Take Out Some Giants in 94
2/9/94 1 Sam 17:1-30 Ephe 6:10-18 1 Samuel 17:1-50
In our Old Testament reading, we met a young ordinary fellow
who had a giant of a problem standing between him, and what God
intended for him to come. Up to this point, he was just a shep-
herd boy, not even his family expected too much out of him, the
youngest of eight boys. His job was to take care of the sheep and
be a delivery boy. Yet because he was willing to face up to a
giant by the name of Goliath, his name and his life has been
carved in granite in the word of God. His name is David.
1994 has either brought or is bringing some giants into our
lives that will shape us, mold us, make us or break us this year.
Right now, what is your biggest problem? What giant is standing
in your path threatening to destroy you? What giants are there
threatening our church? God has already determined that we can
defeat and take out a number of giants in 94, if we are willing
to trust Him when we go into the battle and go in the name of
Jesus.
Victory requires more than positive thinking. It
requires more than enthusiasm. It even requires more than
action. If you do a lot of action at the wrong time or the
wrong action at the right time, you still come up short.
Victory becomes ours when we think right about our
problems, feel right about our problems, and then act right about
our problems. We need more than just a positive mental attitude.
We need a vision from Jesus Christ as to the direction that we
must go.
When we look at the giants before us, the object is not to
focus on all the ways the giant might overcome us, but to concen-
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trate on how we are going to slay this monster. A batter who
concentrates on not striking out will strike out. His concentra-
tion needs to be on hitting the ball. A foul shooter who dedi-
cates himself to not missing the shot is going to miss. Her
concentration needs to be on making the shot. A student who
worries about choking during the exam, is going to choke. The
emphasis needs to be on letting the answers flow out clearly.
David was going against a man over nine feet tall. The
man’s coat weighed 125 lbs. The head of the man’s spear weighed
some 15 lbs by itself. Heaven knows how big his sword was. But
David didn’t concentrate on what if he throws the javelin through
me before I get close enough, or what if he grabs me in a a bear
hug, or what if he starts just punching me.
David instead picked him up 5 stones and headed in the
giant’s direction. One other thing he came with was a word from
the Lord. He said in 1 Samuel 17:45-4 to the giant Goliath, "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. {46} This day the LORD
will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off
your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army
to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the
whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. {47} All
those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear
that the LORD saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will
give all of you into our hands."
Do you see he did not go through all the what if this hap-
pened and what if that happened? David knew that he had to go
and take a stand, and that because of the God he served, he had
every intention of winning the fight with the giant. He did a
lot of bad talking even before the first lick or hit had taken
place. But it wasn’t because He thought he was somebody bad or
tough. It was because David knew what the Lord had done for him
in the past, that He could talk so boastfully now.
You see when folks were laughing at David about being a
nobody out in the hills taking care of the sheep, David was
learning what it was to know God. Your position in life is
nothing to be ashamed of, so long as you are using the position
to get to know God even better. God is always looking for people
who don’t have big heads and big egoes, because those are the
kind of people who the Spirit of God can truly use.
Not only was David learning about sheep, he was learning how
to fight some small giants that kept creeping into his life. You
see when bears and lions came and attacked the sheep, David went
after the wild beasts. Sometimes the lions and bears didn’t
appreciate what David had done, and they turned and attacked.
It was in those moments of battle that David learned who God was.
David said concerning this new giant in his life, 1 Samuel
17:37 "The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the
paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this
Philistine."
David spoke so confidently in regards to the outcome of the
battle because his focus was on the prize of being victorious,
rather than on the pitfalls of defeat. We should never allow
ourselves to lose sight of our goal, for we may never see Šagain.
One of the primary reasons we do not defeat the giants in
our lives is that we allow ourselves to be defeated even before
we get started. There is always somebody around to remind you of
who you are, and how you think you are just so much better than
anybody else when they know what you are really like. Unfortu-
nately sometimes these people will be your friends and even your
family members.
Now Eliab was David’s oldest brother. Here he was a
fine, tall, and good looking soldier. When Samuel had been
sent to David’s house to annoint someone king, the minute
Samuel saw Eliab, Samuel said, "surely this is the one that God
has chosen." You would have thought that he would have been a
giant fighter, but he wasn’t. Because he was scared to deal
with Goliath, he decided to pick a fight with David.
When Eliab saw David inquiring about the giant, he tried his
best to humiliate him and embarass him in front of the other men.
He says in verse 28, 1 Samuel 17:8, "Why have you come down here?
And with whom did you leave those 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." In other words, you’re no soldier.
You little coward, you came to look at real men fight to the
death. What do you know about fighting."
My friends, you have got to believe in yourself. Not that
you have some cosmic force within you. But you need to believe
that God can use you to accomplish anything in you that God
desires for you to be. As a church, at some point we are going
to have to believe that we are a great church, and that our own limited vision keeps us from seeing it in the natural. Now is
not the time to focus on what we can’t do. It’s time to move
ahead and do what God is calling us to do.
In our individual lives and our corporate lives as a body,
we should not be discouraged by others who are not willing to
fight giants for themselves, nor are they willing to see us
succeed in our own battles. David didn’t start crying that his
brother had really hurt his feelings. He didn’t say, yes you’re
right, I better go back to the sheep. Nor did he blast his broth-
er and say, "If you’re such a big shot, why don’t you go fight
him." You see David realized he would not become a better giant
fighter merely by cutting down someone else.
He did what we so often failed to do. He got away from
those who were speaking negative about him. Sometimes to keep our
minds focused on slaying the giants in our lives, we need to get
away from people who constantly try to belittle us and our ef
forts. We don’t motivate people by telling them all the things
they did wrong. Motivation comes when we point out and applaud
the things that others are doing right. David knew enough to get
away from the grumblers and complainers.
The Bible says in verse 1 Samuel 17:30 "He then turned away
to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men
answered him as before." We may need to turn to someone else
before we can get close enough to slay that giant in our lives.
What someone else thinks of your value and worth, may be a long
ways off from what God thinks about you. You are important and
you do count, and if you give Jesus the chance, you will be
Šamazed at what you can conquer in life.
One of the things we must do to slay giants is to examine
our cause. What is the purpose that causes us to want to tackle
this giant. It is worthy enough to consume our energy, effort,
time and, commitment? Is it worth the risk we’ll be taking?
We know that David had a cause. When he arrived on the
scene, the first thing he found was a very frightened and scared
Israelite army. The second thing he saw was the giant Go
liath and he immediately realized why they were scared to death.
This guy was massive and he had every intent on killing whoever
was foolish enough to get in his way. Having a purpose in life
will make us behave in a different way.
A purpose will cause us to spend more time in prayer. If our
purspose is bigger than we are, we will need to continually ask
God for His wisdom and strength. Prayer is how the power of God
is unleashed. We have this warped view that God is saying, "no,
no I won’t help you. I’m too busy with this thing over here."
And that somehow prayer forces God from his reluctance to help
us and to come and get on our side. The reality is that God
is eager to have us move ahead and slay the giants. Prayer is the
means by which we grab a hold of the reigns of the power of God.
Throughout the Scriptures we are challenged to boldy claim
victory through prayer. We find in Jeremiah 33:3 ’Call to me and
I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you
do not know.’ In the New Testament we have in Mark 11:24 "There
fore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you
have received it, and it will be yours." Through prayer we
discover the power and privilege to be used by God for a great
purpose.
We cannot fulfill the plan of God for this church without
prayer. Wouldn’t it be great if each Sunday a group would meet
for just 15 minutes before service and pray for the service, the
choirs, the members in the pews, the pastors, and that someone
would be saved. God is not limited. We limit ourselves by our
failure to plug into the power that God has made available.
The second thing that having a purpose will do is that it
will unite us. A purpose will cause us to look for others with
goals similar to ours. When the people of God unite in a vision,
there is no giant that they cannot slay, and they will be able
to do extrordinary things. Without a purpose in your own indi
vidual life, you can’t slay a dragon because you won’t know when
you need others.
A purpose will challenge us to risk more. We will never do
anything great in life or in God, if we are not willing to risk
going out just a little further on the limb. It’s not possible
to slay Goliaths at a distance. When Jesus defeated death, He
didn’t do it from the comforts of heaven. He had to get up close
to it and meet it face to face while being crucified on a cross.
Someone once said, a ship in a harbor is safe, but that’s not
what ships are built for."
A church that stays within its own walls that never takes
risks, may be safe, but that doesn’t God is pleased with it.
There are giants threatening our church’s purpose and mission.
Will we be willing to risk losing all in order to defeat them.
David did not have a direct word from God that everything
would be all right if He went after Goliath. David was relying
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situation. The king has offered all kinds of rewards for anyone
who would go and fight this giant for him. David takes a risk
and goes before the king and says in verse 32 , "Let no one
lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go
and fight him."
No doubt David expected Saul to shout for joy that somebody
had finally come forward. Somebody was willing to risk their all
for a purpose and a cause. But again, David is humiliated when
the king tells him, "you’re not able to go out and fight against
this Philistine, you are only a boy, and he’s been fighting and
killing men for years."
Don’t be surprised when people don’t shout for joy when you
take a risk for God to do what God is calling you to do. David
was more qualified than any soldier in Saul’s army by virtue of
the fact that he was the only one that was willing. Saints, if we
are willing, that’s the biggest part of slaying the giants. All
the weapons in the world won’t do us a bit of good if we are not
willing to fight.
Are we willing to face the giants in our individual
lives? Are we willing to face the giants that contain us as a
church? Are we willing to recognize that the giant may
even be found in ourselves? The giant of self will always the
question, "how will it make me feel" rather than "is this what
God is calling me or us to do?"
A purpose will cause us to do extraodinary planning to see
it accomplished. If a cause is bigger than we are, it will
require our best organizational skills. Goal’s aren’t met by
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accident. Are we willing to put in writing before God, here is
what we intend to do before God? One of our goals this year is to
have more men in this church at the end of this year than we did
at the end of last year. This will not happen by accident. We
have to do some strategic planning and reaching out in order to
make that a reality.
If you want to overcome the giants in your life, you’ve got
to plan to make it happen. If the giant in front of you is debt,
the first thing you do is plan not to get anything new for a
long time. You will not slay the giant of debtby hoping Ed call
you from Publisher’s Clearinghouse. You’ve got to do some ex
trordinary planning.
David didn’t just run out and challenge Goliath to a sword
fight. First he tried to use the armor of Saul, which was no
doubt the finest armor out on the field. He recognized that
wasn’t going to work. He simply was not use to the armor and
there was no sense pretending he was something that he wasn’t. So
he changed his course of action. He discarded the armor and he
chose 5 smooth stones.
He didn’t just grab the first stones he saw. He looked for
stones that would help him be more accurate in his attack on
Goliath. When you are going to fight giants, you just can’t
choose any old thing. You are putting your entire future on the
line so you ought take the time prepare for battle as best you
can. David made room to keep his options open. He didn’t know
how many stones it would take to bring Goliath down, so he took
5. In fighting our giants, we need to keep as many doors open as
possible, because don’t know that the battle will be like once we
are fully engaged.
Having a purpose will allow us to sacrifice beyond the call
of duty. We will be willing to lay more on the line. We expect
more than we ordinarily would. There was only one reason for
David to charge Goliah; he had a pupose. The God of Isreal was
being ridiculed by the Philistines because the Isrealites were
afraid to tackle their problem.
Many thought David was on a suicide mission armed with a
slingshot. Why didn’t he take a sword with him. David was no
fool. If he got close enough to use a sword on Goliath, that
meant Goliath had been close enough earlier to end his life.
Goliath had a longer reach and a longer sword. But it’s not
quite true to say, David went armed only with a sling shot to
fight a giant. David went armed with a sling shot, a purpose,
and a faith in God that said, "I’d rather die than to see my God
humiliated." What would happen if we cared that much about what
somebody else was saying about our God.
There are plenty of giants to be slain in 1994. Some are
personal, and some confront us all as a church. To conquer them
will require prayer, unity, risks, planning, and sacrifice. We
can win not because of who we are, but becuase of whom we serve.
Jesus Christ came that we might have life and have it abundantly.
There is no giant capable of defeating him he says in John 16:33
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have
overcome the world."
