INTRO.Don’t you just love to hear a good story? I think everyone loves a good story. Where is the best place to go to get a good story?? Movies or TV!
Name some of your favorite movies or TV shows.
There are a couple big differences between these movies and tv shows and the stories we find in the Scriptures. First, most of these stories had no purpose and, secondly, most of them were just made up. The many Biblical stories we read in the Old and New Testaments are not just there for us to read, memorize and enjoy. It is good to read and enjoy these stories, but Biblical stories are always designed to teach principles to live by not just to tell a story.
Probably one of the most favorite Biblical story we remember is the story of David and Goliath because we like pulling for the underdog. That’s probably why Rocky and Rambo movies were so popular. Sylvester Stallone was definitely in situations where he was the underdog. David was certainly the underdog in this situation because he encountered, according to Scriptures, a nine foot nine inch champion clothed in an armor that weighed 125 pounds. This Goliath from Gath dismayed, discouraged and scared the people of God.
READ I SAMUEL 17:38-47
Everyday when you are confronted with nine foot nine situations and circumstances that you can’t handle, it is discouraging, isn’t it? When you are over-run with tests, problem=s with you parents or siblings, when relationships are rocky, when depression has overcome your mind, it’s makes you dismayed. Goliaths have that ability of changing the way you feel. When you run into difficulties of life, those things that threaten and defy, you become dismayed. When we encounter these situations or giants they try to discourage, defeat, and steal the joy out of our living.
There are at least four main principles that we can gain from the story in I Samuel 17 that can help tame the many giants in our lives no matter what form the giants take.
I. THE FIRST PRINCIPLE IS, "DON’T GO LOOKING FOR GOLIATHS, BUT BE READY WHEN THEY DO SHOW UP.
A. David’s motives for going to the Valley where the Israelites and Philistines were was simply to carry food to his brothers who were in the army.
1. We see in I Samuel 17:17-18, "Then Jesse said to David his son, ’Take now for your brothers an ephah of this roasted grain and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to your brother. Bring also these ten cuts of cheese to the commander of their thousand, and look into the welfare of your brothers, and bring back news of them.’"
2. David wasn’t searching for trouble, he was just trying to help somebody.
3. All David was trying to do was serve his brothers.
4. He was trying to do something right.
B. David, as he was assisting his brothers, overheard Goliath challenge the army of Israel.
1. Verse 23 says, "As he was talking with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine from Gath named Goliath, was coming up from the army of the Philistines, and he spoke these same words; and David heard them."
2. Notice David, minding his own business, overheard Goliath’s challenge.
3. David was doing the will of God and his father Jesse’s will when he overheard Goliath.
C. We can only face the Goliaths in our lives when we don’t create them ourselves.
1. Some of us have created our own Goliaths in our lives.
a. We have created our own messes in life.
b. We have created circumstances and situations that are tearing our lives apart and we are wondering where God is.
2. James says in James 1 that we count it all joy when we encounter various trials, not when we create various trials.
D. The first thing we must do is to make sure we are not creating the Goliaths in our lives.
1. Most of the messes we find ourselves in today have nothing to do with God but has everything to do with us.
2. ILLUSTRATION:
"Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo"
A fifth grade boy who had heard a sermon on persistence in prayer was praying by himself in his room one night. As his dad passed his door, he heard the boy praying over and over again, "Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo." The next day, the dad asked his son what we was doing. The boy replied that he had given the wrong answer on a test for the capital of Mexico, and he was praying that God would make Tokyo the capital of Mexico.
I think the boy was a little unclear on the concept, don’t you? But sometimes, we do the same. We want God to adjust to us rather than our seeking what God wants and adjusting to Him.
3. We go our own way and expect God to get us out of the terrible situations we make for ourselves or, even worse, we ask Him to adjust to us rather than us seeking Him.
E. So for us to tame the giants in our lives, we need to be ready to meet them and make sure we are not causing them ourselves.
II. THE SECOND PRINCIPLE IS, "WHEN WE RUN INTO THE GOLIATHS OF OUR LIVES WE MUST MEASURE THEM AGAINST OUR GOD NOT AND AGAINST OURSELVES."
A. David knew that his God was a lot bigger than 9 foot 9 inches.
1. Verse 26 says, "Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, ’What will 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 taunt the armies of the living God?’"
2. David said, "Who does this giant think he is?"
3. David didn’t measure the chance of defeating the 9 foot 9 inch Goliath to himself, for if he had, he would have headed back to his sheep very quickly.
B. If we measure 9 foot 9 inch Goliath against us, we are going to be afraid.
C. Tonight the issue is not how tall you and I are compared to the Goliaths in our lives, but how tall is God compared to our Goliaths?
1. There is a great assumption here, though, that you and I know how tall God is.
a. If you don’t know that God is bigger than 9 foot 9 inches then even He can’t help you.
b. We have to believe that our God is indeed bigger than any Goliath that we Encounter.
2. The reason we cannot handle adversity in life is that we do not think our God is very big.
3. This is indeed a tragedy for many because they don’t realize what God can do for them.
4. We believe we have a tiny God, so we always run when we meet up with crisis in our lives.
a. You cannot get along at home and the first thing you want to do is head to your room and slam the door, because the Goliath of your family is too big and your God is too small.
b. You run away from situations you face that you can’t handle because your God is too small.
D. The great tragedy today as God’s young people is many times we don’t have the guts to take a stand for Him and His principles because our God is too small.
E. Tonight, your main concern should be not how big the problems you are facing but how big is your God?
III. THIRD PRINCIPLE: "DON’T PUT OFF DOING LATER WHAT YOU KNOW YOU NEED TO DO RIGHT NOW."
A. Even though David was young and seemingly inexperienced, he did what he knew God wanted him to do; he didn’t put it off.
1. I Samuel 17:32-33 says; "And David said to Saul, ’Let no man’s heart fail on account of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.’ Then Saul said to David, ’You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth."
2. David was willing right then to take care of Goliath, but Saul tried to convince him that he needed to wait awhile until he was older and better prepared.
3. Youth didn’t stop David from doing what he knew he needed to do right now.
B. David didn’t put off to doing later something he knew he and his God could do right then.
1. He didn’t let Saul or anything else get in his way of doing what he knew he had to do.
2. David wanted to take care of business right then.
C. The problem with many of us today is that we know what we need to do but we keep putting it off until it never gets done.
1. Some of us are going to wait around until we die to start fixing things in our lives but it will be too late.
2. There comes a point that we need to stop waiting for the right time and make the "right time" now.
3. We must stop putting things off to later when we know we need to do them now.
D. We must never let youth or anything else stop us from doing what we know we need to do.
1. What are you allowing to keep yourself from doing what you know God wants you to do in your life?
2. I challenge you, as well as myself, to not let anyone or anything keep you from doing what God has directed you to do.
E. If God has directed, you need to go after the giant when he shows up in the valley.
IV. FINAL PRINCIPLE: "TO BE ABLE TO HANDLE THE BIGGER THINGS IN LIFE WE MUST FIRST KNOW WHAT GOD CAN DO WITH THE SMALLER THINGS."
A. David knew before he met up with Goliath that God was working in his life.
1. Even though David was attending sheep he had a history with God.
2. Verses 36 tells us, "’Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God.’"
3. David knew he was ready for Goliath because he had some experience with lions and bears.
4. He learned what God could do for him in the smaller things.
B. We must realize that before we can trust God with the bigger things in life, we must trust Him in the smaller things in life.
1. In order for us to deal with the giants in our lives, we need a history with God.
2. The reason many will not move with God now is that they hadn’t learned to move with God yesterday.
C. We waste so much time not walking with God that we never get around to experiencing God in our lives.
D. If we want results in our lives, we must do things God’s way not our way.
E. You think that you have no history with God; well, you do now because you have been confronted with some type of Goliath in your life and God wants you to take action immediately.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion I ask you, "What caused David’s victory?" Was it his faith or was it the slingshot? If you choose either one you were wrong. James 2 says, "If a man says he has faith and has no works what good is it for faith without works is dead." What killed Goliath? Faith and works. Don’t miss understand me; faith alone makes you a Christian and assures you that Heaven is your home. But once you are saved, start obeying the Word of God and submitting to His will. To tame the Goliaths in our lives, we are going to have to believe God and face them head on. Make a commitment today to do whatever it takes to face those giants in your life because, "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world."
ILLUSTRATION: "NO WAY OUT"
There was a woman who was going through some very difficult and trying circumstances. She was experiencing major distress in her marriage, her job was very unfulfilling and was causing her heartache. She became so distraught over her circumstances that she felt like just giving up. She felt lonely, dejected and very isolated. She had tried everything she could to better herself, her marriage, things at work but it seemed everything turned out horrible for her. Finally she came to the point of exhaustion and felt there was no way out of her terrible circumstances and there would never be any more joy in her life.
One day she was sitting in her kitchen very frustrated and lonely. She sat there for a long time and just wept. Then she noticed a small sparrow had somehow gotten into her kitchen, so she opened the door thinking the sparrow would simply fly out the door. To her surprise the sparrow kept flying into the closed window that was just above the door. This distraught woman noticed several times that the sparrow would fly directly into the top of the window thinking it was an opening to freedom and each time colliding into glass of the window. This small sparrow after each time hitting the window would become weaker and weaker. The woman also noticed the sparrow hitting the window lower and lower each time he flew into the window until he got so weak that he couldn’t even fly, all he could to was walk. Then she noticed this little sparrow very slowly, simply walked through the door to freedom. As she observed this little bird walk through the door, the sparrow began to regain his strength
and he flew off into the air free again.
It was as though God literally opened her spiritual eyes. She realized in just about every area of her life she was behaving just like this sparrow. She was trying in her own way to get out of the confining situations she was in, each time being knocked down in defeat. In reacting harshly to her family members - knocked down! Not giving her best at work - knocked down! Paying back evil for evil done to her - knocked down! Saying and doing things she knew were wrong - knocked down!
She finally realized that all she had to do was do just like this sparrow - to very humbly walk in the power of God’s grace and mercy and allow Him to work out all her heartaches and difficulties.
So much is going wrong in our communities, schools, our families and even our churches. Those terrible things are our Goliaths. Let’s go out and get them. Let’s not talk about what we can’t do; let’s talk about what we can do so we can hear how giants fall. As a people of God, we need to stop complaining and start confronting the giants in our lives.
ILLUSTRATION
"NO WAY OUT"
There was a woman who was going through some very difficult and trying circumstances. She was experiencing major distress in her marriage, her job was very unfulfilling and was causing her heartache. She became so distraught over her circumstances that she felt like just giving up. She felt lonely, dejected and very isolated. She had tried everything she could to better herself, her marriage, things at work but it seemed everything turned out horrible for her. Finally she came to the point of exhaustion and felt there was no way out of her terrible circumstances and there would never be any more joy in her life.
One day she was sitting in her kitchen very frustrated and lonely. She sat there for a long time and just wept. Then she noticed a small sparrow had somehow gotten into her kitchen, so she opened the door thinking the sparrow would simply fly out the door. To her surprise the sparrow kept flying into the closed window that was just above the door. This distraught woman noticed several times that the sparrow would fly directly into the top of the window thinking it was an opening to freedom and each time colliding into glass of the window. This small sparrow after each time hitting the window would become weaker and weaker. The woman also noticed the sparrow hitting the window lower and lower each time he flew into the window until he got so weak that he couldn’t even fly, all he could to was walk. Then she noticed this little sparrow very slowly, simply walked through the door to freedom. As she observed this little bird walk through the door, the sparrow began to regain his strength
and he flew off into the air free again.
It was as though God literally opened her spiritual eyes. She realized in just about every area of her life she was behaving just like this sparrow. She was trying in her own way to get out of the confining situations she was in, each time being knocked down in defeat. In reacting harshly to her family members - knocked down! Not giving her best at work - knocked down! Paying back evil for evil done to her - knocked down! Saying and doing things she knew were wrong - knocked down!
She finally realized that all she had to do was do just like this sparrow - to very humbly walk in the power of God’s grace and mercy and allow Him to work out all her heartaches and difficulties.
