying to be somebody else, and so withheld their own unique and individual contribution.
I Cor. 12:14-16 teaches the body is not one member, but many. We all can not be the eyes, or the nose. We have to find out what God has planned for us. And the thing God has planned for us, we can do better than anyone else.
Those of us who may be trying to be something we are not, we need to recognize this and let God have His way in our lives. The first step in the right direction may be in recognizing why we try to be something we are not, that it is...
I. SOMETIMES BECAUSE OF AMBITIOUS
PARENTS
II. SOMETIMES BECAUSE OF AMERICAN
PRESSURE
Note: You can hear Dr. Odell Belger on Youtube. Type Youtube Lykesland
