David Beirne, Pastor Fox Ave Baptist Lewisville, TX
1 Samuel 17:4-11
Facing Goliath
Intro. A young woman named Florence Chadwick attempted to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast in 1952 in an attempt to set a record for covering that distance. When she entered the
water, a heavy fog had settled itself on the path before her. Blinded by fog, she became disoriented and discouraged and gave up. When she finally decided she couldn’t go on, her escorts in a boat helped her out of the water. The escorts feared to tell her
the truth--Florence was less than 300 yards from the goal. Her only reply after learning how close she actually came was, "All I could see was hopeless." Her clouded vision kept her from victory.
How do you see your challenges? When you stand on a hillside and see a 9-foot tall giant warrior taunting you, how do you view him? Is he an insurmountable obstacle or an opportunity for the glory of God to be revealed?
We can’t avoid Goliath--he is necessary to our growth as Christians. Your Goliath may be an addiction, habit, attitude, a job layoff, financial problems, marital problems, illness; when I
was here at the Seminary, (Seminary Business Manager) Bro. _______ was one of my Goliaths. Meeting tuition and rent payments, keeping up with all the bills and books, it all taught me a lot about God’s power to win a victory despite the odds.
By looking at this incident in David’s life, we can learn some principles about facing the threatening, discouraging obstacles that come up in the life of every Christian.
We can look at Goliath in one of two ways: the eyes of the faithless, or the eyes of the faithful.
Haddon Robinson said, "In any situation, what you ARE determines what you see, what you SEE determines what you DO." Keep that in mind as we study the two views of Goliath.
I. The limited view of the faithless brings about fear, which results in dominance by the enemy.
Fear comes fear comes when we live by sight, not by faith. The view of the faithless is the view limited by sight. It is a limited view because the spiritual is not involved, only the natural, physical.
We see obstacles as undefeatable giants because of their imposing physical character--Goliath is estimated to have been 9 ft tall. Look at v.24-25--
"And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid.
And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that is come up? surely to defy Israel is he come up"
This word "defy" means "to taunt, ridicule, humiliate"; isn’t that what the evil one wants to do in your Life? The devil wants to see us cower so that he can mock us?
Goliath for you may be he a habit, bitterness, unsettled matter, problem from the past, difficult moral decision, etc.; if I try to quit that habit or fight that problem, my life will change too much--I’m afraid I stand to lose too much if I try to defeat
Goliath, lose at least an arm if not more.
With a habit or addiction, the actions controls me, I don’t control it. "I’ve been doing it for too many years. It is therefore heavily armored, and it controls us, just as Goliath controlled the mental peace of the Israelites. If we face up to our
sin or obstacle, we fear that the giant will fight back, which he undoubtedly will.
Living by sight, we are defeated before the battle even starts. Notice in v. 24- "when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid."
BEFORE THE BATTLE EVEN STARTS THEY FLEE. They lay their eyes on Goliath, and all they can see is the physical--"We’re going to be slaughtered."
When we live by sight, it leads to defeat and being dominated by the enemy. The Israelites were probably planning on learning the Philistine dialect because they figured to lose this one big time.
When we see by sight only, we quit at the mere sight.
The real tragedy happens when we try and pass off our defeated attitude on others. David comes walking up, and asks, "Why doesn’t somebody put a stop to this?" The reply which is given by Saul in 17:33 is typical--"You can’t win this victory; you’re too young!" Don’t you get tired of hearing that? "Our churches can’t do that, we’re too small; you young people can’t do that, you’re too immature; you can’t do it because _________ ," just fill in the
blank with any convenient excuse.
But it doesn’t have to be this way! Let’s look at Goliath from another viewpoint.
II. The unlimited view of the faithful brings about courage, which results in totally dominating the enemy.
Courage comes when we live by faith and not by sight. Courage comes because we have confidence in God’s unlimited power, not in our own physical limitations. The view of faith sees obstacles as
potential victories because of our God.
Any obstacle that comes our way is not just a threat to ourselves, but a defiance and insult of our Living God and His abilities. David saw this. It really upset him when he saw the soldiers of the Living God cowering as if they had no Helper. Look
at the attitude David displays in 17:26--
"For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the
living God?"
You see, the eyes of faith see a completely different issue: it is not a threat to my security, but it is a defiance of the power, presence, and very character of the LORD of Hosts!
David sees it not as the armies of Israel being run down, but bigger than that--the armies of the living God!! It is not my reputation at stake, but Jehovah’s--and for me to allow Goliath to have victory is tantamount to telling the Almighty that this is one
problem He is not big enough to handle.
APPLICATION: Let us notice the steps David took to defeat this giant, the same steps you and I can use to observe the victory from the Lord.
1)Ignore the doubts expressed by the faithless around you, 17:33. Saul expresses his doubts and fears. People will tell you, "Just quit; you’ll never get that church, that ministry, that class off the ground." Satan will whisper those doubts in our ears--"here it is the first of the month, and the money to cover the bills hasn’t come yet," so you consider quitting school or limiting the time you
put in your ministry by taking on an extra job because we believe Satan before we believe God. Your God has said certain things and made certain promises. Are they not good enough? When we listen to doubts, we are listening to the physical limitations. We must ignore them just as David did.
2)Remember your "Poof Stories," 17:34-37.
I have a friend who shared with me the deep theological concept of "poof". She told me about a group of her friends would get together and share poof stories. It all began when one of the group was out
windsurfing on a lake, and discovered he was out in the middle of the lake with no wind to blow him back in to the shore. Well, he prayed to His Heavenly Father and asked for God to help him get back to land, and POOF--God sent a breeze that did the job! A poof
story is simply something God did in answer to prayer, a job nobody but He could perform. You might want to study how often the saints in the Bible refer to their poof stories to find comfort.
David’s poof story concerned a lion and a bear tried to steal some sheep out of his flock. When they attacked, POOF--God delivered both beasts into his hand.
What David is reminding us to do here is to remember that the same God Who has answered prayers before, Who parted a sea, Who stopped the sun from setting, Who raised the dead, Who provided a ram caught in the thicket, Who has done all these things--HE IS STILL GOD! Poof stories help us remember that our Father will come through in the clutch. He is there, He is active, and He will deliver us from Goliath. To dwell upon and share with others
answers to your prayers, poof stories, will encourage you and those with whom you share.
How often the remembrance of God’s saving acts in the Old Testament, especially the Exodus, are recounted to remind us of how God can act in a great and mighty way. Instead of dwelling on doubts, the one who sees with faith dwells on the poof stories.
3) Forsake fleshly means which have not been proven of value in favor of the God has been proven--38-40.
Saul offers David his armor, but it doesn’t fit. avid says, "This stuff hasn’t been proven. I haven’t tested it to find out how well it works." But he has, in a sense, tried out YHWH and found out that He fits on every occasion.
David does not fear Goliath because he knows Who goes before him into the battle. When I face my Goliath, do I have the confidence to understand that repentance might be more valuable than psychotherapy in dealing with my condition? Do I believe that
memorizing scripture can bring as much peace, if not more, than what’s in that bottle? Am I holding onto God’s promises or seeking my security in a bank account? Has God been given the opportunity to prove His power?
You see, this goes back to our poof stories. If He did it before, I can trust Him to do it again.
4) Act boldly in the face of intimidating circumstances, 17:43-47.
When everything has been believed, prayers made, poof story remembered, it is now time to act. All the wonderfully blessed things shared up to this point are meaningless if they are not acted upon. Goliath must be faced. He must be confronted. Whether your Goliath is a present dilemma or pain carried over from your
childhood, it is time to face him. Had David said all these things about courage and faith, and then went back home without acting on the conviction that this giant insulted David’s God, he would be as big a coward as the men who fled at the sight of Goliath.
If your church is to make progress in the Great Commission, and there is a small gathering of Goliaths that don’t care for "all them new folks whose names we don’t know," then we, like David, must act boldly, trusting the Lord, and be prepared for a battle.
You may wish to avoid saying what you feel needs to be said to your husband, wife, or best friend, but Goliath will not fall unless you load your slingshot and go to that person. No matter how much you
pray, there comes a time to act and stop praying.
This reminds me of an apocryphal story told by Bro. Louis Asher while he was teaching here at the Seminary. A country preacher was making his way through the woods to church and came upon a bridge
over a small river. Halfway across the bridge, a bear appeared at the other end. Immediately the preacher dove into the river, floated downstream, and got back on course for church. When he arrived, he was still soaked. After he related his story to everyone, a little boy asked him, "Preacher, didn’t you pray when
you saw that bear?" The preacher replied, "Son, prayer is fine for a prayer meetin’, but it don’t do a whole lot of good at a bear meetin’." There comes a time when prayer has to be ACTED upon.
He surrenders it to God, putting the credit where credit is due--45-47. He lets everyone know that it will be the Lord Almighty who will defeat Goliath, and then in v. 48 look what the one who sees with eyes of faith does: he RUNS out to meet the Philistine.
He acts boldly, running to meet the one who would defy God.
Conclusion.
Do you look forward to being involved in a battle for the Lord? Can you trust that He will deliver you out of whatever you are facing now?
Difficulties are God’s errands. When we are sent on them, it is not a sign of His distaste for our company, but of His confidence in us. The question is, are we confident in Him? What are your Goliaths? What is it you live in fear of, that dictates how you will live, act, and feel? If my life is dominated
by someone other than the Holy Spirit of God, I am being defeated by Goliath. Is it your temper? bitterness? pain from the past? your future scares you? It is time for the army of the Lord to stop
allowing these issues to dominate us and thus ridicule the reputation of our Father in Heaven. Ignore the doubts. Remember your poof stories. Forsake the fleshly. Act boldly. Watch that giant drop.
