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Body: Using our gifts to: Overcome our “Giant” Obstacles in our Lives, And in our Church. The story begins this way in I Samuel 17:1-3: **Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Socoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them.** Now, the day has come, the moment has come. The Israelites are ready to do battle. Each man has a club, a hoe, a spear, or a bow and arrow. Each man is ready to die for his country. When the word is given, the battle will begin. But the word is not given because a strange thing happens. The Philistines are not coming down the slope. They aren’t coming! And at first, the men of Israel think maybe they’ve won by forfeit. But before they can celebrate, a sight unfolds before them, the likes of which they have never seen before. *Something is moving down the slope*. Something big. Something huge. Whatever it is, it is covered with glittering bronze. A giant, the likes of which the Israelites have never seen. The beast got to the middle ground near the ravine and suddenly a shudder ran through the men of Israel. It’s a man. *The biggest man they’ve ever seen*. First Samuel describes him in detail. He stands six cubits and a span. That doesn’t mean anything to us but if you convert it to our system of measurement, it means he was 9 feet 9 inches tall. We’re told other interesting things about him. His name, of course, is Goliath. He’s cladded from head to toe in armor. He wore a bronze helmet and a bronze coat of armor that weighed nearly 125 pounds. He wore bronze shin guards and had a bronze javelin slung over his back. His spear was like a weaver’s beam, meaning it was a thick shaft of wood, like a small log. The head of the spear had an iron point weighing 17 pounds. Having gotten their attention, this is what Goliath says: **“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. 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.” Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other”**(verses 8-10). What Goliath proposes is the ancient tradition of single combat. *They would fight to the death and the army of the winner would win the entire battle*. This plan saved time and potentially avoided useless bloodshed, but it only worked if someone accepted the challenge. Now what would you do? Would you go and fight Goliath? Let’s say you are around 5’10”, 190 pounds, in your 20’s, a hard-working farmer. You’ve got a wife and three kids back home. Would you go and fight Goliath? It would be suicide. At least that’s the way the men of Israel felt. Verse 11 says,**“Saul and all Israel were dismayed and terrified.”**Even Saul was terrified. Why? Because now he’s on his own. He wanted to do his own thing, so God said, “Fine, go do it.” And the Spirit of the Lord had left him. *Without the Spirit of the Lord, Saul has nothing with which to face the giant*. God had lifted the divine energy shield for Saul and now he is filled with terror. And so, the challenge went unmet. Goliath went back to his camp. But it’s not over, not by a long shot. Verse 16 tells us that Goliath came out 40 days straight, twice a day, morning, and evening, to challenge the men of Israel. Each day it was the same: No one would answer the challenge. *God’s people were losing the battle before it started*. I would imagine that the military men of Israel got together each night and tried to formulate a plan. I’m sure they talked strategy and tactics. They probably prayed, “O God, help us defeat the Philistines.” The next day would come, they would line up along the lip of the valley, Goliath would come out, yell, and swear, and the whole army would run away. For 40 days! No one knew what to do. *It only takes one giant to stop you as long as you look at life from the human leve*l. We see a giant ahead and suddenly this is all we can see. At ground level, giants place fear in us, and we can’t go on. The problem is not how big the giant is, it’s how small he makes us feel. So small that we don’t have a chance. Giants defeat us not because they’re big but because they make us feel small. Now, enter David, the hero of the story. But when we meet him, he’s not the hero. David is back tending the sheep at Bethlehem while his three oldest brothers are in the Israelite army. David’s father Jesse wants to get a report from the battlefield, so he decides to send David with some food for his brothers. It’s 18 miles from Bethlehem to the Elah Valley, and David runs all the way. He gets there just as Goliath is making his daily rounds for the 40th time. Verse 23 says that Goliath was spouting his “usual defiance.” He comes out, makes a few threats, curses the men of Israel, and then goes back to his lines. But this time things will be different. David hasn’t heard a thing about Goliath and his challenge. He’s just excited to be on the battlefield and away from those sheep. So, he asks, “What’s going on? Why doesn’t somebody take care of that loud mouth?” Look at the answer in verse 25: **“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 father’s family from taxes in Israel.”** But notice David’s answer in verse 26. It’s the key to the whole story. **“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?”**(1 Samuel 17:26). Did you get that? “The armies of the living God.” Not “the armies of Saul” and not “the armies of Israel.” That makes all the difference in the world. The soldiers are saying, “Do you see that guy? He’s like a mountain out there. You wouldn’t last five seconds.” David, don’t you see him? Yes, David sees him. *But he also sees something else that nobody in the army of Israel had seen*. David saw that Goliath was not only defying Israel, but he was also defying Israel’s God. David looks at life differently. Israel saw Goliath—the giant—as an immovable object. David saw him from God’s point-of-view. “He’s blocking the way of God. Let’s go get him.” *David was no match for Goliath but when that uncircumcised Philistine took on God, he got in over his head*. David sees Goliath from above. He sees Goliath but he also sees God. And that made all the difference. Word comes to Saul that at last a man has been found. When Saul finds out that its David, he can’t believe it. David in his eyes is just a kid. No chance in the world he could beat Goliath. He tells David, “You are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.” David’s answer is classic: **“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. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine”**(1 Samuel 17:36-37). Behind these brave words lies an important truth: *Every giant in your path is also in God’s path if you are going in God’s dire**ction.* If you are in the will of God, the giants who fight you are actually fighting God. That’s why God sends giants in our path on a regular basis: First, to see if we will run or fight. Second, to allow us an opportunity to honor our God. **The Battle** Off David goes into battle with his staff and sling. As he heads down the slope, he pauses at the creek bed to pick up five smooth stones. As David nears Goliath. Behind his shoulder, the whole army is watching. “Go get him David. You can do it.” As he walked, Goliath got bigger and bigger and bigger. On the other side, somebody spots David and the Philistines begin to laugh. Then Goliath says to David, “Come on over here and I’ll feed you to the birds and the beasts.” Notice how David answers back in verses 45-47. **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. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 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.”** David doesn’t return insult for insult or slander for slander. He doesn’t need to boast or to call names. After all, in himself David is no match for Goliath. It’s not a fair fight. But in Verse 50 we read; **“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.** When you bring God into the equation, everything changes. So here’s the point to all of this. **Don’t tell God how big your giants are.****Tell your giants how big your God is.** Sometimes we find ourselves in situations like the one in which David found himself—in a valley, alone, facing a giant. There are numerous warnings in the New Testament to expect opposition from the world, the flesh, and the devil. The whole Christian life is one battle after another and most of us will face a whole army of giants before the story is fully told. *A**giant is any situation in our path which blocks the way God wants us to go*. It might be a person who opposes us, or it might be a combination of circumstances which when taken together block us from doing what God wants done. For most of us, the greatest giants are the ones we face on the inside: Doubt Unbelief Fear Anger Greed Sloth Gluttony Envy Despair Discouragement Self-condemnation Fear of failure Usually, those inner giants defeat us much faster than any giant we face on the outside. It’s in the mind where the battle of David versus Goliath must be fought and won every single day. Many of us are face to face with a giant right now. It may be an impossible situation at work or at home. It may be a financial difficulty or a broken relationship. It may be a task before you that you think you can’t handle. It may be a dream that seems unreachable. *Giants by definition are enormous, threatening, intimidating*. They fill the eyes until we can see nothing else. **Why does God put giants in our path****s****?** Primarily because soldiers grow up on the battlefield, and we will never grow up until we dare to go out and face Goliath head on. *There is nothing like war to turn a boy into a man*. As long as we run when the giant rears his ugly head, we’ll have to face him tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. He won’t go away until we stand up and fight him. *Goliath never leaves on his own*. In the story, Goliath came back twice a day for 40 days until David finally went down to face him in the valley. Your giants are the same way. They will never leave on their own. And why should they? Until you stand and fight in Jesus’ name, they win every time. Whenever we stand up to a giant and fight him in the name of the Lord, mighty miracles begin to take place. God wants us to grow up and we can’t until we go out and fight in the name of the Lord. *G**iants are**necessary**for our spiritual growt**h.* Our Goliaths will never be defeated merely by having our Quiet Time. If we cower in the rocks instead of going down into the valley to face the giant in our path, we can never become all that God intended us to be. Think of it this way. David *needed* Goliath. He didn’t realize it, to him fighting Goliath was simply the next thing God had called him to do. But he needed Goliath to gain the confidence of the people that he truly was qualified to be their king. The people had to know that the man they followed was worthy of their trust. David proved it by defeating Goliath. In the same way we need our giants because we will never become all that God wants us to be without them. First Samuel 17:40 tells us that after David picked up the five stones, he **“approached the Philistine.”** *When he took that first step, Goliath was a dead man*. He just didn’t know it yet. David won the victory with that first step. “Faith is belief plus unbelief and acting on the belief part.” Did David know something the other men of Israel didn’t know? No, he didn’t. They also knew God was great and mighty and powerful. They knew he was the Almighty God. It wasn’t a matter of knowledge. *Any one of them could have killed Goliath if they had been willing to take that first step in the name of the Lord*. The difference between David and the other soldiers was not that he had faith and they had doubts. Or that they had doubts and he had none. The difference is this: David acted on his belief and ignored his doubts while they acted on their doubts and ignored their belief. Faith is not waiting for 100% assurance. Faith is not waiting until all your doubts are gone. If you wait for that, you’ll wait forever. *Faith is seeing the giant, understanding the odds, believing that God wants him dead, and then taking that first step*. If you can do that, the rest is easy. **The First Step is the Hardest****!** Now apply this truth to your own life. What giants stand in your way today? Name them. Write them down. *Think about how the giants of circumstance and opposition have combined to keep you enslaved to fear and sometimes have driven you almost to the brink of despair*. How much longer will you hide in the rocks of fear? When are you going to step into the valley and face the giant eye to eye? But the giant is big, you say. True, that’s why they call him a giant. He’s fearful. I’m sure he is. I might get hurt if I stand up against him. That’s true. There are always a thousand reasons to run away when Goliath stands before you. But whenever you are tired of running, the Lord stands ready to walk into the valley with you. Sooner or later, you’ve got to peek over the top of the ridge, look into the valley and take that first step forward. It won’t be easy and there are no guarantees. But you’ll never know until you take your heart in your hands and step forward by faith. It is not talking about the giant, it is not analyzing the giant, or praying about the giant. *Big talk will never slay Goliath*. It is taking that first step—knees knocking, hands shaking—with fear and trembling going into the valley in the name of the Lord Jesus. You take that first step not because you think you can do it but because you know you can’t. Therefore, you know that if the giant is defeated, it is because God has done it through you. The reason this story is in the Bible is because we still have giant obstacles standing in our way, and God is looking for some Davids. **What obstacles are****we****facing today****as a church****?** Fear? Unsaved family, and friends? Spiritual attacks on you or another member? Growth? All obstacles look like giants. But all obstacles have another thing in common – they are meant to be overcome. **Helen Keller once said –** “All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.” When we face the giants of our lives, we often fear we are not enough or do not have the tools needed to face them head on, much less win. But God has given us all we need to overcome the giant obstacles of life, if we will just trust in the gifts and talents, he has given us. **David placed his trust in the tools God had given him****and so should we!** We often hear that we should constantly work on the areas we are weakest. Sure, we should work to be better. But I am suggesting that we should always work on the areas we are gifted in. Our focus should be on our strengths, our gifts – We should strive to invest in what God has given us until we get the greatest return from the gifts, he has given us. Are you investing in the gifts and talents God has given you? Or are you spending too much time focusing on your areas of weakness? **Leo Buscaglia wrote -** **Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.** Put your trust in what God has given you. **I****f you focus on the gifts and tools God has given you, you can become excellent.** David was an excellent shot with the sling – He was not an excellent swordsman. By being unshakeable enough to trust God’s gifts and tools in his life, and not focus on what others had, he became excellent in what he had and therefore David was able to face his giant obstacle and defeat it. And so can we!
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