Last Sunday night we talked about our vertical relationship with God. We decided it was important for us an individual believers to improve on our vertical relationship and I believe after last week many of you are experiencing a refreshing in your experience and relationship with God. But, that was last week, and we can choose to live on yesterday and remember the history and experience, our we can decide to press on, to touch heaven and change earth tonight. I don’t know about you, but I am pressing on. I want to see fresh wind and fresh fire today, to see God rise up within us so we can indeed touch heaven and then change the earth.
Does anyone know what nerious is? This is where something becomes numb. We have this problem today, that is why people are not pressing in toward God. We have societal nerious. We have become so numb to the things going on around us we have lost the full impact of its meaning. We can talk about the over 700 people who committed suicide or were murdered in Uganda two weeks ago just as casually as we talk about the weather. We can watch a movie, view a video or watch a program on television and the language alone is so offensive but because we have been numbed by hearing those words so many times we are basically unaffected. I could go on, but I am not going to pick on you, I am just wanting to respond like Jimmy Cricket and say, “Let your conscious be your guide.” I have another nerious I want to discuss, a more threatening nerious to us than anything else I could talk about tonight, and it is Gospel Nerious. This is where a person has become deadened to having their heart broken for God. And without a broken heart for the things of God, we will never experience revival. The broken heart I am speaking of is not some procedure in need of physical surgery but spiritual. This broken heart speaks of the type of individual response God is looking for in each of our lives.
I want to talk about a man who has set an example before us of what it means to be broken before God. I am speaking tonight from 1 Samuel 17, and I am talking about a young David, a man who was called one after God’s own heart. I think tonight as we look at this we need to allow God to restore the youthfulness of our relationship with Him.
1 Samuel 17:12-14 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who had eight sons and in Saul’s time he was old and well advanced in years. Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to war: The firstborn was Elibab; the second Abinadab; and the third Shammah. David was the youngest. The three older ones followed Saul.
David was radical for God and verse 14 gives us the picture of why. He was the youngest of his brothers and did not follow after Saul which was the case of his elder brothers. David did not have the Saul syndrome. Keep this in mind, for the Saul syndrome is where you seek after familiar spirits, spirits who will agree with what you want. Instead of falling into this trap, David sought after God.
Many of you are knowledgeable of this biblical account. The brothers had gone off to war, fighting against the Philistines. The word Philistine means enemy of God. In verse 15 we read how David had gone back and forth, feeding his fathers sheep and going to Saul. David saw what Saul was doing. He saw how ineffective Saul was in fulfilling the plan of God. Saul had nerious, he had become deadened to the things of God.
For 40 days the giant Goliath had spoken to the men of Saul. For 40 days the men were nerositized, they had become deadened to the things they knew to be right. They had forgotten God’s power listening to the words, taunts and threats of Goliath whom they became to view as much larger than God. They had in essence become too numb to respond to the giants attacking and slanderous words.
But Domino is now on the way. Fresh and hot. At age 17 David gets his assignment from God who used his father Jesse as the messenger for David. It was time to deliver pizza to the battle. Verse 17-18: Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread to your brothers and hurry to their camp. Take along these ten cheeses to the commanders of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. It is ten cheese pizza time. The deliverance from God is just about ready to happen.
People, God has an assignment for you today. You assignment is to go to an army that refuses to fight, that refuses to pray, that refuses to read the Word and to get real for God. You are called to go to an army today is lives in hypocrisy. God is calling you to get off your excuses and to fight.
David was sent by his father to take cheese and bread and find out what was happening. His father knew there was something in David’s character that would help them win the war.
Look at verse 20, Early in the morning David left the flock with 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. David at come to the trenches. Do you know where your trenches are? They are outside the doors of this building. They are your home, your work place, your neighborhood, your college campus…any place where God has strategically placed you right now in your life. These are the trenches and God is telling you to get in there and wake some people up. Christianity is something that is worth fighting for, it is something that should not want us to play games with our lives and the lives of other people. The number one killer of kids under the age of 5 is not mumps, measles or polio. It is their parents. And someone has to reach those parents with the Good News of Jesus Christ before we loose more to family violence. It is time to get mad at the devil and his demons who have reduced our society to such a place where we have become numb to the conditions which are around us.
People, there is no place for us except under the wings of God. And the giant comes and says give me a man to fight against, give me a woman who dares to take me on and I will have them for lunch, and we begin to believe the giants.
But David did not. This taunting get him all excited. He had not been with the older soldiers who would have told him not to worry about it, the giant will eventually go away so we don’t want to get to excited, we don’t want to get too worked up. David got mad, he got angry and started letting everyone in the camp know, I am the man who will take up the fight. The giant had better shut up because this is David’s territory purchased by God. I mean David became pretty outspoken…who is this giant that is speaking up and saying this stuff which is not true, I’ll cut him down to size. And of course, Goliath is looking out wondering who this David, this speck in his eye is as well. Goliath thought when the pressure was put on David would fold just like everyone else did. He thought David would hide his Bible just like other had. Goliath thought when he roared David would take off his Christian T-shirt and the pins he was wearing on his wind-breaker. But David was not about to be intimidated. David was not about to be beat down. David was not about to shut up, sit down or slip out. David was going to stand even if the army around him was going to cave in and be whimpy. What about you?
David’s brother, his elder, came along side David and let him know he did not have a clue as to what he was saying. He probably wanted to give David a history lesson, to tell him why we do what we do, to explain the sacred cows of history and why we just let things be. He probably wanted to tell him that when he became older and wiser in his faith he would understand. He probably wanted David to know that he too in his younger days might have responded the same way, but now he was more seasoned and has learned how to sit in the pew and not make waves. And then there was Saul. He also wanted to hear and share some words with this young upstart.
David goes to Saul and Saul seemed to be deaf to the taunts of Goliath---unresponsive to his challenges. David told him maybe he needed to turn down his Hosanna music so that he could hear because he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit is saying. I think it is time that we give a good listen to what God is telling His church today so that we can go out and touch heaven and change the earth.
Saul listens to David, then goes over in his tent and pulls out his scrapbook. He shows David the past victories and battles he has won. Here David, see this one here, it was quite a fight but we won. Oh, look at this picture here, its mean leading the charge against the enemy, and here, David, look, its me with the treasures we won in that battle. David, come with me here and look, this is my armor I wore in those battles. See, we have polished it and have displayed it in this case so others can see. David, let me open the case so you can touch the armor, here, let me help you put it on so that you can get a feel of the past.
People, listen, you need to learn how to fight for yourself. You need to get a personal revelation from God so that you can fight, not live off some photograph or scrapbook from the past. You need to learn how to read your own Bible, to say your own prayers. It is not wrong to get into Bible studies or prayer groups with others but you also need to establish your own roots.
David walked away from the shrine of Saul, and when he walked away from the history, something happened. You had to be 20 to join the army, and David was not 20, but something was happening in him. He was just a baby Christian but something was welling up.
God was a man of love and patience. As a shepherd, he watched sheep. Did you know sheep are the hardest things to watch? They just do their own thing. Oh look, a cliff, I think I can fly, and there they go. Do you hear me sheep.
Do you know what made David angry? Threats. One day a bear came by and so how my, look at that lamb chop feast. David didn’t hate bears, he wore a Bear’s T-shirt during the football season, even caught a few of their games, but when they threatened his lambs, well it was a losing season for the bears. David even liked lions, he had a lion skin rug in front of his fireplace, but when lions threatened his sheep, there wasn’t enough left to send back to Detroit.
People, when the Goliath’s of this world threaten, how will you respond? I hear their voice growing every day. There is no hope, things are not looking good, crime is increasing, violence in on the rise, it is not safe after dark, politicians are a bunch of crooks, Christianity is for weak people, and the sad part is we have become numb from hearing it. And not only that, many have started believing all this stuff which is all not true.
When you are threatened, you have two choices. You can run from the threat, become milk-toast, or you can run at the threat and say my God is able. David went back out and gave Goliath one more chance to shut up. Look at verse 42, 42 He looked David over abd saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, “Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. David wasn’t happy being cursed. Goliath, you didn’t say what I thought you said? Then David blacked out he was so angry and he took a stone and let it fly.
Hear me, Satan is using bitterness, rebellion, anger and lust and he is destroying people with it and we need to get on our knees and say, Not by might, not by power, but by the Spirit of God I will not be defeated. I am going to get angry at the devil and I am going to rise up and fight back.
David’s father sent him, he did not know how to make pizza so he left the ingredients with someone else. He didn’t know how to wash the dishes without breaking them, but his father knew there was a radical quality about him that would make him a winner for God.
You have a quality about you tonight that will make you a winner. It is when you take anger and bitterness and hatred and rebellion and you turn it against the devil.
It says that David ran toward Goliath. He looked at an army that said it would not, an army that refused to be used and said, if there is no one else who will pray, I will pray. If there is no one else who will read the word, I will read the word. If there is no one else who will stand up against sin, I will stand. If there is no one else who will be radical, I will be radical. I will do it alone.
Our purpose in life is to be part of God’s army, not to be out looking for it. We are not to get on the bandwagon because some of our friends are, but because we want to be going for God, to be world changers, because there is something that is burning and alive in our heart, mind and soul.
God has given us the weapons so we can stand up and fight. Now God is looking for someone to say that I am mad at the fact people are not serving God. I am mad that my friends are not following Jesus. I am mad that my relatives are not seeking after God. I am mad at the deception of the devil.
Now if you are mad, you need to do something about it. Well, I go to church…What you need to do is start believing God for some victories, to shout and say each day you are going out to slay the giants in the land.
First, how many of you have something in your life that needs to be knocked down so you can serve God better? Understand, after David killed the giant, his fame was set for the rest of his life. He could have lived in the limelight, dropping into towns, signing autographs, having his picture taken with the people, doing some commercials and advertising, but instead, he went over to Goliath, danced on his head a bit, then took the weapon Goliath meant to kill David with, took his sword, and you know what the Bible says about the enemies sword, No weapons formed against me will prosper, and David took his sword and cut off the giants head.
Some of you have knocked down giants, but they keep getting right back up and knocking you down. Hello? Am I hitting home. You struggle with list, pride, a poor self-image pornography, and every time you thought you had defeated it, there is comes right back in your face. Do you know why? It is because all you have done is knock it down, but victory only becomes final when you slay the giant.
I want the worship team to come, and while they are I want to talk to you about the altar. Some of you might have altar phobia. In the Old Testament, the altar is where the fire of God fell from heaven and touched earth. God is going to speak to you about coming up here in a minute…
You can be victorious tonight. You may not have felt victorious or successful but this is what God created you to be. It happens when you become obedient to God. David was obedient in delivering the pizza. Simply obedience is all that Christianity is about.
How many of you have giants that need slain? God wants to restore the fire tonight in your lives. I want the fire to fall on all of us. The battle you fight belongs to the Lord, you are not alone. The Holy Spirit is here to lead and guide not just in this place, but in your life. You need to do what you can and God will do what He can and together we will touch heaven, changing earth. I want to pray and then open the altar as we sing…don’t miss this opportunity tonight for fresh fire.
