How We Fight Our Goliath's
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David VS Goliath
David VS Goliath
Introduction:
Open up your Bibles to
PRAY
This is where we are going to camp out tonight.
Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And they were gathered at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered, and encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. And his shield-bearer went before him. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
1 Samuel 17:
The men of Isreal, God’s chosen nation where drawing up the battle-lines.
The men of Isreal had defeated many foes under King Sauls reign and today should be no different.
If you can picture it the two sides where both a side of a mountain, with a valley between them.
It was common in the day for them to size up the opponent and even maybe throw some insults at each other.
But on this day, something was different the Philistines sent out someone that the Israelites had never seen before.
This foe was a giant you may say, from anywhere from 7ft tall to 9ft 9in. Average dude was 5’10
This dude was crazy strong, his muscles had muscles.
He, this Goliath was built up, training up to destroy anything in his path, and that included the Israelites.
Not only was this guy huge and ripped out of his mind, which is my goal as well, but he was armed from head to toe.
Let me break down his armor for you.
He wore roughly 125 lbs of armor.
HIs spear which was about 26 feet high and head of that spear weigh about 17 lbs of iron.
oh and he had a sword.
THIS DUDE WAS MADE TO DESTROY HIS ENEMY.
He came out, and he looked at that army across the valley and he shouted:
Send someone to fight me, and if you win then we will be your slaves but if, who are we kidding, when I win you will be our slaves.
As shouts from Goliath kept coming for 40 days.
They heard, you cowards come and face me!
I defy you and your God
When we win we will show you whose god is real
You are loser
You failures
You godless nation
Over and over again for 40 days
There were no takers.... Silence fell over the mountain.
He was intimidating, he struck fear into the hearts of the Israelites.
It says in verse 24 that all the men of Isreal would flee when they saw him coming!
They ran away.
One man, one human, one giant made hundreds, thousands of people become greatly dismayed and fearful.
Much like Isreal we also have Goliath’s in our life.
They ran away.
WE ALL HAVE A GOLIATH IN OUR LIFE
WE ALL HAVE A GOLIATH IN OUR LIFE
Let me break down this dudes armor for you.
This is where I need you to think.
What is that Goliath that is in your life right now?
Maybe it anger, addictions, rejection, fear, comfort, maybe its something else.
And you see like most sin it starts off with us drawing these battle-lines that we say no I am going to fight against this in my life.
This army this sin can’t hold me down.
Then comes this thing this addiction, fear, comfortability, anger, rejection that comes over us, and we can’t seem to shake it.
We want to but we can’t
This giant, this Goliath in our life take a hold of us, it cripples us, it makes us run for the hills as it sinks it teeth into us.
It stings, because no honest person wants to live a life full of rejection, and fear, and anger, and addiction, although we would like to be comfortable.
But comfort is best tool from the enemy.
Quote by P.T. Barnum: Comfort is the enemy of progress.
I like to think that Satan may not attack us directly, but he will make us comfortable and stannic.
Comfort is the enemy of progress.
Here is a truth I want you to wrestle with:
Don’t think for a moment that you are immune to the enemy.
Goliath was this unmovable foe, this blood-thirst, muscle-head, that nobody was going to defeat alone, not a chance in the world.
We all have a Goliath or Goliaths in our life.
And maybe right now you are seeing that Goliath that unmovable force that you know you can’t defeat, and it is just taunting you, screaming at you, calling out your faith and your God!
You know you can’t win, maybe you tried to fight it once before but only became a slave to that sin instead.
You may have remembered a time when
If that story ended here, it would be pretty sad, and pretty disappointing but it doesn’t end here.
-
ENTER THE HERO
ENTER THE HERO
Im sure that the Philistines thought they had the best hero of all time. The one who would win and probably already had won many battles for them.
Isreal had a hero as well.
David, he was not king at this time, eventually yes, but not today.
Today David was a Shepard and he was bringing provisions for his brothers.
Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul the man was already old and advanced in years. The three oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening.
And Jesse said to David his son, “Take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. Also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See if your brothers are well, and bring some token from them.”
Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions and went, as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry. And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him.
All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. And the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel.” And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” And the people answered him in the same way, “So shall it be done to the man who kills him.”
Now Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” And David said, “What have I done now? Was it not but a word?” And he turned away from him toward another, and spoke in the same way, and the people answered him again as before.
When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”
Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off.
1 Samuel 17:12-
David arrives on the scene and he is arriving just around the time Goliath is.
You see the army were still gathering and Isreal was giving out the battle-cry, their war cry.
During the middle of the battle-cry here comes Golaith
40 days in and still no challenger.
David hears Goliath shouting and cursing Isreal and God.
This takes David back a little and, he is like, you know what somebody better go down there are shut this punk up.
This dude is nothing to David,
But Goliath is that immovable piece that the nation of Isreal could not move or defeat.
His brothers probably laughed at him as he suggested that he would fight for them.
This is Israels army and it was full of strong fighter, who does David think he is?
But David had something no one else seemed to have, the ability to trust in the one true God.
David was a Shepard boy by trade and he watched them and laid with them, he cared for his sheep.
So much so that when a bear came and grabbed a sheep, David chased the Bear down and killed it!
and he did the same thing to a lion as well.
David was not some weak kid, he was strong and he Had God in his corner.
David even went to King Saul and told him that he was going to fight Goliath, and Saul tried to help.
Saul tried to dress David up in his own fancy armor.
It didn’t work and David chose 5 smooth stones and a sling, and he went to battle with God on his side.
They met in the middle and David had no choice...
GOLIATH MUST FALL
GOLIATH MUST FALL
I am sure I haven’t told you anything that you have not heard before.
This is Sunday School class stuff.
We all have giants in our life and those giants will fall but not because of our ability but because of God’s ability.
It doesn’t matter the size of our problem, God is bigger and His might and his power is always greater.
And as David and Goliath would meet on the battlefield this is what happened:
Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.
And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron. And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.
1 Samuel 17:40-5
David was victorious over this giant, this Goliath in his life.
And I am sure that we have all heard that if we were to just try harder we could beat the giants’ in our lives.
I am sure that we have heard, you are all young and you can take on the world!
Don’t let your giants rule your life!
And we get fired up!
We makes promises!
And things change for a week or two and then we fall back into the where we were.
That giant we thought we took out, is back and it is looking to smackdown.
We are scared, mad, upset, frustrated, we feel hopeless.
Do you know why it’s not working?
Do you want to know why your giant is still at those battle-lines harassing you, and is this immovable object.
Because we are going at it alone.
Let me tell you something that is freeing tonight, do you want to be free from your giants?
From your Goliath’s?
Listen carefully:
WE ARE NOT DAVID, JESUS IS DAVID
WE ARE NOT DAVID, JESUS IS DAVID
Let me say that again:
We are not David, Jesus is David.
By making us David that puts us as the center-focus.
Jesus is David,
Jesus is the giant killer.
I hope that this is freeing for you:
You are not David
I am not David
Jesus is David.
Jesus is the one who fights our battles for us.
He is the one who stares down the enemy and he takes up the sling and the stones and he fights for us.
WHEN WE ARE fleeing from the enemy, who to us is immovable, When we are shaking in our boots:
Jesus is taking aim, and he fires the stones for us.
The giant falls because of the work of Jesus.
Not my work or your work, but the work of Christ.
Are we to participate with Jesus sure, we are!
We are called to follow his leadership and align ourselves with the direction he’s going.
But if we only think as humans we can handle our crap, our dirty secrets, our private sins, we keep everything hush hush, that will all lead to destruction.
Doing it on your own will fail over and over again.
In the story of David and Goliath God did not want victory to come to David because he was fitted with the best armor or had the best sword:
God wanted victory to come simply because one young man trusted him.
Let me tell you something, some of you are sitting here tonight thinking, it can’t be that simple.
It can be.
I was deeply addicted to porn for years, I thought I would never ever get out of the rut.
I always would try or be really convicted at youth group or church or a camp to stop, and I would for awhile.
It was not until I took my focus off the giant Goliath and turned my focus to Christ did everything start to change.
I needed to trust that Jesus would go to battle for me, that Christ was fighting my battles.
I needed to focus on God first
Maybe that is what you need to do tonight, we have been off for a month and maybe tonight you just need to refocus on God.
You know that is the definition of worship right, it means to focus on God.
Let me say one last thing before I have the team come up.
That no matter where you are in life, nor how big the giants you have in your life, know that Jesus is bigger.
So tonight take that step to be free from the bondage of sin.
The alter is always open, and maybe you and God just need to have some words together, do it tonight.
Maybe you are tired of battling on your own and you need Jesus to fill that void in your life. we can do that too.
Whatever you may need to do in your relationships with God, do it, don’t let fear cripple you and worse of all don’t let your enemy continue to call the shots, because you have been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus and JESUS FIGHTS OUR BATTLES!
PRAY
Questions:
Catch up from the last month.
Thoughts from tonight’s message?
Have you ever conquered a Goliath in your life? How did that go?
What are some Goliaths in your life?
How do we go on and defeat these Goliaths?