Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. I'm gonna give you a little bit of that.

I didn't entitle it, Facing the Giants, because it sounds so much like the movie. But can I say this, that each of us have different giants. When you serve God, you can count on Satan to try everything he can to stop you. When you're trying to live for him, he'll do everything he can. And Satan will always bring certain giants across your path.

He will always fight you. He will always make you struggle. And the things that make you struggle might not make me struggle. And the things that I struggle with might not be necessarily things that you struggle with. So what it is is we all face our own giants. What I want to talk to you about for these next few weeks is facing your giants.

Only you and God know what they are. Maybe your wife or husband know a few of those things that you might struggle with. Maybe you have some close friends that know that you struggle with certain things.

But can I say I think that all of us have our private giants that we struggle with. It could be anger. It could be resentment. There could have been some things that happened to you years ago that it has been absolutely impossible for you to get victory over. You might get victory over it for a while, but it keeps coming back and coming back and coming back. It could be a circumstance in your life that it's just been too big for you to defeat. I don't know what that might be, but we want to introduce this today in Deuteronomy chapter 9. I want you to look, if you would, at these first three verses. And before I do, I was going to do this at the end.

I think I want to do it now because I have a tendency sometimes. I think everybody, the last minute, they'll come tell you, hey, announce this. Ms. Hill, Thursday night, what do you call it, funeral home. Nursing home ministry Thursday evening. That was a Freudian slip, wasn't it?

Nursing home ministry Thursday evening, 6.30 every week. Don't forget that. And we have a bus ready to go. But I might forget this at the end. I have it written down, but I want to do this now. So let me see.

If I've got anybody close, Phil, you're closest to the piano. I want to congratulate this before we get started. I'm just afraid I'll forget it.

Because this is big. And Leon and Francis Tuttle are celebrating their 63rd wedding anniversary on Tuesday. That is quite an accomplishment. 63 years.

Leon, Francis, do you guys mind standing up? I know you don't want to be embarrassed. But 63 years, bless God. I want everybody to see who has accomplished that. Let's sing it, if you will. Happy anniversary to you.

I want to sing it. Here we go. Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary, God bless you.

Happy anniversary to you. 63 years. Wow. Praise God for that.

Only God can do that. And I appreciate that so very, very much. And we love Francis and Leon. And they are charter members here, I believe.

Isn't that correct? You are here from the duration of Brother Joe. We're not sure you were here when Brother Joe came, Francis.

Bless your heart. Look at verse one, if you will. Hear, O Israel, thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, a people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, which thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak? Understand therefore this day that the Lord thy God is he, which goeth over before thee. As a consuming fire, he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face. So shalt thou drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said unto thee.

All God's people said, Amen. Father, I ask you to bless me this morning as we introduce this series of messages. Lord, I'm afraid sometimes that there's just some giants in our life that just stop all the progress that we're trying to make. Lord, I believe sometimes there's just people in our churches, they've fought so hard and done so well, and they make a little bit of ground, and then one giant will cause them to back up and lose the progress they've made. Lord, I as a pastor, sometimes I just, we love our people, but it burdens you sometimes to see people get involved, get active, then they back off and different things, and Lord, it's not because I take it personal, it's just I know that you have so much more you want from them, and life should be so much better than that, and Lord, I pray that all of us would get close to you and get involved and stay there because we're serving you, not for anybody else, and what somebody says or does isn't gonna change how we serve you. So Lord, as we introduce this subject matter of facing our giants, Lord, I pray that you'd help us to see in your word that you've given us promises, and you've already paved the way before us, and so Lord, I ask you that not only have you promised us the victory, but may we claim it through you in your precious name we pray, amen.

We find in chapter one through three, let me just say briefly, we find a very unique intersection. If you could picture in your mind for just a second of, and I think of downtown Kernersville every time I think of intersection, and right there in downtown, you got four, it's actually two roads that intersect, but you got four corners, and here's a road running this way and a road running this way, and if you could, at the section of each road coming into that intersection is the way I see it, and right here, the children of Israel are at this intersection, and one road you have God's plan coming in. That's what God commanded. God said go in and possess this land. You got God's plan.

Then another road you're coming in, you got God's promises. He said, I'm telling you, I'll take care of all the people and all the enemies, and I'll make it possible. So you got God's plan coming in, you got God's promises coming in, and then over here at this road you got God's property coming in. He owns this land. He promised it to them. God owned this land.

The Anacoms didn't own this land. God did, it was His. By the way, everything is God's.

We all understand that. And then you got this one road coming in, and it has giants on it. So you have this intersection in life of God's promises, God's plan, God's property, but you got these giants coming into the same intersection. It's a meeting of those four things. It's an area where God's plan, God's promises, God's property, and your giants enter at the same point.

And by the way, that's an intersection that you and I face a lot in our life. There's a plan that God has for your life. There's something that God wants you to do, whatever you do. It's not just for preachers, folks. I mean, if you work a full-time job, which I hope that you do, and man, you might work at a gas station, you might work at a bank, you might own your own business, you might work at the post office.

It really doesn't matter. And with that plan, God has given promises, and he's already told you that I'll give you the victory over things that you'll face, and then you've got all these other circumstances, but we always end up meeting some giants. That's just the way life is. There's always gonna be things that make it hard to do God's plan. There's always gonna be some things that make it difficult to believe God's promises.

And that's exactly where they were here. They had a land to get to, God had already promised it, but there were some giants that were inhabiting the land. The Bible says they were great, tall, mighty.

We're gonna talk about that in a minute. And that's what stood between God's plan and God's promises. And by the way, giants will always come between you and what God wants you to do. You know, sometimes the giants that we face are ourselves.

I think that's the biggest thing that we face. I think that's the biggest giant, by the way, not just because I'm big. I think that giants are, the biggest ones we face is ourselves.

We talk ourselves out of our ability. We say, oh, I'm this and I'm that and our own mind will confuse us so much that we can't do what God's asked us to do and our flesh and our ability and our negativity or our depression, our discouragement, all these things sometimes, that's the biggest giant to face. All these outward giants, sometimes we can handle those, but when the giant lives inside of us, that's the hardest thing. And folks, I want to tell you that God has already promised in his word that you and I can overcome our giants. Why come to church if we can't overcome those things? That's why the Bible says, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil, but overcome evil with good. Greater is he that is in me than he that is in this world. Listen to me, folks, why would we come to church, why would we serve a God if he couldn't give us victory over the problems that face us? I want you to notice a couple things out of this passage. Number one, and if you're keeping notes, I want you to write this down.

Number one, your giants are bigger than you are. Look if you would at verse one. It says, hear, O Israel, thou art to pass over Jordan this day to go in and possess nations greater and mightier than thyself. By the way, if you notice this, God gave two commands. He said, I want you to pass over and I want you to possess.

Pass and possess. Can I tell you this, folks, what God intends for all of us to do with our giants and our life is to pass over them and possess them. They're not supposed to possess us. Our giants aren't supposed to control us. It's not supposed to dictate what we do. Look at me, we are to dictate our giants. We are to have victory over them. We are to possess them, not them possess us. So many times you and I are so controlled by our circumstances who said what, what happened to me, what's gone on in my life. Listen to me, dear friend, we are supposed to have victory over those circumstances, not those circumstances having victory over us.

Notice what he says. He says, you're supposed to go in to possess nations, notice this, greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven. Number one, under this, you notice this, they were intimidating. Your giants are to possess you. They were intimidating.

Your giants are bigger than you are. And we find first that they were intimidating. This is how God described them. They were greater, they were mightier, they were taller, they were protected. And we notice last that he hinted this, they were bred for war. Here's the children of Israel been wandering in the wilderness. Here's a bunch of guys that are just chomping at the bits to kill somebody. They were bigger, they were taller, they were stronger, they had weapons, they had all kinds of things, look at me, that the children of Israel did not have.

But the children of Israel had one thing that they didn't have. And that's God. Listen to me, dear friend, I don't care what you face at work, you've got something they don't have at work.

You've got God. They were intimidating. I'm gonna tell you something right now, when things get victory over you in your life, they'll intimidate you.

You'll be so scared and you'll say, well, somebody said something about me years ago and I don't wanna get involved because I might get hurt again and I just don't want that to happen. You are letting that giant intimidate you. You say, well, I just, you know, I just don't think I can serve God.

I just don't have the ability and nobody loves me, nobody wants me and I just don't think I don't have any talent, I don't have any, let me tell you something. Your self-doubt and self-deprification and your negativity and your discouragement is a giant and it is intimidating you. Don't let it intimidate you. Our giants, number one, are intimidating.

Number two, they were infamous. Notice what the Bible says. The Bible says, thou hast heard say, look at verse two, a people great and tall, the children of the Anacoms, which thou knowest and of whom thou hast heard say, notice this, who can stand before the children of Anacom. This is what God says. Hey, let me tell you something. I am telling you what to do.

Before I tell you what to do, I'm gonna let you know right now, you're gonna face people that are bigger, taller, stronger, more defended, more bred for war, they got more weapons, they got all that going on. Second, let me tell you about them. You've already heard about them because you've heard everybody say that you can't get over this. You know what, if you're not careful, you're gonna listen to society tell you you can't overcome something like alcohol. You know, you've got to trust in an AA program or something like that, and I'm not against that, obviously. I'm just saying, you know what, you need God's help. And God can help you overcome that. You're gonna listen to people say, well, you just can't get over drugs and you just can't get over alcohol and you can't get over addictions and you can't get over this and you can't get over that. Listen to me, dear friend, that's what you've heard, but what you've heard is wrong. God can give you victory over anything.

They were intimidating and they were infamous. Your giants are bigger than you. Everybody look up here at me. I want you to understand this. You've got to understand in your life that sin and the world that sin and the flesh is bigger than you. For some reason, a lot of times we want to face things on our own.

We want to try to defeat it with our own strength. And we tell people, no, I'm not gonna go get help. No, I'm not gonna do this.

I'm not gonna go talk to the preacher. I can do this, I can overcome this, I can do this. Listen to me, dear friend, listen to me. Second, number two.

This is the best part. Number one, your giants are bigger than you. Number two, God is bigger than your giants. It does not say that God, it doesn't say that your giants not only are bigger than you, it says God is bigger than your giants. Listen to me, it doesn't say you are bigger than your giants. It says God is bigger than your giants. Notice this if you will.

I want you to notice this. Look at verse three. Understand therefore this day that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee. So we are given the picture here that God says I will go in front of you and take care of things.

So while your giants and my giants are bigger than us, God is bigger than our giants. And everybody oughta say amen right there. By the way, let me just say this that you and I cannot take credit when God gives us victory.

If you're here this morning and you've had a habit or you had an addiction or you had a problem or you faced things in your life and you've overcome, then look at me. Don't try to paint this picture with people that you are something special. Speak not thou in thine heart. After that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee saying. He says this, after God defeats your enemy, don't go to people and say this, for my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land. God says that's not the reason. Notice this, but for the wickedness of these nations doth the Lord drive them out. Look at verse six. The Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness for thou art a stiff necked people.

Does that get any clearer? God says I'm giving you this victory because they're wicked. I'm not giving you this victory because you just think you're something special and because you're just so holy and righteous.

He says it's not because of your righteousness, in fact you are a stiff necked people. I will give you this victory, look at me, because God promised it. When God gives you victory in your life it isn't because you're so holy and it isn't because we're just something special. It's because God's promised us victory. Can I tell you something?

We're nothing without God. Let me tell you some things that I notice about this passage. And by the way, you know when I think about this, I wasn't gonna mention this but I will. There's enough Andy Griffith people here. How many of you have ever seen that episode of Andy Griffith where I think it's this one guy is sweeping the sidewalk and Barney comes out and gives him a ticket or something for sweeping in the sidewalk. The guy looks at Barney and says when you're not in that police uniform, you're mine. Y'all know what I'm talking about? You know when Barney's all scared to death and so Andy goes what Andy always does and he went and got some karate sensei, expert whatever and dressed him up like Barney. You remember that episode? That guy goes in the corner and gets beat half to death and the next day Barney comes and he's like oh and Barney's like yeah, take that. Barney's turned around and said yeah, I showed him.

Barney didn't do nothing to win that. That's just like us. God takes Satan over here and beats him up, gives us the victory and then we walk around like yep, see, the victory I got. Let me tell you something, dear friend. Anything that God gives us the victory over is because of God. Let me give you some principles that I see under this point of this fact that God is bigger than your giants.

Number one, I want you to notice this. Remember, he is your God even if he's not their God. Notice what the Bible says. Look if you would, look at verse three. Understand therefore this day that the Lord what? Thy God. You see, you gotta understand as you go through life, there's a lot of people that you're gonna meet that don't know Christ and they're not saved and they're not thinking in terms of Bible and they're not thinking in terms of God and you say well this is just an absolute impossible task.

How can I go to work? How can I do anything for God? This whole crowd is nothing but a bunch of heathens and they don't know anything and they cuss and all this stuff. Look at me, you remember that he's your God even if he's not their God. All that matters is that he's your God and he'll give you the victory and he'll use you to do great things. I've seen God save people that you thought never would get saved. Let me tell you something dear friend, it doesn't matter in your personal life if he's not their God, if he's your God, he'll give you the victory.

He's in control. I want you to notice the second thing I notice is this. Remember God always goes before.

He said this. Understand therefore this day that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee. This is what God does in our life folks.

This is what's so wonderful about serving a God like our God. He goes before us. There's not one thing you and I have to do to defeat the enemy. He will give us the victory over our enemies. We just have to be faithful to him. We just have to trust him. He will give us the victory over our enemies. We just have to be faithful to him. We just have to trust him. We just have to follow him.

Go right behind him. He says I will go before thee. What does the Bible say?

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. That means it goes before. It shows us the way.

It makes way for things. That's what God does. Always remember in your life as you're scared to face things and things come up in your life and you think I'm gonna go through this.

Listen to me, dear friend. God goes before you and that ought to encourage you. God's not asking you to, like I think a guy's going through a jungle. God's not giving you the machete and like all right, you clear the way. God clears the way for you. That's what's wonderful about serving our God.

I want you to notice the third thing I see is remember this. Remember God is a consuming fire. Now why did God put this in here? Notice verse three. That the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee as a consuming fire, he shall destroy them. Now he could have just said he will destroy them. But God gives us an adjective here. He describes it. He says as a consuming fire, he shall destroy them. Look at me, folks. I want to remind you of the side you're on. You're on God's side and you and I need to remember he is a consuming fire. You say preacher, what does that mean to me? It means this, there is nothing that can stand in the way of God's will. Look at me.

Remember the intersection. When it's God's plan and it's God's promises. Look, it doesn't matter what is in the way. He is a consuming fire. There is no giant.

There is no obstacle. There is nothing that could possibly stand in the way when you are willing to do what God tells you to do and you let him do it. He is a consuming fire. He literally can disintegrate anything that needs disintegrating. He can literally make things disappear. You know that's what a consuming fire does? You find through the word of God a consuming fire, things disintegrate.

I wish I had time just sitting here to tell you thing after thing in my life I'm thinking how's God gonna do this, I don't know, man I've got this need, I've got this obstacle, whatever the case may be, and I'm gonna tell you something, I've moved. You know why? Because God is a consuming fire. That means this, he says, when I go before you, I will take care of it. Notice what else I see in here is this. Remember, God brings down the giants. See, you don't have to.

Notice what it says. As a consuming fire, he shall destroy them and bring them down before thy face. Can I tell you something? You don't have to bring down your giants. You don't even have to touch them. God does that. We obviously think about the story of David and Goliath. David did not have to lay one hand on Goliath.

Do you know that? All he had to do was put a stone in a sling and I'm gonna tell you this, wherever Goliath was, I'm not gonna tell you that day, but I'm gonna tell you something. God guided that stone. It was not because David was just so accurate, which I'm sure he was.

You look at me, I don't care how accurate you are. How many of you have watched any Olympics? Raise your hand, all right. I was watching yesterday for a very brief period of time. The only Olympics I got to see was archery. Did anybody watch the archery?

All right. It was very interesting to me. And America wasn't supposed to win anything or something like that and they were just devastated.

And so then we had to play Italy. And here these guys are with these bows. Obviously they're the best in the world and they're sitting here going through all this stuff and they gotta go through all these meets shooting and different things. And can I tell you something? It's just amazing to watch.

They had to shoot in an arc and an arrow goes down and they're putting them in spots like that. It was absolutely amazing. But can I tell you something? When you get in the heat of a battle and you look at you and you've got an army sitting there, I'm gonna tell you something, it's hard to be calm and like, okay, you know, I'm gonna remember, you know, I'm gonna throw this right in that giant and I'm, oh, what kind of a thing? I wanna get calm.

Let me tell you something, you talk about adrenaline, you talk about fear, you talk about a lot of things. Let me tell you something, it wouldn't have mattered if that giant was over here and David threw that stone over there, somehow that stone was gonna hit that giant right in the middle of the head. You know why? Because David didn't have to lay one hand on that giant. God puts down the giants. That's wonderful, folks.

Am I the only one that's excited about this? You might have some giants at work, you might have some obstacles in the way, you might have a lot of reasons why you just don't know how God's gonna do whatever. Maybe your marriage is in such a shambles you say, I don't know how anything's gonna save this marriage. Listen to me, you don't have to save it. God can save it. You just trust him. Let him do the battle. Let him go before you.

He's already promised it. I notice this lastly is this, that remember giants must be destroyed quickly. Notice what he says in verse three. So shalt thou drive them out and destroy them what?

Quickly. Look at me, dear friends. You and I as Baptists are very famous for this. We'll get victory over things for a little while and we'll let them come right back in.

And we'll let them come right back into our life. You have a man who's hooked on pornography. You'll go and get counseling. Man, you'll get that straightened out.

Four months, six months, eight months, whatever the case might be. Go right back to it. Have somebody get victory over alcohol or whatever the case might be and say, man, I'm gonna stop this and they do good for a while and then they go right back to it. Look at me, dear friend. God will help you defeat your giants. But when he does, you defeat him quick.

Quickly. You see, God took care of the giants and God knocked them all down, but he said, let me tell you something. You go in, you possess that land, you destroy them quickly. In other words, God says, I'll make the way but you better do your part. Why does the Bible talk about us that, hey, keep yourself clean, keep yourself holy? If it's all God's job and we're just supposed to sit back and if we do sin, it's God's fault that I sin because he's the one I'm supposed to be letting him do it. Now listen to me, God makes the way, God takes care of the giants, God goes before you, but we still have a job to do.

We still have a responsibility to live right before God. And he said, destroy these giants quickly. You know, over these next few weeks as we deal with different giants, can I say this, that the only way this is ever gonna help is when you defeat them or when you can finally get victory over them, you better get rid of them. That's it.

Look at me, man. I don't know why I'm dealing with this on a Sunday morning but God seemed to have led. Man, you got an addiction to something on a computer? Let me tell you something, if you get victory over that thing and God's giving you victory, let me tell you what you do. You get that computer, you throw it in a trash can and you beat the thing half to death.

Don't put another computer in the house. I've got it, no, let me tell you something, there ain't nothing in your life important enough to put temptation right back in front of your face. Do y'all understand what I'm saying?

Do you agree with me? Let me tell you something, you're addicted to drinking, don't go in a bar and ask for a Coke. You're putting yourself right in front of temptation. If you can't drive by a store without desiring to go into that store, drive some other way home. But whatever you do, you get it out, get it, destroy it quickly.

Or Giants will come right back. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.