Conflict With A Giant Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The Bible says, All we like sheep have gone astray. And like sheep, most of us tend to follow rather than lead. In the race of life, we need leaders to follow. David's example in defeating Goliath led to a big Israeli victory as courage bred more courage.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, have you ever had a Goliath moment where an obstacle seemed too big to overcome? Well, Dave, in asking that question, I'm trying to search my mind for those kinds of moments. There have been moments indeed in my life where I thought that there was a barrier that I could not cross. And God somehow gave the grace and the strength so that indeed it turned out to be a victory. And I think we all have those experiences.

At the same time, we have also had our defeats, haven't we? But at the end of the day, the secret to what happened to David is in those words when he says, I come to you in the name of the Lord God of hosts. I've written a book entitled Growing Through Conflict, Lessons from the Life of David. I write books like this as resources for the ministry of Running to Win. I believe very deeply that we exist to help you make it all the way to the finish line.

Would you consider helping us? And by the way, for a gift of any amount, this book can be yours. Go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. I need to add a word and to remind all of you that the stories that we encounter in the Bible are actually historically factual. It's wonderful to visit the land of Israel and to be able to actually see the stream, the valley where this battle occurred and remind ourselves that when we hold the Bible in our hands, it is a historical book, but it is also the word of God.

Let's listen. Verse 45 is the key verse, 1 Samuel 17. Then David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of armies of Israel whom you have taunted. And that is the key difference between David and everyone else who is running from the giant. David said, you are coming to me purely in human strength.

And even though I'm good at my sling, I'm not confident that I can overcome you. In fact, David goes on to say that the issue is not really who has the best weapons in this case. He said the real issue is which God is going to prevail. You know, in the Bible, the Lord of hosts is but one term among many. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. Jehovah Shalom, God is our peace. Jehovah Nitzi, I believe it is, the Lord our banner.

In fact, whole studies have been done to show that whatever you need for a particular situation, you have in God. The Lord of armies, the Lord of hosts, this represents God as a warrior. Just this morning in my devotional reading, I was reading this psalm that says the angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear him, and God protects them. So what David is saying is, is that because this is a battle, a spiritual battle, what I will do is to trust a God who is the Lord of all battles. My dear friend today, I want you to know that the invisible God, the invisible God was more real to David than the visible giant on the hilltop. And David says, I am willing to have faith and action, faith and action.

I know what I'd have done. I'd have said, Saul, I'm not volunteering, but I am going to pray and I'm going to pray that the giant die of a heart attack. That would have been my prayer. David says, I'm not going to pray that. I'm going to go and I'm going to attack him with what I have, like the boy who brings his loaves and fishes to Jesus, and to see what God can do with gifts that I have honed and developed and used in different contexts. Now I'm going to put them to use for the greatest challenge of my career, and I will come in the name of God, in the name of God, the Lord of armies. So what you have is you have faith with action.

You also have faith with authority. We pick it up at verse 46. This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands and I will strike you down and remove your head from you, and I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth might know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give it into your hands.

And then comes the shock. Can you imagine the army of Israel off in a distance, seeing this boy, unarmed, apart from his sling, who had picked up five stones, all kinds of symbolism, you know, various kinds of theories. Some people say, well, you know, the five stones must represent something. Maybe it's half of the Ten Commandments.

I don't know. I want you to know that the five stones just meant that David knew that there was no chance in the world that he was going to get any more than five shots at this guy. If he doesn't have him dead at five, he's going to be dead meat.

He doesn't need any more. And the armies of Israel are off in the distance and they watch this shepherd boy run, not away from the giant, which they had been getting good at for 40 days, but rather toward him. And David comes and you know the rest of the story. David takes his sling and puts a stone in it and so far as we know it's the very first stone and it hits the giant in the forehead and something like that had not entered into his head before and he is dead.

He's dead out in the battlefield. But folks, I want you to get the sense of authority with which David approached the giant. First of all, he was confident God was going to give him the victory. This was not presumption. It wasn't, well, I'll take my sling and I'll try to shoot a stone in his direction and we'll see whether or not God will come through. That kind of faith and David would have been the one whose head would have been cut off by the end of the day.

No. He says, I come to you in the name of the Lord of armies whom you have defied. Now catch this, the giant had no right even to be standing on that land. That part of the territory had been deeded to the tribe of Judah. God had said through Moses and then through Joshua, every place that the sole of your footsteps I have given that to you and it belongs to you. And then the tribes had the land divvied up and it belonged to them.

What in the world was this pagan doing on soil that belonged to Jehovah? But the problem was the bluff was working. The bluff was working. And so David comes and of course he kills the giant. He takes his head and cuts it off and undoubtedly later on they weighed all of his armor. That's why it's mentioned in the Bible as to how much it weighs.

And then I like this part of the story. You'll notice that God directed the stone and God had the giant be in the right position so that the trajectory would work exactly as David had hoped and even though he was good at the sling, no doubt this was very much God directed and finally when it's all over, this is what we read in verse 52. And the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines as far as the entrance to the valley and to the gates of Ekron and the slain Philistines lay along the way to Shamarim, even to Gath and Ekron. Now David stands over Goliath. He cuts off his head. Everybody can see that it's game over. The big man has been taken care of and now everybody says, oh, let's go for them.

I want to kill me a giant too. Can't you just see it? And lo and behold, they do kill Philistines.

The Scripture says that the landscape was littered with them. Could we pause for a moment and help you to understand the power, the power of one courageous act, the power of one courageous person? David, by winning one victory, changed the whole mood of the Philistine army into fear and changed the mood of the Israeli army into one of triumph and victory and courage and faith. One person can make that big a difference.

That's what leadership really is. You know, I look at this and I also see in it a picture of Jesus, who once he triumphed over Satan and won that great battle for us and took care of the devil, now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out, that you and I can now courageously pursue the enemy, knowing that we are victorious because the citadel of strength has been broken, having stripped him of his weapons, Colossians chapter 2, verse 14. How do we summarize a God-sized imagination? How do we come to terms with a giant that is so much bigger than we are but not, of course, bigger than God? Let me suggest, first of all, as we think about the lessons that come to us, that no giant, no giant is bigger than God. No giant is bigger than God.

And write this down. Notice that our giants are as big as we believe them to be. As long as Israel believed that there was no way that they could fight against the giant and win, they could not fight against him and win.

As long as you think that your problem is beyond God's ability to heal and to take care of and to help, as long as you think that, you do not receive the healing and the help that you need. You see, Satan is not nearly as strong as people give him credit for, not nearly as strong. But he is as strong as people are willing to give him credit for.

You see, what I mean to say is that if we think of him as being invincible, someone who cannot be won against because he is so powerful and the behavioral ruts are so deep, if we think of him in that way, then indeed he is all that we think him to be. My dear friend, your giant is not bigger than God. It's not bigger than God. The layoff you experienced this week, the disappointment, the heartache, even the sin that you committed is not bigger than God because he can forgive it. No giant is bigger than God. Secondly, and this is why we need to interpret this story very carefully, is that God is not obligated to kill all of our giants. He's not obligated to kill all of our giants. That's important because, you know what, this is the easiest battle that David ever had.

From here on, it's going to get very, very difficult. This was a piece of cake. This was really a piece of cake. I mean, sure, it took a lot of courage, but let's face it, once the stone was let go of the sling and landed in the temple of the giant, I mean, that was the end of the game. It was quick.

It was easy. Do you know that later on, God is going to give another giant to David, a giant who is going to pursue him for 10 long, interminable years, namely, Saul. And David is going to pray, and he's going to yield, and he's going to submit, and he's going to ask, and God is just going to allow the struggle to go on and on and on. And that's why the next sermon I preach in this series is so incredibly important. It could be entitled, How to Respond to People Who Throw Spears at You, because Saul is going to be throwing spears at David.

And David gives us tremendous insight on what to do when somebody who hates you and is jealous of you and wants to kill you begins to throw spears at you. And, you know, David is going to have to live in caves and in dens, and he won't have a home for 10 long years he's going to be pursued, and there's nothing that he could do to take care of it because he kept committing it to God, and God would not take care of that problem for a long time. God is not obligated to take care of all of our giants. I'll tell you what he is obligated to do. He is obligated to walk with us through the experiences, the events, the circumstances that he does not change.

That he is obligated to do with his people, and that he does with his people. Now there are some giants that God wants to take care of. When we pray for purity, when we pray for the restoration of a marriage, when we pray that an adolescent who is rebellious might come back to faith, those are the kinds of miracles that God wants us to believe him for, and those are the kinds of giants we have to keep in hanging in and beseeching the Lord that we might be able to see victory over them. But there are some circumstances that will just drag on and on and on and on. God is not obligated.

You know that this is the only time in David's whole life, as I mentioned, that he won a victory so quickly and so easily. From here on out, it's tough news all the way. And that's why I want to conclude today by saying that we must identify our giants correctly, because sometimes the giants that are in our heart are far greater than the giants that even might come across our path. The dragon within must be slain. Maybe, as I mentioned earlier in my report, there are those who need to deal with their whole issue of sexuality, and to them it is an incredible, it is an incredible giant.

It is just too big. Well, I want you to know that if you have a God-sized imagination, and how is that acquired? You take the Psalms.

That's a good place to begin. You get on your knees. You lie before the Lord one half hour a day reading his word, crying out to him that you might see God, that you might see God. Because if you do that, you will discover that God will reveal himself to you, and once you see him, you finally see the giant for what it is. The size of your God will determine the size of your giant. All of the Israelites said, Lord, there's a giant out there.

He's too big to hit. David took a look and said, he glanced in God's direction, and he said, God, you know, I think the guy's too big to miss. It's all a matter of perspective.

It's all a matter of perspective. And that's why you heard me pray in the pastoral prayer, and I will continue to pray it, not every Sunday, that we might see God. Because there is no pit that is so deep, but that God is deeper still. There is no mountain that is so high, but that God is higher still. There is no river that is so swift, but that God is greater and swifter than the river. And once we see God, the fear that we have in our hearts towards all those giants dissipates.

The bottom line, the bottom line at the end of the day is to see him, is to see him. A God-sized imagination. Some of you the giant within is your sin that you have never even confessed before God. Perhaps some of you have never received Christ as Savior. You've never believed in him, and you see this great barrier. I remember a man telling me, I will accept Christ as Savior when my mother dies because she's of another faith and I can't hurt her. I want you to know today that that is a giant that God can take care of.

Your responsibility to God is greater than to your family, to relatives, or to anyone else. Blessed are those who behold God, who behold God. For them, the giants hold no fear.

Let us pray. Our Father, today we do marvel at the story, and thank you for it, and thank you for its drama, even its humor, but for its great lesson. Because there are giants in the land. People have come with giants in their homes and in their businesses and at work. Issues of sin, issues of broken relationships, issues of disappointment and heartache. And we pray today Father that we might not spend our time analyzing the height of the giant, the weight of his armor, keep reweighing the weight of his spear, but we pray Father that we might know that that's not the issue.

That is not the issue. The issue is whether we have seen you and whether we approach that problem in the name of the Lord, God of armies. And if we take all of our giants and lay them before you, Father we pray come to control our minds through your word.

Help us to expand our knowledge of who you are. And through your book, Lord, look at life differently because we belong to you. Father, there are some who are here today who are filled with fear because they see the giant so clearly.

Would you fill their hearts with your promises? And remember that those who fear the Lord need fear, nothing else. Come to this congregation that you might reveal yourself to us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

This is Pastor Lutzer. May I have a word with you? As I was listening to the last part of this message, I couldn't help but realize that for many people, the situations in life are very, very difficult.

The giants seem formidable. And I understand that because I've been there. But I also was reminded of the words of Tozer who said that our greatest need is always to see God.

And that's why the Ministry of Running to Win exists. It exists to help people to see God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Would you consider helping us? And we would like to give you a resource that we believe will be a great blessing to you. It's a book I've written entitled Growing Through Conflict, Lessons from the Life of David. We believe that this book is going to be realistic. It'll grow your faith.

It'll also show God's grace in the midst of David's failures. As I mentioned, for a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com.

I'm going to be giving you that info again in case you haven't had an opportunity to get a pencil or a pen. Or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. I personally am so blessed to know that we have so many different people throughout the country and throughout the world who listen to this ministry, and so many who stand with us with their prayers and their gifts.

So let me emphasize again, this resource, Growing Through Conflict, can be yours for a gift of any amount. Go to rtwoffer.com. Of course rtwoffer is all one word. rtwoffer.com. Or you can actually pick up the phone right now and call 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. Time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Prayer is the means we've been given to place our requests before the throne of grace. One running to win listener has this question about prayer. When you pray, how do you discern if it's your will or God's will you're acting upon?

Well, the answer is sometimes we don't. Sometimes we can't distinguish between what we really want and what God wants. And in moments like that, we do like Jesus when he says, Not my will but thine be done. It is not an indication of lack of faith when we tag on to the end of a prayer, thy will be done. I've heard it said that we should never pray that way because that indicates a lack of faith. No, there are times when we simply commit something to God and we commit it to him so sincerely and genuinely. We say we are willing to abide by your will and not ours. And when we pray that way, we're not sure whether we're going to get our will what we desire. But I do believe that we are sure that we will get God's will and what he desires.

So don't stop praying just because sometimes we can't tell the difference between what we want and what God wants. Some good words from Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer or call us at 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Next time David begins a long period of interpersonal conflict, running from the man God had deposed as king. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.