Steven Furtick - How To Defuse Your Doubt? (10/30/2018)
In 1 Samuel 17:28-45, the preacher shows David hitting his first wall of doubt through his brother Eliab's harsh accusations, then Saul downplaying him, and finally Goliath's trash-talking provocation. The big takeaway is that the enemy attacks your calling with accusation to shame you, belittling to make you feel small, and provocation to pull you into the wrong fight—but you win by turning away from the noise, leaning on past God-wins, staying true to your own "weapons," and fighting from distance as a faith-slinger so the whole world sees God's power.
Facing Accusation from Those Closest to You
Now, I want to read about this first person to you in verse 28, the first force of doubt that David encounters. And I want you to look for yourself in this passage and see how this relates to you and where you are today. It says, verse 28, when Eliab, David's oldest brother, a little sibling rivalry going on, you're about to see how David's family is dysfunctional too, just like yours. When his 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? You're not very responsible. I know how conceited you are, how wicked your heart is. You came down only to watch the battle."
What's he doing? He's accusing. He's accusing. How does the devil plant doubts in our mind concerning our destiny? By accusing us. One of the names that the Bible gives to Satan, it's only mentioned one time, but I think it's one of the most accurate, is the accuser of the brethren, the accuser of God's children. And so God will show you your sin to change you. Yeah, but He will never show you your shame. He will never rub your nose in what you've done wrong in order to bring you down. And that's how you can know whether it's God speaking or the devil. When God speaks to you about something in your life that He doesn't like, He'll always speak in a way that will lift you up to a higher way of living. But when the enemy comes, he comes like Eliab to drag you down. "I know how wicked you are. What are you doing here? What are you doing in church?"
You know, some of you, while we were even singing today, that's what the devil was saying to you. Who do you think you are lifting your hands? You know how you lived last week. Who do you even think you are being in church? Who do you even think you are trying to study the Bible? You go to the gym. Who do you even think you are getting on a treadmill? You'll be fat in October just like you were fat last October because you'll never keep it up. Watch this. Accusing. Accusing. Accusing. We all have Eliabs. Accusing. Accusing. Accusing. If you've got a great destiny, you'll have to face great accusations.
The Pain of Being Accused by Those You Serve
Can't imagine what it felt like to be David in this moment, though. Because think about it. He's being accused by the very person that he came to serve. Remember when Jesse sent David out? He said, "Take this cheese and bread down to your brothers." It's like, Hey, David, I know how wicked you are. Actually, bro, I just came to bring you some snacks. Can I get a witness? And David is upset about it. Have you ever been accused by somebody you were trying to assist? It's the worst feeling in the world.
You know, and I'm talking to all the moms right now. I'm talking to the moms. I'm specifically talking to the moms of teenage girls. When you tell her, "You are not going out of the house dressed like that," and she says what she says. "I hate you." Rolls her eyes. You know, stomps off. Does her thing. And that's where I just separated all the white women in the church from the black women. Because when I said, she says, "I hate you." All the black women were like, and then she dies. And the white women were like, all the time, all the time. Right. I know my audience now.
And so David watch his response. His response is awesome. This is what you got to learn to do. This is what you got to learn to do. Verse 29. He's frustrated about it. He's being accused. And he says this verse 29. "Now what have I done?" Can't you hear the little brother? And even how he's talking here? I can hear the teenager. "Now what have I done? Can I even speak?"
Learning to Turn Away from Accusations
And when I was reading this, it reminded me of my younger son, Graham. We have three kids. The youngest one's a girl. And then we have Grammy six and Elijah, he's eight. And Elijah is so sharp with his words. This boy, I don't know about his athletic ability yet, but his words, that boy, the way his mind works. He can beat me in an argument and I'm good at arguing. And so what he does, he uses that against his little brother all the time. And poor Graham, it gets to him every time. He hasn't really learned what to do about this yet.
I'm trying to help him because Graham will come in bragging about something. You know, he's a little proud of an accomplishment or something. And he'll come in and say, "Daddy, daddy, daddy, I did 10 pull-ups." And Elijah will say, "Um, they weren't real pull-ups." And then Graham, he'll get so defensive and he says this every time. "Elijah." How many times have we heard that? "Elijah. Yes, they were real pull-ups. Elijah." Every time.
So I've been teaching Graham. I'm working with him. I'm teaching him. Your brother is extremely good at arguing and you might not want to try to beat him in an argument. What you might want to do instead is learn to get better at ignoring him than he is at arguing with you. And this is how you have to deal with Eliab. "Can I even talk?" Well, watch this. Watch what David does. It's brilliant. It's brilliant. He doesn't start defending himself. Let me show you the text where dad told me to bring the cheese and the bread. No, no, no, no.
Watch this. One of the most simple strategies you can get for dealing with the accusation of the enemy. Look at it. Verse 30. He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter. Watch this. This is what you have to do. You have to learn the turn. So the devil is real good at accusing you. And you know he'll use all kinds of stuff. It's not people accusing you you've got to worry about because they don't know the real dirt. It's not what people say about you. It's what you know about you that the devil will use against you to try to tell you you can't do it.
Turning Away: The Key Strategy Against Doubt
And he'll plant these seeds of doubt in your mind. And he won't speak with the voice of God trying to help you get better and change you. When God shows you your sin, repent. Change your mind. But when the devil accuses you, here's what I want you to learn to do. Just turn away. Just turn away. Turn away. In your mind, turn away. Yeah, but you turn away. You suck. Turn away. Turn away.
I'm going to teach you this in depth in the series Crash the Chatterbox. Because that's what I wrote the whole book about. How do you hear that crap and turn away? Turn away. Turn your back on your neighbor real quick. Say, sometimes I've got to turn away. I've got to turn away. You've got to learn to turn. Have you learned the turn yet? It'll help you so much when he's bombarding you, when he's dismantling you, when he's getting up under your skin. Instead of screaming, Eliab, just turn away.
I love it because David ultimately knew it wasn't Eliab's call whether or not he got to fight Goliath. Yeah. In effect, he's saying, I want to speak to a supervisor. I don't have to argue with you because you're not running this show. And the next time the devil starts bringing up stuff that you did and starts reminding you of your past, I've got a strategy for you. Turn away and appeal to a supervisor because he's not running the show. And Jesus already nailed whatever he's throwing in your face to the cross. So turn away and turn to God and turn your eyes upon Jesus and look full on His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Learn the turn.
Overcoming Belittling and "You Are Not Able" Lies
So there's an accusation. And so David doesn't defend himself. He doesn't go through all the details of why I'm here. No, no, no. He just turns away. Look at verse 31. Because he does, what David said was overheard and reported to Saul, the king. And so Saul sent for him. Remember, Saul kind of knew David because he liked the way he played the harp. And so David said to Saul, and now David's going to try to convince the king, I can fight this guy, and he says, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine. Let no one lose heart. Your servant will go and fight him."
Wait a minute, boy. Aren't you the harp dude? Now you play the harp pretty good, but this is a fight. Your harp ain't going to help you against this guy. Because Goliath was big. We know he was somewhere between six foot nine and nine feet tall. I know there's a discrepancy, but there's a little bit of argument about the language. So somewhere between that, that's pretty big in the ancient world, either way you slice it. He's a big dude. He's wearing over a hundred pounds of armor. He's the greatest champion that all of Philistia has to offer.
And David's walking up, asking for permission to fight the battle, to accomplish his destiny, to glorify God. And look at Saul's response. Saul replied, verse 33, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him." That's the first phrase. "You are not able." And then the second one, "You are only a young man," and he's been a warrior from his youth.
I wonder what the devil's been telling you, you are not able to do this week. Doesn't he start almost everything he says to you with that phrase? You are not able. You're not going to be able to handle this. You're going to crack. You're going to choke. You're going to send your kids to the therapist for real. You're not able. Come on, let's be serious. You play good, but you can't fight. This is too much for you. You are not able. You are only.
Belittling Your Ability and Experience
Somebody in this room that's been through a divorce, the devil's been telling you, you're only a divorcee. You're not a real Christian. If you're a real Christian, you'd have worked your marriage out. You are only a mom. You don't even have a real job. You're only. You're not able. You're not able. You're only. What's he doing? Belittling David. I wonder what's been belittling you lately. You know, because accusation is one thing that really speaks to your character. But when he starts belittling you in your ability, that can be quite discouraging, because a lot of what Saul said to David was correct. You know, it's factual. Man, this is a big guy. I'm just a little boy.
And see, what David knew how to do, he's so instructive for all of us who have ever felt this big, who have ever felt cut down to size, who have ever looked at our experience, at our pedigree, and what we're good at. You know what gets me all the time? I always think everybody's so much smarter than me. I do. I live in a constant state of thinking, everybody knows all this stuff I don't know. Every once in a while, I'll get a glimpse into the window where I'll find out, you're not all that smart either. And then that encourages me, because I know we're all fighting. We all feel stupid sometimes. Don't leave me up here by myself. Has anybody ever felt, I'm so stupid, I'm so stupid, I'm so stupid. And so am I, and so are we all, and we're all trying to learn together.
So the experience that you don't have is no indication of what God can't do in your life. And it doesn't matter what you don't know, and it doesn't matter what you can't do when God calls you. So David hears that discouraging talk, and look at verse 34. I love the next two words. It says, But David. But David. I wanted to preach a sermon one time called, How Big Is Your But? Because when you see the word "but" in the Bible, it's always setting up a really important contrast.
Remembering Past Victories to Face Giants
So it says, But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep." Oh, well, that really builds my confidence. So, yeah, so you're totally ready for this. I've been keeping sheep. I could totally kill this giant. Do you see how ridiculous that is? It's like, I'm great with computers. I could totally play in the Super Bowl. It's like, I don't think that was it.
Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep, but watch this. Beneath the surface, I was training for this very moment. Because when a lion or bear came and carried off his sheep from the flock, let me tell you what I did. Verse 35, I went after it. I went after it. Yeah, it was kind of scary, but I went after it. That's what I hope people say about me as a preacher. I want people to say, You know, he wasn't always the smartest, and his jokes weren't always funny, and sometimes he screamed a little too much, and we had to wear earplugs to listen to him while he preached. But that boy went after it. That boy preached till he couldn't preach anymore. That boy left it all out there in the pulpit. He went after it.
Sometimes I listen to some of the stuff I said five years ago preaching. I'm thinking, Oh God, why'd you say that? But at least I was going after it. I might miss every once in a while, but at least I'm moving. I went after it. You got to go after it. Even if you miss it sometimes, you got to just go after it.
He said, I went after it, and I struck it, and I rescued the sheep from its mouth. And when it turned on me, because sometimes the situation will get worse, and sometimes stuff will turn on you, and sometimes you'll be engaged in a battle, and it'll bite you. But he said, When it turned on me, no problem, I seized it by its beard, and struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.
It’s Not the Size of the Giant, but Your God
So the same God who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine. I'm trying to say, it doesn't matter how big your giant is, it matters how big your God is. And if you've got a big God on the inside of you, magnify Him, and let your troubles seem minuscule. Stay after it, man. Stay after it. Stay after it. Find three people. Tell them, Stay after it. Stay after it. Stay after it. God brought you this far, and He won't leave you in this place.
Wow. I love the Bible. I love this story. This thing preaches itself. Can you feel I'm excited? I'm so excited right now. I'm telling you right now, if you can't preach David and Goliath, and you're a preacher, you need to quit, man. You need to go sell something else, because this stuff will preach itself.
Now look, Saul said to David, verse 37, the same guy who about five verses ago was saying, you can't do it. Saul said to David, "Go. If it's like that, go. Go ahead. It's your bad self. And the Lord be with you." In other words, good luck, bro. There's a lot on the line, because it's not just David versus Goliath, that's Israel versus Philistia. So if David loses, the whole nation loses. A lot on the line.
Being Yourself Instead of Wearing Others' Armor
So Saul wants to make sure that David is appropriately attired for this battle. Look at verse 38. It says, Saul dressed David in his own tunic, put a coat of armor on him, the original under armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he wasn't used to them. And he said, "I cannot go in these, because I'm not used to them." So he took them off. Touch your neighbor, say, take it off.
Wait a minute. Sorry. I've used this many times to illustrate how you have to be yourself. And you can't wear the expectations of others. And you can't imitate what God has called other people to do and who He's called them to be. And so it's a great illustration. David strips down and he goes back to what he knows.
Look at verse 40. It says, Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones, five secret weapons, five smooth stones. Five, for all of you Bible nerds, is the number of grace. He took five smooth stones from the stream and put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag. And with his sling in his hand, now we got the sticks. Now we got the stones. And he approached. There's that word. Approached the Philistine.
You know, I think it's important to realize why David approached the Philistine because he was fighting for God. But it's equally important how he approached him. Because not everybody that fights for God wins the battle.
David Wasn’t the Underdog – He Was a Slinger
I always thought of the story of David and Goliath just like, you know, it was just a total miracle. And I don't know why, but for some reason in my mind as a little boy, I always thought that David had something that was closer to like a rubber band and a spitball. I didn't realize how sophisticated his weapon, his sling actually was. And just as a little boy, I kind of had that image locked in, you know, like he thumps Goliath with the spitball and God anoints the spitball, holy spit from heaven or, you know, something, and he goes down.
But I need to teach you something about David because maybe you don't see it quite that extreme, but I think where we get this story wrong is we always see David as the underdog, but maybe he wasn't. And this is what I was telling you about week one that I read in that book by Malcolm Gladwell called David and Goliath. He takes the story from not a biblical point of view, but just a historical point of view. And he says, was David really the underdog?
See, because in ancient Israel in this time, in the Valley of Elah, where they were fighting, there would have been three basic types of warriors. So there's cavalry, the people who ride on horses to fight. There's infantry. These are the people that fight with swords and with spears, with these short-distance spears and swords. And then there's the artillery, which is the archers, but more importantly, the slingers.
Now, I need to tell you about the slingers because David was a slinger, and these slingers were bad boys. They could actually get their sling going so fast once they would get it going that they would have that thing turning at, some historians say, up to six to seven revolutions per second. So David didn't have no rubber band and a spitball. He had some real weaponry. He was a projectile warrior. Or a slinger, if you prefer.
We got Goliath, a big swordsman. Big old guy, covered in a hundred pounds of armor, facing off against a little boy with a sling. Swordsman versus slinger. And they're both approaching one another.
Provocation: The Enemy’s Final Tactic
Verse 41 says that while David was getting ready with his stones, meanwhile, the Philistine with his shield-bearer in front of him. Interesting theory. Many people believe that the same condition that caused Goliath to be a giant also made him have a vision problem. And that's why he traveled with the shield-bearer because he couldn't see until he got at close range. So the very thing that made him scary to the Israelites, his size, made him ineffective and vulnerable because he couldn't see very well. That's going to be important in a moment. I know it sounds kind of trivial right now, but just hang on.
It says that he kept coming closer to David. He kept coming closer to David. Verse 42. He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy. Here they are again, underestimating. Here they are again, belittling. Here they are again, provoking. That's the third thing the enemy will do. He'll accuse you. He'll belittle you. And he'll provoke you. Man, he's trying to draw David into a fight.
Look at it. He sees that he's nothing more than a little boy. He's glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. Verse 43, he said to David, "Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks and stones?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. "You son of a Bethlehem man named Jesse." That's what he said. And he's insulting David, and he's ready. He's ready to fight David, and he's coming closer to David.
And verse 44 is a key, because he says, "Come here, and I'll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals." And you know Goliath is exactly right in verse 44. If David had come down to fight Goliath at close range, Goliath would have killed him on sight, because Goliath was a swordsman. And so, if David fought the battle on Goliath's terms, he'd have no chance of winning, even if he fought it for the right reason.
Fighting with the Right Approach – From a Distance
Even if you really love God, you know you can really love God and still be losing in life because of your approach. You can really believe the Bible but still not have success in your home because of your approach. You can really love God and still be broken in debt because of your approach. You can really love God and still struggle with all kinds of health issues related to lifestyle because of your approach.
See, here's what David knew, and this is what we got to know. And y'all, this is what set me on fire from the inside, and I've been waiting for you to get together, and really the whole series was just a setup to get you to this moment to realize you are a slinger. You're a slinger. You and David have that in common. You're both anointed. You both have ability. You both have an attitude of passion, and you both have the same approach. You fight from the air. You have weapons that come from above.
Come on, touch three people. Tell them, I'm a slinger. I'm a slinger. Make sure you don't substitute out the W for the L and that you messed the whole thing up. I'm a slinger. And here's Goliath trying to provoke David to fight on his level. But no, see, David knows who he is, and he knows what to do. And he has an approach that he will not compromise on. He's not fighting Goliath hand to hand. He's fighting him sling to sword. And a slinger will beat a swordsman as long as the slinger doesn't get too close.
Here's what I'm trying to tell you about the enemy. He can't kill you if you don't get close. He can't kill you if you keep your distance. Here's what we're learning how to do today. We're going to keep our distance from our enemy and sling our stones until every Goliath falls down in our lives. Oh, help me preach.
So David backs up to the battle line. Here comes Goliath closing in. He looks bigger than the man of God. But no, no, no, no, no. Read the rest of the story. David said, verse 45, 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. And this day..." Everybody say this day. I'm not putting this off until tomorrow. We're not going to stand around for 40 more days. I'm not going to sit here and listen to this crap one more second.
This day, the Lord will, I'm confident, deliver you into my hands. I love this guy. He is the Richard Sherman of the Old Testament, just talking stuff. And I'll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day, emphasize, I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army. I'm not just going to kill you. I'm going to kill your whole family. I'll kill the whole army, and I'll feed you to the birds and wild animals. Let me soften a little bit.
And the whole world will know. The whole world... That's why God lets you fight battles, so the whole world can know that He's stronger than the whole world against you. Then the whole world will know. Now I'm giving you the gift of clarity. Now do you see why the stuff you face has to be bigger than you? So the world will know that God is bigger than it. Then the world will know.
Saul, I appreciate your daughter in marriage. That's great, but she ain't all that. She ain't worth risking my life for. I appreciate tax-free, but I'm a teenager. I don't make much money right now. Lousy pay keeping sheep. But here's what I do want. I want the whole world to know. See, when you fight battles from this altitude with this approach for this reason, you're unbeatable. The whole world... This is my goal. 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'll give all of you into our hands. And as the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. But he didn't come any closer. Why? He's a slinger. And you've got to learn how to draw battle lines against your doubt and say, I'm fighting you from here. Thank you.