I love that video. That may or may not have something to do with the fact that that’s my daughter Spence. So hey, good morning and welcome to this place that we call DCC. It is so good to have you with us today that’s always true but especially true if you are brand new. So if that’s you, you need to know that all of your story is safe and welcome here regardless of how it reads, you belong with us regardless of what you believe and you have walked into a place today that is full of people exactly like you. We are people who have made mistakes, hurt people, been hurt by people, have parts of our lives and stories that we wish we could erase, delete, change and do-over, things in our lives that we all hope to and need to overcome. So if any of that sounds like you, me too. We hope that you feel safe and welcome here because you are and that you want to come back and do this again with us real soon. So thanks for being here if you are new, and to all of our online friends out there right now too.
ILLUST> So we are starting a brand new series today that is going to carry us right into Easter called Overcome and as I was thinking through this this past week two thoughts immediately came to mind. The first was what a great time to start this series. Tomorrow will be the 14th anniversary of DCC. Now, I wasn’t here when it all got started at Springs Ranch Elementary school, I didn’t get here until almost 6 years later but if you talked to the few dozen people who were there then that are still here today they would tell you that there may not be a better word to describe the story of this church than the title of this series, overcome. 3 pastors in the first 5 full years of the church, financial challenges and hardships, decline for about 3 straight years from about 350 people down to about 80, lots of stories, lots of obstacles, challenges, and mountains in the 14 year history of this church, lots of things to overcome. So the timing is really cool, but more than that I am pumped about what we are going to be talking about and through in this series this word overcome. About a year and a half ago I got the opportunity to meet and become friends with former Navy Seal Officer Jay Redman who wrote the book the Trident. If you don’t know his story he was shot behind his ear in combat and had his nose blown off of his face. He should have died, he didn’t. Overcome is his word. This past Friday night Stacy and I watched the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs take down a UCONN team that had won 111 straight games and was a 21 point favorite in the final four. There is it again, overcome. So, what is this thing that stirs in us when we hear stories like Jays, that pulls for the underdog if our team is not playing, that loves a good story but especially an against all odds, rags to riches Cinderella story? Answer. They touch our hearts because they touch our stories. There are challenges, issues, mountains, giants, things in all of our lives and stories that we really want and need to overcome. My guess is that we could all use some help with that. That’s why we are doing this series.
If you brought a Bible we are going to be in 1 Samuel chapter 17. If you don’t have a Bible they are back on the back tables that you can grab right now if you would like if you close or on you can always grab one on your way out. As always you can hit our app or the You Version app too. Or you can ignore all of that and read along with me on the screens. Since we are sort of jumping into the middle of the story let’s talk through a little of the back story so we are all on the same page and what we are getting ready to read really makes sense. So God’s chosen people are camped on a mountain ready to go to war with the Philistines who are camped on the mountain right next to them. The two mountains are separated by a valley and every day Goliath, this giant Philistine, 9 feet tall, comes down into the valley and offers to fight anyone from Israel one on one and winner takes all, whoever loses the one on one fight, their troops will surrender. The troops of Israel are terrified. No one takes him up on his offer so every day it continues. So this young man named David is sent by his father to bring supplies to his brothers who are in the front lines with Israel’s army. He hears this giant Goliath come out and taunt Israel. That’s where we are picking up the story today. So here we go 1 Samuel 17 starting with verse 32…
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. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”
We skipped over the part of the story when David’s old brother rips into him for asking about who is going to fight this giant. He basically tells him to go back to his sheep in the field, which lines up with the King’s response too. My version of the Bible says it this way you are only a boy. When we read the responses of the people around David it is obvious that in their minds and opinions David taking on Goliath is not an option, it’s laughable, it’s impossible. See before David will ever face overcoming this giant he is going to have to overcome that. This is so helpful for us to think about and think through as we consider all the things in our lives and stories that we are trying to overcome today. So, if we really want to be giant killers, if we want to overcome let’s start with this, we must…
REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT’S IMPOSSIBLE. This giant Goliath has been doing this taunting thing every single day for 40 straight days. What does that tell us about King Saul and all of the troops of Israel? They seem to have concluded that defeating him is impossible. When you think about it, we all see that in our own lives and stories too. The longer the giant hangs around the more impossible that life on the other side of the giant feels to us. It is so easy for us to lose heart, lose hope and come to this conclusion that overcoming this is impossible for me.
ILLUST> I can’t help but think about all the times in my life where I have done exactly that. If you don’t know my story, about 12 years ago I resigned from the church I was leading in North Carolina after crashing and burning and choosing to be unfaithful to my wife Stacy. Let’s call it what it is, I had an affair. After I resigned that Friday afternoon I went home to tell Stacy all that had happened. After sitting in the car in the driveway for a few minutes trying to gain my composure I walked into the house. I said hello to Stacy and the girls and made my way to my home office. I looked down into my chair there was a note in an envelope. The envelope simply said to the man I am proud to call my husband. You can’t make this stuff up. I thought I was going to throw up. I told her an hour or two later and she sat on our deck outside all night crying. The next morning when I was at softball practice with one of the girls Stacy called me and said here is what you are going to do. You are going to come home, sit down with the two oldest girls and tell them what you have done, then pack your stuff and leave. I broke down and begged her not to make me do that. She held her ground. I remember thinking my life is over. I will no longer be Stacy’s husband and a real father to my girls. There is no way that I will ever overcome this. There is now a giant on the path in front of me that I will never be able to defeat. This is impossible.
Have you ever been there in your own life and story? See, everybody in this story except for David is looking at the size and strength of the giant, measuring all the facts and circumstances, and concluding that defeating him is impossible. It’s obvious, there is no way that anyone can overcome this. Somehow, someway, David sees past that, he refuses to believe that it impossible, he believes that it can be overcome. What’s your giant? Are you more like David or the majority here? Are you refusing to believe that it is impossible for you to overcome it?
ILLUST> There are about 50 or so people here at DCC who were here when I arrived here in 2008. One of the things that I admire the most about these people is their tenacity, their refusal to quit, to throw in the towel, to give up, their refusal to believe that it was impossible for God to do something big with this vision even when all the evidence suggested that they should. They tell me stories of all the weeks that they would show up and unload the trailer even in the snow over at Sand Creek High School. They would get there before daylight, spend a few hours unpacking and setting up and getting the coffee ready only to have the same 80 people show up week after week after week. Not a single new person would show up. They are honest about it. They began to look at each other and ask what are we doing? There are a million churches in Colorado Springs. Even when the facts suggested otherwise they refused to believe it was impossible and here we are today. Why? Because they refused to believe this was impossible.
If we want to be giant killers, if we really want to overcome in our lives we must first overcome the conclusion that we tend to so easily come to, this is impossible. So that’s where we start but there’s more. Let’s keep reading…
38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. 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. 41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42 He 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!”
Before we get to David’s showdown with the giant, I think it would be good for us to recognize and pay attention to something else in this moment that David has with Saul. David demonstrates something that I think would be helpful for all of us as we think about overcoming the giants that we face in our own lives and stories. What I am getting to is this. Another part of overcoming is learning to...
LEAN INTO PEOPLE FOR HELP, NOT HOPE. Think about this moment with Saul, all he is trying to do is to help David. Here is how you dress when you go into battle, here is how you should do this, this is how you approach giants that are standing on the path in front of you. This is the world that we live in isn’t it. There are all kinds of books, articles, blogs, all kinds of advice out there for how to take on the various giants that we are facing in our lives. People who want to help us just like Saul is trying to help David here. Don’t hear me wrong here. We need each other. I talked about it a few weeks ago. Every one of us needs to belong, to be needed and to be known. It’s true, so true, we do, but it has taken me a long time to get this and I still have a tendency to mess it up in my life. Even though I know that I need God more than I need anyone else in my life, I still tend to lean into people more than I lean into God. My first response when problems and challenges hit, when there is a giant on the path in front of me is to reach out to you before I reach out to God. It is good to receive help from you, the problem is my tendency to put my hope in you, when I depend on you more than I depend on God to come through for me.
ILLUST> One of the places where I have seen the most change with this in my life is with the death of my great friend and mentor Craig McConnell. For the first 5 or so years of our friendship I ran to him like a needy little boy when things would come up with church, our team, my marriage, my relationship with my girls. I feel hopeless, I run to Craig and I have hope. My hope was in Craig and his ability to come through for me for about the first 5 years. Over the course of time I discovered that the answer I was getting was really always the same. He heard me, we had some listening prayer, but the ultimate answer was always the same…Greg walk with God. Greg I’m here to help, but you don’t need me what you really need most is Jesus in this. Our last 3 years together prepared me for the silence that I now experience with Craig absent in my life. I still look to others for help, but I am learning not to look to them for hope.
Think about David here. Is David’s confidence in his own strength, his own ability, his own marksmanship? I don’t think so. His confidence is 100% in his God. So here’s the question. When we think through and about the giants that we face in our lives, that one giant that we most want to, need to, and dream of overcoming how much of our confidence is really in God? I don’t know about you and the percentage is definitely higher than it has ever been in my life but even on my best days it is still not 100%. I mean who takes a slingshot and a stone into a fight with a 9 foot giant carrying a 150 pound sword? Answer, someone who is a total whack job. I suppose that’s possible. But so is this, someone who is not depending on his own strength to win the fight. I think there is something in this for us. We need each other, we need people to lean into for help but where is our hope? Who is the foundation of our hope? It’s an important question. Let’s finish the story…
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. 51 David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.
Think about watching this play out if you didn’t know the back story. People watching this moment who didn’t know the whole story had to be thinking how ridiculous it was for this young boy to be out there all alone running full speed at this giant armed with just a slingshot. What they couldn’t see was this. David wasn’t alone. The good news for you and me today is this, neither are we. Let’s leave here today with this…
EVEN WHEN I AM ALONE, I AM NOT. ILLUST> So there I was 12 years ago pacing back and forth behind the bleachers until softball practice was over and Sloane and I headed home. For the first time in my life I really wanted to die. I couldn’t believe what I had done and I couldn’t imagine that God wanted to hear from me. I had never felt so alone and I had no one to blame but me. I couldn’t help but think that God had to be finished with me. When we got home I went into the bedroom and packed a bag just as Stacy told me too. While the two youngest were napping I called Sydney and Sloane into the family room and explained to them what their dad had done. Even though they didn’t understand it all, they cried hard. It ripped my heart out. When it came time to leave Stacy asked to speak with me. She said “you can stay”. You will sleep on the couch but I am an absolute mess, we have no family here, I am going to need help with the girls and it might as well be their dad until I am able to figure some things out. There was no promise of anything, so much of her heart was finished with me and rightly so. There was no one around to advise her or talk her into that. To this day there is no explanation for that moment other than God. The path from that day to today when our marriage is better than it has ever been was often brutal, but what seemed impossible really wasn’t so impossible after all. That’s my story. There is no explanation for so many things that have happened in my story and in this DCC story other than God.
Having said that the story doesn’t always end in and they lived happily ever after. There are other giants and chapters in our lives and stories that have been anything but that too.
Overcoming is not limited to getting the results that we want. Overcoming is also learning to be okay when nothing really changes at all. Even when God doesn’t change our circumstances and take the giants away, he always give us the strength to stand up under it another day. Even when he doesn’t choose to change our circumstances, he always is there to comfort us and to help us change my perspective. No matter what’s happened in our lives, no matter what we have done, how many times we have done it, who we have done it with or when we last did it, even when we are all alone, we are not alone. God is still there, he still cares, he doesn’t hate us and he is not finished with us. In fact, he couldn’t love us more. God’s promise is this, nothing can or will ever separate any of us from the love of Jesus. I want us to spend our last few minutes today soaking in that.
So the band is coming out to do one last song. As they begin to do that we are going to pass some trays down each of the aisles containing a little piece of cracker and a small cup of juice representing the body and blood of Jesus, his body that was broken and his blood that was poured out for everyone one of us so that we can be forgiven and free. If you are a believer in Jesus take it during the break in the song while the music plays. I am not going to come back up and we are not going to take it together. If you don’t believe in the whole Jesus thing, aren’t sure, or aren’t comfortable, or if you just aren’t in the right space today to take it just pass it to the person next to you. There’s no shame in that. As we pause our lives and turn down the noise for a few minutes today let’s think about that moment on the cross when our sin, all of mine and all of yours, the whole world’s sin was placed on him. He cried out my God, my God why have you forsaken me? Even his Father in Heaven had to look away. Jesus knew loneliness, he knew what it was like to be beaten, broken, to be totally and completely alone. He was willing to do that so that not a single one of us would ever have to be alone. Nothing can or will ever separate us from his love.
So I don’t know what your mountain is, what the giant or giants in your life looks like as you sit here today. I do know this. You are not alone. Your life and story is not beyond the reach and power of God’s grace, forgiveness, redemption and restoration. Refuse to believe it’s impossible, lean into people for help, and hold on to the promise nothing can separate you from the love of God. God is for me and with me and will give me the power to be a giant killer, to overcome the giants that I face in my life. My story is not over and I am never alone. Let me pray for us.
