1 Samuel 17 (NIV) 8. this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

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Virgil Ford
6 years ago
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1 1 Samuel 17 (NIV) 8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us. 10 Then the Philistine said, This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other. 11 On hearing the Philistine s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. 16 For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand. 23 As David was talking with his brothers, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. 24 Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear. 25 Now the Israelites had been saying, Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel. 26 David asked the men standing near him, What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? 27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, This is what will be done for the man who kills him. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him. 32 David said to Saul, Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him. 33 Saul replied, You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth. 34 But David said to Saul, Your servant has been keeping his father s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. 1

2 42 The Philistine looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. 43 He said to David, Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 Come here, he said, and I ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals! 45 David said to the Philistine, 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 deliver you into my hands, and I ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, 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. 48 As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. 50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. 2

3 TAKING ON THE GIANTS The power of spiritual identity A. INTRO: Read 1 Sam Everyone loves an underdog story. The little upstart company goes toe to toe with the corporate giant, and against all odds wins. Rocky Balboa gets into the ring with Apollo Creed and goes 15 rounds. In 2011, Cardinals enter playoffs with a weak season behind them, and are slated to be quickly eliminated. But they go the distance, and win the World Series (The team that crashed the play off party and just wouldn t go away). 2. Our scripture reading today is iconic of this kind of story. Little David goes up against the giant Goliath, and wins. But there s more than good feelings going on in this account. There are some profound spiritual truths that can change the way we respond to the heavy trials and challenge we all face in life. a. It s a story about trusting God to make up the great gap between our challenges and the personal resources we have to meet them. b. It s a story about how to stand in the face of overwhelming opposition. c. And it s a story of self perception. There is a great contrast - Between Saul and his army s response to Goliath, and David s response. Between how Saul and his men s self perception and David s self perception. That s the theme I want to explore today. There is great power for good or ill in our lives in how we see ourselves, in our spiritual identity. B. WHAT ARE GIANTS LIKE? What do they represent in our lives? What are some of their characteristics? 1. Large. a. Problems we can t solve. Wayward children who aren t serving God, and nothing we say or do seems to change it. Broken relationships we don t know how to mend. b. Challenges we don t have the resources to face. Financial lack, lay offs from work, not enough income to cover expenses. c. What are some of the giants you are facing today? 2. Loud. Goliath came forward and SHOUTED at the people. a. Our problems and challenges SHOUT at us. They get our attention. They try to fill every space in our waking mind with their voice. b. They wake us from our sleep to shout at us. c. They invade our moments of prayer and worship and peaceful thought. 3. Loquacious. (Excessively talkative). Goliath came out to shout at them, and he did this twice a day, every day, for 6 weeks! 3

4 a. Our problems keep talking; they keep saying the same things again and again and again. b. They keep issuing the same threats over and over, filling our minds with the same picture of defeat and failure. c. The try to colonize our minds, take over our thinking. C. OUR PROBLEMS HAVE A VOICE. They speak to us (rather, the enemy speaks to us about them). Most of this story is speech monologues and dialogues, words of insult and statements in response. 1. The content of Goliath s message. a. He defied them. He despised them. He belittled and cursed and threatened them. I will overpower you. Your future is dark and bleak. You have no power to solve this problem. You are small, insignificant. You don t count; you don t matter. You are nothing. b. To despise: to think something is useless and worthless. c. To defy: idea not so much of resistance; rather, it means scorn and contempt. It means to taunt someone by denigrating their significance and worth and ability. d. This is how Goliath spoke to Israel and to David. Today, we call it talking trash. e. The enemy of our soul speaks to us in the same way about the problems and challenges we face in life. He wants to intimidate us, to belittle us, to make us feel insignificant and worthless and helpless. 2. The enemy trash talks our identity, He is always trying to paint a portrait of who we aren t and what we don t have and what we can t do. This is the motive behind all the threatening and insulting speeches. a. The enemy wants us to buy into that identity, that self perception: a perception of defeat and failure, a perception that we are all alone, a perception that we are useless and worthless. b. There are spiritual forces at work against us. Trying to copy that picture onto our hard drive. Trying to write that picture to our desk top, make it our screen saver and our wallpaper. He wants this identity to be your home page. These spiritual forces are constantly trying to paint a portrait of us inside us. This is the reason for the loudness and the repetition. He wants to wash our minds with his message, his negative picture. (Remember, Goliath came out twice a day, every day, for 6 weeks). He wants us see ourselves as losers, to see ourselves as having no resources whatever to face the challenge. 3. Don t let the devil s trash talk get in your head. 4

5 a. He wants to intimidate you. He wants you to cower and tremble. b. He wants to belittle you. He wants you to believe that you re nothing, inconsequential. c. He wants to get you so confused and so discouraged, you can t take any action. (E.g. not one of Saul s men went for the fabulous reward). 4. Saul s army believed this false perspective. They took it hook, line and sinker. a. It shows in how they talk about themselves. They are merely the armies of Israel. Nothing more. How can this mere army of Israel stand against such a powerful problem? Saul says to David: You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth. (1 Sam. 17:33 NIV) b. This self portrait from hell has been written to their hard drive. It s their screen saver. It s their desktop wallpaper. It s like a watermark on every they send, on everything they do and say. c. E.g. 12 spies. We are NOT able to attack these people. (Exactly what Saul said to David). 10 came back with this assessment of the land and of themselves. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. (Num. 13:33 NIV) D. OUR SPIRITUAL IDENTITY. We need counteract the enemy's head games with the truth of our spiritual identity. We need to see ourselves like David saw himself. Notice the stark contrast between how David saw his spiritual identity and how the others did. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? (1 Sam. 17:26b NIV) 1. We have a relationship with God. a. He mentions circumcision because it was the sign of divine covenant, of God s unbreakable promise to His people that He would be their God and they would be His people, that God would care for them, and protect them and fight for them. b. David knew he was in relationship with the living God. He was connected to God in a way Goliath was not. Same true of Israel, even though they didn t see it. They weren t merely the armies of Israel. They were the armies the living God. c. What a different outlook David has! Armies of the living God was his screen saver, wallpaper, watermark. He had a clear picture of his spiritual identity. It affected the way he responded to the problems they faced. 5

6 d. We have relationship with the living God that even stronger than theirs. It s based on better promises. It s based on the death and resurrection of Jesus God s son. e. We need to see ourselves as connected to God, in deep and unbreakable relationship with Him. That s what covenant signifies. 2. We are not alone. 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 (1 Sam. 17:45 NIV). a. LORD Almighty Lord of Hosts. Commander of heavens armies. Hosts military word depicting innumerable legions of warriors. E.g. Elisha at Dothan There are more with us than with them. Lord, open his eyes. Chariots of fire. b. We need to have our eyes opened to see. We need a new picture of ourselves, who we are because of our relationship with God, whose army we are with. E.g. I love the song Our God is fighting for us We are not alone. It moves me deeply; every time I sing it, I get a clearer picture of the Lord of Hosts, the armies of heaven fighting for me. 3. How do we get this perspective? How do we nourish vision of spiritual identity and cause it to grow? a. Scripture. Every Member, Every Day, in God s Word. We have to keep putting the truth onto our spiritual hard drive, every day. Because, every day, the devil is trying to download his portrait of you into your thinking. b. Prayer and worship. David was a man of prayer and worship. Part of the reason he had such a clear picture of his spiritual identity. As we pursue relationship with God, as we encounter Him in worship and prayer, this portrait grows within us. c. Declaring what God says about us. David answered the enemy s taunts. (More on this next week). DECLARATION: I am a child of God, called by God, equipped and empowered by God. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. God loves me. God has a plan for me. God is my protector. He goes with me and fights for me. God has not given me a spirit of intimidation, but a spirit of power God has not given me a spirit of belittlement, but a spirit of love. Right now, God is pouring His love into my heart by the Holy Spirit. God has not given me a spirit of confusion, but of a spirit of a sound, clear mind. 6

7 E. APPEAL. 1. To those not following Christ a. God loves us, and wants to be in relationship with us. But there s a problem. Sin (our wrongdoing) separates us from Him. He is perfectly righteous, and we aren t. And by our own moral efforts, we cannot fix this problem. We need outside help. b. Because God loves us so much, He provided that help. But at an unimaginable cost to Himself. The divine Son came into this world, lived our life yet never sinned. Then He died on a cross to carry in himself the dark consequences of all our wrong doing. He paid the price. He took the hit for us. c. As a result, God now offers to us the free gift of forgiveness and right standing with Him. He wants us to be in relationship with Him. We simply need to say Yes to His gift, and receive Jesus into our lives. d. Pray 2. To everyone: Most of you are facing some pretty big giants right now. Listen to what God says. a. Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. 4 For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory. (Deut 20:3-4 NIV) b. Prayer c. Song: Greater is the One. F. RESOURCES: Declaration is on our web site. 7

Secrets of a Giant Killer 1 Samuel 17:23-51

Secrets of a Giant Killer 1 Samuel 17:23-51 What giants are in your life? How can you eliminate them? 1. Faith Seeks God's Glory 1 Samuel 17:21-22 Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines