Sermon Tone Analysis
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For the past few weeks, we have been going over 1 Samuel.
We noticed how Samuel came to be through the power and faith of a praying mother.
We witnessed how God’s glory can shine even in the most difficult and most confusing times.
After we noticed how our faith can change things we were introduced to what it looks like to be a good leader and what it looks like to be a bad one.
As a new king was picked, we saw someone who looked the part emerge, but someone who didn’t really have a heart for God.
Last week we discussed how Saul slowly lost trust in God in how he started to see himself as the supreme being, not God.
Saul had his kingship given away and in 1 Samuel 16 we see God pick a new king.
A king that won’t waiver when the chips are down.
A king that won’t forget where his power comes from.
A man after God’s own heart.
So as we are introduced to David, we are going to ask the question
Our Question:
How do we face our Giants?
Lets Pray
The Story of David and Goliath is one of the most beloved in 1 and 2 Samuel.
But the biblical narrative is not a story about human courage and effort like we sometimes try to make it.
It is about the the awesome power of God and how having faith in that power can yield amazing results.
Point 1- We face our giants by knowing our problem.
The Israelites were afraid of their problem.
They had no idea how they would deal with it.
They tried fighting it, but they were beaten.
They tried to out man the giant and the Phillistines, but that did not work either.
Their problem was bigger than them, more skilled, better equipped, and more intimidating.
According to the scripture, Goliath was 9 feet, 9 inches tall.
Goliath also had a shield bearer, so if his size was not enough, He also had protection.
He questioned them, he said they could never beat him, and had no chance.
Our problems can seem like this at times.
They can look way to big, we can ask ourselves how can I face this?
I am not big enough to take this problem on head on.
When we have problems in our lives we have been told to face our giants with the power that we can beat them.
That we need to stay positive, that we need to think happy thoughts.
And don’t get me wrong, positivity is very important.
But when we look to positive thoughts over God’s power we fall into something called:.
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism: -
People teach, either through false religious systems or through myths common to our culture, that you merit eternal life by your goodness or your works.
One such myth has been dubbed “moralistic therapeutic deism.”
Adherents believe that one simply needs to believe in a god, but not that such a god might be involved in a person’s life (deism).
They feel that one needs to “be good” (moralistic) in order to “feel good” (therapeutic).
If a person can believe in a god and basically do good things, they rationalize, then surely that person will go to heaven.
This idea is not of Christ.
It is the opposite.
This says if you can be positive or good, you can please God, but that is not the gospel.
The gospel says we cannot be good, so God took care of that for us on the cross.
It says we have grace, not a burden to hold.
When Saul heard Goliath was looking to beat them, he was terrified, his army was terrified.
They looked at Goliath and saw ultimate defeat.
David knew the opponent much better, he was weaker, he was more immature, but he had faith.
He knew that faith and obedience could beat this problem
Point 2
We face our giants by trusting in the only way to face them.
Now we shift to David, who is reintroduced to us in this section.
David was the youngest, smallest, was not even on the battlefield.
David is support personnel, He is not there to fight, he is there to support Saul and help and attend to his brothers if they need food or something else.
We see the character of David, he was up early with the sheep, he was a hard worker, he was a good leader.
He was everything Saul was not.
David did not look at Goliath’s size.
He looked at his arrogance.
He looked at his blasphemy towards God and saw someone that needed to be defeated.
David was not intimidated which made others like his brothers mad.
Point 3 - We face our problems by our obedience not our actions.
What we like to do is we like to put ourselves in the story.
We like to say I am David and my problems are Goliath and I just need to hit them with prayer, scripture, and some positive thoughts and it will come crashing down.
But what happens when they don’t?
What happens when more problems start to arise?
Do we forget about God? Do we forget that he will take care of us, even if we are not happy with what that actually looks like in reality?
This is where this idea of being good or thinking good can get us into trouble.
David did not believe he beat this problem on his own.
He knew he only did it because he was obedient to God, not because He was God.
It is not about what we do, it was not about what David did.
All David would do was obedient, we are called to do the same.
David was small, he was inexperienced, he was not even the age to be a fighter, but he had one thing no one else in the camp had, including King Saul.
A deep trust in God.
Before David faced Goliath he had faced wild animals while he tended to the sheep.
He fought off lions, he fought off other intruders.
He knew he could not do that without God.
He had full trust that God was bigger than anything that could come against Israel.
He also knew that he was anointed to be king.
David said, you come at me with all the power, all the strength, so you should have the upper hand.
But David came at him with the power of God.
It wasn’t David vs Goliath.
It was God vs Goliath and David knew as God’s instrument he would be victorious, Not because of who he was, but because of who God is.
Three Take Aways:
Point 1- We face our giants by knowing our problem.
Point 2- We face our giants by trusting in the only way to face them.
Point 3 - We face our problems by our obedience not our actions.
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