Elevate - The Story Pt 14 - Giant Killer

David's story of defeating Goliath is well-known, but the true meaning is often missed. It wasn't just about bravery or skill, but about seeing Goliath through the eyes of faith. Fear brings defeat, and the Israelite army was terrified of Goliath's size and strength. Goliath taunted the army, but David saw him as an obstacle that God could help him overcome. With faith in God, David defeated Goliath and became an underdog hero. The story takes place after Israel demanded a king and Saul was chosen, but later rejected by God. David, anointed as the future king, served in Saul's palace and soothed him with his music. This story shows that with faith and trust in God, even the smallest can overcome the biggest challenges. One person is not going to do great trying to scale a wall, at least not in David's time. But he knew that with God, he didn't have to be afraid. He knew that with God, he could advance against the truth by himself. He knew that he could scale a wall by himself. He had big faith in God and his ability in David's life. You see, faith must be an obstacle as a potential victory because of God's ability to win the battle. Welcome to Elevate from Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama with Pastor John DiQuatro. We hope it builds your faith and helps you to live a life for God that you've always wanted to live. We hope it inspires you to be a fully devoted, authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Enjoy the message and welcome to Elevate. This little story, it was February of 1980. And a group of 12 American amateur hockey players took the ice in Lake Placid, New York to fight the toughest and the best hockey team in the world, the USSR National Team. It was the Olympic Games. And two weeks prior to this particular game, this young American hockey team were beat handily by the Russians 12 to 2. And if you know anything about hockey, you know that 12 is a lot of goals. They lost in Madison Square Garden. But we know what happened. Well, some of us know what happened that night at the Olympics. The USA defeated the USSR 4 to 2 in one of the most stunning upsets in all of sports history. Many of us have seen the clip at the end of the game when as the clock winds down, the USA players begin their on-ice celebration. And Al Michaels, the announcer who called the game for ABC yells, Do you believe in miracles? Anybody remember that moment in sports history? It was a proud day to be an American because David had defeated Goliath. And that's truly what that looked like for so many. David had defeated Goliath. And we all love a good underdog story. Because with hard work and determination and a little bit of luck, the little Davids of the world can slay the Giants and go down in history. We love a good upset. And the story of David and Goliath was quite an upset. Nobody, not even the army that he was fighting for, had any faith in David. It was an upset. It was an upset. But before we get into it, and we're going to back up just a little bit and kind of catch you up to where we are in the story. If you have not yet caught up to chapter 11 in the storybook, that's where we are. And we have just come out of the time of the judges. If you remember all throughout the judges, God was the king. God was the one who was ruling through His priests and through His judges. And Israel kept messing up and they kept falling away and walking away from God and worshiping other gods. But then God would raise up a deliverer and they would turn their hearts back to God once again. But last week we talked about how Israel began begging for a king. Samuel was the priest, the final judge in Israel. And they began demanding a king. And if you remember, we talked last week about why they were rejecting God as king and choosing a man to be king. And we need to make sure in our own lives we don't reject God as king. And we don't become the king of our own lives if we allow Him to be the king of our lives. But God relents to Israel's request, their demand for a king. He says, fine, if that's what you want, if you want a king, go ahead. You can have a king. It's not going to be an easy road for you. Kings are going to oppress you. Kings are going to collect taxes from you. They're going to take your land. They're going to take your children. But if that's what you want, you can have a king. And so God leads Samuel to find the first king of Israel. And he finds a young man by the name of Saul. And he anoints Saul as the king of Israel. And Saul starts off pretty well. He starts off as a good king. He's winning battles for Israel and he's seeking the Lord. He starts off pretty good, but he gets a big head. Saul gets a big head and starts to think that he knows better than God and begins to become disobedient to God and begins to be led by his own ego. So God rejects Saul as king. He made him king and then he rejected him as king. And Samuel tells him, like, sorry, Saul, but God has rejected you as the king. But he still remains the king for the time being. But Samuel is on the lookout for the next king that God would have for Israel. So Samuel goes to the house of Jesse. And if you guys remember when we discussed the book of Ruth, right, Ruth's kinsman redeemer was Boaz. Well, Jesse is Boaz's grandson. All right. And so he goes to the house of Jesse and he passes up all of Jesse's children. He's got some wonderfully handsome, strong, strapping young men, but he passes all of them up until the very last one, David of Shepard, the youngest, working out in the fields. He comes forward and Samuel says he's the one and he anoints David, the lowly shepherd, to be the king of Israel. Now, circumstances would have it and God's will would have it that David's musical ability and his heart for worship lands him in the house of Saul in the palace as a servant of Saul. And Saul was so tormented in these days. God had rejected him as king. The spirit of the Lord had lifted from Saul's life. And so Saul was just in this place of torment in his life. And so when he was feeling down, when he was struggling, when he was depressed, when he was being tormented by the enemy, right? He would call David and David would come and play his harp and he played this beautiful worship music and it would drive the evil spirits that were tormenting Saul away and he would have peace once again. So now we have David in the midst here and he is the anointed king, but he's not king yet. Saul is still the king. David had a lot of learning, a lot of growing, a lot of experiences that he had to experience before he would become king. But when we think about David, many of us think immediately about this particular story in the Bible about David and Goliath. And I guess this would be one of the best known, if not the best known story in all of the Bible. Everybody knows about David and Goliath. In fact, it's such a well-known story that David has become a metaphor for the victorious underdog. The little guy with a big heart. The one who can overcome the greatest of odds and he can push his way through to victory. But of course, the problem with such a metaphor and creating this archetype of a David is that it actually misses the point of the story. It wasn't because... You know, we talk about David's bravery. We love to talk about his bravery and his skill with a sling and a stone and his crushing victory over a giant that not even the strongest in Israel was able to defeat. But it was more than determination. It was more than hard work. It was more than luck. It was more than bravery that caused David to be victorious. And so today we're going to look at this story. We're going to try to understand how David was able to be victorious over this little guy David was able to be victorious over this huge giant. So we're going to look at two ways as we read this story. We're going to look at two ways that we can see Goliath. We can see Goliath like the armies of Israel saw Goliath. This thing that just created fear in their lives. Or we can see Goliath the way that David saw Goliath. And those were two very different things. Because we can see Goliath through the eyes of fear and we can see Goliath through the eyes of faith. One or the other. We can either see him through the eyes of fear or see him through the eyes of faith. But I want to tell you this. Fear brings defeat. Fear will bring defeat. We're going to look here in the beginning of this story here in 1 Samuel 17. And we're going to begin with verse 3. It says this, the Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another with the valley between them. A champion named Goliath who was from Gath came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing 5000 shekels on his legs. He wore bronze greaves and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod and its iron point weighed 600 shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him. Goliath stood and he shouted to the ranks of Israel. Why don't you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? 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 armies of Israel. Give me a man and let us fight each other. On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. Now let's put this in perspective a little bit. The average height of a man during the Iron Age was about 5'9 to 5'11. Now there is some controversy about exactly how tall Goliath was. The Masoretic texts put him at four cubits and a span or about six foot nine. That's a pretty big guy, but I think Wilt Chamberlain was taller than that. The majority of the more recent texts that have been found put him at six cubits and a span, which is what the translation here says. Six cubits and a span, which was more like nine feet, six inches. Now that can get us into all kinds of discussions about about the giants of old and the Nephilim and all that kind of stuff. But just know that Goliath would have been considered a giant in those days. And 6'9 is considered a giant even by today's standards. So Goliath comes out and he's super tall and he's super strong and his armor looks impenetrable. Like this guy is a human tank standing up against the armies of Israel. So he comes out and he begins to taunt the army. He's on one hill and Israel is on the other hill and there's a big valley between them. And he comes out and he starts to taunt the army, repeatedly challenging them over and over to a duel. But seeing the giant and hearing his taunts instilled terror on the Israelite army. And the reason why is because fear is limited by sight. Every time you face your giant in fear, the enemy defies you. He wants to taunt you, right? When you're afraid, the enemy wants to just keep taunting you. You'll never do it. You'll never get better. You'll never overcome this. This is the way you're going to be for the rest of your life. Just taunting, taunting and defying you and trying to humiliate you. And listen, Satan's tricks have not changed. He wants to diminish God by getting you to focus on the problem that's in front of you. So I ask you this question and get you thinking as we're going through this Word. What is your Goliath today? What is the giant that stands in front of you that needs to be defeated that maybe you've been afraid to face? Maybe it's a bad habit or an addiction. Maybe it's this particular circumstance that you're in the middle of right now. Maybe there's unforgiveness and bitterness in your heart and you're having a hard time facing that. Maybe there's a moral dilemma that you're dealing with at work and you don't know what decision to make. There are giants that come against us. So what do we fear though? What is it about these giants that cause us to become afraid? Well, the notion of if I try to face this head on, I might lose. Right? If I face this addiction, this heavenly armored enemy that's been controlling me for too long and defying God, I might lose that battle. I might lose the battle of trying to walk in forgiveness or I really just like feeling the way I feel or I'm going to lose the battle of fighting this circumstance and believing God and instead I'm just going to stick my head in the sand and I'm going to be afraid. I don't want to face this enemy because he might fight back and I might lose. But if we live by sight, if we live by what we see, if we live by the heavily armored giant that stands before us and that's what we focus on, then we lose before we even start the battle. Verse 24 tells us this, Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear. Whenever they saw him, they fled in fear. When they focused on him, how he looked, the things he was saying, the taunts, the ridicule, the humiliation, the defiance, when they faced that, they fled in fear. So when we live by sight, we become dominated by our enemy. We quit at sight. Any good opponent is going to try to instill fear in his enemy. They say that most sporting contests are won or lost right here. And there's a game that competitive sports and they all play it. They try to psych each other out. They taunt one another. They say things to try to get into their heads. And the enemy works the same way in our lives. You ever read that book or hear about that book that Joyce Myers wrote back in, I think, in the 90s called The Battlefield of the Mind. But that's where the enemy taunts you. That's where the enemy defies God. That's where the enemy tries to humiliate you and tries to get you thinking that you're going to lose and get you into fear. Think about it. How many times have you been defeated simply because of your thoughts? How many times you face the situation and you got yourself so worked up about it? You lost so many hours of sleep and you just walked around with a knot in your stomach. And all you did was think about the problem. And all you can see was there's no way out of it. I don't know how I'm ever going to possibly get out of this. I'm ever going to possibly get out of this. You become so worried and so fearful that you become stuck in that place. Fear will paralyze you. And you won't advance. Just like the army of Israel that stayed on their side of the battle line that was drawn because they were afraid. Giving into fear will always bring defeat into your life. But on the opposite end of that spectrum, faith brings courage. And courage comes when we live by faith and not by sight. Faith in who? Faith in what? Faith in God. Faith in God's provision. Faith in God's strength. Faith in God's might. Faith in God's will and good purposes for your life. Faith brings courage. You see, we can't set our eyes on the giant. It's going to freak us out every time. If all you focus on is the problem, it'll freak you out. And the reason we get afraid is because what we see in the face of this giant is our limitations. Because it doesn't say that there were people of equal size on the Israelite army. They were smaller. Goliath was the big one. And so they solved their limitations. But let me tell you, our confidence has to be found in God's power and not our own limitations. Now, I love what David says. He says this in the Psalms. And what's really cool about the story of David that you find throughout 1 and 2 Samuel is that you can match those stories all the way to Psalms and you can find out what he was thinking as he was going through stuff. You can get into the mind of a worshiper and a warrior and a guy who lived completely by faith and also a guy who made a lot of mistakes and had to repent before the Lord. You get into the mind of this and the heart and the soul of him. And so this is what he says in Psalms 18 29. He says, with your help, with God's help, with your help, I can advance against the truth. I with my God, I can scale a wall. Now, listen, one person is not going to do very well in their own strength, advancing against the truth. One person is not going to do great trying to scale a wall, at least not David's time. But he knew that with God, he didn't have to be afraid. He knew that with God, he could advance against the truth by himself. He knew that he could scale a wall by himself. Is he speaking literally or metaphorically? I don't know, but I do know this. He had big faith in God and his abilities in David's life. You see, faith will see an obstacle as a potential victory because of God's strength, because of God's ability to win the battle. And I know this, our obstacles are not just a threat to us. Our giants in our life, they insult and defy our God. The enemy is using the same tactic that he used with Goliath against Israel. When he stands against you, taunting you and lying to you and trying to instill fear, he's defying your God. The God that promises that my power is perfected in your weakness. The God that says you can say to this mountain, be removed and cast into the sea. The God who tells you that all things will work together for the good of those who love him and that he cares for you. You have the might and the power of the almighty God behind you. That's why David was so upset when he saw the fear in the Israelites. And we look at what he says in verse 26. He says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Here's what David knew. Here's what David realized uncircumcised in those days. He was just the Hebrew people, just the Israelites that were circumcised. It was a sign of the covenant that they had with God. So out of the circumcision meant that they were in covenant with God and uncircumcised person was out of relationship and out of the covenant with the almighty God. And so David doesn't just see Israel being threatened. He sees God's armies being threatened. All these people, these circumcised ones that are in covenant with God. He's saying it's God's armies that are being threatened. This is not a battle for territory. This is a battle for God's reputation. This is a battle for God's glory and for God's honor. And your Goliath wants you to think that you are too small or that God is too small. So let's go through this story. And I want to give you three things that I see in this story that I think are going to help us as we face the things in our lives. The first thing is this. Ignore the faithless people in your life. Ignore the ones that have no faith that God can do what he says he will do. First Samuel 1733 says this. 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. That's the king of Israel. Tell him this kid who's full of faith and wants to go after the giant says you're not able to go out against this Philistine. You can't do it. You're you're just you're too small and he's stronger than you. And he's he's got more skills than you have. You know, there's always going to be someone in your life that's going to try to put their fears on you. Maybe they just like being negative. I don't know. Maybe they don't have faith in you or maybe they don't have faith in God. Maybe they have faced the same giant that you're facing and they fled in fear or they lost that battle and now they want to put that fear into you. And all they see is the strength of the problem, the strength of the giant and of the enemy, but not the strength of God. But for whatever reason, they're going to try to put fear into you. Ignore the faithless. I hated it when I remember when my wife got pregnant with our oldest son. We're newly married. Our first child and she gets pregnant and everybody that was a parent wanted to just tell us the worst that there possibly was. They're like, oh, wait till he's 14. Right? They're like, oh, there goes all your money. Well, you know, you'll sleep again when they turn three. Right? Every negative thing they could think about having a kid, they wanted to tell us. And I used to get so mad. It's like, would somebody just say something good about this? Like, I'm excited about it. This sounds like a good thing. Don't put your fears on me. Don't put your problems on me. Don't put your negativity on me, because I want to believe God that I'm going to have the easiest baby in the whole world. And we had the easiest baby in the whole world. And he was so easy that we had another one right away. And you all know Liberty. I hope you're watching, sweetheart. But what are the fears that other people have tried to put on you and that they've pitched to you? Like, you'll never succeed. You won't have enough. That cancer will kill you. Your marriage will never be restored. I don't know what is your giant and what are the faithless saying to you? Because there's always going to be a reason why you can't. There's always going to be a reason for you to be afraid and for you to worry. Jesus said, in this world, you will have trouble. But he didn't stop there. He said, but take heart. I have overcome the world. So there's a million reasons why you can't. There's a million reasons to be afraid. But remember this, unlike the giants, the uncircumcised Philistine, you have been circumcised. Maybe not in the same way, but look at Romans 2, 28 through 29. It says, a person is not a Jew who is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person's praise is not from other people, but from God. He's saying that because of the deposit of the Holy Spirit that's been placed in you, because you've entered into a new covenant through the blood of Jesus Christ and are now in relationship with Him, you are part of this covenant. So listen, you don't have to be limited by your physical limitations. You are in covenant with God. So ignore the faithless. There may be truth in what they're saying. It may be a hard road that you have in front of you. It may be, but you don't need to be focused on that stuff. Allow yourself to put your focus on Him and be like, we're going to do this. God and me, we're going to get this done. So ignore the faithless in your life. The second thing that I see here is we need to remember God's faithfulness. We sang about it. The same God, calling on the God of Moses, I'm calling on the God of David. But he says this in 1 Samuel 17, 36, he says, Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. This is his response to the king of Israel. When the king says, hey, you won't be able to defeat him. Don't even try it. Don't even try it. He says, Your servant, talking about himself, 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. Man, there is nothing that's going to build your faith like recounting what God has done in your life in the past. I'm telling you, you can't forget that stuff. If you read all throughout the songs and the different songs of praise that are recorded, they always remember. The first thing they do is remember what God did and give him praise and glory and thank him for it. So for David, he knows that God helped him to defeat both a lion and a bear. He was a shepherd. Lions and bears would come out and try to eat the sheep. David had to defend himself. But he's saying, if God helped me to defeat a lion and a bear, why is this man any different? Why? So listen, remember your testimony. Remember what God has done in your life. Because your testimony, your story of God's redemption, of God's intervention in your life, it has three purposes. First and foremost, it glorifies Jesus. Your story of God intervening in your life glorifies him. But it also is a witness to the lost around you, right? People need to know, what has God done in your life? Why should I believe? But the Word of God tells us that our testimony is what helps us to be victorious in our lives. They triumphed over him. Revelation 12, they triumphed over him, the enemy, by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. And so are you facing a giant today? What's whatever Goliath, whatever giant, whatever thing stands before you that you're struggling with in this moment, what's the difference between this one and the last one that God helped you defeat? I'm preaching to myself. I got like two hours of sleep last night, primarily because I was worried about something. This is how the enemy tries to get in and intervene in your pastor's brain. No one is going to preach this today. I'm telling you, what's the difference between the last time and this time? Are you facing financial difficulty? Has God provided for you in the past? Are you facing a diagnosis? Has God healed you in the past? And then it says here in verse 40, it says, then he took his staff in his hand and he chose five smooth stones from the stream. He put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag. And with a sling in his hand, he approached the stream. He approached the Philistine. Now, I always wondered why he chose five stones. Now, this isn't in the Bible, but this is my thoughts about why maybe David, when he came along the bank of the river and he chose these five stones, he said, you know what? This one is for every time that God protected me. This one right here, this one is for every time that God provided for me. This one's for the lion. This one's for the bear. And now this one, this one's for the lion. I remember what God has done. And I've got one here that's got Goliath's name on it. Remember, recount and let that faith rise up within you. Thank you for listening to Elevate. We hope this message encouraged, inspired and challenged you. Authentic Life Church is located at 3750 Michael Boulevard in Mobile, Alabama. Visit our website authenticlife.tv for more information about Authentic Life Church. To find out what we have going on or to make a donation, you can also find us on Facebook. We'd love for you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. for our weekend service. We have excellent children's nursery and youth programs, so bring the family. For Pastor John DeQuatro, I'm Scott Chesna. Thanks again for listening and God bless you.