Title: From the Inside Out
Theme: To show how we need to let God show out of our lives.
Text: 1 Samuel 17, 1 John 4:4
Prayer Time: Corporate Prayer
Matthew 18:18-20 Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (19) Again I say [89] to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. (20) For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."
Offering – Seed of the Sower – Respond Correctly
Consider carefully what you hear, with the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more
Mark 4:24 NIV
Introduction
Over the last few weeks we have focused in the theme of “living in the world but not of the world”. We have be here until the Lord takes us home but we don’t have to “conform” to this world.
Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (2) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
MSG Romans 12:1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. (2) Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
We have looked at:
Stay Grounded – Don’t let the things in the world around you distract you from your real purpose and destiny in God.
Make It Count – Give everything you can on Sunday so you can get ready for ministry during the week.
I Am Not of This World – In the World but Not of the World – How to live a life that is in this world but not of the world. Not become to entangled by the world.
Just Do It! – Showing world who we are by actions.
If you would I want to take you to a familiar story. 1 Samuel 17. If you have been in church long you know this story. If you were a child growing up in church you probably have heard this story numerous of times. Over and over again.
David and Goliath is on of the stories of the Bible that transcends Judaism and Christianity. You see this even today. This is the story of a bully who was bullying Israel. This was not your average bully you see he was:
1 Samuel 17:4-7 Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was a giant of a man, measuring over nine feet tall! (5) He wore a bronze helmet and a coat of mail that weighed 125 pounds. (6) He also wore bronze leggings, and he slung a bronze javelin over his back. (7) The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver's beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed fifteen pounds. An armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a huge shield.
This was a big man, actually we could say this was a huge man. No one had ever seen anything like him before.
The image is of a great valley. On each side of the valleys stood the armies. Up one the hill.
To me the most interesting part is the what Israel did when they saw him. Each day Goliath would come out and call out to the Israelites, “Send someone out to fight me, if they win we (the Philistines) will serve you. If we win we will serve you.”
This happened over and over again for 40 days twice a day. This was Israel’s wake up call. So how did they react?
1 Samuel 17:8-11 Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, "Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. (9) 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." (10) And the Philistine said, "I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together." (11) When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
1 Samuel 17:24 And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid.
In Verse 14 we are introduced this this young boy named David. He was not here to fight in the army. He was actually here to deliver food. He was a shepherd boy. Three of his brothers from his father Jesse had joined the army to fight. Yet they fell into the same fear as the others.
David arrives just as Goliath is coming into the valley to yell out his challenge. I love his answer.
1 Samuel 17:26 Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, "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?"
David’s brother’s reaction
1 Samuel 17:28-29 Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab's anger was aroused against David, (why because he was afraid, it was his pride) and he said, "Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle." (29) And David said, "What have I done now? Is there not a cause?"
“Is there not a cause?” Isn’t there a reason to fight?
Is there not a cause today? Is there not a cause to fight for today? Is there not an enemy to fight against today.
Don’t ever limit someone because of their age.
There was a heart (a God) in David that was greater than any giant he would face.
God told Samuel in
1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; [39] for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
This is what is so important about this story. This was not about defeating a giant. Defeating the giant is the easy part. Any one of the Israelites could have defeated Goliath.
This is about the God who inside of David to be seen and come forth.
Notice what David calls him.
This “uncircumcised” gentile. What does that mean? A person who was man circumcised was a follower of God. Paul later on in Romans says that we as Christians have a circumcism of the heart. Our hearts have been seared toward God. Goliath was not a follower of God, nor did He have God living in his heart.
1 John 4:4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
"because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world" This is an emphasis on indwelling Deity. Here it seems to be a reference to the indwelling Father (cf. Joh_14:23; 2Co_6:16). The NT also emphasizes (1) the indwelling Son (cf. Mat_28:20; Col_1:27) and (2) the indwelling Holy Spirit (cf. Rom_8:9; 1Jn_4:13). The Spirit and the Son are closely identified (cf. Rom_8:9; 2Co_3:17; Gal_4:6; Php_1:19; 1Pe_1:11). See Special Topic at Joh_14:16. – Utley
Power of the Holy Spirit
Act 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me [1] in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
Bringing Out God in You to the World
1. Know who and why you are fighting. This has to become God’s battle.
1 Samuel 17:45 Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, 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.
Is there not a cause? Not all battles need to be fought. If we are going to stand up and fight then it needs to be something we are willing to fight for. Something that we know we will be fighting for God.
2. Don’t be driven by fear but be driven by faith. You will never defeat the enemy by hiding or pretending he is not there.
1 Samuel 17:32-37 Then David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine."
2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Fear causes us to see things that are not there. The difference between fear and faith is that fear is controlling and causes us to no act. Faith causes us to move forward in Christ.
Fear is a head reaction and faith is a gut reaction.
3. This can only be done by you and through you to defeat your giants. Don’t wear someone else’s armor.
1 Samuel 17:38-39 So Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail. (39) David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, "I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them." So David took them off.
Saul was trying to give Davis his armor. David could not defeat his giant with someone else’s armor. This is a battle that David had to fight.
You have got to have faith for yourself.
4. Know that if God has delivered you in the past you can have faith that he will do it again.
1 Samuel 17:32-37 Then David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine." (33) And Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth." (34) But David said to Saul, "Your servant used to keep his father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, (35) I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. (36) Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God." (37) Moreover David said, "The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you!"
Look back on the times that God has delivered you. Look back on those times and know that God do it again.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me – Philippians 4:13
We are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord. – Romans 8:37
Greater is He that is in Me than He that is in the world. – 1 John 4:4
If God be for us, who can be against us. – Romans 8:31
There has not temptation that is common to man, God will get us out. – Romans 8:26 - 28
Conclusion – Mountain Moving Faith
Matthew 17:20 So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; [82] for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
faith: That is, as Bp. Pearce well remarks, a thriving and increasing faith, like a grain of mustard seed, which, from being the least of seeds, becomes the greatest of all herbs.
Mark 9:23 Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, [37] all things are possible to him who believes."
Cross Reference: If: Mat_21:21 , Mar_11:23, Luk_17:6, 1Co_12:9, 1Co_13:2
He who has Faith and don’t doubt shall say to this mountain to be removed and cast into the sea and it will be removed.
