Boot Camp: Facing the Giants
[powerpress] We are in a war. We are in a fight for our relationship with God, others, and at times, seemingly even our sanity. Through these struggles, Jesus defines and refines us for His purposes. Today as we study the legendary battle between David and Goliath, we will discover the importance of facing our own giants, the task that each one of us has to reach others and, finally, the trust we should have in the great giant slayer.
Facing Your Giants
1 Samuel 17:1-11 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh 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. 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 five thousand 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 six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him. Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “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 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.
The Philistines were inhabitants of the land of Israel, a people group who constantly looked to plunder and enslave the people of God.
What do giants practically look like in your life? The areas of your life that remain undiscipled or untouched by the Word of God are areas that giants are waiting to subdue you. They are things or patterns of behavior that you might have become accustomed to, as the Israelites were to the Philistines in the land, but are nonetheless looking to destroy you. As in Rome during the time of Paul's ministry, in this city, the giants are not hard to find. We must wake up from our slumber and address them.
Romans 13:11-14 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
What have you seen in your family line (generational patterns) or in your past that you are terrified to repeat? What mistakes have you made that taunt you? What are the sins keep you up at night or people at arm's length during the day? These are your giants.
The good news is that as we face our giants, not trying to deny or ignore them, we are able to overcome them through the freedom that Jesus Christ purchased for us on the cross. To be a conqueror implies a fight. We become more than conquerors through our continued relating to Jesus who strengthens and loves us.
Giants are not only personal, but they are, like the Philistine camp, the ills that impact whole cities. David knew that he was anointed of God not only to win personal battles, but battles for those who surrounded him. To see deliverance for his nation, he would have to face the giant directly in front of him.
Each One Reach One
1 Samuel 17:12-36 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was very old. Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand. Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.” Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear. Now the Israelites had been saying, “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 family from taxes in Israel.” David asked the men standing near him, “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?” They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.” When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.” “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him. David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” 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.” 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, 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. 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."
God wanted to free the people of Israel, but the Israelites were reticent. The Israelites would continually come to the battle lines to meet Goliath, but took off running as soon as the giant offered any type of resistance.
David lived with the worship of God as central to his daily existence so was different. When you experience God's deliverance, you are emboldened to fight for others who are fighting their giants. Each one should have a desire to reach one.
To be used of God, you will have to overcome obstacles. David's brothers tried to judge his motives and discourage his efforts, but David kept his focus on the Lord.
Never succumb to the theories of why certain people can not be reached. David would be willing to face the giant because in obscurity, while defeating the lion and the bear in the fields, David's heart was being filled with confidence in the unstoppable greatness of the Lord.
“We might be wise to follow the insight of the enraptured heart rather than the more cautious reasoning of the theological mind.” ― A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
Engagement is the key. Making disciples is not theoretical, but practical. It is turning people from the sin that is destroying their lives to the life of joy and forgiveness that is found in Jesus.
Jesus would put it this way:
Luke 15:7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Defeating the giants and making disciples is not the result of you merely studying your favorite Christian books or theories espoused in a classroom setting. It is the result of you intentionally building relationship with and interacting with live people with the love and gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Great Giant-Slayer
David was able to overcome Goliath because he knew the real giant slayer.
1 Samuel 17:38-58 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 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. 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. Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!” 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. 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. 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.” As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 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. 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. 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. Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron. When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp. David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem; he put the Philistine’s weapons in his own tent. As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is that young man?”Abner replied, “As surely as you live, Your Majesty, I don’t know.” The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is.” As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine’s head. “Whose son are you, young man?” Saul asked him.David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”
To slay the giants of our generation 1) Don't assume anything about anyone. Just because someone says that they have a church background doesn't mean they've been born again or are living in the freedom of a disciple. In the same way, just because someone did not grow up in church, doesn't mean that they won't be mightily used of Jesus after coming to faith and repentance. 2) Go in the armor the Lord gives you. Don't try to be someone else. David had to battle Goliath in his own armor, not Saul's. 3) Know who really wins the war. Engage people with the truth of God's Word, knowing it's Jesus who secures rescue and salvation for people.
David ran to the battle line and did not procrastinate. He had a living, not merely an intellectual, faith. We should have the same urgency.
“Who will deny that true religion consists, in a great measure, in vigorous and lively actings of the inclination and will of the soul, or the fervent exercises of the heart? That religion which God requires, and will accept, does not consist in weak, dull, and lifeless, wishes, raising us but a little above a state of indifference. ” ― Jonathan Edwards
David's confidence was being clothed, as Paul mentioned, with the living God. This is a clear picture of the trust God is calling you to in Jesus.
There are people surrounding you every day who are facing giants that are hindering and destroying their lives. As you meet Jesus, you are anointed to reach the one in front of you, even while God works on you. Reaching one person can precipitate the deliverance of entire families, friendship groups, communities and inevitably cities (like the Samaritan woman in John 4). Bring people to the feet of Jesus and He will defeat both your giants and theirs.
A Parable The giant in the 2008 film The Dark Knight was the Joker. He literally held the city of Gotham captive by his sociopathic campaign for anarchy. Though Harvey Dent attempted to combat the Joker, Dent was ultimately overcome in his efforts and as Two-Face, fell into the same destructive patterns as the Joker. To truly rescue the city, Gotham needed a substitutionary hero who would both defeat the giant and absorb the penalty of Harvey's shortcomings. It is here, in this parable, that Batman is similar to our Savior, Jesus, the only true giant slayer.
The Dark Knight ending video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jAj20UOc3DE
We all face giants in our lives that attempt to steal the life of God. The city is a macrocosm of this reality and stands waiting for those who will challenge the giants. It begins as we each determine to reach the one in front of us with the love and gospel of Christ. Jesus is the ultimate giant slayer, defeating Satan, sin and death. Through repentance we can be reconciled with God and through faith in Jesus we can now walk in the freedom that our champion provided.
Second City Church- Boot Camp Sermon Series 2014