The Giant of Fear - Part A

When David arrives, he doesn't see a giant. He sees a big target. I can't miss that. That'll be easy. Because that's so big, even I can hit that.

Anybody can hit that. That's how he sees it. The fear is intimidating. Fear can be debilitating. But today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how you can face fear and live courageously in Christ. Then, stay tuned after the message as Skip and his wife, Lenya, share how you can come alongside people around the world who are living in fear and share Jesus' love with them. You know, right now in Ukraine, we just got news from the field that Zielinski said they were trying to move 200,000 people. Many of those are children. So we have people that will run into these villages and cities, take the kids out, bring them to safety.

So just this last week, released $50,000 to help the team there. Thanks, Lenya. Be sure to stay with us after today's message to hear the full discussion. Right now, we want to tell you about a resource that will encourage you even more in your faith. Our lives rotate around crucial moments and decisions where everything changes.

We call them pivot points. Here's Skip Heitzig. In this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. Do you think Peter is actually saying that there are times when God knows you need a trial? Is that what he's saying? Uh-huh.

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Please call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Thank you for partnering with us. Now, we're in 1 Samuel chapter 17 as we join Skip Heitzen for today's teaching. The Bible says God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

I want to talk to you today about that. I suppose that everybody has a certain amount of what they would call caution. Healthy fear keeps us alive.

I happen to have a fear of oncoming traffic, so I won't be walking out in that anytime soon. Some people have a fear of heights. That to a certain degree can be good for obvious reasons because gravity still works, but fears can become irrational. They can paralyze us.

They can cause us to think and act in a frantic kind of a way. I suppose that whatever fears that people have, that they have been added to this past year, year and a half by a number of things. So now there's a fear of a virus. There's a fear of economic free fall.

There's fear now of terrorism resurfacing because of the events of the last couple of weeks. Fear starts when we're young. Kids have all sorts of irrational fears from fear of the dark to fear of monsters under their bed. They might be fearful of crocodiles even if they live in Rio Rancho. It doesn't make sense, but kids have those fears.

We learn them and we carry them. One little boy, 12 years old, seventh grader named Quentin said, my biggest fear is a test. He goes, I'm afraid of it because it's like you know the material, but when it's in front of you, your brain shuts off. An eight-year-old girl named Cheyenne said, my greatest fear is my future. Now that I'm in third grade, I'm afraid my future will start happening.

Soon I'll start getting scholarships and free enrollments in college. It's just that life is rolling by way too fast. Besides fears, there are what mental health experts call phobias, and they call that a type of anxiety disorder. And I'm going to talk about phobias. They call that a type of anxiety disorder. And according to the best literature, 30 percent of all Americans have a phobia. The number one, I found this very interesting, phobia of the American public is called trypanophobia. It's the fear of needles.

I think that's interesting, especially right now, right? Trying to roll out vaccines. They should just keep in mind 30 percent of people are dealing with phobias, and the number one phobia people have is they don't like needles.

There are others. There's second on the list is called, I'm going to try to work this out, pteromeranophobia, which is the fear of flying. Then claustrophobia, the fear of enclosed spaces. Entomophobia, the fear of insects. Ophidiophobia, the fear of snakes. My son and wife do not have that phobia. Sinophobia, the fear of dogs. Astrophobia, the fear of storms. There is even something called phobophobia. It is the fear of fear. It's the fear of being afraid. I don't want to laugh these off or marginalize it. If you have one of these phobias, it comes at a cost. It comes at a physiological response, typically raised heart rate, shortness of breath, sweating, adrenaline rush.

All those things are real things that happen in the body. We've been looking at hunting giants. That's the name of our series.

We've sort of looked at giants analogously, metaphorically, but today we consider a real giant named Goliath. You know the story. You know it so well. This chapter is so long. I'm only going to give you elements of it because I believe you know it that well.

Everybody has been in church for any length of time. It is the most famous battle in the Old Testament. It's not between two armies.

It's between two individuals. The people of Israel in this battle, it has told us twice, are fearful. It says they were greatly afraid.

Then they're tremendously afraid. Then you know the story. In walks this kid, a teenage kid. David was no more than a young teenager when this happened. He comes in almost like he's whistling and he's like, what a giant?

So what? It's that kind of unusual faith in the midst of fear that makes the story so noteworthy. Did you know that 63 times the Bible tells us fear not? Fear not or do not be afraid 63 times if you count them.

If you look at all the derivations of that command over 300 times, we are told not to be controlled by or gripped by fear. I was reading the other day an article in the Huffington Post that said 85% of all the things we are afraid of never happen. 85% never happen. One man said my life has been filled with terrible misfortune, most of which never happen. Of the 15% that happens, we discover we can handle it better than we thought we could.

That it's not that bad or there are great lessons to be learned by it. What I want to do in looking at this chapter is give you four truths about fear. Four truths about fear.

First of all, fear is intimidating. Now I'm just going to kind of ease you into the story and pick out a few verses. On one side of a valley, I want to set the scene for you in your mind. On one side of a valley, and the valley is about a mile wide, you can visit it today, the valley of Elah. On one side is a hill and the other side is a hill. The army of Israel was on one hill, the army of the Philistines was on the other hill.

They would go down the hills into the valley and choose each other off. Until one day, a huge guy comes walking onto the scene. The champion he is called in verse four, a champion from Gath, a Philistine city. His name is Goliath. And chapter 17 verse 4 tells us how high he was, how tall he was. It says six cubits and a span. Now six cubits and a span is anywhere from eight and a half feet to nine and a half feet tall.

The envy of every NBA team around. The original bigfoot was Goliath. And then, and here's where we're going to jump into our reading, verse 8 says, he stood and he cried out to the armies of Israel and said to them, why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves.

Let him come down to me. If he's able to fight with me and kill me, we'll be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, you're going to be our servants and serve us. And the Philistines said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. And when Saul and all of Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and here it is greatly afraid.

Greatly afraid. Who wouldn't be looking up at a big old eight and a half to nine and a half foot beast? Now some people have problems with this story.

They go, oh, come on. You don't really believe that, literally, like that actually happened. That's like a myth. People don't grow that tall. Well, you need to do your history if you think that way, because back in 1918 in Alton, Illinois, a baby was born named Robert Wadlow. And when he was born, he was eight pounds, five ounces, a little on the big side, but not out of normal range. And he was eight pounds, five ounces, a little on the big side, but not out of normal range. By the time Robert Wadlow was 13 years old, he was seven feet, eight inches. That's a tall 13-year-old, wouldn't you say? He had a certain condition that rendered him that tall. When he was fully grown, he was eight foot, 11 inches, roughly this size, Goliath size. When he died, it took 12 men to get the casket was 10 feet, nine inches. So it happens even in our modern time.

So let's just kind of push that, that it's a myth, push that aside. But to be fair, let me also tell you that there are some translations of the Old Testament that give it a different rendering of height. So if you were to look at the Masoretic text of the Old Testament, if you were to look at the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, if you were to look at the Dead Sea Scrolls, or you were to look at the writings of Flavius Josephus, they don't say he's six cubits and a span. They say he's four cubits and a span, which would make him, if that's the accurate translation, would make him six foot nine. Now I had a brother that was six foot eight. I'm six five. That would make Goliath six foot nine.

You go, come on, that didn't sound very dramatic. That ruins my whole Sunday school concept. And that's, I mean, you get a lot of guys in Israel who would fight that guy.

No, you wouldn't. Especially when you realize that at 1000 BC, that's when this takes place. In 1000 BC, the average height of the Israeli male was five foot three inches. So picture in your mind LeBron James, he's six foot nine, fully clothed with a coat of mail for a battle next to Danny DeVito. Right?

You got the picture? You'll never unsee that. So this guy, however tall he was, comes with a coat of mail that is 125 pounds. The head of his spear, we are told is, in converting it, 15 pounds. That's the head of his spear.

So it's like a sledgehammer with a point. He comes into the valley, and he has a whole different idea of how to do a battle. He goes, you know, let's not do army to army. Let's do man to man, mano a mano.

Let's just do hand to hand combat one on one. Winner takes all. If I win, you're all of our servants.

If you win one guy, one man, we'll be your slaves. Now there was one man in Israel who is taller than everybody else. What was his name? King Saul.

King Saul, we are told, was head and shoulders above everyone. He should have been the guy, but he is not the guy. He has got his tail between his legs and he is hiding somewhere. He is not up for this battle. By the way, just the thought, maybe that's how nations should do battles. Maybe we should, you know, leaders are so quick to commit young men and women to the battlefield. Maybe these nations who don't get along, the leaders should just fight each other.

Now I'm not recommending that during the current leadership that that happened, we would be in big trouble, but it's a thought. Now what they saw that day overwhelmed them. It intimidated them.

Goliath had everything you would need to intimidate people. I read an article in Psychology Today. It was an article about a man by the name of Bill Stratton. They used him as an example. Bill Stratton, he used him as an example. Bill Stratton is a poet. He teaches writing. Now how intimidating does that sound?

I'm a poet. Not very intimidating, but Bill Stratton is also six feet, five inches tall, very broad shouldered, deep powerful voice, and a pretty large beard. So here's the story in Psychology Today. He was like running through a park one day, noticed a couple, an elderly couple who looked like they needed help, they needed first aid. So he goes over to them to help them, and he said, I could see the fear in their eyes as I approached. I tried to stand at a distance, put my hands in my pockets, but you know, here's a guy, six foot five, broad shoulder, can I help you?

No. So he went on to find somebody less intimidating looking than him to go help him. The article in Psychology Today simply said that people who are tall, or loud, or smart, or outgoing type A personalities often bring intimidation with them, causing others to be afraid. Now, David will come on the scene and he will not be intimidated.

He will see the same thing they see, but he is not going to have the level of fear or intimidation that they have. And here's one of the reasons why. You remember when Samuel came to the house of Jesse? This is the chapter right before.

I know you know this as well. And Samuel is there to find the next king. He says, God said, go to the house of Jesse, you're going to find a king. So Samuel has all of Jesse's sons line up.

David is the last. He's out in the field. He finally comes in. The first guy that's standing before Samuel is the oldest boy named Eliab. He's tall.

He's good looking. Samuel thinks, this is the guy. He's got a horn of oil. He's about to pour it on Eliab. And God stops and says, stop. I've rejected him.

This is not the king. And then God explains, for God does not see as man sees. Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. God looks at the heart. Man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart.

There's a lot of truth in that statement. Man does look at the outward appearance. We do look at people and we size them up.

We are impressed or not impressed. And when we're around them and we meet them, if they outthink us or outsmart us or outdress us or whatever it might be, we might feel a little fearful and intimidated. David comes on the scene, sees what they see, but he doesn't have the same reaction they have.

And here's why. What we see is often a matter of how we see. What we see is often a matter of how we see.

You can have two people see the same thing exactly and have two different responses. Ever been in a movie theater or a 3D movie? Anybody ever see a 3D movie?

Raise your hand. Remember, we used to go to movies one time. There were movie theaters, they were called in America. Anyway, 3D movies you have, what do you wear? You wear glasses. So when you wear glasses, you see things differently than if you take off your glasses.

Or if you're sitting there with glasses next to a guy who's looking at the same thing without the glasses, you're going to look at the same thing, but you're going to see two different things. One of my favorite stories is about three people at the Grand Canyon. One was an artist, one was a pastor, a minister, one was a cowboy. They're looking down into the beautiful chasm of the Grand Canyon and they start telling their impressions of what they see. So the artist looks and he first says, wow, what a beautiful scene to paint. And the pastor says, wow, what a magnificent display of the glory and majesty of God.

The cowboy looks down and says, wow, what a terrible place to lose a cow. They all saw the same thing, but they saw it differently. So when David arrives, he doesn't see a giant. He sees a big target. I can't miss that. That'll be easy because that's so big, even I can hit that.

Anybody can hit that. That's how he sees it. But fear is intimidating. The second thing to note about fear, not only is fear intimidating, not only is fear intimidating, fear can be debilitating.

That's Skip Heitzing with a message from the series Hunting Giants. Now here's Skip and Lenya as they share how you can come alongside people around the world who are living in fear and share Jesus' love with them. Well, Lenya, sadly, there are many people and especially children that are living in fear all around the world. These are people impacted by terrorism and they're just trying to make it through and survive another day. That's why you began a ministry to meet them right where they are, supply their physical needs, and share the amazing love of Christ. Can you tell us about this incredible ministry called Reload Love?

Reload Love takes spent bullet casings, turns them into beautiful jewelry to help children impacted by terror. The proceeds from that and then generous donations, so many donations, go to help these children. Right now in Ukraine, this war is ongoing, but it seems like our media has mainstream media.

We don't talk about it much anymore. And yet we just got news from the field that Zelensky said they were trying to move 200,000 people. Many of those are children. So we have people that will run into these villages and cities, take the kids out, bring them to safety. So just this last week released $50,000 to help the team there get children out of harm's way. This weekend, a good friend of ours, Dave Eubank is coming to town and you and I were praying for that ministry in particular. He has a ministry in Burma and that poor country has been under siege for over 60 years.

And the tribal people and the different tribes throughout like maybe like our states in the United States have been pummeled by the main government Myanmar in Burma. And so places that I visit, the Karen province, they have put people into caves underground. We provided for Dave big tubes just to try and get air and water into some of these hovels where the people are hiding. We try and build playgrounds for the children. So we are so blessed, Skip, that God has provided for us to be able to pivot quickly. And when our partners have a big need, we're able to respond quickly and in kind. So those are just some of the things that we're doing right now. And what our audience doesn't know, and you would probably never bring up, is you just won a humanitarian award by a Jewish community center, a Jewish group in our region honoring the work of Reload Love.

And so I love the fact that this is now getting the attention on a broader scale. And more than that, you are really helping children arm them with hope. Besides the fact that you're doing that and the website is reloadlove.com. Besides going to the website, let me just tell our audience that the jewelry that you sell from Spent Bullet Casings, it's not cheesy stuff. It's really beautiful, artful and elegant and beautiful.

And you add new pieces to it. It's worth investing in to be able to look at and explain to people. It's a great witnessing tool. We have a piece for Ukraine right now that has their national trident on it.

So you can wear this symbol of Ukraine and the money will help the children in Ukraine. Thanks Skip and Lenya. We hope this conversation inspires you to keep living for Christ. And we want to invite you to help others find this same inspiration with a gift to keep this biblical teaching on the air. To give, just visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or you can call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Hytig shares how your own unique traits can help you conquer fear. You conquer fear by realizing your personal assets. See God made you different than He made me. He made us very unique and you have a certain makeup and certain advantages and certain gifts that enable you to do what nobody else can do. Connect with Skip Hytig is a presentation of Connection Communications. Connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.