Beth Moore - Giant Defiant Faith
You may be seated. I can't wait to tell you where to turn. Turn with me in your Old Testaments please to 1 Samuel chapter 17, 1 Samuel chapter 17. Do you see a little caption before you get to that very first verse of 1 Samuel chapter 17, what do you see right there in that little caption? Oh, David and Goliath. I gotta tell you something about David and Goliath. I told you earlier that I was raised in church. I do not remember not having the name of Jesus as a familiar sound in my life. Being raised in church was a beautiful thing for me because we had all manner of thing going on, and I do mean all manner of thing because I still also, behind the front door of my home, was loved by many people and cherished by many people, but I was also abused and I was also misused, unbeknownst to several others. Is anybody getting what I'm tracking in?
So, while all this is going on, and while all this madness is taking place, and I grow up in this kind of madness, also with a lot of beautiful things happening in this free for all that was my young life, being abused by an authority figure in my life, and yet being taken to church every single time the doors open and thinking to myself, well, there is the hypocrisy element that could really trip you up and break you down right here, or maybe you could just believe it. And I don't know how to explain, it was just a gift of God. But I'm telling you that even as a child, I began to fall in love with the Lord Jesus right there in baby bear chairs. Anybody tracking with me? Anybody have this kind of background?
And I don't know why the churches in that day, they all had linoleum floors, and they were the kind you could scuff up with your heels, and you could see the heel marks because all the women wore exactly the same kind of shoe. There was no other shoe to wear except a pump, and you wore that pump and that pump had just a little black, little black thing on the bottom of the heel, and it made little scuff marks like that. And I can still see them just as clearly in my mind. And I can see them right there in that Sunday school room with those baby bear chairs in the circle. And there was my teacher and, you know, of course they all wore dresses in those days. We never saw a woman at church in a pair of pants in those days, and I am not kidding.
So, sitting down the chairs, her knee would be, her knees would be right up to her chin but she'd be holding up these pictures just like this. She would tell us from time to time, "Jesus is your best friend". I thought it was the most interesting thing that I had never seen my best friend eye to eye. But anybody raised in church can remember that ugly, ugly, ugly giant and a little, bitty, tiny guy with slingshot in his hand, fascinating.
Let's read together 1 Samuel 17. I want to read verses 1 through 11. "Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And they were gathered at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered, and encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels in iron. And his shield-bearer went before him. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, 'Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.' And the Philistine said, 'I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.' When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid".
We find it back in the Old Testament, but it's recent in our lives as today. Anybody contending with something gigantic, anybody at all? If you're like me, you might not be contending with it at all because what you might be doing is just like laying down over it. Anybody got that with me? Because I've been there too. Like, I've got this giant in front of me and instead of continuing with it because I already know I'm lost, before I take the first swing, I'm just laying down over it. And it's just trampling all over you. But I just wonder by just some show of hands, anybody got something big standing in front of them right now? Because that is what this lesson is gonna be all about this particular weekend. And here's how I want you to picture this, that you, on this side, and I'm with you over here.
So, picture me here in your ranks because I'm receiving this lesson just like you are, you are represented by the whole Israelite army in this text, and you're on one side of the valley. Here's the valley, and on the other side, a group of Philistines that are encroaching on property God has given to you. Now, for the Israelites, the Philistines were the inveterate enemy. They just could not get rid of them. And somebody in here is gonna be able to relate, and this does not have to be your giant. Your giant could be a new giant. Your giant could be new to the scene of your life and you've never dealt with it before, there is that. But for some of you, this is the case, where it's been the same thing that has come up over and over and over again. Anybody, anybody at all? At that same thing.
You see, of all things that the enemy cannot counterfeit, the enemy is not creative. When I say the enemy, I'm talking about Satan himself. I'm talking about the kingdom of darkness. Anything God does, Satan attempts to counterfeit, but it's really, really hard for him to counterfeit creation because he cannot do anything ex nihilo. He cannot bring anything into existence from nothing. So, he's not very creative. Once he figures out what works with you and once he figures out what works with me, as long as it keeps working, he keeps doing the same thing. I want to see somebody testify, isn't that the way does? I just wonder is anybody getting weary, because it gets really weary.
I have no idea how many times I've said to God, "Can you test me on something new that I really could pass"? I mean aren't there things that I really can like do. Why do we keep going back after this one over and over again? Because he's gonna set us up till we win. That's what he is after. Now, I can promise you right now, but we'll have people from outside the Word of God, or maybe there are people have some faith, but they just don't take the Word at its word. And they'll think, "Well, this is the stuff of legend. There really wasn't a David and Goliath". But au contraire. Even if it were the most outrageous story in the world, it was given as historical fact in the Scriptures, I'm still going there with it. But I'm gonna tell you this about this story, there's nothing even outrageously weird about this.
There were giants, there are some even in our more modern culture. What you have before you right here is the bare minimum of the height that Goliath was because what you're going to see right here is a nine-foot giant. And we know it's gonna be because of the way they describe it, a little over nine feet. In fact, you've got something in front of you that you measure to about its waist. Not only that, it's just meaner than you. Anybody live long enough to know there are some mean, mean, things out there? And a lot of those mean things are best illustrated and exhibited on people who are also willing to be mean. You know what I'm talking about. You've been a victim to it. All of us know what it's like to be up against something, a force, that is so much more powerful than we are.
You and I are gonna picture that this is the valley, we're all in this army over here. The Philistine army is all over there. Here is the valley of, I told you what the name of it was. Elah. The Valley of Elah is right here in the middle, and here has come Goliath, I mean, stomping his way out thud after thud to make it to the middle. Now, this is not a duel. He's not calling them to a duel. He is calling them to a representative warfare, and it's something that you can go back through history and you can see notation of in the ancient world. This meant they, instead of having all the bloodshed of army to army in face to face combat, they would just send out their biggest champions to fight in the middle of the field.
Now, this is how it was supposed to go. This was always the agreement, whoever wins, then they get their way, whatever the war was about, whatever the battle was about, they get what they were after. However, I did a little bit of research and throughout history, most of the time, there was a representative warfare like that. No matter who went down, there was still a free-for-all that followed it. Very rarely did they stop at it. But what they are calling for, Goliath has gone out to the middle over nine feet tall and he has said, "Send me someone".
Now, here's what you gotta know about the Philistines because even if they had not sent out Goliath, their over nine foot tall giant as their champion. The fact was the Philistines just had weapons the Israelites did not have. They were metal workers. They had skill in processing metals and had all sorts of weapons that the people in Israel did not have. It was a time when it was scarce among the Israelites, and only a few, Jonathan and Saul, only a few had the same kinds of sword. So, they were at a decided disadvantage.
Now, I want to show you a little phrase here because I think it's fascinating. Look at the Scriptures where it tells us that he was their champion. Look with me at verse 4, "And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, he was six cubits and a span," and that is over nine feet tall. And it goes on to describe him, but it calls him a champion. In this chapter, the two words that you'll find, champion and both of the translations of champion used twice in 1st Samuel chapter 17 is coming from a Hebrew word, really it's a Hebrew phrase, that is only used those two times. There are words that mean champion, there are words that mean hero and man of courage and valor. But this little phrase right here is only used two times in the Word of God, and it's used both times here in this chapter.
I want you to hear, you would say it like this, Hebrew. It is Hebrew for, and now I'm going to tell it to you straight off the pages of a commentary, word for word with a literal rendering of it. The man of the space between the two, the man of the space between the two. So, what's being assumed here is that the two are the armies, and this champion is the man in the space between the two, standing out here in the middle of this valley between the two armies, calling forth for someone to come and challenge him among the Israelites. Try to get that into your head because make no mistake, the darkness has its champions.
I gotta tell you something, I did a little bit of research. Do you know in verses, let me see, I want to make sure I've got this right. In verses 4 through 7, several of the scholars say that just possibly the detail that is given to Goliath in those few verses 4, 5, 6 and 7, are the most detailed descriptions you will find anywhere in that concentration of someone from Genesis to Revelation. You might find a rival here or there, but almost entirely across the board, you'll never find anybody that is described with more detail in such a concentrated period of time. But I gotta tell you something that I learned, that not only is this the height of the giant, but he would have warned the Philistines wore a helmet that had a huge plume on it.
So, please add a feather to the top of his hat because that's a considerable intimidation right there. Anybody in this room weigh right at 125 pounds, anybody? Okay, I want you to just stand up for just a second, just stand. You don't have to come up here, just stand up. All right, I want you to know, all 125 pounds of you, that this is the weight just of his armor, just of his armor, 125 pounds. This dude was dressed for a fight. I gotta tell you something I find very fascinating here. You've got Saul, he is the king of Israel at this time, and you've got him there, out there with the Israelites. I mean, this has been going on, this dude does this for 40 solid days, twice a day. He goes out there back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, intimidating them. And here's Saul just shaking in his boots with the rest of the Israelites, and he's the king. I want you to turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter 10 very quickly, 1st Samuel chapter 10, and I want to show you something.
Now, here's what Israel did. You know, they were now living in much of the land that had been promised to them. They still had enemies to overcome, but they were they were there and they had a lot of surrounding nations that all had kings, and they wanted a king like them. And so, they demanded one and it just broke Samuel's heart. Samuel was a prophet at that time. He was like, "God is your king. He is your king. You don't need a king like the other nations". And God says to him, "Listen, this is the way we're gonna do it? Because I've got a plan going here, and it's not you they've rejected, it's me they've rejected. We're gonna give them what they asked for, and then I'm gonna give them what I want them to have," and that would become David.
But I want you to listen to this about Saul. 1 Samuel 10, I want to read verses 20 through 24. "Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot". This is to decide who's gonna be king. "He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was taken by lot; and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot. But when they sought him, he could not be found". Verse 22, "So they inquired again of the Lord, 'Is there a man still to come?' and the Lord said, 'Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.'" Anybody else? I just, there's something profound about that, is there?
You know, just go, well, you'd find her in the baggage. She's hidden in her baggage. Anybody know what I'm talking about? He says, "Go look," and she's in her baggage. I'll never forget seeing on TV one time, one of those talk shows where they have people that have these weird abilities, or talents, or skills. There was a person in it that could zip herself into a suitcase, and I watched it. I watched the TV screen as she had this suitcase, and she got in it and she zipped it up. And I just thought to myself, but why? Whatever would make you the first time go, "I believe I'll zip myself in a suitcase"? What would make you think, "I wonder if I could zip myself up in a suitcase, I just wonder". And if you could, what if you could not get out?
These are, I don't know, I don't know, but this was Saul hiding in the baggage. Verse 23, "Then they ran and took him from there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. And Samuel said to all the people, 'Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? There is none like him among all the people.' And all the people shouted, 'Long live the king!'" I want you to understand this. He's not Goliath but Saul is head and shoulders above every other Israelite. This was not a short guy. And he gets paralyzed on the side wondering who in the world is gonna go and take on this giant. There's a God-defiant giant threatening to make us look like losers.
Everybody say, "God-defiant giant". Let me tell you what the enemy wants for you. He wants to make you look like a loser. And I promise you, I promise you, based on the way he operates in the Word of God, the way he goes about attacking the people of God, that there would be nothing that would bring him more pleasure in the midst of our world, our culture, our nation today, than to make us look like we, the people of God, like a bunch of losers. I promise you that if you are in Christ, whatever battle you are facing, he has got high stakes in you losing, in you losing. He wants to make a loser out of you, and he wants to make you look like an idiot. And you and I are approaching our giant exactly like that this weekend because there's a God-defiant giant threatening to make us look like losers.
Let me tell you something, in this nation in which we live, there is just this God defiant spirit, and it is imperative that you and I are people of truth, that we are people of the Holy Spirit, and that we are people who love. It is imperative because there's a God-defiant giant, and he wants to make us look like a bunch of losers. I want to tell you something about him. We know from the Word of God that Satan is a liar, but I want you to understand this weekend that he is a good liar.
In Revelation chapter 12, the Scriptures call Satan serpent, the devil, it calls him all those names so we make sure it knows who I'm, who they're talking about, who John, under the inspiration of God, is talking about. It calls the devil "the deceiver," not just a deceiver, "the deceiver". And I want to tell you, I just want you to lock in for a moment with me on the difference between a liar and a deceiver because, you see, a deceiver is a good liar. I mean, if you're like me when your kids were little if you're a mom, I mean, I could tell. I could just say, "Look at me".
I think they thought I could like, I had like x-ray vision or something 'cause I could call them out like that because I'd just go like, "That is the worst lie I've ever heard. I mean, if you're gonna lie to me, you need to lie better than that". Anybody know what I'm talking about? There's lots of bad liars. I mean, you're putting up with one at work and you're just thinking like, "I don't know, I don't even know what to say". I mean, you know, you don't tell them but you're thinking like, "You're not, I mean, get better at it, get better at it because really, you're not a good liar".
There's that. There's that. But see, Satan is a very good liar, which is why he's a deceiver because a lot a liar could just lie, but a deceiver has to actually deceive to be a deceiver. Anybody? All right, let me tell you. Say, for instance, let me tell you that the difference between two statements, if I were just gonna be a liar, or if I were gonna be instead a deceiver. If I just want to lie, I could say to you, "One of my parents was an extraterrestrial". You would be pretty certain that I was lying to you. But what if I said, "I earned a doctorate". Because I do, I have this thing on a wall at work that says that very thing, only it says, "Honorary doctorate," before doctorate.
But what if I tried to make you think I really had earned my doctorate? See, for my friend Courtney on the front row, that may be a little bit of an insult because girlfriend has done all of that work toward that end. But what if I just decided to take up that doctor and put it on the front of my name? After all, I have a certificate, and I wore the cap and gown. Not just a lie, that's a good lie. I could almost get away with that lie. That is the difference between a liar and a deceiver. So much of our battle will be a war of words when the enemy takes just enough of a fact and starts twisting that thing around. We're in this war of words. It sounds true to us.
PART 2
A war of words. There's a God-defiant giant threatening to make us look like losers. That was number one, number two is this, we built so much of our lesson on this. God's after willing volunteers to stand in the valley with giant defiant faith. He is looking to make some warriors out of us in this house, and you are looking in those last couple of words at the title to our event in this series and in this weekend, "Giant Defiant Faith".
I can tell you, without a doubt, that the primary objective that God has for us this weekend is to awaken us to a giant defiant faith. He is looking to make some warriors out of us in this house, and some people that have convinced themselves that they are weaklings, and that they've got nothing to offer this battle for souls. Because it's all gonna be about who's gonna stand in the middle of this valley, facing this giant right here. Because that's the thing, he's calling out for volunteers, but God is calling out for volunteers, too, and he's going, "Who is the man, who is the woman," because that is the one I will be with.
That is the one I'll be with. Who will come and stand in the valley? And would you do it all by yourself? Because that's when you know you're really willing to grow some giant defiant faith, when you don't have to have anybody right beside you also pursuing giant defiant faith. Who'd be willing when nobody else is gonna be the one taking over your prayer life? Are you gonna get up and fight for it yourself? Because I keep seeing something.
I keep thinking about it. Because listen, I believe in powerful intercession. I believe that there are times in all of our lives when we do not know how to pray, when we are so physically sick, or we are so brokenhearted in a personal catastrophe or loss, that we desperately need others to pray for us. But I wanna say something to you, if I could just be this bold with you. For the masses of us, it's not just about those kind of intercessory needs, we just let somebody fight the whole thing out in prayer for us, because we've got better things to do.
Listen, if you and I are gonna be warriors, and if we are gonna have giant defiant faith, we're gonna have to take up prayer for ourselves. We're gonna have to get out there and we're gonna have to scrape the thing out ourselves instead of having somebody else always be the one praying for you. No one can make you a mighty warrior but you and God, no one, no one. They can pray you toward it, they can pray you to be willing, but when it comes right down to it, would you, would you, would you go down to that valley and scrape the thing out, so that you would know the thrill of that kind of victory?
You know, we have no few soldiers in the divine and holy army of Christianity, no few soldiers. On this globe, we are millions by population, but I just wanna throw at you the thought, there's so many exceptions to this, but I wanna just throw out to you the thought that the majority fall into one of two categories when it comes to warfare. The first one is that we are so drunk on the world, we don't even know we're in a battle. There are believers all over the place, and in this city, and in my city, and in cities all over the United States, all over Europe, that would say they believe their Bibles, they're people of faith, and they're so drunk on the world.
I've been that person. Many of you have been that person. They don't even know a war is going on, so there's that. And then there's the other end. There are those that are aware of the battle, but they're standing back dismayed and greatly afraid. They were dismayed and greatly afraid. Many of you have been that person. They don't even know a war is going on, so there's that, and then there's the other end. There are those that are aware of the battle, but they're standing back just like it says in chapter 17 of 1 Samuel, where the words come out in verse 11.
"When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistines, they were dismayed and greatly afraid". "They were dismayed and greatly afraid". Anybody getting tired of being dismayed and greatly afraid? You know, I need to hear an answer to that. Is it getting old to anybody to just live scared, or just, like, shattered all the time, just shattered all the time?
I looked up the word "dismayed", the Hebrew word for it, and I looked up the definition. And according to my Hebrew dictionary, the word means to be shattered or dashed. In fact, it's so weird, because it even talks, the same basic word in Hebrew is translated in Jeremiah 14:4 when it says, "Because of the ground that is dismayed since there is no rain on the land, the farmers are ashamed and they cover their heads," because the land, wait just a second, the land is dismayed. What on earth does that mean? I'm reading to you out of the ESV. Well, it's that same basic word, and it means to just be all broken up.
Now, please go here with me, because I'm a person that has a lot of compassion for someone going through broken heartedness. I have been there. I've been devastated before. I know what it's like to not think you can make it, but I want to take us out of that season of legitimate devastation and just speak into the fact that it just gets to be a long, long time when we're living our entire lives shattered about everything under the sun. Is everything going to shatter us? Somebody insults us, and we're not just a little hurt, no, we're shattered.
Has anybody noticed this besides me? Like, everything's huge, everything's huge, just huge. Something happens in the family, "We're shattered," we're not just bothered, no, we're shattered, we're just shattered. Everything that happens, everything that happens, something happens at work, we don't get to do the project after all, we miss the promotion, I'm not saying those aren't big things. Yes, we're bothered by it, yes, it hurts us, but need we be shattered and broken about everything? Am I speaking to anybody here in the house? Anybody just getting tired of being broken up about everything?
It's all broken up. Like, we had that breakup, like, 10 years ago, and we've been broken up ever since. Just broken up, just broken up, just broken up, just broken up. We can't get over being broken up, we're just all shattered all the time, just all the time. We're in pieces all the time, just all the time. That's why I'm trying to think what movie it was that Drew Barrymore was in, that she said something about things, she said, "I'm just overwhelmed," and somebody said to her, "Why can't you just be whelmed"? Why are you always overwhelmed? And I think that's what I'm trying to say tonight. Let's pull it in. Yes, we go through devastating seasons, but if we're not in one, let's not be devastated. Is that fair?
Let's say this, if I'm not just, like, being legitimately shattered right now, you know what, I'm just not gonna be shattered, I'm gonna pull myself together. Because you can get addicted to being shattered. Oh, yeah you can, yeah you can, just a shattering waiting to happen. Just a shattering waiting to happen. Broken up about everything, just everything. Whole family's scared to be around you because you're so fragile, if somebody just elbows you, you're gonna fall apart. Listen, let's get over being so fragile. You and I are supposed to be fierce warriors of the faith.
Let's get over being so fragile. Is that fair to say? Wouldn't that just be a relief? What if we just, like, went home tonight and we go, "You know what, I'm a little tired of being so fragile". Yes, things hurt, yes, we fall apart, yes, we are broken, but he said he would put us back together, that he'd bind up our broken heartedness, but our hearts are in the same shape they were 15 years ago. At what point were we thinking maybe we would let him put us back together? I'm being too bold.
I want to teach you the most wonderful name for God. I wanna teach it to you tonight, even though it doesn't come up in our lesson, we don't get to it in the Scriptures until our next session. I wanna teach it to you now, 'cause I don't want you to wait 'til then. There's a portion where David is going to refer to God as the living God. "Who would defy the armies of the living God"? The living God, the first word, perhaps you've seen it, it is the Hebrew word for God, Elohim, Elohim, would everybody say, "Elohim"? Say it again.
The next word you're gonna see, if you'll stay with me a second. Do you see the two H's? There's an H in Elohim, and then there's an H in the next word, only in Hebrew, they are two different letters. So, the first one does have the H sound on it, but the second one is gonna have a little bit of ch, just a little bit. Nobody has to, like, cough something up, just a little bit. It's just a little bit. Just enough to just kind of, like, a little clearing of the throat, but not coughing up something solid. Is that fair?
So, we're gonna say it like this, "Elohim Hayyim", what does that mean? Girlfriend, you've got a living God. You have got a living God. You have got a living God. You have got a living God, and that sets you apart from all the other religions of the world, because there are no bones in the grave where Christ was laid. No bones, because we have a living God. We are people of the living God, and we are the armies of the living God.
First Samuel 17:12-16, say this, "Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul, the man was already old and advanced in years. Three of the oldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who went into the battle were Eliab, the firstborn, next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah". Verse 14, "David was the youngest". The youngest of how many sons, do you remember how many it said, how many? And how many had gone to battle with Saul? And they were the three eldest. Verse 14, "David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. For forty days, the Philistine came forward and took his stand morning and evening".
Forty solid days he comes out screaming insults and intimidations, morning and night. David is being sent back and forth. Now, here's what's really interesting, because David has already been introduced twice on the pages of 1 Samuel right there in chapter 16, because when God is, like, up to here with Saul's disobedience, he tells Samuel, "I've got a man that I'm choosing that I'm gonna have you anoint as king. I've got a boy that I want you to go anoint, and you are to go to this house, and it's gonna be one of his sons".
Well, he goes there to that house, he looks through, he thinks, "Man, the oldest one was so impressive, it's got to be him", only the Lord impresses on his heart, "Listen, you are looking at the outward appearance, I look upon the heart. It's not him". He goes to the next son, not him either. Goes to the next son, not him either. Seven sons, Samuel doesn't get any word from God. Now listen, they're marching, Jesse is marching these young men before the prophet, Samuel. "Nope, nope, nope, nope, you got any other sons"? "Well, there's the one, the youngest, he keeps the sheep," and he says to him, "You're gonna need to call him in and we shall not sit down 'til he gets here".
Well, that's so uncomfortable for a prophet to be in the house and everybody's just standing like this. So, you can imagine, they go running out, they fetch David, they bring him in, and David is anointed by Samuel to be king, only it would be years before he would take the throne. He's called for a little later in that same chapter when Saul is tormented by a demon. He needs some kind of relief, and so the servants of Saul say, "You know what you need? You need somebody to play an instrument for you, so that you can kind of settle down and feel better. And we know a man, we know a boy that can do it".
He played the lyre, which is a harp. Instead of being one of these, like, really big ones that's like this, a lyre is, it varies in how many strings there are on the instrument, but it's something that could be handheld. Handheld, often, like, it could be rectangular, it could be, like, three-quarters of a circle, but it could be handheld. So, they brought him in, and he played for him, and it would calm him down. It says Saul came to love him. It's the oddest thing, he's not even gonna recognize him out on this battlefield. Saul's out there with the Israelites, David's going back and forth for his dad, and I want you to go with me here in verse 17.
"Jesse said to David his son, 'Take for your brothers an ephah 'of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers,'" and this is some miles away. "And also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See if your brothers are well, and bring some token from them".
I don't know why it pleases me so much that he brought ten cheeses. Do you know what, you just gotta love the Scripture for the ten cheeses. How random are ten cheeses? You know, take the ten loaves, but take the ten cheeses over there to the commander of the army. And I thought to myself, "You know, I could take some cheese, I love cheese. I can't even picture life without cheese". And I'm thinking to myself, "This David has already been anointed, yet he's running errands".
See, here's the thing, you and I misunderstand the anointing if we don't think it could include running errands. That you're for years, I mean, here you are anointed of God, and if you are in Christ, anointed of God, and you're thinking, like, "What in the world? I am more important than this". If we're more important than errand running, if we can't take any cheeses, listen, this was a glorified, deconstructed pizza, here. Here's your grain, and your bread, and here's your cheeses.
I mean, honestly, if he had tripped and fallen, and it would have been on a hot day, it'd had been a pizza. I mean, he's not too good to be a delivery boy. I mean, this is something, because if we're too good for an errand, we're too proud for an anointing. Truly, truly, we are. I just wrote down a list of my top ten cheeses. Cheese dip, cheesecake, cheeseburger, cheese fries, chili-cheese dog, cheese bagel, blue cheese dressing, macaroni and cheese, broccoli and cheese, and lastly, smile and say cheese.
This was David, "And Saul and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines, and David rose early in the morning and left with the sheep with a keeper, and took the provisions and went, as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line, houting the war cry". Verse 21, with this, we're concluding. "And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks, and went and greeted his brothers. And as he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before, and David heard him".
Run, his daddy said, and he ran. Got up early the next day, packed up his bread, packed up his ten cheeses, and off he went. Left his baggage with the keeper, I like that, because sometimes we never do get loosed up to go and do what God has called us to do, because we just can't leave our baggage behind to do it. We're gonna unzip ourselves from a suitcase, and we're gonna smile and say cheese, so the enemy can see we are the family of the army of God. Giant defiant faith has fiercely obedient follow through. Jesse told David to go, he said what?
Run, it says hurry in the ESV, and in many of the translations, I believe the NIV outrightly translates it run. And it's several times in the text, it's gonna be like three times that we're gonna see that attributed to David in 1 Samuel chapter 17, that he ran. He told him to run and he ran, and he ran, and I wanna say this to you. We don't have a lot of time here on this planet, this side, this side of God's kingdom agenda. I say this with tremendous respect, I will not talk down to you, but as one who has made every kind of error you can imagine, most of my progress has come through literally falling or tripping forward.
But here is what I think may be going on for some, because this is just the nature of it. And some of us are really thinking about giving ourselves entirely to the things of Jesus, we're thinking about it, we're thinking about it. Now, perhaps we received Jesus as our personal Savior years ago, but we thought, you know, we're kinda going back and forth on it. We're sort of playing both sides of it right now, and kind of on both sides of the fence, and we're thinking about, you know, really, at some point, I wanna lock down into what God has called me to do, I really, really do. I really do, because God's got a calling on every single one of our lives, and that doesn't mean it's in the church.
Listen, God will always hang the most lights in the most darkness, and he's gonna string us out like Christmas lights all over this globe, that's the way it's supposed to be. We're not supposed to be in one little... you know how you do when you get out your Christmas lights, when it's time to put 'em up on your tree, and you've wound 'em around like this, that's not the church. The church was supposed to have been a cord that is fallen where the slack goes out of it, and it is wrapped around the globe like this, lights in the darkness. And some of us are planning to be faithful, we're planning to get out of that mess that we're in. We're planning to stop sleeping around all the time.
Listen, I'm casting no stones here. You cannot even fathom my background. We're just, we're planning it. We're going to at some point. And I wanna put a word on you straight out of the page of 1 Samuel 17. This weekend, it's time to run. It's time to run. You've got one shot at this thing, one shot at this thing. Your life will go like this. Your life will go like this.
For you mothers in this room, what is it you want your children to be? I'm talking about in character, not in profession, become that. What is it? How do you want your life to turn out? Are you turned that way? Is the trajectory of your life turned that direction? Are you heading that way? Because here's the word for tonight, run, because here's the thing. Giant defiant faith, it has fierce obedience to it.
Listen, God has more for you than your mind has ever conceived, your eyes have ever seen, and your ears have ever heard. That is what he has planned for those who love him. That's 1 Corinthians 2:9. Do not waste five more minutes wavering back and forth and dancing between them. Run to your calling. What do we have to lose except purposelessness? What if we just turned away from being shattered all the time and let him just pull us together, bind up our wounds, and send us out fierce, what? He would do the impossible among us. Here we are, here's your church, and isn't she beautiful, Lord? Isn't she beautiful? Oh, Lord, make warrior princesses out of these women, a warrior prince out of a man. Do it, make us fierce, make us warriors, the days are short, in the glorious and holy name of Jesus.
PART 3
We're making seven points together, we've made three of them. We got four more to go. And number one is this, if you'll say it with me, "There's a God defiant giant threatening to make us look like losers". Now, here's the big joke that he's got going with us. If we are in Christ, according to Romans chapter 8, we are more than conquerors living in complete defeat, many of us. I have been there. I know what this is like, just a cycle in and out of defeat, over and over and over again because it is the enemy's job to make winners in Christ Jesus look like total losers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have won. In the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 3, "That I may win Christ". This is the win. The prize is Christ Jesus himself. This is the win.
Number two, God's after willing volunteers to stand in the valley with giant defiant faith. You and I have established that we are seeing this room as the gathering of these two armies in 1 Samuel chapter 17, this being the children of God, which on the page of 1 Samuel 17, that would be the Israelites, that's us over here, I'm over here with you. Then way over here, we have got the Philistine army, who is coming against us with that kind of penetration of darkness and godlessness come in to take land that God had given to us. In between is the Valley of Elah. In between is the Valley of Elah and God is after willing volunteers with that giant just constantly insulting and constantly calling curses down. He is calling, God is calling for willing volunteers to stand in the valley with giant defiant faith.
Number three, giant defiant faith has fiercely obedient follow through, fiercely obedient follow through. Listen, you want, and I want, to be obedient to Jesus because my calling, my destiny is gonna be fulfilled in that obedience. And we'll just have just enough light. Maybe your experience will be different, but I didn't have this long term vision. God did not give me that. I did not have some kind of little glimpse in my spirit of what he was gonna do, none of that, none of that.
All I got in the very beginning when I was 18 years old is, "You are mine", and it wasn't out loud. I didn't see it. I didn't I didn't see anything with my eyes. I didn't hear anything with my ears. It was just like it was established. And I thought well, I wonder what I'm gonna be because from my kind of background, I mean, there were just very few things for a woman to be. And I felt like God was sort of like, "I'm gonna tell you what you're gonna be is mine, my follower, you follow me and I'll take you where I want you to go".
And that's been the thing. It's just been like taking the next few steps, next few steps. You hold up the Word of God like a lamp to your feet. You figure that as you walk with God, that what he's promising you is if you will be in his Word, you'll know just, I mean just this far, you'll have this much, you'll know just where to step your foot when it's time to move. You may not know how to take the next five steps, but you're gonna hurl the Word out like a lantern in front of your feet and you're gonna step right in that light.
That's all you need to know because here's what would happen, if we could get it all figured out, we would just like go on with our bad selves, wouldn't we? Because that's what, you know, like God, "You know what? You get to be busy with others. I'm gonna free you up because now that I've got it, what I'm after really is my calling, and I want position, and I want possession of my land. That's really what I'm after doing".
See, I'm like Peter, when he got out of the boat, you know, like, "Make me look good. Let me walk on water". But you get him at the end of the gospel of John and suddenly when he sees Jesus, it's not let me walk on water. He just like dives out of the boat and swims, just swims because then it becomes, I want a good look at God. He knows. We get all position oriented. We get all possession oriented. We go on with it. Said, "No, you're gonna depend on me for every single step. That's what you're gonna do".
So, what we have out here, you and I are about to begin at verse 23, and let's just give a little bit of context to what we have. We've got the Philistines champion out there. The Hebrew phrase, I want to say it again, is the one that literally means, and I'm quoting out of the scholars literal rendering of the Hebrew, "The man of the space between the two". And we know that for this context is the man between the space of the two armies. In Hebrew, ishabenayim, ishabenayim, that is the word that is translated champion here. David has been sent with the bread, with the grain, with the cheese. He's set all of that with the keeper of the baggage. He's talking to his brothers.
And it says in verse 23, "As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath", I'm in verse 23, "Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him".
This is what's so fascinating here because David heard the same thing they did. Why did David have a new reaction? Because here's what it comes down to, are we gonna be the one then after all the taunts of the evil one, after all the taunts of that giant in our lives, after all of the self-taunting, all the self-condemnation, all of this coming against us, at what point might we hear that same thing coming at us, but we decide to have a different reaction? Because for some reason, hearing exactly the same thing they did, only he did not respond the same way they responded.
And it says then in verse 24, "All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. And the men of Israel said, 'Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel.'"
Now, let me tell you what this means. This means that the deal was on the table for King Saul, "Anybody who goes out and takes down this giant is going to get my daughter, and your whole family is going to live what would essentially be for us tax free". And by family, this didn't mean if you were a family unit of five. That's not what they were talking about. This was like your people, your people, your extended family, the servants of your household, that everyone, this people group, this Father's house, the house included all of these, the Father's house would live free of charge.
So, it's a really, really big deal. So, it says in verse 26, "And David said to the men who stood by him, 'What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach of Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the'"... You remember that? Very, very good. Elohim Hiem. Is that a gorgeous thing that in the morning, you could get up before the sun rises and you could say good morning to the Elohim Hiem.
I want to point out one reason why he is talking about this uncircumcised Philistine. Remember, this is not about anatomy. This is not physiology. This is covenant. Circumcision to the Israelites was the mark of covenant, and it was something that God had given by instruction to Abraham, and it was what set them apart. So, what David is calling upon is the covenant God who said, "If you will be faithful to me and have no other gods before me, I will see to it that I fight your battles in front of you. I will make you victorious".
You check it out because you will see it over and over again, under the covenant of the Old Testament before the new covenant is established in the gospels. In the Old Covenant, this was the deal with them. Basically, you could push God a really, really long way. You can see it by the track record of the Israelites by our own track record. Thank God, that is still true that he is patient. He is patient with us. But I'm gonna tell you what he told them over and over again. "You're gonna really get on my nerves if you turn to other gods". And they did it, and they did it, and they did it, and they did it, and he said, "I'm about to bring this down on you".
And, of course, he did. He did not forget them, but he let them go into captivity because they insisted upon having other gods. So, what David is doing right now is that he is saying, and this was all yet to come in this particular period of time. But what David is saying right here is, "You're not in covenant with him, we are. I mean, he's got to take care of us. He's got to bring us this victory".
And it says then if you'll keep reading with me, it says in verse 27, "And the people answered him in the same way, 'So shall it be done to the man who kills him.' Now Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, 'Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.' And David said, 'What have I done now? Was it not but a word?'"
And it says in verse 30, "And he turned away," this is David, "he turned away from him toward another, and spoke in the same way, and the people answered him again as before".
Let me tell you something, you know that you are not going to just be tested by God defiant giants. You will also be belittled by people from the family of God, your own brothers and sisters, or it might not be the family of God, but the family, literally. But let me tell you, we will be tested by some of those closest to us, or some of those in the very family of God with the siblings in Christ. Our tests will not just come from good, good enemies we can define. You know what I'm talking about?
What I mean by that is I understand this one, give me the force of evil, the force of darkness, okay, I get this, that will not be our only test. Our tests will be to be insulted, put down, minimized by the people that are supposed to love us and support us. If they think so little of me, I must be just as little as they say I am. Am I taking a cheap shot to bring down the big shot? Anybody, cheap shot for the big shot?
I'm gonna tell you something, people who knew the old us are the most reluctant to accept the new us and you can take that to the bank. Anybody that knew the old you, even the old you in your faith walk when you were stumbling all over the place, when I was stumbling all over the place, nobody is gonna be more reluctant about accepting the new us than somebody that knew the old us. Is that fair to say?
Your life's gonna have to testify because what happens when we get into that kind of mess is that sometimes our words do not have weight. And it really is okay. It's really okay, for those who have seen us roll around in the ditch, to be a little suspicious. So, we come back and we take the time. Take the time, don't insist that everybody believe you this very minute. Be humbled before the Lord and take the time. And sooner or later, some among them might come back around to you and say, "I just want you to know I believe it". And others won't. But you'll be able to put your mascara on the morning, if you like mascara, on the real you instead of somebody pretending.
The curses of our enemy are easier to battle than the critiques of our team because the force of the call and the love of Jesus Christ trumps everything possible criticism and hit. You want to be so entirely engrossed with Jesus, that you are absolutely unstoppable in the Holy Spirit. Does anybody understand what I'm saying today? Because, listen, if the enemy gets wind that you will quit, he will never stop harassing you never, never because that is what he's after. Your critics do not want you to change. They want you to quit. They want you to quit. Sometimes we don't want to take a hit at the devil because of the hits that we will take from other Christians. God help us. God help us.
1 Samuel 17:31 through 40 says this now, oh, it's about to get good. "When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, 'Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.' 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.' But David said to Saul, 'Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the'", who do you see right there? "'The armies of the Living God.' And David said, 'The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.' And Saul said to David, 'Go, and God be with you!' Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put his helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail".
Do you remember how tall we learned yesterday that Saul was? Head and shoulders above every other man in Israel. "And David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, 'I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.' And so he put them off". Because I think this is such an important part of our message so that you know you have a David in you. You're not the exception in this room, you have a David in you. Doesn't matter what size you think you are, when it comes right down to fighting giants, any willing shrimp will do.
A woman tweeted me day before yesterday and said she'd been watching one of the video sessions from one of the Bible studies with her teenage daughter. And she said her teenage daughter leaned in and looked at the screen she said, "Mama, she's just like a little Chihuahua". I loved it so much. I thought yeah, that's what I am a little Chihuahua. And this little Chihuahua, I'm just gonna gnaw, I'm gonna gnaw at this giant's ankle until he goes down. I'm just gonna gnaw the giant to the bone till he goes down. And when I get this one gnawed, I'm gonna move over to the other one and I'm gonna gnaw that one. Because I want to tell you something, in Jesus a chihuahua can take down a champion every time, every time, every time. A champion without Jesus is nothing compared to a Chihuahua who puts her trust in Jesus Christ.
And then it says in verse 40, "He took his staff in his hand and he chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch. His sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine". He picks out, can somebody tell me how many? Five smooth stones. So, what if we just pulled these up? He knew just what he was looking for. It had to fit the pouch just right. And he took that sling and those five smooth stones all strapped to him, ready and willing to go out to the battlefield.
Now, I'm gonna tell you a couple things that I learned this week because they fascinated me. In the ancient world, they were fierce warriors, fierce warriors. And remember, everybody in the army of Israel wasn't carrying a sword and carrying all of that armor on them like we see in the Philistine army. 'Cause remember, they were experts with metal, and there wasn't much metal among the Israelites. So, here it comes out, and he's got a slingshot. And I learned that these guys, these guys that were the most adept at using, I mean, they were practicing over and over again. And I read in research that these slingers could sling a stone over 1500 feet at speeds exceeding 250 miles an hour.
Now, here's how he would do it. Now, I don't, this is gonna be pathetic, but I'm gonna give you a little bit of an idea. It was with two straps just like this. And the whole objective, they were going to do it clockwise. So, I'm gonna have to do it opposite you to keep it going clockwise. They take it and they swing it so fast that, of course, the pebble or the stone would stay in it. Now, the whole idea was that one of the ropes coming from the sling was going to somehow be attached to the hand, so that at the exact time, it needs to come out of the sling to be able to let go of this side and out that stone would go.
And just I want you to see how difficult this would be. Don't worry. I'm using a little ping pong ball because my director said he'd sent me a text and he said, "Am I supposed to bring stones"? I said, "Absolutely. What do you think I'm gonna use"? He said, "I have found that nine out of ten Philistine audiences prefer ping pong balls over stones". I said, "All right, bring me some ping pong balls, but I'm gonna also have stones".
Now, let me see if I can get my mind right here. So it'll be okay like this, fast, fast, fast, fast, and then let go. That was fabulous! That was fabulous! I'm so glad. Oh, thank you, God. I'm giving up my slinging now because that was perfection and I don't think that I can outdo that one.
Okay, listen, if you're gonna have some audacious wins in your life, if you're in... what I'm talking about audacious wins is that you're really up against something. Listen, there's nothing that the Lord loves better than to defy odds in your life. There's nothing like it, but it starts with the fact that we gotta have us some outrageous faith in a huge God that no matter how big our giant is, he is in the shadow of our huge God who can do anything, who is omnipotent, and is a God who reigns. Next one is this, prowess with a powerful weapon. Had David gone for the lion and the bear, he would not have been prepared to go for Goliath. We got to be willing to fight the smaller battles or we're not ready for the big one.
Listen, in the middle of your big encounter with Goliath, you want to be prepared for that battle. Now, if you're like me, I went down to my very first Goliath, anybody else? I mean, down to the ground, and God had to, I didn't even know, I would not have been able to define spiritual warfare if my life had depended on it. I had no education where that was concerned, no idea how the whole thing worked. And I'm gonna tell you something, I was flat on the ground for the count until the Lord began to pick me up and put me on my feet. He did not say these words out loud to me but in effect it was, well, are you ready to learn how to fight?
PART 4
You got a calling on your life, but you're gonna have to learn how to defend it. I can tell you that. You got a calling on your life that is equipped by the very grace and grace gifting of God, but battle takes some skill. It is gifting. It is supernatural strength and supernatural power, but he wants you and I to get in the place where we are skilled with the use of the Word of God in warfare, where we are skilled about the things of warfare. Not that we're just, I mean, yes, we're already gifted, but are we skilled enough to know what to do with our gift?
I need somebody to get this one with me. Anybody? We gotta know what to do. Never think to yourself there is no place for skill. There is no place for really getting educated. We've got everything. We realize we're all good to go right here. No, wisdom is knowing what to do with knowledge. It is the skill to be able to execute in the time of need, in the time of war what is appropriate for the moment. We gotta learn to be deliberate. We gotta stop winging it and start slinging it. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Y'all listen to me.
We're gonna have to trade in some of our slingbacks for slingshots. I know no other way to say it, because, you know, a lot of us really, really girly girls. I get it in every way. I'm a very, very girly girl. There's nothing less. Listen, there is nothing more, you're not more of a woman the girlier the girl you are. We're just, like, women. We're just women. If you've never put on any mascara, you're still a hundred percent woman. You're a woman, but for some of us, I mean, we do dearly love a darling pair of shoes, and we don't wanna sweat.
I was rubbing a callus on the inside of my hands couple of days ago and kinda staring at it and thought, "Well, I need to get some lotion on my hands". You know what those calluses are from? Weight lifting. You would think a woman my age wouldn't have to weight lift, except a woman my age needs to weight lift, because we're not gonna be strong on accident. God's calling us to become skilled warriors, preparing for the battle in advance, getting some victory over some daily battles so that we can sling that stone in the big ones.
Sometimes, you know, y'all we're slinging the wrong things. Like, we're slinging mud. We're slinging bull. Oh, we're slinging some bull. We're slinging so much bull on social media. I started thinking, and I'm not just saying lies, you know, and not everything we post that's bull is, to me, bull and lies can be the same thing, but bull is also just, like, trying to make ourselves really look bigger and smarter and, like, we've got it more together than we do.
And really, honestly, I think it would be such a good idea if there was a little feature on Twitter or on Instagram or on Snapchat or on Facebook that every time we posted bull it would just make this sound right here. Could you do it for me, Stephen? Wouldn't that be fantastic? Do it. Do it more. I mean, just put... Wouldn't that be wonderful? It'd even be better if, like, some snort could just come out of the phone, just like some fog coming out of the bull, 'cause it would just like be, "Bull, bull," and we might just take it down, because here is the thing.
If you and I are gonna be fierce and skilled warriors, we gotta really sharpen up our inner ick. Anybody? Like David, you cannot be victorious in your fiercest battles dressed like somebody else. You cannot. You cannot. We're in a world of followers and imitations, and we gotta fight that. We gotta fight that. I gotta tell you something. I mean, we're just getting to be frank in the lesson today. Just frank in the lesson today.
One of the biggest challenges I have in ministry is continuing to have the courage enough to just be myself. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Because do you have any idea how many imitations of me I have seen along the way? And I say that a lot of 'em have been in fun, some of 'em are not, but, you know, I don't know why, but I'm just like. I'm Tigger. I'm Tigger when I teach, you know? Sometimes I realize that I'm teaching with one leg up like this, and I'm thinking, "Put your foot down".
I don't know why, but I can tell you this. If I am ever at a microphone just standing right here completely calm, I'm imitating someone else, because that is not me. It's not the way God made me, it is not my personality, and I have to make the decision, because I see really cool people in the faith, and they don't act like an idiot in front of people. They don't do back springs on the platform. They don't do that kinda stuff, and I think, "Beth, you need more dignity. That's what you need. You need more dignity". And then I'll think, "You know what? I want to do apologetics. That would be, I think I have that in me somewhere". It's not me. This is me. Get in the Scriptures. Get in the Scriptures. Get in the Scriptures. Get in the Scriptures. I mean, I don't know why. It just is. It just is. Do the thing. Do the thing. Do it as you and not as somebody else.
Verse 41, "And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with a shield-bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, 'Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?' And the Philistine cursed David by his gods".
Verse 44, "The Philistine said to David, 'Come to me. I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.' Then David said to the Philistine, 'You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.'" Amen.
"Whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands".
Can I hear an hallelujah from anybody in the house? And it says, "When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle". Do you see him running? That quick obedience. "Run, boy, run. You take that grain to your brothers. You take these loaves of bread to your brothers. You take and check on your brothers. You take these cheeses to the commander, and you run to do it".
It says that he ran to them, and he ran. He did not wait. He did not stand there and look at him and think to himself, "I don't know now that it's coming right down to it. I don't know if I have it in me or not". No, "He ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag, and he took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground". This day, this day has been appointed by God for the thud of giants, because you have a rock to throw. You have Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the one and only to whom nothing is impossible. That is what you have.
In the chapter in 1 Samuel chapter 17 it talks about that the champion of the Philistines, Goliath, was trying to disgrace them, disgrace them. I'm gonna tell you something. There are all manner of people out there in the very body of Christ that will try to diss the grace of Jesus Christ in your life, and you cannot let 'em. You cannot let 'em. It's not grace so that sin may abound, but grace so that we may rebound from our sin and live knowing that nothing, nothing can ever take Jesus from us.
Would you notice with me that it says in verse 51, "Then David ran and stood over the Philistine," so do you see this is the fourth time in 1 Samuel chapter 17 David doing what? I mean, he's just like constantly running, constantly running, constantly running, so runs over. He's run to him, and he's done his slingshot like this, taken him in the forehead. He drops down. Then he runs over to him, and it says he stood over him. "And he took his sword". It's talking about Goliath's sword. "He drew it out of its sheath".
Can you almost hear it in your mind? Hear that blade go against that sheath. "And he killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled". Yeah, I guess they did. "And the men of Israel and Judah rose up and pursued 'em".
Cut off his head. This is point number six. We wanna make sure we've got this one down before we leave this house today. That giant's not dead till you take off its head. Colossians chapter 2 in the center of your New Testament. I wanna read something to you. I'm gonna go to 18 and 19. This is Paul talking to the church at Colossae. "Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head". Do some of your versions have a capital H on that head? "From whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God".
Stick with me here, because this is so important. Listen, the enemy comes as a giant to us in all sorts of circumstances, and the way he gets his victory is to maintain and enforce some kind of authority. It's always about headship. Think about this for a moment so I can use it as an example. If you've ever dealt with addiction, and I have. I know what it's like to just have an addictive stronghold in your life that you cannot even fathom living the next week without, let alone the next year without, let alone the next five years without, so I have been there. I get that. That is part of my past, but I wanna say this to you. For every addiction, what happened to cause it to go into a full-fledged addiction is it got authority. Is anybody tracking with me there?
It's what you would call when the psalmist said, and then Paul says it again in the book of Romans. He said something very much like it. That sin would not dominate us. That sin would not have dominion over me. You would find that wording in both Psalm 119, and you would find it in the book of Romans, and it's talking about when sin gets authority, because you and I are not gonna get where we're gonna walk in sinlessness while we are this side of seeing the face of Jesus. We're not going to. We can live in victory. We can get victory over presumptuous sin and by that I mean to some degree planned sin.
In other words, we can get to where we walk more in reactive sin than we do proactive sin, but we're gonna be dealing with sin, and we get to confess it and be made clean and purified every single time. Praise God for his grace. But when the enemy becomes a giant, when he's raised something up, a stronghold is anything that has been put up in a lofty, exalted place of authority, so it's when that thing gets authority over us that it becomes dominant. And an addiction is when that thing got authority and one reason what makes food addiction really, really complicated and really worthy of praying diligently through day by day is because food is not something you can just give up.
But there are other things that you know have had a mastery over you and have had authority over you and have had authority over me, and those are some things we can just shut the door on. I mean, just slam the door on it. For some of you, I mean, death to you is picking up another drink. I mean, it's just like death to you.
Now, let's shift into a different area here that is addressed in Colossians 2. Here is what happens with really spiritual people, 'cause we've got that, maybe most of us in this room have been both, but there is this carnal thing that we've got going. But then, there is also for really spiritual people that like spiritual things, the way they disconnect from the head is by getting sidetracked with something else that seems really spiritual. Only it's disconnected from the head. He's given a couple of examples here. The examples may not seem like they're fitting so much in our present circumstances and in our context, but listen to what he says. "Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism," so that would be a way of being super, super, hyper religious and deciding, no, that do not touch. Do not handle. Do not taste. I mean, your whole life becomes do not. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not.
That would be basically a rundown of what asceticism would look like to us. "Worship of angels, or going on in detail about visions". Does anybody get this with me? Because what's happening there is that we're getting sidetracked with something that seems so spiritual. We can do this with spiritual warfare. We could do it with eschatology, all of these wonderful doctrines that we wanna study, but we can get so sidetracked in 'em that they become the focus of our spiritual lives, and we have disconnected from the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's when we're headed for a stronghold.
When you submit and when I submit to the authority of Jesus, he is never gonna do what's wrong. Never. It will be for our liberation. It will be for our transformation. He's not gonna do you wrong, so the headship of Christ, that is our safety. That giant's not dead till you take off its head. Where did it get authority over you? Don't just let that giant come down with a thud. Go kill that thing. Take the head off of it. See. Be able to go before God and study it out. "Lord, where did it get authority over me? I wanna live in victory over this addiction. I wanna live in victory over this thing that I've held on to, this bitterness that I've held on to, this unforgiveness and resentment that I've held on to. I wanna live in victory. This fear that I've held on to, where did it get authority and how"?
Ask him. Ask him to give you insight. "What was it, the root of it? Where did it get headship"? And you stare your sweet little face straight into the face of Jesus, fully connected to the Head. Any time in our believing lives we lose focus on Jesus, we are headed for a stronghold. That's just it. Some years ago, Keith and I had gone to some lease land he had in South Texas, and we are there for a couple of days, and on about the second day he said, "Let's go for a walk". And it was, you know, so hot there, and I had a, kind of, a mix, like a little lab, border collie, kind of, a little mix, just a little mutt that I loved so much.
And Keith had a bird dog, and so we had Beanie and Sunny on our walk, and we had 'em both on a leash and as we were getting ready to walk out the door Keith grabbed his double-barrel shotgun. Well, you know me. I mean, I'm just like Ms. Pacifist. I'm all like, "Why do we have to bring the gun"? He said, "Baby, do you want a javelina to come after one of your dogs and just, like, gut the dog right in front of you"? "No, I really don't want to". And he says, "It's gonna be perfectly safe, 'cause I'll tell you what I'm gonna do".
So, he's got Beanie on the leash at his right hand, and I've got Sunny on the leash over here walking beside him, but he's got his double-barrel shotgun opened up across his forearm. So, it's loaded, but it's opened up over his forearm and, of course, it's pointed down, so it cannot shoot because it's open. So, we're walking along. I'm walking right beside him, and we're just, like, making our way through just, like, the cactus, everything else you can imagine. Scorpions. You name it.
And we come up, and I mean all of a sudden Sunny my dog, I'm on the right side of Keith. Sunny my dog lurches. I mean, like, taut on the leash. She lurches like this, and we look up, and we can see a huge rattlesnake, and I mean ready to go. Ready to go. Its head is up. You know, it's got its tail straight up. Its rattler is rattling. I mean, it is fully ready to go, and I am telling you before we could even think a clear thought my husband has got that shotgun open over his forearm. He throws that thing up in the air, catches it with his right hand. He snaps it shut like that and goes boom, and I'm, you know, just like, "Whoa. Whoa. Whoa". I mean, I just stared at that. It was just smoking, and there is no head.
Here is the whole snake rolled up, the tail is just like that, and there is no head on that snake, and there is no head to be found because that head has been blown into 10.000 pieces. Ten thousand pieces. I am all like, "Whoa". I have never ever been so smitten with that man in all of my life. It was like gun smoke. It was like nothing I've ever... I mean, it was just like he went, and I was just like, "I am yours forever, forever". It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. Go for the head.
I said, "How did you do that"? He said, "I aimed at the head". You gotta aim for the head. Oh, that snake is vicious, but once he loses his head he loses control over you. Once he loses headship, once he loses authority in your life, he's lost that battle, and it's on. It's on. It's on. The battle is on, and you have won. All right, let's work toward the last one. In 1 Samuel chapter 17 we see this juxtaposition of David and King Saul. Head and shoulders above all the rest.
Number seven is this: all of us have a David inside, if we're willing to deal with our Saul. We could be men and women after God's own heart. We all have the makings of a mighty warrior of God, of a courageous warrior of God, but the thing about it is that we also have this Saul tendency inside of us. Anybody know what I'm talking about? If we can just deal with our Saul, because I'm gonna tell you what Saul was like. This was the kinda thing that had Saul going. He wanted the hype without the holiness.
Anybody get that with me? He wanted position without the sweat of earnest prayer. He wanted the shortcut to the high call. This was Saul. He was a halfhearted man who wanted the whole blessing of God, and he wanted to appease God, instead of please God, and it turned him into a jealous, insecure, entitled person. As long as you and I keep before us, it is the power of the Lord that gives us the victory. It is nothing in our own strength. Unreasonable victories will come to us and scandalous grace will come to us if we will keep in mind that Jesus alone is the one with that kinda power and that we partner with him as servants and sons and daughters. Marvelously helped, to be marvelously helped, to be marvelously helped. I wanna be marvelously helped.